what's a fringe?
Fringe Theatre Festivals come in all shapes and sizes.
They're always hugely eclectic - covering a great variety of styles and embracing performers with widely differing levels of experience. You might see student companies, seasoned professionals, vastly experienced amateurs; you might catch a startling debut, somebody with bags of experience working outside their comfort zone; you could be in for a night of stand-up, an afternoon of intense tragedy or an evening of musical satire - with every shade and gradation in between.
That's what Fringe Theatre Festivals have in common.
But in other ways they differ widely.
Edinburgh is the oldest and largest Fringe Festival. It is a 'fringe' of the official Edinburgh Festival. Brighton Fringe Festival is a relative newcomer but that also is a 'fringe' to the official Brighton Festival.
In Canada, however, a substantial number of Fringe Theatre Festivals have established themselves over the last 25 years or so that are not 'fringes' to other official Festivals but are the Festival in their own right. 'Fringe' has become a term to describe the nature of the work and the circumstances in which it is produced rather than a description of a relationship to an official festival.
The North Devon Fringe Theatre Festival is a part of the North Devon Festival. But in structural terms it looks towards the Canadian way of organising things. The Canadian Fringe Theatre Festivals share a number of features that we see as models of good practice and which we aim to adopt.
At heart is the notion of a level playing-field. Amateur, professional, experienced or a debutante, everybody gets the same basic package. The Fringe organisation provides and staffs the venue(s), time-tables the events and sets universal ticket prices. And each company keeps 100% of their box-office take.
Most UK fringe organisations essentially act as a co-ordinating body. They don't provide venues or technicians; they don't time-table; they don't set-prices. This can lead to something of a free-for-all often leaving performers badly out of pocket whilst the venues do rather nicely. The Canadian model sees everyone shelling out the same expenses to participate - so the net profit is entirely dependent on how well the show sells.
The 2007 North Devon Fringe Theatre Festival was tiny - 16 performances of 8 different shows over 3 days. It was a beginning, not an end. But we successfully lit the touch paper and future years could well go with a bang. There's a lot of theatre activity in the South West for which such a festival could be the focal point. And we could also become part of a national - hopefully, international - summer Fringe Theatre Festival circuit, again on the Canadian model.
So after the relative quiet of Fringeo7 we look forward to a growing frenzy in years to come.
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