Winnipeg Fringe Festival: My Top 10

The cast of This Is a Play

Well, I'm down to the wire on my blog again. Eeeek. Thankfully I have a very recent topic to pontificate about…or at least write a lame Top 10 list about. The Winnipeg Fringe Festival. I was just involved in this beast of an event – as actor, producer (This Is a Play) and patron - so for this blog post I decided to do a completely random Top 10 list of fringy observations:

1)   The best show I saw, besides my show of course, was Hell to Pay by The Beast with Three Backs. Creative, energetic, physical, raunchy, it was an original adaptation of The Devil and Billy Markham and it had everything.

2)  I’m not going to name the worst show I saw, but all I can say is: if you are an amateur performer that is no excuse for an amateur looking show. Your audience deserves the absolute best you can create. They paid good money to see lame choreography and sloppy attention to details? Shame.

3) You get WAY more wine for less money in the Beer Tent then at the MTC Warehouse bar.

Pre-show. Venue 2

4) The best blog out there about the Winnipeg Fringe (or any Fringe for that matter) is Diary of a Fringe Tech. Written by my very own Venue 2 tech, JBJ.

5) No matter how many times you hear or say it: low or high star reviews do not mean low or high quality shows. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. CBC gave Now that Communism is Dead My Life Feels Empty 1 star, I would have given it 4. So please don't let the stars influence you.

6) That awkward moment when, while watching a show, the person sitting next to you starts snoring. All I can recommend is, try to give them a knee nudge without making it seem like you gave them a knee nudge. Or hope and pray the actors on stage will yell, thus waking the person up.

7)  If possible, check out a late, late show. Ours (at 10:45pm) was quite "unintentionally inventive”. I’m sure other companies use it as an excuse to get a little creative as well.

Granna. 92 years young

8) Don’t know if there’s a stat on the most elderly Fringe patron, but my 92 year old grandma came to see my show so I’m giving her the prize.

9) The only negative thing I experienced was getting said 92 year old grandma into the theatre. There was wheelchair accessibility to Venue 2, but it was awkward and, ironically, almost inaccessible and no one on the volunteer side knew what to do, how to do it, or even seemed like they wanted to do it. Get with it Fringe! Please make it easier for physically challenged people to see the shows.

10) All the hard work is absolutely, 100% worth it! There’s nothing in the world like performing in or going to the Winnipeg Fringe...Until next year!