Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival

Primarily held in venues in Winnipeg's historic Exchange District, it currently ranks as the second-largest independent fringe theatre festivals in North America. The festival is presented by Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, the only regional theatre in Canada to produce a fringe festival.

Overview

The festival has three key principles:

Festival is non-juried;
Artists have freedom to present whatever they want on stage; and
100% of the box office goes directly to the artists (though artists must pay a flat fee to enter).

Chuck McEwen, former director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, is the current executive producer, and has been in charge since 2008.

Winnipeg Fringe is modelled on the Edmonton Fringe Festival, providing several venues for performing companies; however, some companies arrange their own venues, which is more akin to the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Nonetheless, all venues have paid technicians and volunteer ticket sellers and ushers.

The festival's venues are centred in Winnipeg's historic Exchange District with the Old Market Square serving as the festival's outdoor hub. However, as the festival has grown, there have also been venues outside that district but still close to Winnipeg's downtown.

The performing companies at the festival are both local and from across Canada and around the world. For example, the 2005 festival featured performers from France, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa as well as across Canada and the United States.

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History

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival opened in 1988 by the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Canada's oldest regional theatre, with Larry Desrochers as the first Executive Producer.

In its first year, ticket sales were 14,000 across nine days of performances. That figure rose to 26,000 in 1989—year two of the festival. It climbed to 44,709 in 1999 and was more than 60,000 in 2001.

In 2008, Chuck McEwen, former director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, became executive producer of the festival.

Paid attendance briefly set a record high for North America in 2009 with 81,565 tickets sold, surpassing the previous record of 77,700 set at the 2006 Edmonton Fringe. (However, the Edmonton Fringe festival currently holds the North American record with 104,142 tickets sold in 2011.)

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre cancelled that year's Winnipeg Fringe Festival as a safety precaution. The 2020 festival was scheduled to take place from July 15 to 26. RMTC considered rescheduling the event to late summer or fall but ultimately decided to cancel the physical event. Instead, the RMTC offered free online programming from July 14 to 17 beginning at 7PM nightly. The online festival featured local, national, and international programming including performances from Mike Delamont, Frances Koncan, the Coldhearts, Outside Joke, and Anjali Sandhu. Online festival programming was streamed on YouTube and Facebook.

The festival returned from a two-year hiatus from live performances in 2022.

In 2023, the Fringe introduced a pay-what-you-can model for the five shows presented at the Kids Venue at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People in "an effort to make the festival more affordable for families." That model continued into 2024.

Annual theme

The festival has a different theme each year. Some previous themes have been "the F word" (meaning "fringe"), and James Bond.

In 2010, the theme was The Big Top, referring to circuses, with a giant, helium-filled balloon floating above Old Market Square. In 2012, for the 25th anniversary edition of the festival, there was no theme as organizers just "wanted people to get their fringe on." In 2014, the theme was "We like when you watch."

The theme in 2015 was "We're all <blank> here," where the blank was filled in variously. On the program, it was "mad," but on the website for volunteers it was "friends."

The theme in 2024 was "Gone Fringin': Venture into Our Neck of the Woods."

Attendance and ticket revenue

Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award

The Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival was established by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights to recognize the best play written by a Manitoban and performed at the festival. The award was named in memory of Harry Rintoul, a noted playwright from Winnipeg who died in 2002.

List of laureates

2002: Kevin Klassen, Aftertaste
2003: Joseph Aragon, The Unlikely Sainthood of Madeline McKay
2004: Daniel Thau-Eleff, Three Ring Circus: Israel, the Palestinians and My Jewish Identity
2005: Jason Neufeld, The Rise and Fall of Bloody Redemption
2006: Stefanie Wiens, Max and Mirabelle
2007: Ross McMillan, The Ingrates
2008: Daniel Thau-Eleff, Remember the Night
2009: Joseph Aragon, Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare
2010: Muriel Hogue, Scar Tissue
2011: Jessy Ardern and Ariel Levine, Sigurd the Dragonslayer
2012: Scott Douglas, The Touring Test
2013: Jessy Ardern and Ariel Levine, The Hound of Ulster
2014: Bill Pats, Executing Justice
2015: Sydney Hayduk and Justin Otto, Manic Pixie Dream Girl
2016: Frances Koncan, zahgidiwin/love
2017: Wren Brian, Anomie
2018: Walk & Talk Theatre Company, The Ballad of Johnny Boy
2019: Connor Joseph, Cuinn Joseph, and Jacob Herd, The Cause
2022: Sarah Flynn, Whatever Happens After?
2023: Cuinn Joseph, Connor Joseph, and Monique Gauthier, World's Fair 1876: The Centennial Exposition.
2024: Kinsey Donald, A taste of blood in the mouth