St Luke’s Players 2017-2018 season Long before the introduction of professional theatre companies to Victoria, all theatre was community based. One of the oldest troupes is St Luke’s Players. The upcoming season represents the 69th for this stalwart band of thespians. In 2015, members answered a few questions for me which will provide more background on the troupe’s mission statement and philosophy. The pantomime, a more recent annual … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Eight
September 1, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Eight. Reviews of The Man Who Sold the World by David Ortolano, Lovely Lady Lump by Lana Schwarcz and Help! I’m American by DK Reinemer. Since the Edmonton Fringe Festival often overlaps the Victoria Fringe Festival, it is common to have a number of productions arrive after the opening weekend. For my Day Eight of the Victoria Fringe, I saw three performers who have been touring the CAFF … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Seven
August 31, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Seven Years of study and discipline have resulted in the works of three remarkable companies/artists—Beau & Aero: Crash Landing by A Little Bit Off (Amica Hunter and David Cantor); Interstellar Elder (Snafu Dance Theatre) performed by Ingrid Hansen and created together with Kathleen Greenfield, Britt Small and Emma Zabloski; and Olive Copperbottom: a New Musical by Charles Dickens and Penny … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Six
August 30, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Six Day Six was spent in one of my favourite haunts, the Victoria Event Centre, Venue 1, 1415 Broad Street, for Jon Bennett: My Dad's Deaths (A Comedy) and Tragedy + Time Served=Comedy by Mark Hughes Find all my Victoria Fringe Festival 2017 coverage HERE. As the Fringe enters its second week, it becomes more important to buy tickets in advance, or be prepared to come at least an hour early … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Five
August 29, 2017 By 1 Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Five Part of the pleasure of fringing is the ability to see so many different styles in a very short period of time. My day five included the phenomenal character work of Charles Adrian appearing as Ms Samantha Mann in Stories About Love, Death & A Rabbit, followed by Kevin P Gilday’s nihilistic and dark spoken word/multi-media meta-theatre Gigantic Lying Mouth, and finishing with improvised … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Four
August 28, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Four For the fourth day of the Fringe I went to see one of the most provocative artists I know, Tasha Diamant, in Naked Ugly Dancing, and then spent the rest of the day camped out at Venue 1, the Victoria Event Centre for Holly Brinkman’s A Woman’s Guide to Peeing Outside & Other Adventures, Enigmatic Events in Jukebox Drive and Sean Proudlove in The Taxi Driver is Always Listening. I'll have … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Three
August 27, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Three I’m one of twenty three Fringe Heroes who collectively since 2015 have sponsored a Fringe venue, Langham Court. As a group, we attend one show together—this year, O’ Come All Ye Faithful by Nicholas Guerreiro. For the remainder of Day Three, I made my destination the Downtown Community Centre (Venue 2, 755 Pandora Avenue) for Vasily Djokavich by Morgan Cranny, Monica vs the Internet by … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Two
August 26, 2017 By 1 Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe Day Two The venue of choice for Day Two was the Metro Studio Theatre (Venue 3) where I watched a puppet eco-drama Beaver Dreams from Lost & Found Puppet Co, the Gift by two-spirit, mixed (settler and First Nations) performing artist John Aitken and Gail Noonan and LEER, a steam-punk themed, Hell-based, gender-bent adaptation from Shakespeare by David Elendune of Outpost 31. (My review of LEER will be … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day One
August 25, 2017 By 1 Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day One Thanks to Bema Productions, I was able to attend a dress rehearsal of Horowitz and Mrs Washington. On Day One, applying the scheduling theory of my long-time fringing buddy Arlene, I chose a venue—Fairfield Hall—and attended all the performances there. The evening included three world premieres—Inauguration Vacation by Annette Roman, timely and topical storytelling from the life of a political … [Read more...]
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My away picks.
August 21, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My away picks. In 2006 I celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Victoria Fringe Festival and got truly bitten by the Fringe bug. I saw many more shows than originally planned, and had so much fun I decided to volunteer the following year (and did so until 2014 when I switched to reviewing). Over the years I’ve met many Fringe artists and followed their careers—both in Victoria and further afield. Even … [Read more...]
