See the list of coverage from 2004
Note: The URLs for the alternative weeklies change when the next issue comes out, and the old articles are archived. I'll update as needed, but anyone else linking to online versions will have to update their links. (Actually, this may no longer be the case.)
An advance warning. My friend Leslie Lutsky (who was a volunteer in the very early days, before I even appeared at the Fringe) washed up at the Beer Tent on Saturday, and he says he'll have some interviews with a couple of the companies on his radio show, Jewish Digest on Radio Centre-Ville on Saturday the 18th. That's 8:30am at 102.3. He said he was interviewing the guy doing Walking Back to Brooklyn and I think the other interview was with someone connected with Three Ring Circus (The station is also running their annual raffle, I bought my tickets last week though I've never won anything.)
June 23
I suppose this is the last word for the Fringe till the call for submissions
come up in the fall (look for my letter in The Mirror, and maybe this year
Hour will print it too), with the weeklies out and their wrap-ups.
The Mirror has Fringe Festival 2005 wrap, plus someone who was visiting Montreal to see some Fringe shows has a letter about Montreal. Sort of related is a bit about the dance show at Bain St. Michel on Friday and Saturday, which includes some of those who did Upstream and Blurred Shutters including the 303 Award Winning piece The Greater the Weight though I wonder how that's going to fit into the venue.
I don't see a similar wrap-up in Hour, though they too have traditionally done such a piece. Maybe when I get the paper edition and can carefully look through it something will turn up. They do have a piece about the dance show this weekend, Piss in the Pool.
Almost forgotten, because I was half asleep when I noticed it, is a bit on wetlabel about the Frankies, though incomplete; Fringe! And the Frankie goes to.... (It was up by the time I got home on Sunday night, or rather Monday morning.)
June 20
(Yes, I'm putting this up a day late.) The Gazette's piece on the
Frankie Awards is on page ..... or online if you're a subscriber
at
BoyGroove tops at Fringe.
Going through some clutter, though I should have been asleep, I realize there was a Fringe article in this week's The Suburban It's way back on page .... (I missed it at first glance because I wouldn't have expected it there) or online Busiest at the Fringe.
June 19
Well it's the final day, and traditionally there is little press coverage.
The Gazette has a piece on page B1,
Dear Fringe performers online if you're a subscriber. No reviews, but a
summing up of what he (and the rest of the reviewers) think the Fringe
troupes can do to better their lot next year. What happened to
the days when Gaetan gave warnings about emailing lage files unnaounced, or
for that matter, the warnings about getting those press releases out really
early
Congratulations to Victor Swoboda of the Gazette for again successfully letting the Fringe pass without reviewing any dance shows. Anyone actually see the guy at the Fringe this year?.
Without Annette continues with their reviews (it looks like they win the prize for the most Fringe reviews on a blog, good work), adding Cactus, Stop Not Going, Moving In Reverse, and even a pair of reviews, Redux for shows others in their troupe have already reviewed.
At 11:19am, I see no other entries on the known blog circuit (of course, since we're not in a common space, unlike ten years ago, there could be all kinds of people writing about the Fringe that we don't know aobut, unless we do deep searches.
June 18
THe Gazette has it's reviews on D5, or if you're a subscriber online The final 48 hours of the Fringe. They cover Minimum Wage, Les Sylphides, Au détour de juin..., ARBRES, Sunday Night Live: ON TOUR!, and Esturgeon Jaune.
The Ottawa Fringe started on Friday, and here's an article from the Ottawa Sun about it, Living on the Fringe.
Without Annette has still more reviews up. They cover Tales From Another England, and The Fairies Are Thirsty.
Amy whoever she is (we're still wondering) has a review up on her Benjamin Blog about Stop Not Going.
Thanks to the eagle-eyed Without Annetters, they searched for themselves and found another blog with Fringe reviews, we can look at the reviews by someone named Simon Law. The guy even knows Mouse. It's 4am and I stayed up late so I can sleep in, so I'm not going to detail what he reviewed, just check it out here.
Jason who was here last year as part of Heracles is back as the stage manager for SMILE while you DIE, has a blog, which I did take note of elsewhere. It's only been sporadically updated during our Fringe, so I sort of missed that he had a a review up for To the Winners, and now he's added one for Couture. See his blog.
wetlabel has added two reviews, Fringe! How To Pick Up Chicks Review and Fringe! Uncalled For Review.
June 17
Today the Gazette focuses on some of the serious shows, in Not all Fringe strives for funny if you're a subscriber, or on page D9 of the paper edition. They cover Juliet & Romeo, Doppelgänger, and Le Balcon
Then there is the Critic's Choice, which is readable by all, or on page D12 of the paper edition.. A photo of the women in Les Sylphides. The Theatre section is just about the Fringe, while Victor Swoboda once again shows his sneer towards the Fringe and the independent dance shows.
wetlabel has Fringe! A Girl's Guide to Screwing Herself Review up today.
Without Annette has reviews up for The Bus, Sunday Night Live: ON TOUR, Fear of a Brown Plan, Minimum Wage, The Kurdsley Kronicl, Nude Girlz, and This is Uncalled For....
June 16
The Gazette reviews are on page D3, but at the moment the article is not online. They have a duplicate of something there, so hopefully it will be fixed later. [The next day, the review still isn't online.] They review JEM ROLLS, BoyGroove, Des chiens de roches..., and A GIRL'S GUIDE TO SCREWING HERSELF.
Never Surrender lands on an early page of The Mirror with a photo on the newspage. Later in the paper, there Amy Barratt reviews Our critics chime in on Fringe 15 where they cover Torched, Tippi Seagrams Happy Hour, The Bionic Yahoos Are Famous for a Week, Doppelgänger, Felix Listens to the World, and Drinking in America.
Then a second collection, Fringe Festival 2005 reviews by various reviewers. Here they cover Timmys Sexual Adventures, Walking Back to Brooklyn, Never Surrender Saves a Baby, Les Sylphides, THE REEFER MAN, The Harvey Christ Medicine Show, Jem Rolls Charm Offensive, HIP-HOP 4 DUMMEEZ, Upstream and Blurred Shutters, Start Your Own Religion in 6 Simple Steps, Mosaïk Transistor, and S.M.I.L.E. While You D.I.E.
Hour has a collection of reviews, this time by a variety of people (the Mirror has done it this way before, but I don't remember Hour doing it) including the dance writer. The weeklies have very little time to actually review, given that their deadline must be Monday or at the latest Tuesday. Anyway, their reviews are here, Fringe-off!, and they've covered a whopping number of shows: Relieve Me, Miss Sugarpuss and Her Burley-Q Revue!, This Is Uncalled For, Hip-Hop 4 Dummeez, Man 1, Bank 0, Never Surrender Saves a Baby, The Harvey Christ Medicine Show, Jem Rolls' Charm Offensive, Jane, 1001 Nights (The Arabian Nights), Les Sylphides, Drinking in America, The Bionic Yahoos Are Famous for a Week, Improv, Lies, and Videotape, Moving in Reverse, Fear of a Brown Planet, Sunday Night Live, Tales From Another England, and Confessions of a Class Clown
wetlabel has two more reviews up, Fringe! Drinking In America Review and Fringe! Sunday Night Live Review.
Nothing new on the blog circuit, though maybe nobody's up yet. I've yet to find anyone who knows Amy who's doing that Benjamin Blog.
June 15
The Gazette's reviews are on page D5 (an continued on page D8) or online if you're a subscriber
at
Transforming old to new. They are a tad sluggish, mentioning today
that Golden Caribou is not playing this year, something that had
been on the website since the day before the Fringe began. Usually they
are good about making such announcements. They cover
Felix listens to the World,
The TJ Dawe Box Set,
TOUCH FIRST,
Ariadne's Thread,
An Unfortunate Woman,
Flamenco con Fusion,
CONFESSIONS OF A CLASS CLOWN,
Timmy's Sexual Adventures,
Peace is a very nasty...,
Sunrise,
HIP-HOP 4 DUMMEEZ,
Tippi Seagram's Happy Hour,
1001 Nights (Arabian Nights),
Moving in Reverse,
The Drunken Finger Reveals Himself,
To The Winners,
Working with my enemy, and
How To Pick Up Chicks.
I finally found a copy of the June The Senior Times. They have a website, I've forgotten the URL, but it doesn't matter since they don't put each issue online. I found my copy at the Atwater Library. Anyway, on page 17 there is a short piece on Walking Back to Brooklyn and a photo with caption for Ariadne's Thread. On page 21 there is a much more detailed piece on Three Ring Circus. And on page 22 there's On the Fringe with Byron, where he gives a brief intro to the festival and then his picks (obviously from troupes he's seen before) that I'm too tired to list here, but may later. I gave Fringe Manager Geoff a bunch, so I'm sure performers can get a copy.
Without Annette have up reviews for Un poète, ça sent des pieds! and Torched
wetlabel has added Fringe! Hip-Hop 4 DUMMEEZ Review and Fringe! The U.S.A. Doesn't Exist Revie.
Brainygirl has some comments on her sister's show, and Felix Listens to the World, Sunrise, An Unfortunate Woman, and Labrador.
June 14
Former Fringe performer, J. Kelly Nestruck, he was in Symposium in 2001, adds an entry in his blog addressing the question of whether he'll be blogging the Fringe this year. I didn't really expect it, given that he "gave up blogging" months ago, only to return to it on a more sporadic level, and since he was in town for the Tour de l'Isle the week before the Fringe I suspected he'd not be back in Montreal for the Fringe. At least he seems to know who Amy is doing that <Benjamin Blog.
The Gazette's reviews for today is on page D5 at the bottom, or if you're a subscriber online: Star-spotting at Fringe nets double Davids. They review Bionic Yahoos, , This is Uncalled For, Fou de Shakespeare, Les Poupées, Sex and la Cité, La Condition triviale, and The Sugarpuss Burlesque Presents....
Amy has some comment/review up on her Benjamin Blog (I now see she says she's a volunteer, but which one? Reminds me of the time someone wondered if I was "Blork") about SMILE while you DIE here.
I see nothing new up at wetlabel, nor at Without Annette's blog. Nothing at montreal.com either, though it seems like some years they don't get to the Fringe, and others the articles come later. I saw Janet Coutts at the Fringe For All and she has written for them, but I've not seen her since the Fringe began this year. And still no article that I can find at the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
June 13
Today the Gazette reviews Torched, The Harvey Christ Medecine Show, Cactus, Mimi on the Beach, Never Surrender Saves a Baby, Rubber Chicken Factory: Unplucked, Sans Titre / Untitled (2005), SMILE while you DIE and Relieve Me in Sober tears, sublime guffaws; as always it's subscriber only but is in the paper on page E8.
Without Annette has the first of their reviews up. Kind of amusing to see their "secret" reviewers at the shows and then come home to read what they saw.
Their whole blog is worth checking, because they've a number of people posting so it doesn't seem like you're invading someone's space if you post a comment (or for that matter that you need to know the blogger in order to post a comment). And there are entries each day. A number of the other acts have blogs, but the entries are far between.
So today they have comments about HIP-HOP FOR DUMMEEZ, Drinking in America, Jane and some miscellaneous comments.
That Benjamin Blog has a review up for A Unfortunate Woman. Talk about reading too much into the blog title, it's a woman posting, not some guy named Benjamin which is what I was assuming. Sorry about that.
wetlabel has up today Fringe! Upstream And Blurred Shutters Review, Fringe! Timmy's Sexual Adventures Review, Fringe! The Sugarpuss Burlesque Presents... Review, and Fringe! The Harvey Christ Medicine Show Review.
June 12
Bill Brownstein devotes his colunn to the other festival, which is now claiming to have little beef with the Fringe. Spin control, or an attempt to make the other festival a real festival? Since she's quoted, it's safe to point out that Nathalie Grall is not only one of the big wigs at the other fest, but she's also (unless it happens to be someone with the same name) one of the playwrights for Sex and La Cite, though her name is now excised from the show's blurb at the Fringe website. It's still there in the paper program. Maybe that's what Jody was talking about when he had to go off the other day to take care of their technical rehearsal. Read the column here if you're a subscriber, or read it on page B2.
And of course, there is a second installment of reviews on page B8 or online if you're a subscriber, Daring dance, dark plots and deja vu. They cover Rigoletto, l'asymétrie du pouvoir (they don't like it, and I keep wondering whether those of us who never see opera would see the same thing, because opera at the Fringe is a neat concept, though at a 100 minutes yes it is way too long for a Fringe show), Self-Storage and the tandem (because there is overlap in the writers/performers) THE REEFER MAN, Stop not Going. L'embarquement du rien and Hip.luminose which should be pointed out is five dollars and 30 minutes so it's the sort of thing people should be checking out themselves.
wetlabel has Fringe! Man 1, Bank 0 Review up today.
There's some Buzz up at the Fringe site, and one guy leaves a review of Mosaic Transistor and a link to his blog where he's reviewed two other dance shows. At first I thought the name of the blog, Benjamin is the New Black, was a reference to me, but it's been around covering other things. The specific entry is Dance dance fringealootion and he covers Shakti's 1001 Arabian Nights and Flamenco Con Fusion besides the Lacabalde show. Time will tell whether he will cover some other Fringe shows
There's no reviews yet, but Without Annette tells me they will put some reviews on their blog, so it's worth checking. They have multiple people posting there, so they are likely to have good coverage, and it feels less like we are invading someone's space if we post a comment.
June 11
Finally the Gazette runs a piece about dance at the Fringe, on page 3 of the "Arts & Books" section, and readable online if you're a subscriber: Footwork at the Fringe. Victor Swoboda still seems to be recycling the letters I've sent to the editor of the paper about the Fringe, since now he gives credit to the Fringe for "acting as an outlet for them at the start of their career", which sounds a bit like a letter or two of mine where I said dance in this city would not be so healthy if not for places like Studio 303 or the Fringe. Of course, dance might be healthier if he discovered that there was more to dance than Place des Arts. I don't think he's ever been to Studio 303 (I've never seen him, but it may be a case of not seeing him), seeing Deena come in and plop down on the floor, and as I've long said a show at the Fringe has a longer run than a show at Tangente. He does list many or most of the dance shows, though the detail varies. What would really count is actual reviews, because then it gives status to dance at the Fringe.
On page D3, ie the "Pop Culture" section, and online if you are a subscriber, City of stages, the actual reviews of the shows begin. They cover the OFF shows, many or all of which have been running since Tuesday. One thing about arranging information is to deliberately address the out of the orginary, so I didn't even notice that these shows started early until it was Tuesday. I'd not planned for it, and I was busy Wednesday and Thursday. It seems like a lot of those early showings were free for volunteers, almost like an extended practice run. Anyway, they cover today Disgust, Start your own Religion in 6 simple steps, An Evening with-OUT! Nichols & May, Drinking in America, and Oedi
I don't know when they appeared, but I just see that wetlabel has a couple of more reviews. There's Fringe! Never Surrender Review and Fringe! The Drunken Finger Review.
Jnue 10
On page D9, Gaetan Charlebois has a short piece about the people who'll be helping him to review shows at the Fringe this year. A good solution to the many shows in a short period. I didn't know his niece had beena volunteer, or that he had a niece. I hope we were nice to her. The article is Meet the Fringe folk but it's subscriber only.
On Page D8, T'cha Dunlevy has a piece on the music at the Beer Tent, Some sounds with your suds which is also subscriver only. I can remember when acts were schedule for the Beer Tent but either didn't appear, or not at the schedule time. There were also the years when Heather McLeod played the Beer Tent, but the talk was louder than she was. A shame we aren't seeing Pony Up! this year; I'd take the time to see Sara in her fame and glory.
I see no mention of the Fringe on the "Critic's CHoice" page, but given that they seem to be gearing up for better coverage, it's not important. Though one would hope to see an article about dance at the Fringe, at the very least. Maybe Katherine Greenway can do it, she used to cover dance at the Gazette.
On page D12, they print today's Fringe Schedule, and then at the bottom "highlights" of the other festival. Some of the shows for the Fringe will not appear, I've yet to see a notice in the Gazette, and I do note that at least one of the shows that will not take place is in the listing. Got to watch that.
At the Beer Tent last night I notice that the forms for the Buzz is different this year, and down at the bottom in fine print is "What are others saying? Find out at wetlabel.com" Another carpetbagger apparently. As always, the Fringe seems to think it's okay if something is commercial but overlooks completely that the internet is about giving power to people. What's the purpose of this site, how come we've never heard of it before, and who are these other people? Oh wait, someone with the last name of "Nulman" is connected, so another foray into the internet world? Remember the fans from 2000? Get a clue kids, your page takes way too long to load.
Anyway, checking the site, there are a couple of articles. Montreal Fringe Fest Preview from May 31st and Fringe! Oedi Review from June 10th.
June 9
Bill Brownstein devotes his column on page D1 to the Fringe, continuing with his tradition of writing about the promotion, Plays set the hook, though it seems to be subscriber only on the internet.
Yessiree, Skeeter is back. That's the name Gaetan Charlebois signed his posts a decade ago on The Mirror's BBS when he wrote about the Fringe. This is so very much a good thing, someone familiar with the festival, and who actually likes it. This time when I read it, I don't see something I sort of wrote, I see someone who influenced me in my attitude towards the Fringe. For the first time in a number of years, I don't feel compelled to write another letter to the Gazette about the tone of their Fringe coverage, though dance is still missing so far. Anyway, the article Don't hold back at the Fringe seems to be readable by non-subscribers, or of course one can read it on page D1 of the paper edition, with that lovely picture of Shakti in red. I'll have to buy an extra copy, to send to Mari where ever she is.
It's 8:45am and Hour is already online for this week. I didn't think the paper got up this early. Since the letter page is not online, as far as I've ever been able to tell, I'll have to check the paper edition to see if they printed my letter. But viewing if online, it does seem like their coverage has improved a bit compared to recent years. For the first time in a long time, there is a piece about dance at the Fringe, something so missing from Hour that I can't remember when it last happened. Read And for the twinkle toes. There is also a general piece about the Fringe, The Fringe's sweet 15 that does the so common plugging of mostly shows that have been done elsewhere, plus a profile of Jonno Katz and a profile of The Reefer Man. I'll give the paper a better look later to see if there are Fringe references hidden in the rest of the paper. One can leave comments at Hour's website, so one can argue the articles or add some perspective, though they state they do read the posts before they go up.
Yes, they did publish my letter, which sort of becomes embarassing since I mention how they don't cover dance at the Fringe, but in the same issue there is such an article.
The Mirror puts the Fringe on the cover, specifically the Crazy Show, though the actual article is way back on page 74, Fringe 15!, with a sidebar by Marites Carino about the Crazy Show There are a couple of passing hits in Hot Summer Guide and noteworthy is that the piece on dance on page 36, Shake and Bake is the preview of dance at the Fringe.
Ici is a sponsor, though their coverage tends to be limited, and each time I've checked, they don't have a website to put the material online. But in this week's ici there are two articles about the Fringe, on page 50 and 51. I don't see a specific article about, though one can hope next week there is space for a review of Valerie's show.
June 8
The Suburban is out, and Mike Cohen mentions the Fringe in his column on page 7, and online here. He mentions A Girl's Guide to Screwing Herself though he doesn't use the actual title. Apparently CFCF TV reporter Dave Sommer plays the male parts in the show. I see no other Fringe-related bits this week.
June 7
tobe has a brief article about Fringe and sort of Fringe festivals in Montreal and Ottawa, but maybe it's more biased towards the other festival. Read Activist theatre on the rise.
June 6
Last year I discovered that the Concordia Link had an issue in June, and after the fact that they didn't just run a piece about the other festival, but one about the Fringe, and a piece about Emily Gan's OFF show which she sure didn't flaunt. So I made a point of watching for a June issue, and it was out today. No article about the Fringe, but there is a half page of blurbs about the various festivals in Montreal during the summer, and the Fringe of course gets an entry. Nothing beyond the basics, and no specific shows mentioned. I can't find the article online, though the paper is otherwise pretty good about putting and keeping articles on the web.
maisonneuve has a Fringe Preview: Ariadne's Thread
June 4
We get another piece in the Gazette, again by Gaetan Charlebois. I still don't know whether this is a good or bad sign. Up till last year, the Fringe always got the front page of the entertainment section the Saturday before the festival began. Last year, it was stuffed inside the entertainment section the Thursday the Fringe opened. Again we are hidden, yet at the same time this is the second article since the Fringe For All. And maybe most important, it's Gaetan Charlebois writing them. Until he left Hour in 2001, he had been a major writer about the Fringe, first at The Mirror and then Hour. Since he started writing for the Gazette, his role for the Fringe has been secondary, and I'd say the coverage has suffered. For a while, I thought Matt Radz had retired from The Gazette because Gaetan was reviewing theatre again and they'd brought Pat Donnelly back from the book and circus beat to review at least one play, but apparently it was a temporary absence. If Gaetan's going to be the major writer at the Gazette when it comes to the Fringe this year, I do see it as a good thing.
Anyway, read It's serious work on the Fringe online if you're a subscriber and you grab it before it expires, or read it in the paper version on page D3
The Fringe also gets a couple of hits in the Summer Scene Supplement. On page 11 of that section, it's second on the page about dance. "Predictably off-beat dance"; what in the world does that mean? Then on page devoted to Theatre, page 12, it also gets second billing (though they seem to be placing the events by date). It's the usual blurb, fairly small, and of course there's the inevitable blurb for the other festival below it.
June 3
The "Critic's Choice" page has nothing about the Fringe for the Theatre category, but it's in there for dance (and chances are good that we won't see anything but the brief mentions on that page in the Gazette). It mentions a couple of shows that "are two promising shows among several widely different dance offerings". In Victor Swoboda's favor, he doesn't seem to bother with anything below the Tangente level, if there. Nary a word about Ame Henderson's show last week; see her website, www.publicrecordings.org
June 2
Obviously, the weeklies are out. Amy Barratt of The Mirror does a brief bit about the Fringe For All in Gearing up for the Fringe and more with a promise of the actual preview next week. See my email to her in response to the comment about the permit for the Beer Tent not yet issued.
Hour seems to have been seduced over to the dark side, with a fairly blatant comment on the festival's sponsorship followed by a fair dismissal of what appeared at the Fringe For All, then seguing into the other festival. Read Sizzling Summer: Outdoor theatre. One can hope that they will have something next week, though it seems like ever since they stopped being a sponsor their coverage has dropped significantly. See my letter in response though we'll have to wait and see if it is published.
June 1
The Suburban runs a real piece about the Fringe, on page E12. This is the biggest piece I can remember in the paper, but I can't be sure since their distribution isn't so great and I often miss issues. It can be read online; Living on the Fringe. Over half of it is about returning troupes, and the rest just general Fringe info; no comment on the unknowns, other than that you never know what will be the hit of the festival.
May 28
Surprise. On page D05, The Gazette runs a piece about the Fringe. A surprise since they don't usually run something this early, and a surprise because Gaetan Charlebois wrote it. It's titled "First Follies From the Fringe" and as is now usually the case it's online only to subscribers (and won't stay up long for them anyway). It's basically comments on the Fringe For All, and the inevitable "shows to watch". I hope this means that we will be back to better coverage of the Festival by the Gazette, it dropped a few years back. If it's not that, then it's a sign of a move to worse coverage, since it was a relatively small piece and tucked inside the section.
May 26
Keir Cutler makes his near annual (I didn't see one last year) appearance in the Westmount Examiner, obviously promoting his French version of Teaching Shakespeare. It does go into the process involved in his turning it into a French show. While it may seem they only cover his shows, the truth is they cover it because he's local to Westmount (after the merger was a done deal, he made a point of making Westmount his origin). There has been at least one article covering somebody else's Fringe show, but she like Keir lived in Westmount.
May 25
The Suburban has their monthly WestSide entertainment roundup. The Fringe gets a short paragraph in the Festivals writeup, including a photo of Keir Cutler. The other festival gets no mention, unlike last year. Ricardo Jamon gets a mention in the Theatre preview. Obviously they'd not list all the Fringe shows, but this has to be a case of ingenuity on the part of The Acting Project. The paper's audience is so far from the stereotypical Fringe audience (that is only a myth anyway) that any mention reaches a very different audience from the alternative weeklies. There have been times when the occasional Fringe show has appeared in the paper's weekly list of events, so that's worth trying. The deadline is the Wednesday the week before, if I remember correctly.
I bump into Byron Toben, he'd just picked up a Fringe program at the office. "Already?" I says, "Yes, I have a deadline", so whatever will appear in The Senior Times is about to be decided.
May 18
Keir Cutler ones again works the Westmount angle, and gets some press in the upstart Westmount Times. (It's not online.) It's about the broadcast of Teaching Shakespeare on Bravo, and barely a mention of the Fringe and nary a word on the Fringe present.
May 14
Matt Radz uses some of his space on page 2 of the Arts & Books section to announce the Fringe For All. I'd forgotten he had done it, it came so early. And it includes the seemingly obligatory mention of the other festival.
May 12
The Mirror's
Best of Montreal poll is out. The
Fringe only gets to #6 in the
Best
Festival category (you have to scroll down). The category has only
run since 1999, and this is the lowest except for 2001 when it got
only an honorable mention. The rest of the time, it's been #3 and #4.
Of course, back in 1998 the Fringe received an honorable mention in
the "Best Pick-Up Spot" category.
For reasons I can't understand (because I didn't think it's been staged locally recently), Killing Jar Jar that was performed at the Fringe back in 2001 was #5 in the Best Play category (again you have to scroll down).
In the Best Dance Company/ Choreographer category (again scroll to find it) Solid State is #2, and Ilona Dougherty who won the Studio 303 Prize last year, is #9.
The Best Spoken Word Act (once again, scroll down) was, oddly, the one category loaded with Fringe folks. Kalmunity is #1, and while they've not been to the Fringe before, they will appear this year, and the MC is Josephine Watson was in Tales from the Cryptic back in 1996. The #2 slot is Catherine Kidd who must have been in a Fringe show or two, though none come immediately to mind. #5 is Alexis O'Hara who has been in a few Fringe shows. #6 was Corey Frost and again I think he was in a spoken word show or two at the Fringe a decade or so ago.
April 12
The Link runs a piece about Théâtre Ste-Catherine, and what it's about. It sort of answers the questions about where it is, because it suddenly appeared back in the fall with a lot of Fringe related shows and I kind of thought it might be secretly owned by the Fringe. The article says it will be a venue at this year's Fringe, though isn't that spreading the venues pretty far apart? Read Luck, be a theatre tonight.
April 11
The McGill Daily runs a piece about the Festival Season before the school term runs out, including a fair paragraph on the Fringe. Read Summer in Montreal means one thing: festivals.
April 5
Uncalled For also get into Concordia's Link, including some discussion of their appearance at last year's Fringe. Read The Little Team that Could.
March 31
Uncalled For scores an article in the McGill Tribune which includes mention of their upcoming gig at the Fringe. Maybe the first press I saw about the Fringe this year. Read The Spirit of the Fringe.
March 24
The Plattsburgh Press-Republican continues it's coverage of the Fringe. Last year was the first time I caught an article of their's, though I've done searches for years. But knowing that they have covered the Fringe, I've found old articles from the paper dating back a decade. We get so little coverage, relatively speaking, that every bit counts, yet the only way to find them is with deep searches. Which is part of my point about how the Fringe has fumbled the internet; they surely knew about the articles yet they've only recently had a decently comprehensive list of articles from the press on the website.
Anyway, this one is just a mention of the Fringe in a general article about Montreal theatre preview, though sadly they tell people to leave the kids at home, as if there's nothing here for the kids. So long as it's treated like adult theatre, then few companies will bother to bring kid's shows to the Fringe. One hopes that the Press-Republican will have a preview article before the Fringe, so it's worth checking
March 09
Marie Barlizo, who did Wanting in 2004 (and checking the archives she did Elsewhere in 1999; when I saw her last year I was sure she'd done a show, but when I asked she said no) won the David Tuer Scholarship, according to this article.
September 8, 2004
The McGill Tribune runs a piece on the The Unbearable Lightness of Being American. Read Ministry of Cultural Warfare on the attack.
September 1, 2004
The McGill Tribune fulfills its SuperPass obligation by running a piece about the festival, over two months later. Read Not just Fringe benefits.