If you’re a playwright, there are all kinds of obstacles between you and a successful production: Budget, promotion and finding a venue, to name a few.
“Excuses not to do stuff [in theatre] are easy to find,” says Liz Nicholls, long-time theatre reviewer for the Edmonton Journal, “but the Fringe eliminates nearly all of them.”
She also points to what may be the most crucial advantage of all, a forgiving audience. “That’s a huge thing for a city’s theatre scene to have.”
David Belke, resident playwright for Shadow Theatre and a 23-year Fringe veteran, agrees. “I wouldn’t even be a playwright if it weren’t for the existence of the Fringe Festival.”
And it turns out that the ripple effect of this trifecta — a breeding ground for scripts, a safety net for risk-taking and an audience eager to celebrate both — are felt throughout Edmonton’s theatre season, too — long after the Fringe packs up towards the end of August.
Some rising stars who have built their profiles on the Fringe circuit are able to parlay that success into bigger venues.
That’s certainly the case for Collin Doyle, whose prize-winning new comedy Let the Light of Day Through plays at Theatre Network starting in April.
Then there are the playwrights, like Stewart Lemoine of Teatro la Quindicina or Belke, who reward their fan bases with polished new shows pretty much every season.
“In most parts of North America, putting on a new show is considered a risk,” says Belke, whose historical romp Flight of the Viscount debuts in May. “But in Edmonton, audiences embrace new work. Playwrights actually develop followings in this city. That is hugely unusual.
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