Fringe From Away
Kicking off Montreal’s summer festival season is the St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival. It’s a big deal. I mean, it’s a huge festival, a massive undertaking coordinated by staff, dozens of volunteers, and hundreds of performers. For local artists, FringeMTL represents an opportunity to showcase their hard work, to experience their colleagues’ hard work, and of course, to party, all with the comfort of sleeping in their own bed. But Montreal’s Fringe isn’t comprised of strictly local talent. In fact, our hometown festival is peppered with performers and creators who “Fringe From Away”.
FringeMTL is part of an international network of festivals celebrating diversity, accessibility, and artistic freedom. As such, many of the artists involved will take their shows on “tour” through the summer, moving across the country (or the continent) to showcase their work in other cities. Montreal is an (understandably) popular spot, and securing a place in the festival is an accomplishment itself. When you live in Montreal, you’re able to visit the venue assigned to you (if you’re not already familiar), you can rely on a network of friends and family to assist in the production, and you have a leg-up on advertising, even by word-of-mouth, as part of Montreal’s vibrant community. But, if you Fringe From Away, some of these simple steps can become incredibly difficult. “Of course not being in Montreal (or having ever been!) comes with its challenges. I've never seen the venue and only have a vague sense of what it'll be like, and I don't really know anyone in Montreal who can go out and look at stuff for me”, Rob Teszka tells me. He’s from British Columbia, and is bringing his one-man magic show, Rob Teszka: Magic Dropout to FringeMTL this year. (His first FringeMTL!)
Cameryn Moore, a Fringe veteran currently living in Berlin, tells me about bringing her production, Muse: an experiment in storytelling and life drawing, across the Atlantic Ocean. “I had an ambitious plan for Fringe For All (10+ plants in the audience to draw me for one minute during my presentation), plus I needed crew for both the run of Muse AND the one-night-only presentation of Smut Slam on June 1. In other words, I needed a pretty large and organized support team, but I haven't been here in seven years and worried that I couldn't find my folks again, and that I wouldn't have the time to coordinate everything because of planning for other parts of the tour.” (Cameryn will be taking her show to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver.) Of course, FringeMTL isn’t just known as “Party Fringe”, it’s also known as being incredibly supportive. “The people of the community have helped immensely with everything from air purifiers to put near my modeling area, to reminding me where to get photocopies, to scouting out Smut Slam judges. Fringing has a lot of moving parts, and being able to ask the community (usually through the FringeMTL Artists page on Facebook) is invaluable.”
One can imagine that artists in the festival who Fringe From Away are probably not staying in fancy hotel rooms. But where do they stay? Cars, couches, floors, in the homes of generous members of the community, coordinated through social media connections, even by FringeMTL themselves! Wait, cars? Absolutely. If the fire of passion burns inside you, nothing will stand in your way. Laura Piccinin of LESBIHONEST explains to me, “As a penniless artist, my primary issue with touring is that I'm living out of my Mazda 3. I've done this at a number of other Fringes, and have ended up making good friends who let me use their showers and driveways to park. Montreal will be my first attempt at doing this in a big city. Thinking about Montreal's parking situation is already giving me nightmares, but I think I've got this!”
Laura Piccinin with her spacious and reliable Mazda 3.
A benefit of being an artist in the festival are the resources made available before, and during, the festival. From supportive Facebook groups to FringeMTL’s guidance, artists and performers find themselves in capable and caring hands. David Thill of Exit 20:20 elaborates, “The support from FringeMTL has been incredible. I didn't realize going into the festival how many workshops there would be on things like social media, marketing, and tech—plus workshops from MainLine—and constant resources and communication that help me stay on top of the logistics of getting this show from New York to Montreal. I feel like I've learned so much already. I'm so grateful for this experience.”
Now, community support systems are not exclusive to Montreal’s festival, (although we do it best,) so for those who Fringe From Away, one simple question remains: Why FringeMTL? Every artist I spoke with had a poignant answer to this question, but Cameryn Moore’s response really captured the essence of the festival. “When I was coming to FringeMTL in 2006-2008 with Big Moves, they let us set up community pancake breakfasts at Fringe Park, with too many electric griddles plugged into too few power strips and boxes of donated Tim Horton's coffee. We had to bring washing water in containers like it was fucking Burning Man, but they just let us do it! And ever since then, I've known that Fringe, especially FringeMTL, is a place where you should just ask for the space and support you need for whatever whack-a-doodle promo stunt or performance you wanna do, because if not here, then where?”
Cameryn Moore’s exploded suitcase, her home for the next many weeks.
With over 90 shows featuring 500+ artists, FringeMTL promises a diverse and international exhibition of independent theatre. Tickets are on sale now on the FringeMTL website!
Don’t forget to check out the opening of Fringe Park on June 8th! More information available on Facebook!
Keep coming back to Forget The Box for comprehensive coverage of FringeMTL, including reviews of 30 shows! That’s 1/3 of the festival!
