Welcome to the Fringe

Sylvia Ceacero

Executive Director, Interim Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society

e 2021 Fringe Festival is going to delight your senses and provide you with a theatre experience that is Fringe worthy! Local, national and international artists bring you in-person and digital offerings that showcase that we are resilient and that theatre is here to stay. Whether you access the performances live or online, this year’s lineup appeals to all senses and sensibilities, invites everyone to embrace new and diverse horizons, and challenges us to think differently and to open our hearts and minds. eatre brings us back to our roots and also grounds us. It provides soul enriching experiences that create long lasting memories and bonds, fills our hearts with delight, provokes our thinking and challenges our assumptions. My short stay as Interim E.D. has been filled with hard work, delight, a profound sense of accomplishment and extraordinary respect for the individuals who serve this organization. Our Board, tirelessly reaches further and deeper into the organization to elevate it to new horizons. Our staff works relentlessly to accomplish the vision of the organization to bring theatre to everyone. Our volunteers rally with the organization to assist with providing you, our dear audience, with an experience like no other. And of course our donors and funders who have supported and continue to support the Fringe in its evolving journey. is year, we will continue to provide our audiences, artists, volunteers and staff with a safe Festival environment while we amp up the enjoyment and the sensory experience. e Fringe is transforming itself and along with that transformation, it looks to a future that is filled with diversity, hope, compassion, understanding, inclusivity, accessibility, abundance and joy. I want to welcome all of you back for a signature Fringe Festival that is daring in its boldness and mighty in its breadth. anks to all of you who make the Fringe a thriving hub of creativity and progress. Claudia Sjoberg

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, I would like to welcome you to the 2021 Fringe! We are very thrilled to have so many theatre companies and individual performers ready to share their talents and stories with live audiences again. We are also President very excited to have partnered Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society with Pippa Mackie and Omari Newton, two former Fringe artists, to design and lead our Opening and Closing nights. We are also very pleased to welcome Raven John, Deb Courchene, and Trickster Media to do a very special show on September 13th. Please come out and see some shows, chat with your neighbours, reconnect with friends and be part of the festive Fringey atmosphere. e past year has been challenging for virtually everyone involved in the arts, the Fringe included. We want to take the time to learn from these experiences and undertake a long term visioning exercise that includes everyone with an interest in the Fringe. With that in mind, we invite you to participate in our Fringe Engagement Project so you can do some storytelling of your own. Using Participatory Narrative Inquiry and working with Harvest Moon Consulting, we are asking you, our Fringe community, to share a single Fringe story with us by using this link: https://harvestmoonpni. com/wp-con-tent/plugins/narrafirma/webapp/survey. html#project=Vancouver%20Fringe&survey=Fringe%201.0

Whether you have been to one show or 50, are a volunteer, an artist, a donor, a staff member, or a friend of the festival, your stories are important to us and will help us shape the Fringe of the future. ank you for supporting eatre for Everyone.

Jai Djwa

As a IBPOC board member, performer in this year’s Fringe, and someone hard of hearing, I’m especially looking forward to the excitement of live theatre and cheering audiences. And let us hope that this year will be one full of cheer, as we welcome artists and audiences to one Member of the BC Arts Council Member of the Vancouver Fringe Board of our most diverse Fringes yet. is year, 38% of the shows are by or include IBPOC artists. is info is based on core creative teams and casts that include IBPOC folks. While we continue to work on getting our house in order and building our organization to be more inclusive and welcoming, I personally am also delighted that finally, theatre is back. Happy Fringing!

Lucy Eveleigh

I am so happy to write a welcome letter to the Vancouver Fringe community, who are lucky enough to be receiving an outdoor and indoor in person events, as well as some digital offerings. Despite the ongoing circumstances, the Vancouver Fringe team and their artists President Canadian Association of have come together to make this all possible. Fringe Festivals It has been such a difficult year for Fringe Festivals around the world and the Vancouver Fringe team has worked tirelessly to stay connected to its artists and patrons over that time. eir ability to produce a Festival both in person and digital is definitely something to celebrate. e Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) has over 30 member festivals across Canada and the USA and we exist as an organization to unite, support, empower, and strengthen our member festivals in order to cultivate and foster independent artistic exploration for artists and audiences across North America. CAFF has been taking the time over this last year to reflect upon what our organization is doing and can do for the theatre artists of the world and we want to thank you, the audience, who come out every year to support Fringe Festivals. Your support is integral to these artists. In these ever-changing times of a global pandemic, precarious funding, expensive living costs, and the day-to-day struggles many artists face, especially now, having people see their work is more crucial than ever before. So please take the time to get safely involved, however you can, you are ambassadors for these artists, and your support has a meaningful effect on their careers. ank you for joining us in this global movement of the FRINGE! Happy Fringing! Sae-Hoon Stan Chung

Welcome to the 2021 Vancouver Fringe Festival! e theme of renewal in this year’s festival is a testament to the resiliency of the arts, as we collectively re-imagine what it means to connect with each other in ways we couldn’t have imagined just over a year ago. Chair So much of the Fringe BC Arts Council experience is based on the energy and connection between audiences and performers; that sense of raw and immediate reaction to work that is o en new and almost always taking risks. You’re never sure what you’re going to get. It is heartening to see the festival program 15 in-person shows this year. It’s a sign of the Fringe spirit we know and love.

In addition to the live performances, the festival will feature two streaming shows and a dozen prerecorded performances. is decision to allow audiences to experience the Fringe both in-person and online underscores how the festival really is for everyone. On behalf of the BC Arts Council, I’d like to congratulate the organizers, the crews, and the volunteers who are making the festival happen in what are still unusual times. And to the artists and performers, we’re so glad to see you back on our stages again.

Kennedy Stewart

On behalf of the citizens of Vancouver and my colleagues on City Council, I want to congratulate the organizers of the 2021 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

e Vancouver Fringe eatre Society and its Festival has been a mainstay of our Vancouver community since 1983. As we emerge from a challenging year, the Fringe

Mayor City of Vancouver Festival emerges too for its 38th season! I am delighted to welcome the Fringe artists, the audiences and the partners who, year a er year, bring thousands together to ensure theatre for everyone. I am very proud of the contribution theatre and arts make to our City and look forward to many more years of expanding, inclusive and vivacious theatre. Happy 2021 Fringe Festival to everyone!