05.27.08
TJ Dawe’s Fringe Moment
TJ Dawe tells us about the moment when he fell in love with Fringe Feativals.
Archive for Canada
08.28.07
Charles Ross on GETV
Geek Entertainment TV is an Internet TV show that follows geek culture, and I would say particularly the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Still, when a talented guy like Charles Ross comes to San Francisco with One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, the geeks pay attention.
You can tell Charles and TJ Dawe are friends. They have exactly the same accent. Don’t believe me? Listen for yourself.
07.19.07
Juried vs. Non-Juried
There’s a conversation about to get started on Beth Marshall’s MySpace about juried vs. non-juried festivals. She quotes and article from the Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) newspaper. Here’s a bit of it:
In Edinburgh, venuemanagers choose their plays. Professional work, which deserves a wider audience,debuts at the festival. Producers and talent scouts swarm the city, expecting andenjoying a certain level of quality.By contrast, the lottery system that has sustained and nurtured festivals throughoutNorth America contains a flaw that will always curtail growth. Truly challenging andtruly brave theatrical art drowns in a sea of amateurism. Edmonton’s most talentedwriters, directors and performers launched their careers at the festival, using it asan opportunity to learn and grow, but it’s hardly a destination for the country’s — oreven the city’s — best players. Some nights, sitting with two other people in Acacia Hall, as an accountant stumbles through a series of cliches about his cat, thedarkness of divorce and globalism, the Brave Fringer can’t help but wonder:
Shouldn’t I be watching a real play, or sleeping in my bed?
Surely Mayne and his colleagues know this, but the Fringe needs better plays, notbetter access to tickets, for a genuine breakthrough. And the only way to ensurequality is to circumvent the lottery system, partially at first, with juried venues.
