Sunday Feature: Interview with Amy Blackmore

The Machine in Full-Metal Mode

"It’s sort of like being brought up in to the festival from the inside right away."

by Émilie Charlebois

Photos of Fringe HQ by Mainline Ghost

As the 21st edition of the St Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival fast approaches, the Plateau-Mile End neighborhood is gearing up for its annual surge in cultural activities.  The Charlebois Post took this opportunity to talk with Amy Blackmore, who is succeeding Jeremy Hechtman as Festival director, in order to find out what to expect after 21 years of Montreal Fringe.

CHARPO:

You’ve been involved with the Fringe for a long time now, starting as a volunteer. What do you think your experience brings to the table now that you’re the Festival director? How has it helped you so far? 

BLACKMORE:

I think that the fact that I started off as a volunteer is probably one of the most important things that I am bringing to the table. The fact that I’ve spent ten years there, and I wasn’t just a volunteer. I was a volunteer, then I became an artist, then I started as the assistant to the producer (Jeremy Hechtman). It’s sort of like being brought up in to the festival from the inside right away. It might mean that I lack, to a certain extent, the experience of just being an audience member, but I think it’s interesting because I was brought in to the community right away. The values that the Fringe Festival holds, which are of community, neighborhood  and togetherness, were instilled in me right away. That’s what really attracted me to it and that’s what I hope to share with everyone else.

CHARPO:

How has it been taking over Jeremy Hechtman’s position after 15 years? It must have felt like you had some pretty big shoes to fill.

BLACKMORE:

Definitely. His shoes are a bigger size than mine, I only wear size 5 ½ ! No, you know what? It’s been really great so far. I really feel ready to go ahead.

We have three different kinds of programming: our Fringe A to Z, our Fringe Park programming and our Fringe After-Dark programming.

CHARPO:

Well your closeness to him as his assistant must have made the transition a bit smoother.

BLACKMORE:

Definitely. It made it way smoother and it’s been quite a long transition, which has been nice. I’ve known about it for two years now, so it has been a nice way to not only learn all the ropes, but to also mentally prepare for this.

CHARPO:

Since finding out that you would be taking on the position of festival director, what have been some of your goals?

BLACKMORE:

Well, the Fringe used to be only ten days, and last year we established a 21 day format.This year I think it’s really important to me that we really establish that we are a 21 day long festival now and that we have three different kinds of programming: our Fringe A to Z, our Fringe Park programming and our Fringe After-Dark programming.

CHARPO:

And within all of this what have been some of the major challenges that you’ve faced?

BLACKMORE:

It’s a good question…lack of sleep on certain days. You know, it’s funny because it’s not something that I think about too often (the challenges). I think if you’re going to work for the Fringe, you have to power through a lot and so more than anything the challenge as festival director is to make sure that people around you are flexible with yourself and that they understand that there’s going to be three months every year of your life that you are just mainly focused on the Fringe Festival. That kind of transition has been really interesting.

CHARPO:

In addition to the programming, are there any other changes that you implemented because you felt they were necessary, now that you have the ability to impose yourself a bit more?

BLACKMORE:

Well you know, ‘‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’’ is sort of one of my philosophies. Really establishing those three programs has been the main thing. Also, one thing that we did this year was that we really took our time to look at what we have as a festival and see how we can move ahead with it. The Fringe is more mature now, we’re 21 years, so looking ahead to the future, it’s realizing that we’re not really the fringe of anything anymore. We are our own entity, we are our own festival. So really figuring out who we are without everybody else, what is our statement, what are we trying to say.

So we decided that this year we’re going to have eleven ‘Fringe A to Z’ venues and we’ve more than doubled the amount of off-venues.

CHARPO:

And have you figured out what it is you’re trying to say?

BLACKMORE:

I think so, ha ha! I mean, I think the fact that we are the neighborhood festival of the Plateau / Mile End, I think people come to the Fringe, like I said, not because we’re the fringe of something but because we are our own entity. People come to the festival for that neighborhood feel, to come to the smaller venues, to come hang out in the park. Essentially we’re a big block party for the neighborhood now.

CHARPO:

But do you feel like now that the Fringe has become this bigger entity, that there is a need to keep it fresh and inventive in terms of maybe a theme upon from which to move forward from year to year? Or is sticking to the neighborhood aspect of the festival enough?

BLACKMORE:

I think we’re lucky as far as keeping it fresh because our artists are chosen by lottery or ‘‘first come, first serve.’’ I think that’s what keeps it fresh year after year. Actually, I meant to mention earlier that one new thing that we’re doing this year, is we’ve expanded the number of venues that we have. We used to only have ten indoor ‘Fringe A to Z’ venues and then a couple of off-venues. But we had a record amount of applications this year which really told me that the work that we’ve been doing—trying to foster a community of creativity—is really starting to pay off because the amount of applications went up. So we decided that this year we’re going to have eleven ‘Fringe A to Z’ venues and we’ve more than doubled the amount of off-venues. 

This year we’ve decided to bring in a visual art component. So we have two visual art events going on.

BLACKMORE (cont'd)

This year we’ve decided to bring in a visual art component. So we have two visual art events going on. One is called ‘En Masse,’ and it’s a group of visual artists that are going to be setting up on the final closing weekend of the festival. What they’re going to do on Saint-Laurent, just outside our Fringe park, is they’re going to put up these huge white boards that the artists are going to come and create a huge mural on. They’ll be doing that for two days. The other thing that we’re doing is a new ‘first come first serve’ system for visual art and there’s going to be a vernissage for all of that work happening on June 2nd.

CHARPO:

Was this an idea proposed by somebody on the outside or did it come from within the organization?

BLACKMORE:

It’s something that we’ve seen other festivals begin to do across Canada, and we thought: ‘‘You know what? Why not! It’s time.’’ I mean the Fringe is known to be a performing arts festival but it’s so hard to define art these days, there are so many lines, it gets very blurred, so we thought: ‘‘let’s start to bring in the visual art component now.’’

CHARPO:

Have you taken any measures to increase attendance for this year.

BLACKMORE:

Definitely. It’s the biggest festival we’ve ever put on. It’s the biggest amount of companies we’ve ever had, it’s the most amount of venues, most amount of performances and shows. This year we have over 500 artists.

CHARPO:

On a side note, what was your reaction to the Atlantic Fringe Festival hiatus that resulted from Ken Pinto’s decision?

BLACKMORE:

I don’t really have a big reaction to it. I think it’s up to that festival’s board of directors to decide how they’re going to deal with that situation.

CHARPO:

Do you think this may however impact the attendance at Montreal’s Fringe Festival because people who may have gone to Halifax will now seek out Montreal instead?

BLACKMORE:

Possibly, I’m under the impression they don’t have a big amount of visitors that go to that festival and theirs is usually in September so I don’t think it’s really going to impact ours in any way.

CHARPO:

What do you think makes Montreal’s Fringe Festival stand out in comparison to others? What may attract the artists and Fringe-goers?

BLACKMORE:

It’s interesting because Montreal is at the beginning of the touring circuit of fringe festivals that go across the country. It starts in Orlando Florida in late May, then it’s Montreal, Ottawa, London, Toronto, Winnipeg, and all the way up to Victoria and Vancouver. And the joke that sort of goes around with the touring companies is that the Montreal Fringe should really be the last Fringe of the whole circuit because we are the party Fringe. So by the time the artists end up in Ottawa, London and Toronto, a couple of them tend to be hungover! And I think that’s sort of the nice thing about Montreal, that it is a party Fringe: we don’t wear passes around our necks, everybody goes to the 13th Hour at the end of the night, we hang out with the artists and the volunteers and the public. There’s that real sense of togetherness.

CHARPO:

You said the artists were chosen by lottery and ‘first come, first serve’ so is there any criteria used for selecting them, or is it simply a matter of getting the application in on time?

Coming to the Fringe: Every Woman

BLACKMORE:

Well artists fill out an application form, they have their checkbook ready, or however they’re going to make their payment, it was due on the 15th of November, and we put everybody’s names in a hat based on our four quotas: 20% for international companies, 20% for Canadian companies, 40% for local Anglophone and 40% for local Francophone. Then we literally just pull all the names out of a hat; it’s public, we invite all of the artists to attend that. 

CHARPO:

Did you have to deal with any disappointment from performers? Have they reacted to this way of selecting artists?

BLACKMORE:

I mean I think that some of the artists are always disappointed if they don’t get in to the Festival, but that’s why we decided to add numbers of venues this year. But I think one thing that we will look at towards the future is find ways to have these artists involved if it’s not by doing their show, then maybe they can participate in some kind of special event that we put on.

Coming to the Fringe: Directing Hamlet

CHARPO

But someone like Uncalled For who have been there for several years, are they brought back by popular demand, or are they also part of the lottery and just very lucky?

BLACKMORE:

They go through the process as well. Because the other thing we do is the ‘first come, first serve’ part in September, where we allow a certain amount of companies to reach quota, we accept the first six to eight of them that apply. So everyone showed up at Mainline on I think September 18th this year (I actually slept over at Mainline that night) and we had people lining up outside the door as of midnight to get in to the festival.

CHARPO:

I also noticed that Uncalled For is once again on the list for this year. Will they be hosting the 13th Hour again?

BLACKMORE:

Returning to the Fringe: Uncalled For

They will be hosting the 13th Hour again, at our new location which is at Le Cabaret Du Mile End.

CHARPO:

Are there any other returning favourites? Your own, or others that were very popular in previous years?

BLACKMORE:

It’s going to be an interesting year. I think a lot of the content, or a lot of the companies that have applied this year, applied for the first time actually.

CHARPO:

Are there any that you are particularly excited about?

BLACKMORE:

Coming to the Fringe: Radio Star

Well I’m particularly excited about Fringe-Moi, which we started last year. It’s the ‘quotidien du festival,’ it’s like a daily show that we’re going to put up on the internet. The company Belzébrute will be producing that and they also have a show in the festival this year as well, their show Manga, which they did at Mainline earlier this year. I’m really looking forward to that one.

CHARPO:

Is there anything you would like this year’s Fringe goers to be mindful of? do you have any advice for them?

BLACKMORE:

The Fringe is about discovery, you know, and I think that if you want to go about the Fringe, show up to the festival, go to the Fringe park, buy a beer, open your program and see what excites you.

****

• The 2011 St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival takes place May 30th to June 19th. The program will be available on the festival’s website as of May 17th, at which point tickets can be purchased online. 
• Tickets can also be purchased at the Mainline Theater box office (in person or over the phone) as of May 31th.
• The Fringe park box office opens on June 9th.
• Tickets can also be purchased 1 hour before each show (arrive early!)
• Want to get a sneak peak of some of this years performances? The ‘‘Fringe For All’’ will take place May 30th at Café Campus (admission is FREE)
• Take a look at some of last year’s Fringe-Moi installments (in French)
• For more information about the Montreal Fringe Festival (history, this year’s artists, press releases, etc.) visit their website