(Pear. By Julia Siedlanowska playwrights, a line up on every corner of Granville Island, live music at the bar, sandwich boards bombarded with flyers. The atmosphere is what stands out the most. It is not just a place to see loads and loads of live art, it is a community. It is a right of passage. Everybody knows about it, everybody goes to it, and everybody has been in it. The Vancouver International Fringe Festival was born of an audacious vision, and retains it’s integrity twenty-seven years later. In 1985, the first Fringe Office was located in the back of Joanna Maratta of the First Vancouver Theatrespace Society’s VW Bug. The first Vancouver Fringe was held at Mount Pleasant, with 4 000 people in attendance, and 25 volunteers, with the opening ceremonies being held at an IGA parking lot. This year, more than 80 groups perform, there are over 500 volunteers, and it is expected that over 30 000 will attend. The shows selected for the Fringe are literally by luck of the draw. There is no jury, just a random lottery system that decides which shows will be included. So you never really know what you are going to get. Even the bad shows usually have a redeeming charm. One of the interesting things about the Fringe is it’s innovative use of space to showcase theatre. Venues are in every major theatre and every nook and cranny of Granville Island, including in the water under the ferry dock. This year, The Only Animal (a group dedicated to creating site-specific theatre) is collaborating with 13 Fringe artists to create their own site-specific work. The Fringe is one of my favourite festivals in Vancouver, partially because of the lack of barrier between audience and artists. Artists walk the streets introducing themselves and handing out flyers, and inboxes are spammed with emails from performers trying to get publicity. Susinn McFarlen, writer of Since You Left Us, sent us an inspiring email with the details of her show ending it with “I am sending you my media release. It will be obvious to you that J am new at this. But I am having the time of my life.” Nita Bowerman of Wreckage came out and gave every audience member a hug after her show. Sometimes we forget that the stories we see are actually based off of something real. The beautiful thing about the Fringe is the direct contact with actor, playwright, and human being. While corresponding with Debbie Reis, the Fringe’s Communications director about writing this feature, she was so helpful as to give me contact information for some Douglas College alumni. One of these was Veenesh Dubois of Under The Mango Tree. I wanted to know about her experience at the Douglas College Theatre Program. She had this to say: “Coming to Douglas College for me was a little scary, being a mother of three children and no acting experience, I was feeling as though I was out reach for what my calling in life was given that I was starting so late. Te buzz of thespians and patrons, directors and 10 [ love the smell of Fringe in September Nevertheless, I auditioned for the program and was surprised to know that I got in!! I was amongst mainly 19+ year old students who had just left high school and I was more a mother figure than their peer. But they all embraced me and we had wonderful times there. The teachers were phenomenal and I still can hear Allan Lysell and Cheryl Matheson’s words of wisdom in everything I do today in my career. In one of our projects at Douglas, we were to do a solo show that would last twenty minutes, it was then that I first showed the world my story about Immigration, arranged marriage, abandonment and finding closure. My classmates embraced my work and I found the courage to write my own play years later. My play Under The Mango Tree debuted at the 2009 Vancouver fringe Festival and out of nearly 70+ productions, it won the “Pick Of The Fringe” honours. Since then I have toured the play to Toronto, Edmonton, Victoria, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Gabriola and now just booking into theatre seasons all over the nation. Douglas College gave me the strength, training and courage to take on anything I put my mind to. I will be bringing my show back to the Vancouver stage as part of the fringe-Festival at the Firehall Theatre, September 8 -18. I hope that the students find time to come see the show and perhaps talk to me after.” The world of theatre is quite small, and the Fringe community is a tight one, full of inside jokes, veterans, virgins, and funny traditions. It was born of people who love theatre, and believe in creating with abandon. It continues to showcase offensive, touching, brilliant, and terrible theatre- and I hope it never stops. Under the Mango Tree (RA RA WAI Productions, @ Firehall Arts Center) Veenesh Dubois has an enchanting one woman show. Her pain resonates within us and her beautiful singing and dancing offers us flavours of ancient and far away traditions. Under the Mango Tree is the story of one woman’s love for her father; it is raw and beautiful. Dubois’ transformations from character to character are hilarious and wonderfully executed. - Julia Siedlanowska Wreckage (Nina Bowerman, @ Ferry Dock) Wreckage is Nita Bowerman’s site-specific piece, created in collaboration with The Only Animal, and performed in collaboration with scuba diver Renee Sutton. Performed on and under a ferry dock, the waves add tension and atmosphere to the drawn-out scenes. The story is of a woman who delves into her traumatic memories of the past. Bowerman slips around in the freezing water on a self-made raft. An unpolished but interesting piece. - Julia Siedlanowska The Razzle Tassel Tease Show (Razzle Tassel Productions, @ Performance Works) The Razzle Tassel Tease Show serves up three good-hearted strippers who bump and grind their way through a variety of burlesque routines. Dancing to a brash 1950’s soundtrack featuring strident saxophones, whirling organ music, and staccato bongo beats, the gals kick up their heels and cavort with carefree, uninhibited precision on the cabaret stage. Tassels twirl, wild costumes come and go, and it’s bums, boobs, and flirty funny faces all the way. Clever staging features three costume racks with gold curtains, providing entry/exit points, and two winsome burlesque apprentices who work the transitions between routines. Razzle Tassel offers naive and naughty sexual fun in a rude, funny, and inventive performance that almost succeeds in making a parody out of parody. - Richard Dixon Houdini’s Last Escape (Monster Theatre, @ The Waterfront Theatre) Monster Theatre’s story of Harry Houdini’s life offers brisk pacing and clever acting laced liberally with magic and vaudevillian comedy. Christopher Bange and Tara Travis play Houdini and his wife Bess, and both display strong comedic talent and relaxed confidence in this rags-to-riches story of the magician who thrilled the world with his daring escape routines. We learn that, as a child, Houdini met a fortune teller who warned him he’d die while trapped. Thus, he becomes an obsessive escape artist, the motivation that’s the unifying theme in Monster Theatre’s imaginative offering. As in all well-told stories, Houdini’s Last Escape celebrates the intricate interplay between fate and free will. For ten bucks, this show’s a magical bargain. - Richard Dixon The Sparrow and the Mouse (Savvy Girls Theatre, @ False Creek Gym) Written and performed by Melanie Gall, this tribute to French songstress Edith Piaf is told from the point of view of Piaf’s half-sister Simone. With a piano soundtrack and a few simple props and set pieces, Gall gives a straightforward account of Piaf’s gruelling journey from childhood to stardom. The outstanding feature of the show is Gall’s singing. Her powerful, operatic voice is absolutely magnificent, and threatens to knock the walls down. When she climbs inside several French ballads, including “Plaisir d’ Amour,” “La Vie en Rose,” and “Hymne a |’ Amour,” Gall seems genuinely enthralled by the romantic sentiments of her heroine’s story. You’ll be happy to join her in that rapturous mood. - Richard Dixon Grim & Fischer (The Wonderheads, @ Performance Works) With actors Kate Braidwood and Andrew Phoenix working with full masks throughout the show, Grim & Fischer is forty-five minutes of exquisite physical acting. A simple