Toronto’s Marginalized Artists Sidelined on the Fringes

“How many times have we seen a white man at Fringe place a stool on stage and tell us his story and think it was brilliant?” This question from Janelle Hanna’s show RULES CONTROL THE FUN introduces a persistent problem in the Toronto theatre community.

The Toronto Fringe boasts about its supplementation of diversity through its lottery structure, claiming the festival is for “anyone and everyone!” (Fringe 2017). However, I argue the Fringe does little to influence the diversity it claims to produce.

In Temple Hauptfleisch’s Festivals as Eventifying Systems, Hauptfleisch argues the festival itself should be considered a “performance”, taking into account the particular cultural and ideological surroundings of the community (40). If one views the Toronto Fringe Festival as a performance, one must also evaluate the conditions of productions as outlined by Richard Knowles, or the “Actor, director…historical/cultural moment of production” (Knowles 19). In this case, the director and producers would be the festival organizers and the actors are everyone involved in the festival whether patron or performer.

With Toronto publications self-proclaiming its city as one of the most diverse in the world (Flack 2016, Grainger 2016), it is pertinent to examine why the performances at Fringe and the Fringe Tent, Toronto Fringe’s central hub, are overwhelmingly dominated by white Anglophones (Babayants 2017), considering the festival is influenced by the “community” in which it is situated (Hauptflesich 43). The lottery system is highly dependent upon its candidates, which are usually independent theatre artists and collectives, proving its pool of applicants are indicative of the wider community.

It would seem organizers have recognized the lack of diversity through its inclusion into their strategic plan (Fringe 2015) and in a document labelled “Diversity and Inclusion Policy Mission” ("DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION” 2017). These are strong theoretical steps towards diversity through equity, however many theatre goers have not seen actual progress as Fringe’s Outreach Coordinator, Kevin Matthew Wong, noted when his team excluded an Indian dancer from Fringe’s main advertisements as she did not reflect the “cultural content” of their festival (K. Wong 2017). The festival’s homogeny is understandable when realizing the role economic “forces” such as corporate sponsors play in influencing the organizer’s “central aim” of diversity and inclusion (Hauptfleisch 44-45).

However, it is becoming increasingly urgent to stage theatre that voices marginalized peoples’ stories. As Moradewun Adejunmobi notes, it is important to perform and mediate pieces that highlight marginalized voices and languages, as this keeps these cultures from being continuously diminished (26). Some read this article and infer that staging stories of cultural and linguistic minorities is enough, however it is in the employment and artistic agency of these minorities through a “re-exmin[ation]” of theatrical companies’ “institutions” that supplants its success (J. Wong 2017). Considering Fringe’s lottery format, it is crucial to examine the possibilities of initiating a ‘diversity’ board, or expanding the ‘Culturally Diverse Artist Project’, with the intention of producing a stronger “force” (Hauptfleisch 45) for the organizers to fully implement their goals of diversity.

Works Cited

Adejunmobi, Moradewun. "Performance and Language Diversity in a Globalizing World." Ed. Peter Licthenfels and John Rouse. Performance, politics and activism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 17-31. Web. 12 July 2017.

"Artist opportunities." Toronto Fringe Festival. 13 June 2017. Web. 12 July 2017. https:// fringetoronto.com/year-round/artist-opportunities

Babayants, Art. "DRM398 In Sundry Languages Discussion." 9 July 2018. Seminar.

"DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION POLICY MISSION ." Toronto Fringe Festival. Web. 12 July 2017. https://fringetoronto.com/sites/default/files/Diversity%20and%20Inclusion %20Policy%20Mission.pdf

Flack, Derek. "Toronto named most diverse city in the world." BlogTO. 15 May 2016. Web. 12 July 2017.

"Fringe Strategy Plan 2015." Toronto Fringe Festival. 2015. Web. 12 July 2017. https:// fringetoronto.com/sites/default/files/Fringe-Strat-Plan-web-version-2015-FINAL.pdf

Grainger, Lia. "Toronto declared the world's most diverse city." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 16 May 2016. Web. 12 July 2017. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/toronto-declared- the-worlds-most-diverse-city-184641259.html.

Hauptfleisch, Temple. "Festivals as Eventifying Systems." Festivalising! : theatrical events, politics and culture. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2007. 39-45. Web. 12 July 2017.

Knowles, Richard Paul. "Theory: Towards a materialist semiotic." Reading the Material Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 9-23. Web. 12 July 2017.

Wong, Jessica. "A contemporary colour palette: Meet the exciting leaders bringing real diversity to Canadian theatre." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 30 Apr. 2017. Web. 12 July 2017.

Wong, Kevin Matthew. DRM398 Seminar #2. University of Toronto, Toronto. 6 July 2017. Seminar.