By Sian Shin
A fringe festival is a creative celebration for any and all artists to share their own independent theatre productions and performances. These fringe festivals are known and praised for providing artists with a space of no limits – the artists have complete artistic freedom to express themselves and to share their stories.
This is why it was extremely exciting for Collingwood’s theatre community when the theatre department decided to integrate this international theatre phenomenon to our school, creating our own Collingwood Fringe Festival!
With this new creative initiation, Collingwood students were given the opportunity to take this artistic freedom and run as far as they could with it. Students chose, directed, acted, and designed their own scenes in collaboration with their designated stagecraft teams comprised of students who set up everything from the lighting to the sound design. Some students even wrote their own scenes and were successful in going to great lengths to make their artistic ideas come to life.
This Fringe Festival took place from March 6th to March 10th during every middle and senior school lunch. Each day featured a set of multiple scenes and everyday, a different set of scenes were showcased.
“The Doctor” was a scene in which Jackson Desai played a man with a broken toe who became enraged at his doctor, played by Kevin Downey, for his outrageously expensive hospital bill for an X-ray that only served to inform him that his toe was indeed broken.
Theo Chambers and Kane Vidalin starred in “The Hat”, a comedic scene depicting an encounter between a salesperson and a customer at a department store. Theo played the indecisive shopaholic who just could not seem to stop himself from wanting to purchase the many pretty items in the store while Kane acted as the very encouraging salesman.
“Soap Opera” featured Alice Botnari as the demanding A-list soap opera star and Soham Beharie as the director who has had enough of her actress’ entitled demeanor. The scene showed the director putting her foot down to bring her actress back down to earth by harshly reminding her of how much executive power she has on the show as the director.
Bryn Cowan and Tyler Kattler starred in “Busy, Busy, Busy”, a scene depicting a hilarious first date between two people with amusing and slightly cynical views on how relationships work. Their first date, which should be characterized by the typical getting-to-know-each-other small talk and flirtatious giggles is instead overrun by the two individuals fast-forwarding into their entire supposed relationship – all the way up to how it apparently ends.
In “The Medium”, Shona Reid played a bold and cunning mystic who confronts an undercover cop played by Cole Soprovich. The cop is aggressive and relentless on exposing the medium as a fake – that is, until he is suddenly convinced by her magical, but nevertheless fabricated, powers.
A fringe festival is a creative celebration for any and all artists to share their own independent theatre productions and performances. These fringe festivals are known and praised for providing artists with a space of no limits – the artists have complete artistic freedom to express themselves and to share their stories.
This is why it was extremely exciting for Collingwood’s theatre community when the theatre department decided to integrate this international theatre phenomenon to our school, creating our own Collingwood Fringe Festival!
With this new creative initiation, Collingwood students were given the opportunity to take this artistic freedom and run as far as they could with it. Students chose, directed, acted, and designed their own scenes in collaboration with their designated stagecraft teams comprised of students who set up everything from the lighting to the sound design. Some students even wrote their own scenes and were successful in going to great lengths to make their artistic ideas come to life.
This Fringe Festival took place from March 6th to March 10th during every middle and senior school lunch. Each day featured a set of multiple scenes and everyday, a different set of scenes were showcased.
“The Doctor” was a scene in which Jackson Desai played a man with a broken toe who became enraged at his doctor, played by Kevin Downey, for his outrageously expensive hospital bill for an X-ray that only served to inform him that his toe was indeed broken.
Theo Chambers and Kane Vidalin starred in “The Hat”, a comedic scene depicting an encounter between a salesperson and a customer at a department store. Theo played the indecisive shopaholic who just could not seem to stop himself from wanting to purchase the many pretty items in the store while Kane acted as the very encouraging salesman.
“Soap Opera” featured Alice Botnari as the demanding A-list soap opera star and Soham Beharie as the director who has had enough of her actress’ entitled demeanor. The scene showed the director putting her foot down to bring her actress back down to earth by harshly reminding her of how much executive power she has on the show as the director.
Bryn Cowan and Tyler Kattler starred in “Busy, Busy, Busy”, a scene depicting a hilarious first date between two people with amusing and slightly cynical views on how relationships work. Their first date, which should be characterized by the typical getting-to-know-each-other small talk and flirtatious giggles is instead overrun by the two individuals fast-forwarding into their entire supposed relationship – all the way up to how it apparently ends.
In “The Medium”, Shona Reid played a bold and cunning mystic who confronts an undercover cop played by Cole Soprovich. The cop is aggressive and relentless on exposing the medium as a fake – that is, until he is suddenly convinced by her magical, but nevertheless fabricated, powers.
The medium
“The Breakfast Special” featured Michael O’Neill as an obnoxious and extravagant customer who tries to order a luxurious breakfast in a run-down New York diner with a very annoyed and sarcastic waitress played by Sian Shin.
The Breakfast special
Jesse Park and Willa Pepin starred in “The Applicant”, in which Jesse plays a man who finds himself in a very peculiar setting for a job interview conducted by an eerily scary employer, played by Willa, who begins to gradually electrocute him to the point of unconsciousness.
the applicant
“The Patient” was written by Nikolai Osborn and is a very “meta” piece in which the actor, played by Nikolai, forgets his lines in the middle of a scene with a psychologist played by Stefan and his assistant played by Bryn. The actor then reveals to his fellow actor that he actually has short-term memory loss, just like the character that he has been playing.
Another masterpiece created by a student was “Toilleto Cometh”, which was written and directed by Harrison Fuller, featuring himself as Baby; Stefan Kowalski as Toilleto; Jesse Park as Daddy; Bryn Cowan as Mommy; Mathieu Bruson as the delivery man and the saxophone player; and Josh Park and Evan Wark as Toilleto’s henchmen. This hilarious and yet profound play is about a German talking training toilet named Toilleto that reprograms itself to gain its freedom and begin his reign over humanity. The story is narrated by Baby, who is now a rebel working to strip Toilleto of his powers over mankind.
Another masterpiece created by a student was “Toilleto Cometh”, which was written and directed by Harrison Fuller, featuring himself as Baby; Stefan Kowalski as Toilleto; Jesse Park as Daddy; Bryn Cowan as Mommy; Mathieu Bruson as the delivery man and the saxophone player; and Josh Park and Evan Wark as Toilleto’s henchmen. This hilarious and yet profound play is about a German talking training toilet named Toilleto that reprograms itself to gain its freedom and begin his reign over humanity. The story is narrated by Baby, who is now a rebel working to strip Toilleto of his powers over mankind.
Toilleto Cometh
The fringe festival week’s grand finale was “The Informer” starring Mr. Wener, Ms. Chamberlin, Michael O’Neill, and Shona Reid. Mr. Wener and Ms. Chamberlin play husband and wife to a young child played by Michael, a family living with a maid, played by Shona, in the period of Nazi Germany. When their son goes missing, the couple goes into panic as they argue over whether or not their own son would report them as traitors to the Nazis, their conversation heavy with immense underlying tension.
Overall, these ten masterful and impressive pieces ensured the very first Collingwood Fringe Festival to be deemed as an immense success for both the audience and the artists. We hope that this Fringe Festival will stay as a Collingwood theatre tradition and we look forward to what our artists will bring to the stage next year!
Overall, these ten masterful and impressive pieces ensured the very first Collingwood Fringe Festival to be deemed as an immense success for both the audience and the artists. We hope that this Fringe Festival will stay as a Collingwood theatre tradition and we look forward to what our artists will bring to the stage next year!