Christmas has come early for Vancouver Fringe Festival lovers with the advent of A Very Merry Fringemas – the festival’s new, one-night-only holiday cabaret and fundraiser, starring your favourite Fringe stars.
Host Jayson McDonald, known for Fringe hits Magic Unicorn Island and Giant Invisible Robot, will lead a band of “merry misfits” – which so far includes TJ Dawe (Marathon, Medicine), Andrew Bailey (The Adversary, Me, the Queen, and a Coconut), Sydney Hayduk (Village Ax), Jeff Leard (Sperm Wars) and more – as they smash their creative minds together into new sketches, songs, stories, and silliness.
“You have the energetic, bright-eyed, enthusiastic folk like Jeff Leard and Sydney Hayduk,” explains McDonald, “and you pair them up with more low-key, subtle people like me… It provides a lot of opportunity for interesting comedy dynamic, for sure,” he says with a laugh.
It has also allowed the Fringe friends an excuse to get together and create new work.
“This is what’s happening right as we speak actually,” says McDonald. “People are writing bits, writing bits for others, writing bits together. We’re basically in a frenzy of creating content for the show right now, and it’s happening in little pockets all over the city.”
Fringemas is the brainchild of Fringe operations manager Shantini Klaassen and playwright/performer Tara Travis (playing the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz, running Dec. 10-Jan. 3 at Gateway Theatre), and is a continuation of the fall festival’s move to more year-round programming.
“This year I visited both Orlando and Edmonton to meet with their Fringe producers and learn more about their festivals,” says Klaassen. “They do a lot of different events that are really fun and bring their Fringe community together. I wanted to create an event outside of September that brought the true spirit of Fringe together – uncensored, silly, and celebratory – and I knew Tara and Jayson would bring a high caliber of artists together and create something totally unique.
“Plus, I love Christmas,” she continues. “I get the same warm fuzzies celebrating during the Christmas season that I do celebrating at the Fringe, so I figured it was a perfect pairing.”
Taking place Dec. 11 at the intimate Studio 1398 on Granville Island, seats for Fringemas are limited and advance tickets ($20) are strongly recommended.
• A Very Merry Fringemas runs Dec. 11 at 8pm at Studio 1398 (1398 Cartwright). Tickets from $20; Tickets.VancouverFringe.com. 19+
