Winnipeg Fringe Festival back in live action after pandemic pause

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival is finally back in person again after moving online for two years because of the pandemic, bringing with it everything fringers have been missing — plus a few changes.

That means along with over 100 shows, there are buskers and bands on the Old Market Square free stage and a free kids' activities area — moved this year away from the Old Market Square area to Stephen Juba Park on Waterfront Drive — said Fringe Fest executive producer Chuck McEwen.

Other changes this year include a few new venues organizers had to scramble to find after some of the regular sites from past years were unavailable — either because they were undergoing renovations or not yet open to the public when the festival, which opened Wednesday, was in the planning stages months ago, McEwen said.

So if you find yourself at Portage Place Shopping Centre, for example, you'll see two vacant storefronts that have been temporarily converted into theatre spaces.

"We're not a stranger to building theatres in unusual locations. We've done it before: art galleries, storefronts, retail locations," McEwen said.

Portage Place was already home to two longstanding Fringe venues on its third floor — the Prairie Theatre Exchange mainstage space and its smaller Colin Jackson Studio.

But with finding new spaces, "there's challenges regarding, you know, is there enough power for all the lighting equipment and is there access to washrooms and is it wheelchair accessible? So all those factors go into whether we can decide to make a space a main Fringe venue," said McEwen.

"The mall ticked off all those boxes and they were willing to let us rent them from them."

It took about two-and-a-half weeks to set up those spaces, he said, which were ready just in time for the opening of shows like Ingrid Garner's.

The Los Angeles-based performer is returning with her show Eleanor's Story: An American Girl In Hitler's Germany, which previously ran at both the 2015 and 2016 Winnipeg festivals.

The one-woman show, based on her grandmother's memoir detailing her youth as an American caught in Germany during the Second World War, is running in a new space on the second floor of Portage Place, near the mall's fountain.

She opened her latest run there on Thursday night.

"The show went really well. It was a very generous audience. There was, I think it was about 30 people in, and I got a standing ovation," Garner said Friday.

"We're all a little bit cautious coming out of the pandemic — a little bit less energy. But I think things are starting to ramp up and [we're] just so happy to see each other after years."

Winnipeg fest a favourite for touring acts: performers

There are a few other changes audiences will find at this year's festival, McEwen said, including the fact that all tickets for shows are available in advance. Previously, a percentage of tickets were held to be sold at the door.

Door tickets will still be available, provided the show doesn't sell out in advance, McEwen said. The festival updates its website regularly with information on which performances are sold out. Door sales are cash only, and people under 25 can get discounted $10 door tickets (regular admission is $12).

The number of shows at this year's festival is also down from its pre-pandemic editions. The festival peaked at 186 shows in 2017 and had 178 in 2019.

This year, there are 112 different shows at 24 venues — most centred around the Exchange District, but extending past that to locations like the Gas Station Arts Centre in Osborne Village and Cercle Molière in St. Boniface.

In 2020, artists were selected through the festival's lottery system before it cancelled in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, moving instead to virtual performances. Their spots were held over until 2021, but that festival was also virtual, so they were once more deferred to this year.

"Over the two years, some of them dropped," said McEwen.

Ingrid Hansen, whose surreal hand puppet show Epidermis Circus is running at Colin Jackson Studio, is among the performers back for this year's festival. She said she couldn't wait to finally return.

"It's a meeting place…. We've been craving it for the last two years," said Hansen, a Winnipeg Fringe veteran who has performed in past Fringe hits like The Merkin Sisters.

Her new show is described in the festival program as "a bawdy puppetry cabaret, where the guests are different parts of the human body."

"It's a dang good time," Hansen told host Faith Fundal in a Wednesday interview on CBC's Up To Speed. "It's also a celebration of the human body and just the weird and absurd fact that we're actually alive and functioning."

Both Hansen and Garner say the annual festival in Winnipeg, which has been running since 1988 and is now the second-largest in the North American circuit of independent fringe theatre festivals, is one performers look forward to.

"It's the friendliest fringe, for sure," said Hansen. "People, all the audiences, they want to talk to you. Like, 'Tell me about your show! What is it?'"

Garner says performers "around the world talk about Winnipeg fringe with the utmost beloved energy."

"It's most people's favourite fringe in the world," she said.

"It was actually my first fringe, before I even started performing. I attended Winnipeg Fringe in 2013 and absolutely fell in love. And it's what made me want to do fringe festivals."

Winnipegger finds comedy in neurodiversity

This year's festival also includes local artists like Adam Schwartz, who is producing Adam's Neurohilarity, a comedy show featuring a rotating lineup of neurodiverse comics ranging "from seasoned veterans and Fringe favourites to brand-new comics," the show's program description promises.

Schwartz, whose show runs at Manitoba Theatre for Young People at The Forks, said getting into comedy for him was a way to come to terms with his autism.

"I started getting laughs, and the more I started writing about being socially awkward, the more I started coming to terms with my disability," he told Up to Speed guest host Keisha Paul on Thursday.

"[Autistic people are] also already used to monologuing and giving long speeches, hoping that people will be listening. We usually call those 'info dumps,' where we just share all of our thoughts at once, which is essentially what comedy is."

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival runs until July 24.