Halifax Fringe back with all-local lineup
HALIFAX — Lee-Anne Poole’s connection to the Halifax Fringe runs deep.
Currently its executive director, the writer and producer first found her way to the stage when she was 16 and presented her debut play at the start of a career that has blossomed with works like "Splinters," which became a feature film directed by Thom Fitzgerald.
“I did it because it seemed so unreal to me that there was this festival you could apply for and no one could tell you no. And no one really cared what you put on stage, and you get to do whatever you want,” said Poole in a recent interview.
“I really love the fact that there are very seasoned professionals in the festival, but there are also people like me when I was 16 who say, ‘Oh, I think I want to do this ... and why not?’ It’s an opportunity and a space for someone who’s never done anything like this before.”
This month, Halifax Fringe returns with a mix of polished and punk theatre which opens today and continues until Sept. 12. The shows are live, in-person and, due to scheduling a festival during a period of COVID-19 travel restrictions, all local.
Long-range planning for a multi-artist festival in 2021 has certainly been a challenge for Poole and her dedicated team of board members and organizers, not knowing exactly what limits would be in place when September rolled around. But with roughly 25 shows in four main venues, Poole can feel that old preFringe excitement building and is eager to see how this year’s event develops.
“2019 was really great, we were back at Neptune Theatre for the first time in many years and the box office was hitting all of these new records,” she recalls.
“And then (hurricane) Dorian happened, and we had to cancel the last two days of the festival, the final weekend, which would have definitely been the largest box office for those artists. And then in 2020 ... a pandemic.”
There was a Halifax Fringe of sorts in 2020, as the event marked its 30th anniversary.
Some favourite shows from years past were re-staged for online viewing and sketch troupe Hello City took to the Shakespeare By the Sea space in Point Pleasant Park to do improv pieces based solely on Fringe play blurbs from the last three decades.
“That was very funny and fun, and at that point it was nice to be in a space where you could laugh and hear other people laugh,” said Poole.
This year, restrictions still require physically distanced seating indoors, meaning lower capacity at Halifax Fringe’s four main venues and requiring advance ticket purchases up to 24 hours before showtime through TicketHalifax.com.
The stages include Halifax Fringe’s traditional home base at the Bus Stop Theatre, Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Stage, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Lecture Theatre and Point Pleasant Park’s Cambridge Battery.
There is also a “BYOV” series for site-specific shows in Point Pleasant Park’s Quarry Pond, Sir Sandford Fleming Park (The Dingle) and Breaking Circus Studio at 2164 Barrington St.
The something-for-everyone smorgasbord assortment is in full effect with personal dramas, magic and standup comedy included.
There are also chances to gather, learn and create at workshops with poet/playwright Shauntay Grant, zine maker Colleen MacIsaac and the mask makers at Theatre du Poulet, bringing back that communal spirit that is so essential to Halifax Fringe.
“I feel like there’s been something missing after a year-and-a-half,” said Poole. “Meeting up with people in a theatre lobby after a show, making a joke, and someone saying ‘That should have been this,’ and the ideas snowball into something else.
“All the things that you don’t get over Zoom.”
For more information, visit halifaxfringe.ca.