Fringe Festival Web Report #1
Thursday, July 5th

By JON KAPLAN

It's time for the theatrical circus event of the year - the Fringe is comin' to town. Expect to run into thousands of excited Fringers during the 11 days of the annual festival, which opens tonight (Thursday, July 5) and runs through July 15 at venues all over the city.

The Fringe is theatre that requires a safety net and parachute, with events that keep you on a high wire as they swing you over cutting-edge performances. This year's fest, the 13th, has grown larger than previous Toronto Fringes, with 105 companies offering over 700 performances. We're not quite as large as the Edmonton Fringe - the granddaddy of the festivals, both in terms of size and age - but this year there's more activity than any one person can take in at all sorts of venues.

That frantic activity brings up some logistic problems, especially with the Fringe currently reaching from the Tarragon Theatre at Dupont and Bathurst to the Factory Theatre down at Bathurst and Adelaide. Add in venues in the Annex and three U of T theatres as well as nine shows at non-traditional spaces like bars and parks - they're called Bring Your Own Venues (BYOVs), because the shows scheduled there don't fit into usual theatre spaces - and you have lots of organizing to do before you plunk down money for a ticket.

Add to that a new component in the festival lineup - 90-minute productions have been mixed in with the usual hour-long shows, so you might think you've worked out a smooth viewing schedule and then realize that those extra 30 minutes mean you miss the start of the show you plan to see next. The Fringe doesn't allow any latecomers.

Plan the shows you want to see carefully. Divide your theatre-going into geographic sections, spending a day or part of a day in one area. I see it in three divisions. One takes in the upper and lower Annex and includes the two Tarragon venues, the family-oriented KidsVenue at the Palmerston Library and the Poor Alex, along with a number of BYOVs in the Annex. Then there are the U of T theatres - the Glen Morris, Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse and the Robert Gill - as well as a few other BYOVS that centre around St. George. Finally, down at the southern tip of this theatrical continent, there are the two Factory Theatre spaces.

Pick up a Fringe program at selected Starbucks, call the hotline at 416-966-1062 for more info. Carry a bottle of water for those hot July days and the occasional venue without air conditioning.

And put on comfortable shoes.

Good luck Fringing.