Episode 17 - Behind the Scenes of the Edmonton Fringe Festival - In Process

Episode Transcript
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ANDRÉS (00:23):

This is our podcast highlightingthe festivals in our city and
most importantly, the amazingartists behind those festivals.
Today I have none other thanFringe Festival and of course,
Murray Utas and Megan Dart.
Welcome.

MEGAN: (00:43):
Thank you.

ANDRÉS (00:45):

our audience, kind of like who you are,how that led you to becoming an artist,
and then eventually how that led youto working here for Fringe Festival.

MEGAN: (00:56):
My name is, is Megan Dart.
My pronouns are she/her.
Uh, it is my absolute, uh, joy andhonor to serve our community as the
Executive Director with Fringe Theatre.
Um, we'll start there.

MURRAY: (01:08):
Okay.
I love that.
Uh, hi, my name is, uh, Murray Utasand, uh, my pronouns are he/him.
And I'm the ArtisticDirector with Fringe Theatre.
And it's, um, there's so much in itthat is, it's full of joy, it moves
really quickly, but it is trulyhumbling to, um, be a part of it.

ANDRÉS (01:32):

MEGAN: (01:34):
I have been around Fringe for more than half my life,
which is a wild realization.

ANDRÉS (01:41):

MEGAN: (01:42):
Um, but it was one of the first things I did as a
patron when I moved to the city.
I came here, uh, in 2002, uh, to goto school and, uh, you know, of course
Fringe is like part of your stapleintroduction to summer in, in Edmonton,
and I attended that year as a patron andI came back the next year as a volunteer.

(02:03):
Uh, and I have been, uh, I was a reviewerfor a number of years, so I worked with
Vue Weekly rest in peace as a reviewer.
I got to review a lot of the touringshows that came through town during
festival, and that was back in the daywhen we would review all 200 plus shows
in the opening weekend of the festival.
So I would often see like 50 showsbetween opening on Thursday and Sunday

(02:24):
night and write my reviews furiouslyin the beer tent in between shows.
Uh, but it was such a fun way to seethe festival 'cause I was seeing work
that I likely wouldn't have, chosenfor myself, um, which was amazing.
And then I was an artist.
I was a producer.
I started with the team as a contractorand then fell into a full time role here.
Uh, I served in the communicationsdepartment at Fringe for six years.

(02:47):
Uh, and then when, when Adam Mitchell,our previous executive director made
the decision to move on, I had theopportunity to step into the interim E.D.
Role at a very wild time.
It was, you know, in the middleof the pandemic, um, but I, I am
so grateful for the opportunity.
Adam and I had a reallylong runway together.

(03:08):
I was here for most of his tenure as ED.
So, um, got to talk a lot about theculture and the philosophy and why
we do things the way we do and, uh,knew the team really well, uh, when I
interviewed with the board for the EDjob the first question they asked me
was, why, why do you want this job?
Why do you want to be here?
And I said the team and thenimmediately broke, burst into tears.
And that was how my interview started.

(03:30):
Um, uh, because the folks whowork here are just so incredible.
They bring such skill andpassion and drive and ingenuity.
And, um, this is such a yes place.
Uh, and so I think that's, I don't know,I've never worked in a place that is so,
creatively inspired all the time andso willing to take giant creative risks

(03:53):
and leaps together and genuinely caresabout building community like that's
that's a pretty incredible thing.
So that's my Fringe journey.

ANDRÉS (04:02):

Can we talk a little bit about like youroriginal journey to becoming an artist?

MEGAN: (04:08):
Yeah,

ANDRÉS (04:09):

MEGAN: (04:10):
Oh, man Uh, I became an artist by accident.

ANDRÉS (04:13):

MEGAN: (04:14):
Like, kind of.
Um, art has always beenpart of my, my life.
Uh, I grew up in a very creative householdwhere storytelling and music and, and
visual arts and dance and all of thosethings were part of our every day.
Um, but I went to school firstto be a teacher, uh, and realized
that that was maybe not my callingand then, um, actually took my,

(04:35):
my degree in communications andprofessional writing at Grant Macewan.
I graduated from that.
I was working for an industryassociation, uh, was doing some
national lobbying at the time.
Uh, my sister Beth was at the U of Ataking her stage management degree.
And as part of the completion of herdegree, had to come up with, uh, It

(04:55):
normally was a paper, but if you'vemet my sister, you know that she
like refuses to do the bare minimum.
And so we, um, pretentiously agreedthat together we were going to
stage what we called the revolution.
Uh, and it was this really ambitiousproject where we, uh, I wrote a play.
It was the first play I'd ever written.
She called me, I was on a plane cominghome from Ottawa from a hearing.

(05:17):
And she was like, uh, so the timelineof the project has been bumped up.
We, we got to put this up, uh,in the Second Playing Space at.
You know, the U in January and itwas like November and she was like,
so we need a script next week.
And I was like, got it.
Um, so I wrote the first drafted scripton the plane ride home that day and
I had never written theater before.

(05:38):
Um, but we put this beautifulproject on its feet.
It was like an artistic game oftelephone where, the script took place
in one playing space, and we had alive camera feed on that performance.
And this was like before theTimm's, there was no Wi Fi, we
had to build our own network.
It was ridiculous.
Um, we didn't know what we were doing,uh, but that video feed went into a

(06:00):
Second Playing Space where we had agroup of musicians who watched the
visuals from the show in live timeand jammed a soundtrack to the show.
And then that music was pumped into the.
third space where we had a groupof visual artists who listened to
the music and painted in live time.
And then the visual of that artbeing created went back into the
theater and was projected above,uh, the, the actors on stage.

(06:22):
Um, and I remember sitting in thebooth and Beth and I were like holding
hands, uh, and we were like, I don't,we don't know if this is going to work.
The camera feed started andthe show started and we were
all, um, but it was sold out.
It was one night only like standingroom only and in the space and folks
could sort of travel between the spaces.
And, um, yeah, it was afterthat that we were both like,

(06:42):
Oh no, we gotta do this now.
And so that year we formed Catch the Keys.
We did the very first DeadCenter of Town that year.
Um, we were using, we werecreating theater that we didn't
have language for at the time.
At that point in time, wehadn't heard the terms immersive
theater or site specific theater.
Um, no one was talking to us aboutsort of like challenging that

(07:05):
artist audience relationship.
Um, and of course that work was beingmade elsewhere, but we just weren't,
you know, we were just babies.
We were like figuring it out.
Um, but yeah, that's wheremy artistic path started.
And then, and then I had things likeNextfest come along and Expanse and
the Chinook series and Skirtsafire andall of these other really incredible

(07:27):
opportunities that just continue to.
Uh, help me hone my skills and, and liftme up as an artist and administrator.
And, um, yeah, it's beena really joyous journey.

ANDRÉS (07:39):

Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah.
What about you, Murray?

MURRAY: (07:43):
Yeah, for sure.
Um.
The one thing that, that I share withMegan was that idea of, um, how you kind
of stumble into some things sometimes.
And there was forces that, uh, uh,were kind of like thinking that
maybe art wasn't the journey for me.
But in 1989, as I was trying to figureout what, what and how and all of

(08:08):
that that was going to go on, I fellupon, um, Edmonton and then it was in
August and then I walked up to thiswild thing that was happening and I
literally just got like tractor beamedin and I looked around but what is this?
And then I'm in a show where thesetwo clowns come up and they're just

(08:30):
doing nothing but speaking gibberishand I'm like Oh, you're amazing.
Like, who are you?
Like, what is actually happening?
I don't even know what isgoing on in this place.
And it's like, I need tohang out here for a bit.
And I didn't have very much time.
So I think I only stayed for, uh, anevening, but I, I probably couldn't, I
probably had to go even when I arrivedand I was like, no, I'm at least
staying until the sun goes down and Ihad just the best time that group, by

(08:53):
the way, it was their first time here.
And that group just happenedto be Mump and Smoot.

ANDRÉS (08:57):

MURRAY: (08:58):
Yes.
It was their first time inEdmonton, it was actually
their first year of performing.
They had almost burned downToronto before coming over.
Like, literally, you shouldask Mike that story one time.
It's hilarious, but they camehere and it was so amazing.
They were in a van, uh, um, backedin the backstage parking lot.
They were parked there, puttingon their makeup, sleeping in

(09:20):
the van, all sweaty and stuff.
And Judy Lawrence, who was the festivaldirector at the time, comes running by.
And there was this big lineup, uh,outside of, um, the old, what is now the
Old Strathcourt Performing Arts Centre.
At the time, Cosmopolitan Music Society.
And they jump out of the vanlike, Hey, what, what is this?
And she looks at me like, That'syour lineup for your show.
They're like, how do theyeven know who we are?

(09:41):
And I'm actually going to it too.
And they're like, Oh, okay.
And that was it.
They had no expectation of thatthere was going to be people.
And that sort of moment of it beinglike, special was one of the defining
moments that turned the corner for me.
I performed for the first timeafter I graduated theater school.

(10:01):
I came back to Edmonton.
I'm not from here.
I came back to Edmonton in 94 andI performed at the Walterdale.
Um, in a show.
Uh, oh my gosh.
What was that show called?
The Narrows.
And it was like, uh, itwas a triptonic thing.
I was in one of theepisodes, Dale's Garage.

(10:22):
So I was in, um, a set of coveralls and Iplayed this mechanic, small town mechanic.
And, uh, it was like a funlittle journey that Chauncey
Featherstone had sort of written.
And, and, being a part of it, but also,you know, when you're an actor, you got
to, what's, what do you do for a living?
I was working for Laidlaw atthe time who had the contract
for the port a potties here.

(10:43):
And so not only was I in a showwhere I work coveralls, I was
also the human that was droppingoff all the port-a-potties here.
And I remember coming out asa worker, putting it in there.
And two, um, humans had come up to me andsaid, Oh my gosh, you were in that show.
And I just kind of covered upthe Laidlaw part of my coveralls.
And I was like, so.
That journey then led to99 to pulling me here.

(11:04):
And then once I arrived here in 99 andEdmonton just kept me, I started to go
through a journey, but each one of thoseyears, I made sure I cleared a schedule to
be a part of the Edmonton Fringe Festivalbecause there's just nothing as special as
that ability to be unencumbered, you know?

(11:26):
And I picked this way.
Not a financial model, everybody.
Don't do it my way.
I went, what's the weirdestthing I could be in, right?
Who are the humans that I can workwith and how am I going to do it?
So I would entertain the most bizarrescripts and be like, yes, let's do it.

(11:47):
And it always had its same formula.
The first two shows.
Be kind of like, in some ways, andthen all of a sudden the buzz would
get around about, there's this weirdshow, you gotta go see everybody.
And then we'd start, we'dstart filling up by the end.
But it was just, I, I never looked atFringe from a monetary perspective.
I always thought of it as community.

(12:08):
I thought of it as aplace just to celebrate.
That interaction between, andit's instantaneous between
an artist and the audience.
That's, I think, whatmakes Fringe special.
It's so immediate and everybody feels it.
They feel that energy.
You get in it and you just go.

(12:29):
So, yeah, that's, that's Fringe for me.
Then the journey of, of getting tobe, I never was going to be someone
who was a part of a, I was an actor.
Then I became a director.
Now you want me to run a company?
What?
No.
I don't want to do that.
Alright, well I'll do it untilyou find somebody you want.
And then what?
They're setting down a dance program?
I don't know.
Let's create a movementarts festival then.

(12:50):
Let's do that.
Nextfest, what the heck do you want?
Right?
And then, and then Fringe came knocking.
And, uh, I just kept saying yes.
I had a great piece of advice froma mentor that said this to me.
He said, don't be 40,Murray, and chasing gigs.
And you're young, you're like, whatever.
You get in your mid thirties,you're like, oh, I think I'm

(13:11):
starting to see what you mean.
Yeah, that's how I got here.

ANDRÉS (13:15):

I love this idea that Edmonton justkind of was like, here, you belong here.
Just, just chill.

MEGAN: (13:19):
Well, it did it to both of us.
Yeah.
Like, I came here not expecting to stay.
And then I spent summershere, and I was like, Whoa!
What?
This doesn't exist anywhere else.
And then you, you fall in love with thecommunity and then you meet incredible
people and then you realize thatthere's such a hotbed of, of creative
activity here and you can't imaginedoing what you do anywhere else.

(13:42):
It is, I don't know.
It is a tractor beam.

MURRAY: (13:45):
It is.

ANDRÉS (13:46):

MURRAY: (13:47):
And I have to say, as the artist, I got a gig, I gigged for
probably, I'm a very blessed human being.
As a, as an actor, I chased gigs.
I chased them very differently though.
I wasn't.
I wasn't much of the, of the Ahouse actor in that scenario.
I was, I ended up getting more, um,remote locations and really meeting
wonderful communities and doing reallygreat work, but it wasn't so much

(14:09):
in the, um, what people would like,you know, look at and say, Ooh, that
everybody recognizes that theater orrecognizes, you know, that company.
Um, but I would get a gighere once a year, right?
Workshop West PlaywrightsTheater or something like that.
I come into town and this is not a lie.
This is the absolute truth.
I would be walking in Gazebo Park,McIntyre Park, and this hippie would

(14:33):
appear on the other side, in a sarongand his sandals, and we'd be looking at
each other, and then he'd stop and we'dtalk to each other, and I would say to
him, you know, you're the first humanthat I see every time I come to Edmonton.
I don't know what that's about.
And he's like, uh, well,so what are you doing?
Right, and then we'd go our own way.
Another year would go by,come back, boom, same thing.

(14:55):
Third time through.
As we were walking away from each other,he stopped and he turned around and
said, Hey, how come you don't live here?
I'm like, I don't live anywhere.
And he's like, I used to live here.
And I'm like, huh.
That human, everybody's Steve Pirot.
And I moved here.
In 1999.

(15:16):
And then in 1999, when I came here, I'dhad a gig at a little theater company.
I don't know if you know, Azimuth theater.
I don't know if you've heard of it.

ANDRÉS (15:24):

MURRAY: (15:25):
Yeah.
I mean, it's a, it'sa pretty tiny company.

ANDRÉS (15:28):

Great multimedia stuff.

MURRAY: (15:32):
Um, and I sort of, I fell in love with that company.
I wanted to do whateverI could do to support it.
I was such a strong volunteer and,and everything that was going on.
And at the time that I was doing gigs,Steve Pirot was on the board of directors.
And then it was in 2001.
When, uh, um, space that we had,which we were above, uh, uh, uh, I

(15:53):
mean, let's call it a porn studio.
And, uh, it, uh, fire kind ofhappened accidentally, a fire
happened to burn that building down.
It's like interesting.
And so then they had to find a new placeand the general manager at the time did.
And, um, it was basically a garageattached to, um, uh, uh, uh, uh,

(16:14):
the figure they made clothes for,uh, professional figure skating and,
and amateur figure skating clubs.
Right, that's what, that's whattheir job, Blue Sky, that's what
it was called, Blue Sky Printing.
And they just had thisgarage space, right?
The story is that the owner madeit for his son who was kind of ran
around a little bit and he thoughthe just needed, here, I'll give you
something to be able to do and thenthe son took off to Europe and he's

(16:35):
like, okay, now I got to rent it out.
So when I went in, I was like, oh,this is going to become a theater.
Holy crow, this is great.
At the time, I was just an actor.
And then, and then the GM at thetime, Andy Laskewski, my main mentor,
He said to me, he said, Hey, Iwant you to book the tour for this
show that we're going to go on.
I'm like, what?
He said, I want you to book the tour.
I'm like, okay.

(16:55):
So my day started at 8am and he waslike, I want you to call in schools.
I'm like, yeah, I shouldn't becalling schools till after nine.
They got to have a coffee,let the kids get into all that
stuff, let the students get in.
And he's like, no, you'll be here.
I'm like, okay.
From 815 to nine, I drank coffee
everybody.
Cause then after nine, I'd call peoplecause then they were ready to talk to me.

ANDRÉS (17:12):

MURRAY: (17:12):
And so I ended up booking this.
Right.
And then he said to me, he goes,you know what else you can do?
You're going to be the roadmanager when you go on the road.
And then I of course asked thatquestion, am I going to get any
more money for all these roles?
He's like, no, no, you're not.
But maybe a little bit.
We'll talk.
One day, uh, as the, as the, um, hiscrew started to come in, he had a bunch
of friends that were really incredible,uh, carpenters and they came in and,

(17:35):
um, I was helping, uh, um, Clint oneday and Andy came in and he looked at
me goes, how do you know how to do that?
I said, do what?
He goes, you look likeyou're pretty handy.
I'm like, yeah, one of my first gigs wasbuilding houses and, uh, said I roofed and
he goes, Okay, you're gonna, you're gonnabook the shows from this time to this time
and then he get your coveralls, go inthere and start building, uh, the space.

(17:57):
And in the winter of 02, we opened upthe Living Room Playhouse and, uh, it
was so amazing to be a little bit ofthe staff now and, and, and in this
incredible space that when I lookedat it, I went, Oh, this is for the
artists because anyone could afford it.
It's like it's going to be thatbut y'all it was it was 14 by

(18:19):
20 nine and a half foot ceiling.
You could see the sparkle in thetechnician's eyes when they're in
the booth Intimate as intimate can be

MEGAN: (18:29):
Yeah, if you sat in the back row, which was what?
Two, maybe three deep

MURRAY: (18:32):
Third row.
If you were on the rightside you got the third row.

MEGAN: (18:36):
If you were above 5'7" you were absolutely hitting your head
on the grid.
It's like, it was just, youwere taking out a light.

MURRAY: (18:44):
Um, and the, and the inspiration too, was like Steve Pirot going to, um,
uh, Montreal, to MainLine Theatre, whichis actually the home for the Montreal
Fringe and, and, and, and fell in lovewith that space and kind of came back
with the idea of like, we've got a LivingRoom Playhouse, you know, as life would
go from that moment, um, Um, I've gotthis background where I almost became

(19:09):
a chartered accountant of all things.
Talk about a real

ANDRÉS (19:14):

gonna say
that was a bit of a

MEGAN: (19:18):
woo!
We Um Okay, hold on.
I just need to interject for a secbecause we joke often around Fringe
that somewhere in the building isa pegboard with like the red string
the way that detectives do in

ANDRÉS (19:28):

MEGAN: (19:30):
Where we are trying to put Murray's timeline together, because
there are a lot of left turns that And,and he'll surprise us every so often.
like And then every so often he'llbe like, and then that one time
I was driving truck for whatever.
And
you're like when did that happen?

MURRAY: (19:45):
I think that's my famous, the thing I love the most
about hanging out with Megan.
We have been friends for such a lovelylong time, but there are times that I'll
tell a story and I never even heard that.
Um, Mrs.
Red, I need to go find Mrs.
Red.

(20:05):
Uh, she was the teacher thatchanged my whole trajectory in life.
When I was young and I wasalways in trouble, I was always
getting taken to the principal'soffice because I would act out.
But all I sensed waseverybody else's boredom.

ANDRÉS (20:16):

MURRAY: (20:16):
Right?
I'd be like, let me entertain y'all

ANDRÉS (20:18):

MURRAY: (20:19):
right?
Come on!
And she one day said,alright Murray, let's go.
And I'm like, oh, I'm in trouble again.
And took me into the gymnasium andwalked me up onto, uh, a stage.
And said to me, do you know what this is?
I'm like, is it a stage?
And you know what happens here?
I'm like, plays.
Yeah.
And you know how you're always in trouble?
I'm like, yeah.
She's like, not only would you not bein trouble, people would encourage it.
Hmm.

(20:40):
What, are you tricking me?
And from that moment,that's what I wanted to do.
But when I graduated, my parentshad, uh, uh, rest both their spirits,
and they're amazing human beings,but they're both Depression era.

ANDRÉS (20:52):

MURRAY: (20:52):
They, this road that I was about to undertake was just too much for them
to think that, oh, you're gonna do this.
And, and...
They're like, no, yougotta find something else.
And my accounting teacher in highschool came to me and said, Murray,
you have a gift for numbers.
You should go be an accountant.
I'm like, what?
He goes, no, you don't understand.
Go be a chartered accountant.

(21:13):
Then you're just like at a big office.
You'll make six figures.
And all you gotta do, like signchecks at the end of the month.
So where that may work with somepeople, I was like, that's actually...
Like, sentencing me to the worst possibleprofession I could ever think of.
But, I followed it, I went to theaterschool, got into corporate accounting,
changed my mind, finished with adifferent major, went right up to Peace

(21:37):
River, where I worked in that community.
Community theater groupthere called Peace Players.
On a Friday, I was literallydigging in the dirt.
I was a land assessor.

MEGAN: (21:44):
Yep.
Add that to the list.

ANDRÉS (21:47):

MURRAY: (21:48):
You gotta change majors, right?
But I wasn't going toget the business degree.
And I mean, we still got a point aboutwhy are you saying all this, Murray?

MEGAN: (21:54):
We're getting there

ANDRÉS (21:55):

still
in process.

MURRAY: (21:59):
Okay.
What the heck?

MEGAN: (22:01):
We're journeying.

MURRAY: (22:01):
We are totally journeying.
And I heard it come on the AM radio,the one AM radio station there,
which was my friend from my smalltown was actually the DJ there.
We could play whatever wewanted on Friday nights.
That's another side story.
Um, and I went to this audition andI walked in, the room just stopped.
These people were together for likeyears and I was definitely the outsider.
I was 21 at the time.

(22:23):
And oh, and I looked over to thedirector who had just moved there,
followed his partner from Toronto.
Uh, this director was actuallylike in theater for a long time.
We worked at the factory and a bunchof other companies in, uh, in T.
O.
And, and he said, who are you?
And I said, I'm Murray.
And he's like, come read for me.
I'm like, great.
And so I read and he's like,you sit down beside me.
You're staying with me.

(22:43):
You're going to read with everybody else.
Just stay here.
I was like, okay.
So I finished that night out, went home.
I w I wasn't even like in my own place.
I was living with one of mymanagers that I was working with.
And the next one I see this beat upNova going up and down the street.
And, uh, and I'm like,is that the director?
And all of a sudden he sees me, like, YOU!
He goes, comes in, hegoes, You're amazing!
Be in my show!
I was like, okay.
Uh, and it was, uh, Best ofNeil Simon's Plaza Suite.

(23:04):
It was a two hander.
Uh, again, it broke upinto, like, three parts.
The human I was, um, um, workingwith was, was in high school still.
Peace River, Alberta.
Sheldon Elter!
Peace River, Alberta.
As a, as a 21 year old single human,you don't have any dating potential.
Because they're either in the barlying to you that they are old

(23:26):
enough, or the wedding ring is off.
So you just go, I'm just not going todate anyone while I'm in Peace River.
Um, but this human, she was so good allthrough rehearsal, they got, like, just
started to clam up as we got to tech.
And as we're getting closerto opening, and I walk by.
Opening night, and I see green throughthe mirror, and I'm like, Are you okay?

(23:46):
And she shakes her head, no.
And I'm like, Have you thrown up?
And she shakes her head, yes.
And I said, Are yougoing to throw up again?
And she's like, Yes.
I said, You need tobreathe and drink water.
I'll see you out there.
The play starts with me doing thislittle lazzi around for a couple minutes
where I'm a small town, went to the bigcity, became a famous slick producer,
she stayed in a small town, had a bunchof babies, now we want to switch lives.

(24:08):
And we get to the show, and I dothat little lazzi, I slide across,
I whip the door open, I look on theother side, and she's on the other
side shaking her head, no, like, sheis not coming to be a part of it.
I'm like, oh no, it's justyou and I for 60 minutes.
So I...
Pull the human on stage, look atthem and say, you need a drink.
And make a drink, sitdown on the couch, Boom.
House is full.
There's 200 plus people in this theater.

(24:30):
And she's not saying anything.
And I'm like, Oh no!
What am I gonna do?
And I'm like, Well, my guy's kind of, youknow, he's a little bit of a player, so
I'm gonna, long hair, and I'm sniffing itout, and I whisper a line into her ear.
Back on.
And all of a sudden, ding, thelight goes on, said something.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, here we go.
Started rolling.
And then...
She gets really, really drunk,uh, throughout the thing.

(24:52):
And it's like, it's, she's doingthe best now that she's like hit
this, just stepped over that hurdle.
She's amazing.
She is like playing thebest drunk she's ever had.
And this whole, um, ending that thedirector had wanted was like, I woo her.
Uh, by, by telling who I wassitting with at the Academy Awards.
Alright, so I'm just like, do do do,and I sweep her off her feet, lay her
down, it's supposed to be this romanticlighting going down, as I'm laying her

(25:14):
down, and come to the end of it, and I'mgetting to the end of the names, and the
lights are still up full, and nothing'smoving, so I'm making names up now, and
the audience is starting to laugh, nowI'm into making up names of people that
have probably passed away, and, ah dada da da, and I'm like, somebody please
wake up, somebody, turn the lights off!
And nothing romantic, it wasactually about a, a fade.
Boom!
We go to black.

(25:34):
This human launches up andsaid, Murr, you saved my life.
Kisses me.
Lights come back up.
We walk out and the audienceleaps to their feet.
And I was like, this is what Ineed to do for the rest of my life.

ANDRÉS (25:45):

MURRAY: (25:46):
And that's how it happened.
And I changed, uh,directions in that moment.

ANDRÉS (25:50):

MURRAY: (25:53):
And Azimuth Theater.
And Azimuth Theater.
That's how Azimuth Theater

ANDRÉS (25:56):

MURRAY: (25:56):
The board found out that I had this business degree.
And that's why I wantedto be the GM of Az.
And I said, Nope.
I don't.
I said, but I'll lookafter it until you do.
And that was 2003.
And Kristi Hansen and VanessaSabourin, 2015 took it over.
Um, along that journey, Amber Borotsik,who's just the most incredible
human being, when they shut down theGrant Macewan Dance Program, we...

(26:20):
We used to sit on the carpet in the LivingRoom Playhouse and just jam out ideas.
And I'm like, how do we keep movers in?
I'm a physical theaterartist and a storyteller.
So how do we keep movers, how do wekeep dancers, choreographers in town?
She's like, why don't we start a festival?
Let's start a festival.
Yes, let's start a festival.
And we actually did it in thattiny little space for three years.
Expanse Movement Arts Festival was born.

(26:42):
Then some other venues camealong and we found a home for it.
And then that launched into Nextfest,which eventually then launched into
Fringe and that is how I got here.

ANDRÉS (26:54):

are like, let's start a festival, butthey actually do it like, you know,
people actually make the festivals here

MEGAN: (27:02):
A hundred percent.

ANDRÉS (27:03):

Um, and now talking about festivals,like let's move on to Fringe Festival.
Cause I would, I would arguably say thisis one of the city's biggest festivals.
Like I, I definitely look forward toit yearly, um, let's talk about it.
Do you want to tell us about fringeabout entering its 42nd year?

MEGAN: (27:18):
Let's do it.
Yeah.
Yes.
It is considered one of thecity's cornerstone events.
So we're one of the big four up therewith, you know, the Folk Festival
and Taste of Edmonton Heritage Days.
Um, but Edmonton is also a festival city.
There are, I don't think there's aweekend in the summer where there

(27:38):
isn't something happening in this city.
It's incredible.
Um, but this particular festival, thisbeautiful beast 42 years in the making
is, uh, North America's largest, longestrunning Fringe Theater festival, uh,
kickstarted by Brian Paisley in 1982.
He had like a 50, 000 check fromthe government to go do something.

(28:00):
Uh, and, and he did,and he sort of, it was
this DIY punk rock.
We're going to do what wecan with what we've got.
Uh, Whyte Avenue was a verydifferent neighborhood back then.
Fringe, I think, is one ofthe most beautiful examples
of arts as revitalization.
Um, but every year it just kind of kept.

(28:22):
Getting bigger and bigger.
And suddenly artists were travelingfrom all over the world to be
a part of it, and you know, it,it started as, as theater shows.
And then I think Brian realized thatthe outdoor site needed some love.

MURRAY: (28:34):
Yeah.
And what's so beautiful is Brian'slike, this is not gonna work.
That's what he thoughtin the first two years.
Like those empty spaces thatwere all over Whyte Avenue.
Let's put theater in them.
This is not gonna work.
And it did work.
And then he said, the next thinghe realized, when everybody
was milling, about in the park.
He's like, I gotta, I gotta have someother things to keep people around

(28:55):
while they're in between shows.

ANDRÉS (28:56):

MURRAY: (28:57):
And so he put that call out.
He said, oh, that's not going to work.
And he said, too manyartists showed up, man.
I just threw out a call and all theseartists showed up from all over the world.
And I was like, what is happening?
Oh my gosh.
And he just had to put them.
I couldn't say no, they're here.
So we did that.
And he said each and every time.
, no matter what we tried that wethought that wasn't gonna work.
It just,

MEGAN: (29:17):
it just kept going.

ANDRÉS (29:17):

MURRAY: (29:18):
It just kept going.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then he said in those early yearstoo, I would say very much like,
now you can't, so, so what is Fringe
? ANDRÉS: : Yeah, what is Fringe.
It's such a, a hard thing to actually define.
What it is, even though it is atheater festival, there is some
other magic that happens with it.
That's pretty

MEGAN: (29:38):
it's it's a I like to describe it as a creative collision
between artists and audiences.
It is the most immediate way as anartist to reach an audience because
you are sharing stories in, in smallintimate spaces, you're drinking
together in the beer garden, you arepassing each other on the site, you

(29:58):
are having meaningful conversation.
We have patrons who travel to thisfestival from all over the world to
support the artists who come here, whohave followed their entire careers,
um, and who are deeply invested.
They take, our audiencestake risks with our artists.
It is so exciting to see.
Um, artists be ableto, to experiment here.

(30:20):
Uh, we take a lot of pride as anorganization of being people's firsts.
You know, it's often a first production,a first performance, a first opportunity
for a lot of our audience members,the first time they're seeing theater.
Um, and there's just so much joy inthat that first and being able to, to
sort of like cultivate that connection.

(30:40):
But it's a hard thing.
We joke often that like, you know,when people are like, give me the
elevator pitch of what Fringe is.
And we're like, so it'sa freight elevator.
And you're going to the32nd floor seven times.
And then by the time we get back, youmight know what Fringe really means.

MURRAY: (30:54):
And the stories that are happening outside of the stories that
are being told inside, there are peoplewho have met, got together, got married.
There's children born, raised atthe Fringe and, and volunteers that
have volunteered from the beginningthat, that just the stories that
are created from the stories thatare also being told is beautiful.

(31:17):
There are technicians from behindthe scenes, their, their journey,
there's a whole life there.
It's almost like when we talk aboutwhat does a time capsule at 50
look like as we edge our way there.
How do we, how do we, like you could tell,a dozen different versions of someone's
story coming through this Fringe.

MEGAN: (31:35):
Yeah.
Well, and I think that's thebest thing is like, no one, no
two people Fringe the same way.

ANDRÉS (31:41):

MEGAN: (31:42):
Right.
Like everyone has a Fringeadventure that is specific to them.
Um, and you know, we'vegot like our amazing.
frequent Fringers who come with theirspreadsheets and their highlighters
and they're here at the break of dawnand ticket on sale day and they've
got it down to a science and theyschedule in their bathroom breaks and
like where they're going to eat at thefood trucks and, and they've, they've
just like, they've got it figured out.

(32:03):
And then you've got the folkswho walk in the door and they see
that big schedule and they go, isthere theater at this festival?
Yeah, man, there's theaterat this beer festival.
Um, and you convertthem, you convert them.
And I think that has hada cascading effect on.
on theater in Edmonton.
You know, like we have moreindie producers in this

(32:24):
city than most cities do.
I argue maybe any city in Canada.
Yeah.
Um, we have really strong postsecondary programs that, that live here.
We, um, recently did an interviewwith Kate Ryan, who was talking
about how her father, TimRyan, started the Grant MacEwan
Theater Program with the Fringe.

(32:44):
Like he brought his students here tocreate theater and it was a vehicle
for sort of cultivating opportunityfor learning and sharing and

MURRAY: (32:52):
Shadow Theater.

MEGAN: (32:53):
Yeah.
Teatro

MURRAY: (32:54):
Teatro La Quindicina.

MEGAN: (32:56):
Guys in Disguise,

MURRAY: (32:57):
Guys in Disguise, companies that were born that became full
fledged companies and professionalcompanies at that from the festival.
Mump and Smoot, Ins Choi.
There's so many incredible artiststhat when they talk about the Fringe,
they still have that warmth of like,this is something unlike we got

(33:17):
to, like Kim's Convenience shopped,Kim's Convenience all over the place
and no one is picking that up.
He said, well, okay, whatam I going to do then?
And I guess I'll just do it at the Fringe.

ANDRÉS (33:26):

MURRAY: (33:26):
And then it just turned into something completely wild and what a ride.

ANDRÉS (33:30):

And that's what's so great as anartist, like Fringe really facilitates
like a way to like create, startlike stories that excite you, right.
And to tell stories that excite you.
And then you realize that people areinterested in hearing those stories
and see themselves in those stories.
And it's just like a great vehicleof like telling, like allowing
yourself to see the first, like,chance of like, Hey, I did it.

(33:51):
I can make, I can even be an artistand there can be a way to do this.

MURRAY: (33:56):
Well, yes.
And I agree 100%.
A lot of, sometimes you go, Oh, theFringe should be about new work.
The Fringe should be about, theFringe should be about, I'm like,
Oh no, the Fringe is anything,and that's what I love about it.
You could be side by side with aestablished company who's, does a Fringe
show of their season in your festivaland you could be doing it for the first

(34:19):
time or you're rehearsing in the backyardand and you're, you know, putting the
slack together to go and put some postersup whatever it is that you're doing
and but you are side by side doing it.

ANDRÉS (34:29):

MURRAY: (34:30):
I applaud all of it.
And I think that I hope that, idea of justbeing able to, I, we started a campaign
where we're talking about taking a chance.

ANDRÉS (34:40):

MURRAY: (34:40):
Right.
We were saying both take a chance and,and, and, and, and risk big in the
performing, but also as an audience.
Yeah.
Cause you could swingand miss at the Fringe.

ANDRÉS (34:50):

MURRAY: (34:50):
I'm like, I'll just get back up to bat though.
Like seriously, you're going tofind what you're looking for, but
you might actually get surprisedat what you weren't looking for.

MEGAN: (34:59):
And no matter what, like whether you loved it.
or you didn't enjoy it quite asmuch, you're walking away with a
story at the end of the day, right?
Um, and we talk a lot about like the, theconstellation of how Fringe stories, like
they grow and they grow and they grow.
Um, and I am surprised every year,every year during festival, I will have
a conversation with a, a volunteer ora patron or a staff member, or, you

(35:24):
know, who's has had this amazing lifemoment that intersects with Fringe.
Uh, and, and so it is,it is about storytelling.
It is about connection, but it'salso so much more than that.
Um, yeah.
And what a beautiful thing it isto be part of that legacy, right?
Like it's...

(35:44):
Um, we dream a lot about, like, we'replanting seeds now for things that
we aren't gonna see in our lifetime.

ANDRÉS (35:51):

MEGAN: (35:51):
And that's pretty incredible.
I know, uh, Brian, uh, recentlywas awarded, uh, a Doctor of
Letters, uh, from the U of A.
So he was, he was honored for his workas a cultural leader here in Edmonton.
Um, but he, the big joke was like,you know, in those early days, it'd
be like, oh yeah, see ya at the 50th.
And they never actuallythought Fringe would get,

ANDRÉS (36:09):

MEGAN: (36:09):
To the 50th anniversary.
And here we are in year 42, startingto think about what the 50th
celebration is going to look like.
Um, so it is, we, like, we standon the shoulders of giants.
There are so many dedicated volunteersand artists and staff and technicians
and, oh, you name it, who have helpedmake this and who come back every year.

MURRAY: (36:30):
Um, What's interesting too, about if you think of the Edmonton
community, there are, people that likethat they live here and they love this
place and they may not have come to theFringe but they know what the Fringe is.
Hmm, right?
Yeah.
Oh, you know what?
I've heard of the Fringe.
I've been traveling the world andSometimes you say Edmonton and honestly,

(36:52):
they go Oh the Fringe It's like are you anartist no, just I don't know I don't even
actually I don't know where And I wouldsay that sort of is kind of how it is when
you're at it, too, in some ways, right?
Like, I, uh, it was...
I don't even know howto explain how it was.

(37:12):
It was great.

ANDRÉS (37:14):

Fringe where you just show up, you'llcatch like one show and then you'll be
like, I'll hang out at the beer gardensand somebody inevitably will pass by
and go, do you want to watch a show?

MEGAN: (37:24):
Yeah.

ANDRÉS (37:25):

MURRAY: (37:27):
I think very much like our Sterling's award.
Sometimes at the Fringe, you get tosee people you haven't seen all year.

ANDRÉS (37:33):

MURRAY: (37:33):
A friend or whether you've been gigging out of town or you've been doing
whatever, it's like coming to the Fringe.
Many times when I was gigging,I'd come off a plane, wouldn't
even like unpack my bag.
I'd just walk on the Fringe.
I'm not doing the show, but I'm like.
I betcha I'm gonna run into people I know!

ANDRÉS (37:44):

So speaking about shows, itsounds like there's a lot of
stuff to catch in the festival.
Can you tell us about every, like, as...

MEGAN: (37:55):
How much time do you have?

ANDRÉS (37:57):

But just like, in general, like, forsomebody who's looking to catch it
maybe for the first time, like, whatwould you tell them to do, or like,
what is here for them, waiting for them?

MEGAN: (38:10):
Oh man.

MURRAY: (38:10):
There are some...
Essential, there are some essential needs.
One is a festival program guide.

MEGAN: (38:19):
Absolutely.

MURRAY: (38:20):
It is a document that contains, if you, if you want to go,
it will show you what you need to do.
But also get here.
You can't, like, you knowhow sometimes you're looking
online, Hey, what's going on?
What's going on?
No, no, no.
Come get caught up in all of it.
Come get a festival guide.
Go to one of our tents.

(38:40):
Have a beverage, start to look throughit, and then you also want to look
around for people that are like, Oh, theylook like they know what they're doing.
Oh, they look like theyknow how to Fringe.
Go to, go to those that arein lineups and talk to them.
And then all of a sudden, nextthing you know, it's five days
later and you're still at Fringe.
Find out in your heart, what do you like?

(39:01):
Right?
Do you want to go by genre?
Do you want to just take a, youwant a randomizer from our website
to, to just give you a show becausethere's too many choices to be made.

ANDRÉS (39:10):

MEGAN: (39:11):
Yeah, it is this like awesome thing.
One of our sponsors, our amazingsponsors, Kick Point built it for us a
few years ago, like before the pandemic.
Uh, and, and now it's shaped like a magiceight ball as you shake the Fringe eight
ball, but of all of the 165 shows thatare in our festival, it will pick one at
random and then you can click through tothe ticketing website and you can see the

(39:32):
schedule and you can buy your ticket togo see that show, but it was to help sort
of alleviate that, that overwhelm whenyou get to site and you're looking at
the schedule and you're like, okay, thereare 34 venues and 165 shows and like,
50 of them are happening in 10 minutes.
Like how do I make a decision?
And it is overwhelming if you haven'tFringed before, because there's

(39:54):
like, there's a, there's a bit ofan art to it once you figure it out.
Um, so yeah, the randomizer helps sort oflike relieve some of that pressure and,
and same thing, like sometimes you'regoing to go see a show and you're going
to fall in love with that show and that'sgoing to like, spark your Fringe journey,
or are you going to go see something,
you're going to be like, Idon't know what that was.

ANDRÉS (40:11):

MEGAN: (40:15):
Uh, and that's why you got to go to the beer tent afterward.
Cause there will inevitablybe there's someone there.
Um, but we, we host little events like,uh, like a free for all on site during
festival where we have artists who get upand do a real quick, like 60 to 90 second
teaser of their show.
And we have, uh, Fringers who showup with their guides and their
highlighters, and that's sort ofhow they make their decisions.

(40:36):
We have folks who, who do itby, um, parts of the city.
So like, I know there are, are Fringerswho will go to the French Quarter and
see all the shows in the French Quarter.
And the beautiful thing about theQuarter is like, it has such a
different vibe than the main site.
The main site is, it is loud andit is colorful and it is busy and
you're, you know, ducking chainsawsthat are being juggled by someone.
And, um, and there's like a, I don'tknow, there's like a hustle to it.

(40:59):
And then you go to the French Quarterand it is like, it's chill and you get
your poutine and there's like a singersongwriter playing in the square and yeah,
it just has a very different vibe to it.
Um, and then there's like every, we alsohave folks who come to Fringe who never
see a theater show and they come andthey eat green onion cakes and they drink
beer and they will watch the outdoorperformers and take in the music series.

(41:22):
And

MURRAY: (41:23):
So the, the outdoor performances that, that happen at our festival are
really, uh, world renowned, incredibleartists come to perform for us.
The two unique things I would saythat Edmonton Fringe has number one,
there are festivals that are FringeFestivals that don't start until 5 PM
because they don't have audience, right?

(41:44):
We have audience all day long.
And that's why we attract some ofthe world's best street performers
because there's audience all day long.
And, uh, in the, um, ATB park, uh, thatpitch is like a top 20 pitch in the world.
Because of just how incredible it is,we've, we've, we've moved some stuff
around with, of course, recovery from,from that thing that we've all been

(42:07):
going through together and, and, andit's augmented a bit, but we're going
to get back to that, but to know thatthese artists that come to us, that
it's so beautiful to, on a busy Saturdaynight, you walk out and to Megan's point,
there's actually a hum that you are in.
And it's not until youstep out of it that you go.
Oh, wow.

(42:28):
And you walk back in andyou're like, Oh, it's real.

MEGAN: (42:34):
Yeah, it is.

MURRAY: (42:35):
But it's sure fun to get caught up in that.

ANDRÉS (42:37):

MEGAN: (42:39):
Yeah.

ANDRÉS (42:41):

Just for everyone who might not know.

MEGAN: (42:43):
Uh, so this year is our 42nd anniversary, and if there are any, like,
sci fi nerds out in the world, you willknow that the number 42 has very important
significance, uh, but this particularanniversary joyously let us to Douglas
Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,in which, of course, the answer to life,

(43:06):
the universe, and everything is 42.
Uh, so our theme this yearis The Answer is Fringe.
Uh, and our artwork this year, our amazingartwork, uh, created by, uh, Pete Nguyen,
uh, who is, uh, an incredible visualartist, a mural, a muralist in town.
He's also, uh, the chief, uh,creative officer with our good

(43:27):
pals over at Sea Change Brewing.
Um, and he created the artwork forus this year and it is stellar.
Yeah.
It's so good.
It is so gorgeous.

MURRAY: (43:38):
Um, and the conversation to like, I love the art
making process of the poster.
Right.
It's got a story to itself.
Like you think in, in early renditionswhere it was a painting sometimes, or
there wasn't the digital graphics thatthere are abilities that there were.
Pete went so old schoolin, in taking this on.

(44:01):
And it was just so gorgeous to knowthat like he'd sketched everything out.
Like it just literally came as a piece ofart and then, and then morphed from that.
But as a piece of art, it'speople wait for that theme.

ANDRÉS (44:14):

MURRAY: (44:15):
And I also wait for that art.
I feel like the two of themare not really that separate.
It's because you got to get thetheme then, but let the artist be
the artist and let them kind of likenot have to come with, you know, it's
a, sure, there's a marketing tool.
You got to break some pieces apart.
You got to have like,you know, a word market.
You got to have this, gotta have that.
But I'm like, it's got to start as art.

MEGAN: (44:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is pretty incredible.

ANDRÉS (44:38):

MEGAN: (44:40):
We have an an open, uh, process.
Usually late winter, we put out aform, a call for themes, if you will.
Um, and anyone and everyonecan submit their ideas.
And then that sort of gets whittled downand it goes to our team, team leaders who
are our most invested volunteers and theyget a chance to vote on their top 10 and

(45:00):
then it goes to the staff and the staffgets a chance to vote on their favourites.
And then from there, we justkind of whittle it down until
there's only one obvious choice.

ANDRÉS (45:08):

like plug about the festival or ifthere's anything special that, um,
that like you'd love our audience toknow about the festival for this year.

MURRAY: (45:19):
I want to introduce the audience to 85th Avenue.
Um, it is an avenue that we, uh, whenI, when I got here, the, it's, it's
called the north link of the site, right?
So if you go, if you go north of theWestbury Theatre and, and you start
through the triangle and then yougo into, uh, um, uh, where the North

(45:39):
Beer Tent is, 85th Ave, on the otherside of 85th Ave is, uh, Kid's Fringe.
But that ave, people have tried toanimate it for times and, and we
discussed what we were going to dowith it and we just thought, what
is it, what is it going to be?
Um, so, there is such a beautifulmomentum now that came out of just

(46:00):
a thought and a follow through ofthat thought, but organically it
showed us what it was going to be.
But one of the elements that showed upthere that I'd like Meg to talk about a
little bit is our community care team.
And, and let's talk about not only arewe performing in so many ways, we, the
idea of, we live here, we want to lookafter, and, and care for everyone,

(46:25):
because if we're going to say Fringing
is for everyone, itneeds to be for everyone.

MEGAN: (46:30):
Yeah.

MURRAY: (46:30):
Why don't you talk a little bit about community care?

MEGAN: (46:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, it was an initiative that verymuch came out of the, the pandemic
when we came back to this beautifulbuilding situated in a bustling urban
environment, uh, neighboring twovery busy under resourced shelters.
Um, we.
Took some time to think about whatit means to be responsible in the

(46:54):
community and knowing that our verylarge loud busy event displaces a lot
of folks who use the public spaces weactivate during festival and to Murr's
point if we are going to say Fringingis for everyone then we have to start
by taking care of our most vulnerable
.And so our community care team is headed up by Shima Robinson.

(47:15):
Uh, it is a group of staff and volunteerswho have experience in harm reduction,
uh, approaches to community care.
And so they go out ahead of festival.
They, and this is workthat happens all year long.
Um, but they meet in community andthey let folks know that the event is
coming and during the festival itself
we distribute naloxone.

(47:36):
We distribute, um, harm reduction kits,snacks, water, but it's a connection point
for our vulnerable and houseless communitymembers to, to gain access to the festival
in a way that is radically welcoming.
Um, and what that did was it sort oflike kickstarted this really beautiful
chain reaction where we started thinkingabout how does community care intersect

(47:59):
with our accessibility program?
And how does it intersect with ourfirst aid team and our security team?
And how can we train our staff and ourvolunteers to be more mindful of how we
invite community in and what it meansto serve community in that capacity.
And so community care has become thisanchor on 85th, but then we've had
these other like programming piecesthat are starting to build up around it.

(48:22):
Um, our pêhonân series, Ithink is, is one of them.
Um,

MURRAY: (48:27):
Yeah, and, and, um, MJ belcourt, we are very honored to
have MJ as a part of our team now.
And, uh, when MJ first came, uh,came around, we talked about 85th
and, and we had this idea of let's,let's bring the teepee there.

ANDRÉS (48:45):

MURRAY: (48:45):
And she's like, yes, and I have a friend, Murray, that has this incredible
installation about the medicines weuse, uh, when we smudge and the why.
And, and I've talked to her and shewould love to come and be there.
And I'm like, yes.
And then there's a, uh,the, Megs loves this.
There's a joke I made onetime about kids Fringe.
I said, if you're a cool Eight,you're not going to kids Fringe.

(49:07):
But what I was thinking about, I wasthinking about youth and I'm like.
What is youth?
Right?
And if anybody wants to try to definethat by years, but I went, what is that?
That's something we identified.
It's kind of like

MEGAN: (49:20):
it was a gap.
Yeah, we need to like programming a gapin our audience was sort of that, like
eight to 17, 18, somewhere in there.
We're not going to put a cap on it.
But there was, yeah, there was sortof this moat of activity in the
festival culture that we were like,Oh, we gotta, we gotta fix that.

MURRAY: (49:37):
So we thought, let's, let's try something.
Let's, I don't know.
Let's, let's think about it asthe youth empowerment program.
And, and what is a, whatdoes that look like?
And then I went, okay, you knowwhat we're not going to do?
We are not going to leavebehind an organization.
There are a lot of human beings,that have eyes on our festival.
And I think it's a socialresponsibility that we carry.

(49:59):
It'd be nice to really help lift uppeople that are doing really good work.
So I said, okay, if we're going to getinto this youth empowerment program,
then we're going to highlight anorganization that works with youth.
Right.
And let's, and let's just givethem some noise and some love.
And so reached out to iHuman.
Uh, we also said on 85th said,let's, let's put a, let's put

(50:20):
a, um, a mural wall out there.
Let's put a,

MEGAN: (50:23):
Yeah, we've got a free wall.

MURRAY: (50:25):
And then, and then from that, I saw, of course I reached
out to, you know, that Steve Pirot.
Steve, you're in this wholeentire episode, by the way.

MEGAN: (50:33):
Little did you know.

ANDRÉS (50:34):

Yeah, yeah.

MURRAY: (50:36):
We're going to have to yell loud though.
He's up in Dawson City right now.
We probably lost him to the Yukon.
But I said, look, what if we did thisand, and, and, and, and Megan, Megan
can just make beautiful things happenand get funders to give us money.
And so.
We got this grant and I said,what if we did it this way?

(50:57):
And Steve's like, yes, and so theyouth started to come around and
then, so from what was the free wallto all of a sudden a DJ showed up and
then some emcees started to show up,
then a cypher started happening,but it was being led by them and
this energy just started and itjust picked up and it kept going.
And to the point where.

(51:19):
We would show up andthey were already set up.
They were already underway.
They were just doing it.
That was, they felt that in their heart,we got to the end of the festival that
year, and I went into Megan's officeand said, I got a wild idea about a
holdover, the most magical thing I seeme happening this year is happening on
our 85th ave, what if we just did like,
an all star, because also iHuman was inhere with a poetry jam in this theater

(51:41):
that we're in right in this moment.
So I went, what if we, and sothen I went to see Steve and he's
like, I've been trying to go onvacation all summer, Murray, why do
you keep doing this?

MEGAN: (51:50):
How dare you?
How dare you, sir?

MURRAY: (51:52):
And, and to, he came to me afterwards and he said, you don't have
any idea y'all, what you've done for them.
So we didn't do anything.
We just made room.
That's what we're supposed to.
He goes, no, no, no, no, no.
He said.
I have to work really hardto get them to be around.
He's like, they're just comingaround and asked me where I

(52:15):
was texting me, where are you?
We got a thing to do.
We got a show.
Let's go.
So to know that that happened.
And then with some change, wejust went, we can't stop this now.
We have to make that happen.

ANDRÉS (52:26):

MURRAY: (52:26):
So from that also is the Youth Empowerment Program.
Kijo is leading what we've named the youthtroop, which had a history with us before,
but it's kind of coming back where we'retaking five, um, um, humans that are going
to come and take part in the festival.
It's a paid internship, right?

(52:48):
It's not nothing for free, right?
We put that call out this year.
We haven't even reallytalked about this program.
It's so tiny.

MEGAN: (52:57):
So new.

ANDRÉS (52:58):

MURRAY: (52:58):
Gosh, 120 applications for five.
spots.
Tell me the Fringe summercamp is not born already.

ANDRÉS (53:07):

MURRAY: (53:09):
So I was like, Megs, I think we're going to need some more grants.

MEGAN: (53:12):
All I do is write grants.

MURRAY: (53:18):
So that eight,
five crew, eight, five crew is happening.
Y'all come check it out.
There's six nights that they'regoing to come from 7pm to sundown.
And if you want to, if you want tocome immerse yourself in something
and come around, or you need toget out of the hustle and come
on over, come on over to 85th.
Meet the 8 5 crew.

MEGAN: (53:37):
And then on your way back, stop at the park.
Because the divine Lindsay Walkerhas curated our music series.
And that takes to the stage at 9and 10 o'clock on the weekends.
Uh, and it is such a beautifulway to end the evening.

MURRAY: (53:49):
And then if you don't want it to end, what else can you do?

MEGAN: (53:51):
Late night cabaret.

ANDRÉS (53:52):

You don't have to go home.
You can stay.
You can stay all day.
You can be here.
The whole 11 days.
Oh my gosh.
That's so lovely to hear that.
Like, you're really, really takinglike this idea of Fringing is for
everyone and really like lookinginto what that means, like in for the
environment, for the community andfor like the space that you're in.
Right.

(54:12):
Yeah.

MURRAY: (54:13):
I would, my mentors, when they shared gifts and
I was given beautiful gifts.
Once you got it, the only thing that'sokay, now you got to give it away.
So.
Um, I know that we serve in thisrole and we serve this community and

(54:34):
everyone on this team are the mostbeautiful human beings and how much
they care for what they do and youcan't teach that, you can't buy that,
you can't do anything of the sorts.
People just have it and, and to make thatmagic and to be able to share that space.
It's um, it's really, really rewarding.

(54:56):
I don't even think about how hard we workor how tired I am or any of that aspect.
It's just more about, wow,I wish we could do more.

MEGAN: (55:06):
I do.
I genuinely do.
And, and the thing is we, this team doesso much and, and like every single person
on our team is embedded in community inother ways and cares about mentorship.
We talk a lot about mentorshipat all levels and the reciprocal
relationship of the mentor and thementee Like I learned more from the
folks I mentor quote unquote that Ican ever possibly give them back and

(55:29):
and there's just such a passionatededication to that sharing and that
cultivation of community and yeah, it's

MURRAY: (55:42):
Heckin humblin it really is.
Yeah I'm brewing up somethingtoo and I'm not sure which year
we're going to get into it.
it.
But like, you know how sometimes we takea shirt and you need to turn it inside out
and, and you can wear it for another day.
I'm like, I want to turn our festivalinside out and let everybody see
those that you don't see every dayat this festival that make this magic
work that aren't out in the front.
Mm hmm.
That sit in the dark for many, many hours.

MEGAN: (56:01):
Hey Selina!

MURRAY: (56:05):
That make this magic site kind of come together and solve problems
you never even knew were a problemor didn't even see was happening.
100%.
Holy moly.
So it's like, it's almost like I justwant to say this is your festival, we're
all going to turn ourselves inside outand we're going to leave from here.
I don't know how it'll work,but we'll figure it out.

MEGAN: (56:22):
Uh, the team gets really tired of me saying this, but like all festival
long, I will end every meeting with themantra, when in doubt, ask production.
Because they really knowwhat's going on all the time.

MURRAY: (56:33):
All the time.

ANDRÉS (56:34):

MEGAN: (56:37):
Yes.

ANDRÉS (56:38):

MEGAN: (56:40):
Your life would be so well cared for.

MURRAY: (56:42):
I
was having a conversation with
Selina of our shows next, guys,I want all of you with us.
It's our show, we canall be together, right?
Selina's, I can just see a Right,you know how many events we do
here

ANDRÉS (56:57):

This has been so lovely.
And just hearing, like, all of thebeautiful things that you're doing for the
community and like that Fringe is doingthis year, I'm very I'm very excited to
take it in and I hope everyone is goingto take it in and bring in the support
and the love that this site always has.
'Um, a final question to end it offand a real final quick question.

(57:19):
Do you have a ritual for the festival?
Something that you do like yearafter year at the festival that
you're like, this is, this is Fringe.
I have arrived at Fringe.

MEGAN: (57:29):
Oh, that's a really good question.

MURRAY: (57:32):
Um, step by step.

MEGAN: (57:38):
Quick, they said quick.

MURRAY: (57:39):
The beard comes off.

MEGAN: (57:41):
Oh yeah.

ANDRÉS (57:41):

Okay.

MURRAY: (57:42):
Yeah.
A few weeks.
Then I see the radio on Chris.
Oh, it's time to get my hair cut.
And then I walk into media.
But it's not until I see thefirst parking on the first
street starting to get shut down.
And when I see that moment,that ritual is I've got to
start eating at three and nine.

MEGAN: (58:05):
Yeah.
Your whole day shifts.
Yeah.

MURRAY: (58:07):
So I'd start that.
I literally, the moment I have my firstmeal at three o'clock, like I have
something in the morning, but threeand nine because once you get moving,
three and nine are very important toyou and you need to hammer whatever
grease you can into your body.
Eat a vegetable, everybody.

ANDRÉS (58:24):

MEGAN: (58:25):
Um, there are a couple of moments for me.
The first, Um, welcomeback to our team leaders.
We do a little barbecue in thespring where they all come back
and that feels like a homecoming.
Uh, the first day that we have allof our volunteers in the building and
the energy of that, the first day thetechnicians show up when like all of
our venue techs are here and you go, Ohno, it's happening for real because you

(58:48):
know, when the techs show up that theartists are going to be taken care of,
the patrons are going to be taken care of.
You know, shows aregoing to start happening.
But as a ritual, I think something andwe encourage the team to do this a lot
is like festival moves at a frenzied paceand there is this like sense of urgency
of doing, doing, doing because we are allgoing in a million different directions.

(59:09):
We're all making a million decisionsevery day of the festival, but to take
that moment of pause and to walk outof this building and to go stand in the
middle of that park on a Saturday whenthere are 20, 000 people on site and to
take a moment and look around at all ofthe joy that is existing, the delight,
the pure delight on site and rememberingfor a moment that you have a very

(59:31):
important part in making that happen.
That is like my favoriteritual of festival.
Just like we got here andwe all did it together.

ANDRÉS (59:41):

Um, as always, uh, I'd love tothank you two again, Murray Utas.
And Megan Dart, thank you for being here.
Thank you for having us.
Our unsung hero, the bestand always, Selina Painchaud.
Also, uh, thank you to Canada Councilfor the Arts for, uh, the money for
the original concept of this project.

(01:00:02):
Uh, the Edmonton HeritageCouncil for the Festival Series.
Uh, thank you to Fringe Theatre,to Azimuth Theatre, uh, and thank
you to all of you for listeningand we'll see you next time at In
Process, whatever that looks like.
Bye.

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Episode 17 - Behind the Scenes of the Edmonton Fringe Festival

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 17 - Behind the Scenes of the Edmonton Fringe Festival