2011 Vancouver Fringe Festival

David C. Jones is an arts lover and a critical thinker. He makes films, directs plays, teaches, is a professional emcee and writes for the OUTtv website.  He also loves the creativity and innovation he uncovers each year at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.  Here are David's take on the many shows he saw at this year's Festival.  Top of the list are his most loved.

Fifty years for any organization is noteworthy, but when Amnesty International marks fifty years it is something to be celebrated.  In a partnership with Vancouver-based ACTivist theatre collective, Amnesty International will mark this milestone locally with performances of Short and Sweet: Small Plays for Big Ideas at the 2011 Vancouver International Fringe Festival.

Playwright, performer and phone sex operator.  It is all in a days (and nights) work for Cameryn Moore who brings her one-woman show Phone Whore to this year’s Vancouver International Fringe Festival.

There’s not much we haven’t seen at the Vancouver Fringe over the years.  But we’re pretty sure Trouble in Tahiti is the first opera.  Local gay singer Grant Wardlow says that with the Fringe already pushing the limits of theatre, it only makes sense to include a genre that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a fringe fest.

Equal parts truth and imagination, Lynna Goldhar Smith presents her one-woman show Sally Lives Here as part of the 2011 Vancouver International Fringe Festival.

Queer performer Katherine Glover returns to the Vancouver Fringe with her latest work, Burning Brothels: Sex and Death in Nevada, a collection of stories about the history of prostitution.

Local gay actor and director Allan Morgan is a busy man.  Back again for another year at Bard on the Beach with multiple roles in both Henry VI and Richard III, Morgan is also directing Susan McFarlen's new play Since You Left Us for the 2011 Vancouver International Fringe Festival.

With over 700 performances from 89 shows, live music and a multitude of special events, the Vancouver Fringe Festival takes over Granville Island (and beyond) once again this September.