From Press Release

TORONTO FRINGE RELEASES FULLY-ACCESSIBLE SCREEN READER-FRIENDLY ASSISTED PERFORMANCES SUPPLEMENT

FEATURING 84 ASSISTED PERFORMANCES, INCLUDING ASL-INTERPRETED, AUDIO DESCRIBED AND RELAXED SHOWS

FRINGE ENTERS YEAR TWO OF A THREE-YEAR INITIATIVE TO OVERHAUL ACCESS AT THE FESTIVAL

June 24, 2019 (Toronto, ON) – Ontario’s largest theatre festival is entering its 31^st season this year and is making the festival more accessible than ever for its 90,000+ patrons. With increased box office accessibility, website tools, comprehensive venue accessibility information, a communications overhaul, and changes to staffing and hiring practices, Fringe’s goal is to better reflect our commitment to independence and dignity for all, including Deaf, Mad and disability-identified patrons.

Working with Accessibility Ontario document expert, Barbara Moody, Fringe has published its first fully accessible, screen reader-friendly Assisted Performances Supplement. The Assisted Performances Supplement, a companion to our Fringe Program Guide, highlights the 35 companies offering 84 individual Audio Described, ASL Interpreted, or Relaxed performances.

View or download the Assisted Performance Supplement here.

The Toronto Fringe is committed to creating an inclusive experience for all patrons, staff, volunteers and artists. Fringe continues to work with the community to identify, prevent and remove barriers so a fulfilling experience can be enjoyed by all. Fringe is grateful to the Metcalf Foundation for supporting the organization-wide access initiatives.

What else is the Fringe doing to make a more open, accessible festival?

PERSONAL SUPPORT WORKERS
Fringe welcomes people with disabilities who are accompanied by a personal support person. Personal support workers will be welcomed for free.

PRIORITY SEATING
Priority seating is available for patrons to ensure good sight lines for ASL Described shows, for those who need a little extra time to get to their seats or for any other access need. Patrons are asked to arrive at least 20 minutes before to ensure early access.

SERVICE ANIMALS
Service animals are welcome in all areas of our venues that are open to the public. If you frequently travel with a service animal, you can now include that information in your Fringe box office account.

VENUE ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
Detailed accessibility information will be available on our website for each main venue and POSTSCRIPT, the Fringe patio. Information includes door widths, ramp specifications, and accessible washroom details. General accessibility information for site-specific venues can also be found online.

VISUAL VENUE GUIDES
These guides help patrons get acquainted with a venue before they visit. The guides will be available online for all main venues, some site-specific venues, and POSTSCRIPT, the Fringe patio. They include directions to the venue and information on what patrons can expect when they get there.

SENSORY TOOLS
These items, including weighted blankets, fidgets, and noise-dampening ear muffs, are available for anyone that needs a little extra support processing all the excitement at POSTSCRIPT, our busy Fringe patio.

WAYS TO SERVE THE PUBLIC BETTER
All points of service at the Fringe are now equipped with magnifying tools as well as pen and paper. At performance venues, Fringe staff let patrons know that seating is beginning through visual signage as well as an audio call. Staff and volunteers receive training on serving patrons with disabilities.

BOX OFFICE
Patrons can now update their box office accounts with information about their access needs online or over the phone. This information will be used by Fringe’s Box Office and Front of House teams to better serve patrons with access needs.

Fringe Executive Director, Lucy Eveleigh, says: “For the last few years The Toronto Fringe has made access for all a priority, it is included in our values and our strategic plan. It is very simple – when we say we want our Festival to be inclusive, we mean it. We know that we still have a long way to go and we are open to feedback along the way, but we are striving to find ways for everyone to be a part of our Festival and we will do the work to ensure that can happen.”

A Note About Fringe Venues:

Venues, including main and site specifics, have varying degrees of physical accessibility.

Some patrons may experience barriers (due to ramp inclines, lack of automatic doors, etc.) even at the most accessible of venues depending on access needs. To better serve our patrons we seek to provide the most up to date and accurate information about our venues so that patrons can make informed decisions. To that end, detailed access information about main venues will be available online during the festival.

The Fringe is striving to identify and choose the most accessible venue options available in Toronto within our means while also encouraging our existing venues to meet and exceed AODA requirements. This is an ongoing process and we appreciate feedback and suggestions from the public.

While developing these programs and policies, Fringe has relied heavily on input from Deaf, Mad or disability-identified “Fringers.” Fringe always welcomes and actively solicits feedback, as we strive to make the festival more accessible.

Read the Toronto Fringe’s Accessibility Manifesto here.

Read the Toronto Fringe’s Accessibility Policy here.

From Press Release

Fly with Arrowwood Theatre Co. at the Toronto premiere of ICARUS 

For anyone who has ever had their heart broken, their dreams crushed, the wind knocked out of them; for anyone who has failed, fallen or just flubbed: this one’s for you.

As unavoidable as falling is, getting up, dusting off your wings and flying once again is never quite as easy as it seems. ICARUS, a new play by the Windsor, Ont.-based Arrowwood Theatre Co., looks at what it means to fail and what it means to try again. Flipping between a modern- day group of friends and the world of ancient Greece, ICARUS investigates the ways we get burned every day, but more importantly — the ways we pick each other up. The show takes a new look at the classic tale, viewing the story through fresh eyes and a modern perspective.

What began as a five-minute undergraduate project has since transformed into a full-fledged theatrical production. With the aid of several movement techniques, the show was collectively created by the cast of five actors tapping into their own experiences. The adaptation employs various physical and movement-based techniques, including Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints and Steve Paxton’s Contact Improvisation, a dance technique which has since been adapted for theatre.

These movement techniques are what brought Arrowwood Theatre Co. – a new theatre company with a major focus on physical theatre and the reimaging of classic folklore – together. It was created by five University students to challenge audiences with thought-provoking, yet accessible, movement theatre. Previously, two of the company’s founding members, Simone Matheson and Kiera Publicover, have had original devised work premier at the 2018 Dark Crop Theatre Festival in Belmont, Ont., respectively: Here and There (Seven Sisters Theatre Co.) and Barbra at the Beach (Basil + Time Theatre Co.). The company hopes that utilizing contact improv and the Viewpoints technique through the vehicle of the classic Greek story will encourage more appreciation of physical theatre and open doors to new theatre-goers.

“I do not necessarily know how / But that’s alright / I am ready to strap on my wings and try again.”

Arrowwood Theatre Company In association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents: ICARUS Featuring: Simone Matheson, Haiden Lyle, Kiera Publicover, Cullen MacNaughton, Kyra Scarlet Stage Managed by: Shae-lynn Applegate

Opens July 4th-13th Al Green Theatre (750 Spadina Ave.) 

Performances: July 4th, 10:30pm; July 6th, 7:30pm; July 7th, 5:00pm; July 9th, 1:00pm; July 11th, 3:30pm; July 12th, 9:45pm; July 13th, 5:45pm.

Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

 Purchase online: fringetoronto.com By Phone: 416-966-1062 In Person: During the festival at POSTSCRIPT, the patio at the Toronto Fringe

From Press Release

AQUARIUS PLAYERS PRESENTS 

SITE-SPECIFIC OUTDOOR ROMP OF
 The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Aquarius Players presents a site-specific 90 minute production of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. Performed at St. George the Martyr (30 Stephanie St., Toronto) The Taming of the Shrew runs July 3rd – 14th, evening performances at 7pm and weekend performances at 2pm with Monday dark. Tickets are $11 are available online or by phone (416-966-1062) or at the Festival Box Office (275 Bathurst St., Noon-10pm) or cash only at the door one hour before performance time.

The Taming of the Shrew is set in Padua, Italy. The play begins with Lucentio of Pisa and his servant Tranio arriving to go to university when they observe a strange sight: Signor Baptista is being hounded by his two neighbours because he has two daughters eligible for marriage. Hortensio and Gremio are both vying for the younger Bianca and want nothing to do with the elder Katherine, whom they consider ill-tempered. But until the elder is married, Bianca is off-limits, so they agree to try and find a suitor for the angry shrew. When they leave, Lucentio declares his love for Bianca and forgets all about his studies. Instead he switches clothes with his servant and instructs Tranio to present himself as another suitor under his master’s name while he tries to win Bianca’s love disguised as a tutor. Then Petruchio of Verona arrives to visit his friend Hortensio and tells him that his father has passed away and he is looking for a wife. When Hortensio informs him about the rich but scolding Katherine, Petruchio wastes no time in presenting himself to Baptista convinced that he’s the man to tame her. Shakespeare’s comedy seems inspired by stock characters of commedia dell’arte as applied to a classic folk tale.

The Taming of the Shrew is directed by Nicole Arends, with text adapted by Chris Coculuzzi, Costume Design by Elaine O’Neal, and Stage Managed by Kate Dowdall. This production features Chris Coculuzzi as Petruchio and Alexandra Milne as Kate. It also features Daryn DeWalt as Gremio/Vincentio, Scott Moore as Baptista, Chris Irving as Hortensio/Pedant, Elaine O’Neal as Grumio/Widow, Paige Madsen as Tranio, Michael Pearson as Lucentio, Greta Whipple as Bianca, and features the sax-playing talent of Christina Leonard as Biondello.

About Aquarius Players
The name Aquarius Players was designed to embrace a group of artists coming together under an agreed creative project. For purposes of this production, the genesis came from a creative collaboration between director Nicole Arends and adaptor Chris Coculuzzi. Both have a history of site-specific productions at the Fringe dating back to 2001. And the last collaboration between Arends and Coculuzzi was a production of Hamlet (Upstart Crow, 2001). 

From Press Release

A Plague Upon the Doctor’s House​ is a new play by Jamie D. Rose and is premiering this summer at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival. It is a dark comedy set in England sometime during the 18th century. There is murder. There is thievery. And there is, of course, the plague.

The action starts when a doctor is murdered by his own wife, just before the unexpected arrival of a highwayman, his sister, and her soon to be husband. The highwayman, Thomas, is looking to say goodbye to his mother. His sister, Gretchen, to announce her marriage and steal away the inheritance. All while Amy pretends that she — and not her dead husband — is, in fact, the doctor.

Written and directed by Jamie D. Rose and featuring Hannah Leigh Ehman as Amy, Andrew Camerone as Thomas, Emma Nelles as Gretchen, Nick Eddie as Bradley, and Ctherine Teichman as Sister Anne. You can follow the production on instagram @PlagueFringeTO.

Showtimes
July 3rd — 6:00pm
July 5th — 9:30pm
July 7th — 8:00pm
July 8th — 5:45pm
July 10th — 2:15pm (Relaxed performance) July 12th — 10:00pm
July 13th — 8:00pm

All shows are taking place at the beautiful Factory Theatre in downtown Toronto. The show has a run time of 80 minutes.
Tickets can be purchased for $13 online at https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/plague-upon-doctors-house​, or in person at the venue.

From Press Release