Fringe News
Fringe News
Toronto, ON – The Toronto Fringe Festival is proud to announce that ticket sales were higher than the Fringe’s strongest selling year ever in 2009. This means the charitable arts organization will be able to return $438,000 to the fiercely independent artists that participated in the festival. Public response was higher than ever, as people flocked to sold-out shows, purchasing over 59,000 theatre tickets over the course of the 12 day festival. And the Fringe Club behind Honest Ed’s was the beating heart of the festival, where thousands of Fringe fanatics mingled to talk about theatre and enjoy dozens of local food vendors and delicious McAuslan craft beer. The Visual Fringe and AlleyPlays animated the Club, and sold over $10,000 of their wares, 100% of which will be returned to these local artisans and artists.
Tip the Fringe donations, which support the year-round operations of the festival, were as strong as ever at $36,000. Executive Director Kelly Straughan comments on donations:
“The Fringe cannot function without the support of our community. We are happy to report that Tip the Fringe has been strong this year, and also to report that we have been overwhelmed by individual donations during the festival which have surpassed $30,000. We are so pleased with the goodwill the community is showing to the Fringe and the future of indie theatre in Toronto.”
Audiences from all over the city were motivated by our message: Don’t Just Stand There…SEE SOME THEATRE. Offering 1,038 performances, the 2014 Fringe Festival was a perfect place to be curious, to listen to diverse and emerging voices and to choose your own adventure. And with tickets set at $12 (in advance) and $10 (at-the-door), it’s still the most affordable and accessible place for artists, families and theatre-lovers to binge on live performance. The festival also offered a series of free events open to the public, such as nightly buskers at the Fringe Club, three underground dance parties with no cover charge, plus fun free family programming such as bouncy castles, crafts and open-air performances at the brand new FringeKids! Club.
Building Audiences and Friendships
First-Time Fringers were welcomed into the “Fringe Family” with a postcard handed out at all theatre venues, featuring a photo of all core Fringe staff members, inviting them to come to the Fringe Club to collect a special prize. Staff members then greeted the First-Time Fringers and bought them a drink at the Fringe Club – what better way to start your relationship with Fringe than with a cold drink in the friendly and welcoming Fringe Club patio?
Standouts and Sellouts at the 2014 Fringe Festival
Of the 136 plays in the festival, many became instant hits. And due to the Fringe’s new advance ticket policy wherein 100% of tickets were available for purchase in advance (as opposed to previous years where 50% were held for at-the-door sales) artists were pleased to see that their shows were selling better than ever. Patrons were seeing more shows, because they were able to plan their viewing schedule and squeeze in more theatre. Due to these policy changes and new customer services (such as the free Toronto Fringe smartphone app) patrons were able to maximize their festival experience. As a result, many shows sold out and artists will take home more revenue than ever before.
Here are a few standout shows that garnered tons of audience buzz and sold out numerous performances:
Memento Mori
By Tracey Erin Smith, presented by SOULO Theatre
52 Pick-Up
By TJ Dawe & Rita Bozi, presented by The Howland Company
True
By Rosa Laborde, presented by Criminal Theatre
Love’s Labour’s Lost
By William Shakespeare, presented by Shakespeare BASH’d
Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl
By Rebecca Perry, presented by Paper Plaid Productions
Three Men in a Boat
By Jerome K. Jerome (stage adaptation by Mark Brownell), presented by Pea Green Theatre Group
By Erin Thompson, presented by Beer in a Glass Productions
By Graham Clark, presented by Laugh Gallery
By Nancy Kenny, presented by Broken Turtle Productions
By Elvira Kurt and Megan Fahlenbock, presented by Parallel Play Productions
Theatre Entrepreneurs’ Network & Training (TENT) Program
The inaugural T.E.N.T. Program for emerging artists provided participants the opportunity to learn skills that will help them start careers in the performing arts, from self-producing to branding, from starting a theatre company to stress management. With only 30 participants (between the ages of 19-24) this intimate environment enabled one-on-one interactions with some of the city’s top theatre artists, including Marjorie Chan, Brendan Healy, Julie Tepperman and Aaron Willis, as well as networking opportunities with their peers.
“T.E.N.T. gave me access to the hardworking, emotionally honest, funny, flawed, complex, and creatively adventurous people making theatre in Canada, and it taught me how I can be one of them too.”
-Justin Abraham Linds (2014 T.E.N.T. Participant)
Up next for Toronto Fringe: In September, lottery applications will open for the 2015 Fringe Festival and in January the 2015 Next Stage Theatre Festival will kick-off at Factory Theatre!
2014-07-14
2014 Toronto Fringe Festival shatters box office records