I have participated in many Fringe Festivals. I can’t exactly say how many (I think 6? More than five, less than ten…?) But it’s not the shows that I particularly remember, it’s the awesome people that I meet.
Every time I participate in the Fringe Festival I walk away knowing some amazingly talented people. Sometimes I make a friend, sometimes I make a best friend. And a rare time I met a boyfriend 😛 The Fringe Festival is a community – a gathering of like minds – a place where people are passionate about theatre, communication, entertainment, and storytelling. Actors, playwrights, directors, producers, dancers, audience members; everyone gathers to have the best two weeks that summer can provide. It’s tradition! But not only that, all of these people want everyone to do their best to have the best time (at least in my experience) and that’s such a great feeling to be around. It recharges your creative battery. It inspires and it pushes you as an artist, and as an audience member it just makes you feel proud to be a part of this in your hometown.
I have been in shows that got one N rating. I have been in shows that sold out and ones that we had to give tickets away just to have bums in seats. I have been in the Best of Fringe. I have been in the Alley Plays Shed and main stage space at Tarragon. All of this seems to matter and not matter at the same time – because at the end of the Fringe it’s always the people that last.
I would like to take the time to thank those Fringe artists that went beyond the festival and stayed in my life to make it that much richer, that much better for having known them. Some I can say I have known for years, some even a decade! Those artists that met me by chance, by audition, by the whims of The Tent – those that I am happy to call friend – I stop to think “what if” from time to time and think how awful it would be had I not been in that show or not been in that audience. It seems silly to think, but truly, The Fringe has made me some life long friends. It amazes me.
I am happy and proud to be a part of this year’s Fringe as it was the 25th Anniversary but even better, I once again made connections with amazingly talented people at Shakespeare MD through Spur-of-the-moment Theatre Collective. I’m excited for them to continue and to toast them soon, even if it’s a year from now at The Tent and we can say “Remember that time we did Shakespeare in a shed?!” and laugh and reconnect then and there.
This is a long winded post about how wonderful it is to have a community gather and share like this can be. Thanks everyone. I had a blast (again) and I’m burnt out (again!) but once again I’m even excited now for next year.
Cheers, thank you, and all the best to you and yours,
-Adrianna