The Fringe Festival is comin’ to town
Be prepared for comedy, drama, music, and dance!
Catching snowflakes on her tongue? / Gemma Wilcox
From July 8 to 12, the Queen City will host the annual Regina Fringe Festival. Now in its eleventh year, the festival will bring together artists from not only Saskatchewan, but also from across Canada and around the world. The lineup features performers from as close to home as Regina and as far away as Tokyo and South Africa.
Jodi Sadowsky, the festival’s producer since 2009, says that there are not just a variety of performers, but also acts presented.
“There’ll be comedies, dramas, sometimes, there’ll be music, or dance, it just really depends on the companies applying.”
As Sadowsky highlights, the application process for the Fringe is a consistent one.
“We accept companies first-come, first-serve; that’s just the nature of Fringe is it’s first-come first-serve or lottery, any Fringe like Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon does it the same way.”
And the variety of actors hitting the stage are just one part of the festival. University of Regina alumnus Shelby Lyn Lowe has spent two Fringe Festivals as a venue technician. She says that it is the people she meets that keep her coming back.
“It’s a really fun job,” she says. “You get to meet really interesting performers from all over Canada, not just Canada the world, and you get to see different kinds of theatre.”
Sadowsky also sees these connections as a part of her own personal experience of the Fringe, stating, “I enjoy connecting with the people, and the performers, and the community at-large.”
She also highlights the artistic role that the festival fills as a marked positive, saying “ Bringing independently produced theatre to the community, because I think it’s important to have a variety of theatre opportunities in any community.”
One such opportunity has been afforded to first-year University of Regina student Emma Fiorante, who will be performing at this year’s Fringe in her group’s play, Rosie.
Says Fiorante of the play, “Rosie is a clown-based play, so it’s very playful and fun for every age, and it’s about love and dreams and just the story of a girl from a town that doesn’t really understand her. She stands out because she’s a clown and just following her life and how she finally follows her dreams.”
When asked about what she is most excited about, the actor has this to say: “I am most excited for people to see the show…it’s nice to kind of get that out and just to perform again.”
A fundraiser will be held on Apr. 11 at the Artesian on 13th with all of the proceeds going towards the costs associated with presenting the Fringe. Performing will be Gemma Wilcox in a play called The Honeymoon is Officially Over, a show which Sadowsky says was a great seller at last year’s festival, as well as singer Roberta Nichol.
Tickets are $25 a piece, and more information can be found at http://www.reginafringe.com/
