Play the Game of Fringe!

***** “Lip Service is a loud and proud celebration of female sexuality starring two of the most gifted and funny physical performers at the Fringe.” –CBC

Don’t want to take a Risk? Need a Clue? See 40 previews at the Opening Night featuring the Georgia Straight Fringe-For-All! On Wednesday, September 5—the day before the Festival—the Fringe-For-All helps you decide which shows are Snakes and Ladders before you Tetris your Festival together.

The Fringe is comprised of un-juried, un-censored productions that are literally drawn from a hat or chosen on a first come, first served basis! This means the theatre you see at the Fringe is filled with emerging artists and seasoned veterans in traditional and experimental work alike.

The Festival is centred on Granville Island, but venues extend across the city to The Cultch, the Firehall Arts Centre, Havana, and beyond—and site-specific shows use unusual locations on and off Granville Island too!

Tickets are now on sale and are $15. Half-Price tickets will be offered to select performances. Frequent Fringer Cards offer a great value and limited quantities are available for four, 10, or 30 performances. Tickets and Frequent Fringer Cards can be purchased at vancouverfringe.com or at the Fringe Box Office, located at 1398 Cartwright Street on Granville Island. The Fringe Box Office is physically open from Sept. 4 through to the end of the Festival on Sept. 16.

A polyamorous bisexual poet meets a monogamous lesbian songwriter at Cafe Deux Soleil–they struggle to reconcile their fierce mutual attraction with their opposing perspectives on love in Poly Queer Love Ballad.

Dancing Vulvas, Aliens, Magic Shows, Surveillance, and much, much more!

Drawing shows from a hat makes for a mix of emerging and veteran artists and a wide variety of shows. Play the game of Fringe and have fun while experiencing the variety. Explore, sex, love and lust with Red Bastard’s “bacchanal buffet” (Broadway Baby) of a show, Lie With Me—and if you’ve ever wondered how clowns do it, Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman, Queer Clown Sex-Ed Show just might have the answer. Looking for something more “nourishing and traditional” (Winnipeg Free Press), Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land is “First Nations storytelling at its finest” (CBC). Theatre in London calls Awkward Hug, Corey Thibert’s story of growing up as the child of parents with disabilities as “beautifully crafted, with ebbs and flow between humour and heartache.” Diana Bang, known for playing Park Sook-yin in Seth Rogan’s The Interview, brings two shows to the Vancouver Fringe: SELF-ish, “a story about immigrant parents and their Canadian-raised daughter … A relationship that is often full of high hopes and equal amounts of disappointment” (Mooney on Theatre), as well as being one quarter of the comedy team, The Lady Show. The ultimate manly musical, Die Hard: The Musical-ish, comes to the Fringe from District 13 Presents, the creators of Hunger Games: The Musical Trilogy. All this plus interrogations, boxing shrews, Scientology, vampires, Alzheimer’s, beer history, flamenco dancing, and more. Visit vancouverfringe.com for full listings.

“Songs like Paid a Million Dollars keep a trueness to that ska punk Vancouver thing, great sound and anxiety about homeownership.” –Dropout Entertainment on Kitty and the Rooster

The Phillips Fringe Bar

There’s no cover at the Phillips Fringe Bar! Leisure Club, who have “perfected larger-than-life beach vibes” (BeatRoute) kicks off 11 days of live music on Sept. 6. Frankiie’s “unapologetically feminine folk-pop” (Exclaim) takes the stage Sept. 8 while “one of Western Canada’s best underground roots acts” (BeatRoute), The Sumner Brothers is on Sept. 9. “Hometown funk and soul queen” (the Georgia Straight) Dawn Pemberton will get you moving on Sept. 13. And Kitty and the Rooster will be promoting their brand new album with their “retro-spectacular sound” (the Georgia Straight) on Sept. 14. And yes, the Phillips Fringe Bar is all ages! Visit VancouverFringe.com/fringe-bar for a full lineup of this 11-day free music festival within the Fringe.

Workshops for Artists & Aspiring Artists

Unleashing You Inner Storyteller with Josh Languedoc: Playwright/storyteller/improviser Josh Languedoc (Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land) will give special attention to your own stories and culture as he takes you through how to access your inner storyteller on Tuesday, Sept. 11. $10.
Inclusive Hiring and Casting Practices in Theatre: Join Rohit Chokhani (Project SAT {South Asian Theatre}), Marisa Emma Smith (Alley Theatre), Mily Mumford (Nebula Company Theatre), Raes Calvert (Hardline Productions), and Susanna Uchatius (Theatre Terrific) to hear how they’ve found success, and how they’ve learned from their mistakes in creating diverse, inclusive, and equitable teams. Wednesday, Sept. 12. Free.
New(to)Town Collective Training Jam: Embodied Awareness: This class will focus on “Embodied Awareness,” playing with exercises, and utilizing one’s awareness in relation to performance and daily life. Thursday, Sept. 13. $10-15 sliding scale.
Musical Improv: Veteran musical improvisers Jennifer Pielak and Peter Abando (Inside Voices: A Musical In The Key of P) will lead a series of exercises, musical games, and improvised musical scene work, to introduce you to the world of musical improvisation. Friday, Sept. 14. $48.

To register for the Unleashing Your Inner Storyteller with Josh Languedoc, New(to)Town Collective Training Jam: Embodied Awareness, and/or the Musical Improv workshops, visit vancouverfringe.com/workshops. To attend the Inclusive Hiring and Casting Practices in Theatre discussion, please RSVP to artist@nullvancouverfringe.com.

Fringe Awards and Closing Night Party: September 16

The Public Market Pick of the Fringe Awards will be announced as well as the Cultchivating the Fringe Award, the Joanna Maratta Award, the BC Touring Council Award, and the Artistic Risk Award—all of which help emerging artists take their work to the next level. The Awards will be held at Performance Works with an after-party at the Phillips Fringe Bar.

Nominated ‘Best Physical Piece’ by the SKAMpede Young Company, Isabelle Kirouac and Nayana Fielkov’s Habitats follows a woman and a mysterious white hare through time to an unknown world.

Public Market Pick of the Fringe
and Pick Plus: September 20-24

Presented by the Granville Island Public Market, the Pick is the last chance to see the hottest shows of the Festival. Tickets go on sale following the Fringe Awards Night on Sept. 16, where they’ll be announced.

The Fringe will also host the Pick Plus—hits from years past and shows we just can’t wait to see. A tribute to CBC’s Stuart McLean, 2017’s Fringe hit, 50 Shades of Dave, is reimagined as 50 Shades of Vinyl—A Canadian Parody, on Sept. 19. Reminiscent of Fellini and Lewis Carroll, Habitats is sure to entrance audiences of all ages on Sept. 20. Selected as a New York Times Critics’ Pick, Basic Training tells Kahlil Ashanti’s true-life story of joining the Air Force immediately after learning a family secret, on Sept. 21. And make sure to catch perennial Fringe favourite, The Birdmann, on what could be his last tour in Canada in The Birdmann FINALE on Sept. 21. Visit vancouverfringe.com/pickplus for full details. Pick Plus tickets are on sale now. Partial proceeds from the Pick and Pick Plus shows go to support the Vancouver Fringe Festival and the shows take place at Performance Works on Granville Island.

To see everything the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival has to offer, visit vancouverfringe.com or pick up a program guide at select Blenz Coffee locations. See you at the Fringe!