Hi there, Ottawa! It is once again time for the Ottawa Fringe Festival. 59 shows presenting many hundreds of performances over the course of 11 days with the full box office going right back into the hands of the artists that have worked tirelessly to put themselves before you. With 59 shows, there is a lot of variety and literally something for everybody. Solo story-telling shows, sketch comedy, relationship drama, personal triumphs and tragedies, bio-dramas, war, sleeplessness, and an interactive survival guide to the near post-apocalyptic future are but a few of the things you’ll be able to find. No, not all shows are quality (sad truth, but truth nonetheless) and what’s more, not all shows that are quality will be to your personal taste – yet still, I make the same plea as always: see as much as you can, and take chances on shows you might otherwise not consider because, hey, you really never know. And with all shows at a low $10 a ticket, it really is hard to go wrong. This page here is the place to be through Fringe where we’ll be linking every single bit of coverage we do over the course of the Festival. Scroll down for the full list of shows and all associated coverage – and check back every day. I promise you there’ll be something new.
The 2014 Review Team on Twitter:
Allan Mackey (@thatmackeyguy),- Valerie Cardinal (@vscardinal)
- Matthew Champ (@matthewschamp)
- Sarah Stack (@sarah_253)
- Beki Lantos (@bekiglantos)
- Caitlin Oleson (@avalinacorazon)
Feature Articles
In the days leading up to the festival we made a call to artists. We’ll give you three minutes (roughly) and you convince us why we should choose you. We called it speed dating because that’s kind of what it was like. Once it was done, we chose 6 local companies, 4 national companies, and 4 international companies, and wrote previews for them, telling you what it was we liked about them enough to choose them.
- Local companies: Grain Of Salt, Oceans Apart, Tales She Tells, Cherry on Top, L’Araignée, Wake
- National companies: Kitt & Jane, Silent Party Interlude, Moonlight After Midnight, High Tide
- International companies: A Mind Full of Dopamine, Einstein!, The Surprise, 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick – A Dirk Darrow Investigation
Additional Features:
More stuff (for artists especially):
Fringe Talk 2014
The plan was to do full daily recaps but life and the Universe quickly decided that that was not going to happen. I have gotten the chance to talk to some wonderful artists around the festival, and I’ll back doing a bunch more of it on Thursday onwards. Make sure to check back every day to see who I’ve been talking to.
- Fringe Talk 2014: Chatting with the Joneses (Mr. & Mrs. Jones)
- Fringe Talk 2014: Don’t Tell Chelsea Manders Dad (Don’t Tell My Dad)
- Fringe Talk 2014: Quoth The Poe Show Nevermore (The Poe Show)
The Full List of Shows (videos, reviews, and things)
(For more information on any of these shows, including show times and how to buy advance tickets, visit ottawafringe.com and search for the show by name. Easy peasy.) * Note: Promo Spots are videos that On Stage has recorded with the artists to let them directly address you, Ottawa, and tell you why you need to see their shows. No production values, no gimmicks, just them, addressing you. * Second Note: We want everybody to have a video. Videos let patrons see who you are and decide if they like you. If you have a video we haven’t listed, email us at fringe2014@onstageottawa.com.
A note on our rating system. On Stage rates shows on a 1 to 5 scale so readers can see at a glance what stands out. We rate shows on a pretty extreme bell curve, meaning a 3 is anything from a barely okay to a pretty good show. Basically, shows have to earn twos and fours by being exceptionally good, or exceptionally bad. (If the show were graded out of 100, a 4 would be in the 80-95% range.) As a result, most shows will get threes, which keeps the important focus on the content of the review and not the number. As for ones and fives, well if twos and fours are shows that stand out among this year’s batch, ones and fives stand out even among them. The ones and fives are the shows we’ll be talking about for years.