An open letter from touring artists of the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit
// August 12th, 2007 // Blog, Kris's Soapbox, Patrick's Soapbox
Recent developments in the administrative structure of the Edmonton and Vancouver Festivals have raised serious questions about the philosophy of the Fringe, questions about the financial viability of Fringe touring, and questions about the future of artists’ participation.
The Edmonton festival has announced the suspension of sales of tickets at individual venues. We feel that this policy will be detrimental to the artists’ interests in several ways: first, it will limit access to those who pass venues and spontaneously decide that they want to go to a given show. Second, it will limit access by removing the cash basis of ticket sales.
We also understand that tickets purchased at the so-called “kiosks” will be subject to a surcharge payable to the festival. This not only increases ticket costs to the audience, thus limiting access again, but also makes mockery of the festival’s stated policy of returning 100% of ticket revenues to the artists.
We understand that Fringe Theatre Adventures in Edmonton is trying to streamline the operation of ticket sales, and we sympathize with the organizational concerns about volunteer shortages; however, it is counter-intuitive to suppose that kiosks where tickets for many shows are available are going to run as efficiently as booths for individual shows.
Our second concern is with the Vancouver Fringe’s newly-announced Encore Series, which the festival proposes to run within the cadre of the general festival. Presumably, the Encore Series has a budget for promotion, production, and administration which is not independent of the rest of the festival. One further assumes that the attention and energy of media sponsors and media representatives will be drawn to the Encore Series, and
it is self-evident that it is intended by the Festival as a kind of representation of elite excellence.
We find all of this not only unfair, arbitrary, and bizarre, but highly offensive. No one who has extensive experience touring the various Fringes has any objection to the notion of competition; by engaging to produce theatre in this way, we undertake to compete for the approval, the attention and the money of the audience. Nor do we in any sense deny the right of the Vancouver Festival to produce theatre outside the cadre of the festival. We
do find it patently absurd and ill-advised for the Festival to produce what amounts to a Festival of chosen, juried work within the supposedly unjuried, unmediated forum celebrated by the mandate of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.
We urgently and earnestly ask that these two policies in particular be reconsidered not only by the individual Fringes concerned, but be debated and –we hope—repudiated by CAFF itself. Touring the Canadian fringe circuit is a difficult task, undertaken only by highly dedicated, and for the most part, highly skilled and experienced individuals. Do not make the task any harder than it is.
Sincerely,
THEATrePUBLIC Theatre Society
The RibbitREPublic
Keira McDonald
Rob Gee
Mark Scott (Laugh Inc)
Dave Dawson, Black Sheep Theatre
Patrick Gauthier & Kris Joseph, Gruppo Rubato
Screwed & Clued Theatre Company
Alex Eddington and Alison Williams, Acky-Made Productions
