by Megan Mooney

Okay, so, I’ve already mentioned that I’m excited about the Fringe.  But, as I sit down to do my Fringe planning I find myself tempted to pull all the hair out of my head strand by strand.  The problem?  The Fringe website.

In a little over a week, a huge theatre festival will take place in 30 venues across Toronto.  An interesting side note, something I just noticed while counting out venues, there is no venue 13.  Theatre people a superstitious bunch?  No no, not us!  Right, sorry, back on track.  30 venues across the city, showing 150 shows.  Without a doubt the biggest theatre festival in Toronto, and this year is the 20th anniversary.

You’d think that would deserve a good website.  But apparently not.  Just over a week left and the website is still missing the play listings schedule (marked as TBA), the ‘entire fringe program’ link (also comes up TBA).  These are two pretty crucial pieces.  If I want to plan my fringe viewing day by day, venue by venue (which I do) I need access to that information.  It becomes painful to plan it based on the alphabetical play listings.

I have to admit, this is an ongoing frustration for me when it comes to theatre things.  So many theatres seem to miss the part where getting the information out to people is one of the most important things you can do.  I know I’m not alone in wishing there were bigger audiences, more people coming to shows, but how can we expect people to show up if we don’t let people know about what’s going on and how they can get to it easily.

So, my fingers are crossed that these pieces will be up and running ASAP on the Fringe website.