Fulcrum Contributor Mariana Gomez had the opportunity to work at the Ottawa Fringe Festival
Ottawa’s 2023 Fringe Festival was nothing short of a good time. Hosted in six venues around the downtown core at Arts Court, 45 shows with a total of 300 performances took place within a span of 11 days.
The Ottawa Fringe Festival operates through two main streams, lottery and Bring Your Own Venue (BYOV). In the lottery, hopeful artists, playwrights, and creative art aficionados submit their applications in December to compete in a raffle to see which plays will be presented at each year’s festival. Whether you’re an established playwright, an up-and-coming director, or an amateur actor, everyone has the same chance to present their show. If you were not selected to participate, you could always BYOV, to the Atelier theater.
This year’s executive director, Alain Richer, was overjoyed to see the ecstatic recovery that creative artists had experienced since the massive decrease of in-person activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Having worked as artistic director of Toronto’s Mainstage Theatre Company for many years, Richer was able to put his skills to use at this year’s festival.
This year, I had the opportunity to work as a theatre technician in Venue 4, Theatre 1201. Alongside Steph Lacasse, a student in theater production and creation at the National School of Theatre in Montreal, we took care of eight different shows with a total of 49 performances.
Our job consisted of hosting three-hour tech runs with each cast and crew to understand their vision for their play. We then created lighting and sound cues, as well as projector and microphone programming when needed. Once the crew was satisfied with the options, the only thing left to do each night was running the shows. We would have a script of the play on-hand with handwritten notes across the pages, indicating when each cue had to go off. As the actors performed their play, we would press each light and sound cue accordingly.
The most difficult part of the job is making sure we follow the script, but also understanding enough about the show in case an actor forgets a line or a section of their scripts, we as techs still know when to make each cue go off. Although the job can be quite stressful at times, it is incredibly rewarding to work with so many creative artists coming from different paths of life and seeing all of their visions come alive.
Although it was our first time meeting, Lacasse and I quickly found an easy working rhythm and we instantly became close friends. Lacasse’s skilled background and bubbly personality made this a swift project filled with laughs and memories. One of the great things about this festival is how it brings people together in this first-class theatre community.
Being staff members at the Fringe also comes with artistic privileges! We got to see a lot of free shows and interact with the artists. My favorite moment of the festival was seeing all the different artists that presented shows in my venue. Ranging from a 72-year-old man retelling his life story from his 50-year-long career in the arts in “A Side Of Rice ”, to an original production depicting incel streamers in “Rotten Apple ”, we really had our fair share of creativity. Other shows in our venue included “Sadec 1965: A Love Story”, “For Spy Kicks”, “Booger Red”, “Whitefish River”, and my personal favorites, “If You Had The Time”, and best-of-fest winner: “The Emergency Monologues”.
This year’s Fringe Festival was filled with incredible events ranging from silent discos to karaoke in a frenzy of incredible performances in a very successful run! Even though the Ottawa Fringe only happens once a year, self-proclaimed thespians can experience other amazing events happening in Ottawa this year! Stemming from Zones Theatrales taking place in September to the Undercurrents Festival in the winter, Ottawa is the place to be for enriching, culture-filled theatre!
