An Open Letter To FringeMTL Artists
To Fringe Artists:
My first experience with FringeMTL was in 2013. I’d not been living in Montreal long at this point, and at the time I was focused on poetry and spoken word performance. I wanted to get involved with something theatrical, and took the opportunity to audition for a production in that year’s program. The show was far from being a Frankie Award winner, and I’d understood that going into the project. However, I wasn’t prepared for the isolation. The creator of the piece, and most of the cast, were like me at the time: not really part of the theatre sector at all, let alone part of the inner circle. In a Festival like Fringe, you would imagine that the objective would be to build a community, to welcome those from away (geographically or metaphorically) who have yet to experience what the vibrant scene has to offer. Unfortunately, that never came to pass. And with our social isolation came marketing isolation. In Fringe it’s really difficult to be seen, especially without any support. Or without being a “darling” of FringeMTL. Our performances were sparsely populated, as many Fringe artists have experienced, because we were lost in a sea of voices, a cast of relative nobodies. Sure, there are opportunities to advertise, but these options themselves are limited. The creator of that performance took a loss that year, a frustrating result of taking the chance that we’re all familiar with. But it didn’t have to be that way.
Imagine how that silly production would have benefitted from attention? Imagine how every production can benefit from attention? In fact, imagine how every artist can benefit from attention, regardless of Fringe. It doesn’t have to be much, but a mention, a highlight, a share, these can go a long way. This is the crux of Forget The Box’s mandate: we cover ground level, underground, and marginalized local art. We cover the things, the people, the events, that aren’t going to receive attention from other media sources. We do this because this is what I, personally, believe in. This is the flag I fly. I do so because I’ve spent my own artistic career as an experimental artist, primarily, who couldn’t get attention from any of the bigger publications. So I ensure every day that FTB is there for everyone, that people have the thing I would have benefitted from myself: a little bit of attention on their work.
When I took over Forget The Box in February 2023, it was a blog that wrote occasionally about art, music, local events, culture, wrestling, and local or provincial news. Mostly inactive, I saw an opportunity and seized it. I rebooted FTB to be the local arts-focused digital magazine it is today. I was driven by one objective: give artists the coverage I wished I’d had while coming up. With that, I grew my team of talented and devoted individuals to help construct this vision of mine, and I can’t be more grateful. Through Forget The Box I have been able to shine a spotlight on local events, series, venues, and artists, all of whom would have been simply dreaming of the attention otherwise. I’m very proud of this work, and the hard work of the FTB team.
Allow me to quickly clarify something about Forget The Box: We are a fledgling not-for-profit. In fact, we are so fledgling, that we’re still trying to raise the funds to just register as an official not-for-profit. What does that mean? That means that right now, along with the invaluable time and effort provided by our small team, we are a zero-dollar operation. In fact, both myself and Dawn McSweeney have taken quite a few losses in the last year. In the spirit of full transparency: the website’s hosting, domain, design work, our contributions, these are all paid for out of my pocket, for the time being. We’ll get to where we need to be soon enough, but it’s slow and steady.
Forget The Box covers all the arts, not strictly theatre. Last year, only months after our “re-inception” we put together coverage of the 2023 FringeMTL festival that we are insanely proud of to this day. Not only did we review 30 productions (which is absolutely wild), but we ran numerous features on the festival itself. We were media partners for the 2023 festival, and very proud to be so, but the experience itself was heartbreaking. Not only did FringeMTL fail to uphold their end of the agreement until the last day of the festival, but we then received a censorship request from Amy Blackmore. After much consultation with members of the theatre community, we fashioned a response to Amy/Fringe, denying her request. Nothing about this was ever stated to be “off the record”, and it remains our prerogative to discuss the issue any time we’d like, particularly on our own site. What was asked of us was an egregious misstep by someone in a position of power within the community, demonstrating a lack of integrity and a penchant for favoritism. (This is something NONE of you should be okay with.) The review in question was my own, and I stand by it. If you saw the show, you know. I wholeheartedly disagree with Amy Blackmore’s hilarious accusation that the review was “ageist” (a word she never used in our correspondence at the time, only now, a year later, when she needed a buzz word for emphasis). The mention of the age in question was simply a descriptor. Please, PLEASE, take a look at our reviews from last year, read the review for yourself, make the decision for yourself. It’s not something Amy should be doing for you, or anyone else. We believe in journalistic integrity, and we demonstrate it daily. Being accused of the opposite by someone who believes it’s okay to attempt censorship of free speech is nothing more than a piss-take.
I admit openly and loudly that I have had my personal issues with Amy Blackmore, as she’s had hers with me. However, beginning with last year’s festival, I attempted to maintain a strict level of professionalism, as we were engaging each other through Forget The Box and FringeMTL. Of course, a request for censorship will change that dynamic, which it did. While we had every intention of reviewing MORE productions in this year’s festival, we were uncertain if a media partnership would benefit us, as our experience last year was stressful, to say the least. However, we also recognized that being a media partner with an organization as large as Fringe would benefit our small outfit, so it was still a likely choice.
Our first order of business for FringeMTL 2024 coverage was to determine the number of productions in the festival. On March 6 of this year, I wrote to Amy Blackmore and Kenny Streule, requesting the contact information for the new Communications director. This email went unanswered, and was followed by another on March 12. Finally on March 13 we received a response stating that a Communications director had yet to be hired, and “To answer your partnership question, we are not looking for media partners this year.” While the statement is a blatant lie, it was both insulting and hurtful to read, as we had yet to put in a request for any partnership, we were simply in the early stages of planning. Feeling wounded (as any individual would in this situation) we replied that we “weren’t interested anyway”.
Yesterday we had the pleasure of launching our VERY ambitious FringeMTL 2024 coverage schedule, including our Review Lottery with 45 reviews available. That, plus a special Fringe Edition of our On The Boulevard show are the anchors to our program. While we spoke clearly and truthfully in our posting on Facebook, Amy Blackmore disagreed and made it clear. However, we are equipped with screenshots, proof to back up our claims. This show of force by Amy Blackmore and FringeMTL was damaging, and absolutely out of line. While Amy might have felt that she was “defending” FringeMTL, she was attacking a small organization of volunteers, people paying out of their own pocket to fund fair and accessible arts coverage. Amy Blackmore has a personal issue with me, but she brought every other hardworking person at Forget The Box into the fray. Our web designer, graphic designer, our Editor-At-Large, every single one of our contributors, each one of these people are affected by Amy’s assault, while she sits in her paid position genuinely unaffected by anything Forget The Box could say or do.
Ultimately, it’s come to my attention that you, the Fringe Artists, the creators and actors and musicians and techs, might hold apprehension about our Review Lottery this year. This is my promise to you: Forget The Box has always, and will always, hold true to our mandate: we cover ground level, underground, and marginalized art in Montreal. We are here for the artists. This can be seen on display in every feature we’ve published since February 2023, in every showcase or festival we’ve helped find a new home at the last minute, in every workshop we’ve helped facilitate, and anything and everything else do for our community, the arts community, not just the theatre community. We will continue to give our time and effort to spotlighting and showcasing the hard working friends and colleagues we’ve got in this city who have so much to share with us. That’s you. That’s YOU, and that’s why we’re here. Our reviews will never be negative, they will be fair. Our objective isn’t to criticize, our objective is to lift you up. To celebrate you. If you know anyone on our review team this year or last, anyone who has ever contributed to Forget The Box, or if you know me personally, you know that this truly is our single focus.
Please do not hesitate to submit for a review. We want to see what you’re sharing. We want to tell people to see it, too. That’s it. We believe that what you do is important. Regardless of how much FringeMTL wants to tear us down, we’re not going to stop. And you shouldn’t let them stop us either.
Thank you all for your support of Forget The Box, and the truth. Please consider this to be our final public statement on the matter, as our official ties to FringeMTL are severed. If anyone would like further proof to our claims privately, reach out, we would be happy to provide screenshots and emails. We believe in full transparency, and are happy to oblige. Our biggest wish, however, is for this conflict to fade. We want nothing more than to be able to peacefully review and spotlight the artists of FringeMTL without continual antagonism from the organization itself, and their leader.
I’m personally looking forward to reviewing five productions in this year’s festival, as are our other members of the Fringe Review Lottery team. We’re all very excited! See you in June!
Sincerely,
Andrew Jamieson
Creative Director and Editor-In-Chief, Forget The Box
Visit our FringeMTL page for complete coverage of the 2023 Fringe Festival, as well as entry details for the 2024 Review Lottery!
