Category Archives: Fringe Theatre Festival

Creativity, Transparency & Courage

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This above all: To thine own self be true. – William Shakespear … [Photo by Matthias Wagner]

Next month, I’m planning to go to my hometown of Winnipeg to visit friends, family, and take in some of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. I’m quite looking forward to it!

Being at the Fringe Threatre Festival is going to be interesting since I haven’t performed in nearly two years. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about that. When I take in live theatre, I tend to start thinking about diving into creating a new show and performing again. That said, I don’t really have a burning desire to get back on the stage again and perform. …Well, not really, but maybe a little? It’s complicated – but I’ll try to explain what I mean.

When I sit down and think about it, it seems to me that acting for the sake of acting and getting deep into a role has never really been, shall I say, my impetus for getting involved in theatre. I don’t think it was ever my true desire to be an actress. I just sort of fell into it, and then went along for the ride. And I’m glad I did, because I believe it to be a very important part of my life journey!

I think one of the reasons I was was whisked away by theatre was because I desired to prove to myself that it was something I was capable of. I shied away from the stage and certainly experienced varying levels of stage fright. Yet despite that, I still had a calling to be on stage. And so, I answered that call and sought to be the kind of person who would overcome that fear – or, at the very least, feel the fear and do it anyway.

I love theatre as an art form as a whole, but I can’t say I was ever truly in love with the acting / performance facet more than all the other aspects of theatre. I was initially much more drawn to directing and design in addition to playwriting. Theatre was to become my preferred medium of expression by creating, producing, and performing my own independent plays.

Sometimes I find myself missing the process of creating a play and bringing it into the world, sharing it with people, and interacting with an audience. I like knowing that I’ve made an impact on someone else’s life. I’m not sure if I’ve given up on my past theatre career just yet. (Although it hasn’t really been that much of a career for the past 8 years or so, since I haven’t been deeply involved in it for quite some time.) Even so, I’m simultaneously a bit reluctant to get back into it.

My last show, which I only performed in one city, was vastly underdeveloped by the time opening came around, and of course I bombed my opening performance and got a horrendous review based on that horrendous opening show. That’s been a pattern I’ve had for a while:

  • Have lofty ambitions for a show.
  • Book a slot in Fringe festivals when the play is merely an idea.
  • Work on creating the show for the booked performances… but then inevitably get stuck in the creative process.
  • Fall WAY behind schedule because I hold myself to really high expectations and get overly critical of everything I write.
  • Scramble to get the show ready, somehow, in time for the pre-scheduled performance date so that I don’t have to bear the embarrassment of cancelling the show and losing all the money I had already invested in festival fees and props and costume pieces and advertising, etc.
  • Focus way too much on the production details (like sound, costume, poster and flyer design, etc.) because I find that part so much easier and more grounding than the difficult process of trying to be a creative genius and prove to the world that I have something important to say. Plus, it makes me feel like I’m actually making progress and being productive.
  • Calm myself down from stressing myself out (like you wouldn’t believe) and somehow pull a performance out of my ass on opening night.
  • Kick myself over and over post-opening-night show for missing various key points that I had intended to make due to getting too nervous (not to mention being underprepared.)
  • Get depressed about the inevitable review from that horrendous premiere performance. (I’ve almost always had the wondrous ‘luck’ of having a reviewer attend the very first performance EVER of a new production or at a theatre festival… and of course the very first performance rarely goes according to plan.)
  • Try to continually improve and tweak the show throughout its entire run.
  • Stress myself out during the festival.
  • Mop up my splattered self-esteem (and you can image how much of a mess it can get when one’s own grandmother expresses disappointment over that bad aforementioned review and refused to see one’s show because of it).
  • Reassure myself that I’m capable of so much better.
  • Remind myself that, although the show was vastly underprepared and nowhere near my initial vision and ambition, it was still something that many people were touched by (at least as the show continued to improve).
  • Tell myself that there’s no way I can let that be my last production because if I were ever to “retire” (so to speak), my ego wants to go out with a bang. i.e. a show that’s garnered tons of praise and wonderful reviews.

… And that pretty much brings us back to the present – or, to just under two years ago when my last show wrapped up at the end of July, 2017. I’ve had too many of these frustrating experience, and I know I’m to blame. You’d think I’d learn. Maybe I’m fearful of trying again because I’m fearful of repeating the same dreadful pattern. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking about it every so often.

Now and then I’ll find myself thinking about potential show ideas that I could, just maybe, attempt for next time. Although next time I want to ensure that I’m beyond prepared. That would certainly be a refreshing breath of air!

One of the show ideas I’ve tossed around in my head involves a format I’ve never done in my life, and it sort of terrifies me: Portray myself on stage. Not a character, not a work of fiction. Portray my real self and share stories about life. Share my actual thoughts and fears and demons. You can see why this might terrify me.

Part of me desperately wants to attempt this type of show. I’ve never done anything like it, ever. I have no idea if it’d be any good. Have I even led an interesting enough life to warrant such a show? But the very fact that this scares me tells me that I should probably explore it.

If I did a show based on my life (it’d be a storytelling style play, I believe), I ask myself if I’d have the courage to be blatantly transparent about my self and my life. I truly want to. But would I have the balls to do that if I knew my family would be there in the audience?

Ultimately, I’m pretty sure this is something I’d like to explore. I don’t have a specific idea as of for the theme I’d want to explore for this type of show (aside from daring myself to be as authentic and transparent as I could be), nor for the stories I would share. But it’s definitely something that’s been on my mind, and I’m so curious to discover what kind of show I’d come up with if I were to pursue this idea.

I suppose I could consider this bog post as a means of “leaning into it” – “it” being the idea for this storytelling show in which I’d portray my unabashed and unadulterated self. Hmmm…

How comfortable are you in sharing your true self with the world? What stories would you be afraid or nervous to tell? What kind of stories do you think others would relate to best? …And especially: What kind of stories would you love to hear? <3

This above all: To thine own self be true.

― William Shakespeare

Announcing (MINI) DEMON OF DEATH at The Winnipeg Fringe, 2017

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Rachelle Fordyce as (MINI) DEMON OF DEATH – Winnipeg Fringe, 2017.

The 30th annual International Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival will be starting in approximately 4 weeks, and I’m pleased to announce that I will be participating in this festival with a brand-shiny-new show!

My new show is titled (MINI) DEMON OF DEATH and here’s the description I wrote up to be included in the Winnipeg Fringe Festival program guide:

From the creator of unADULTeRATED me:

★★★★★ “Rachelle Fordyce drops jaws… Powerful, naked, honest humanity.”
– StarPhoenix

★★★★★ “Hilarity, poignancy, and finally triumph.” (A+)
– UPTOWN

★★★★★”One of the best Fringe shows I’ve ever seen.”
– SEE Magazine

Meet DEATH – a feisty, foul-mouthed, horny demon who’s here to tally man’s mortal (mis)deeds. …Humans are seriously f*cked up!

Saucy, seductive, and bitterly sweet, 5-foot Death comes to Life and gets in your face in this all new, interactive, genre-defying show.

I will share more about this new work in a future blog post, but before I do, I wanted to take a little time to share my Fringe journey and how I got to performing at the Fringe.

The Winnipeg Fringe has been part of my life for quite some time now. My very first performance ever at the Winnipeg Fringe took place in July 2001. I was cast in a University of Winnipeg production of Bertolt Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. It was my first time performing publicly since high school and I was so excited and proud to be part of that amazing production.

Jumping ahead just two years in time to July 2003, I performed my very own first solo production and creation, Hate Your Job? Quit! (with the alternate title of Eve Rae Mann and The Pursuit of Happiness). My very first ever review garnered 3.5 Stars and a very encouraging and promising review from CBC/Pauline Broderick.

And, I suppose, the rest is history…  Not only would I create and perform another solo show at the Winnipeg Fringe in the following year in 2004 (Belle’s Boudoir — 4 Stars in the Winnipeg Free Press), but as luck would have it, I was fortunate enough to land a coveted spot in CAFF Touring Lottery for 2005! That year, I toured a revised version of Hate Your Job? Quit! called, S.M.I.L.E. while you D.I.E. (it was a clever acronym revealed in the play), which I performed in seven major cities across Canada: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Victoria, and Vancouver. That tour gave rise to more encouraging 4-star reviews under my belt, in addition to giving me my first taste of a full-house standing ovation. (I was elated!)

Knowing that my work can inspire and touch people to such a degree that they’re moved to stand up and enthusiastically applaud at the end up a performance is something I hold very dear to my heart. Granted, that can be a nice boost to the ego, but that’s not what I mean here. Rather, to me, it’s an encouraging, generous, and sometimes even loving gesture that conveys to me that I’ve somehow made a positive contribution to someone else’s experience; and who knows, maybe have even caused someone to veer in a slightly different path that would turn his or her life around for the better in some way — the butterfly effect, in essence.

Although there’s part of me that would like to be immune to audience reaction and reviews (especially if they’re less than kind), I realize that, when it comes down to it, it’s the audience whom I’m actually doing this for — they’re why I get up in front of a room full of people and take huge risks. Not for the hope that they might stand and applaud at the end (although, I must admit, it’s always so wonderfully appreciated if and when that might happen), but for the hope that, maybe, their life was made even an inkling better for having seen me perform in one of my plays. It’s about the hope of making a positive difference in others’ lives.

After the 2005 CAFF tour, I continued to perform in some other Canadian Fringes. In 2006 I performed a new play, Netherwhere : Aetherwhen, in London, Ontario. And then, In 2007, I performed a self-penned solo kids Fringe show for the Saskatoon and Edmonton Fringes.

2008 marked the first time I produced and performed a solo show that was not my own. That year, I performed the role of Steve (or Stevie) in Wild Abandon, a role that was originally written by and for well-known Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor. I had received special permission to alter the role ever so slightly to perform it as a female, and surprisingly, it worked really well. I performed Wild Abandon at the Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringes that year, and received some positive and encouraging feedback.

After performing in various Fringe Festivals for six years in a row, 2009 would be my first summer off from Fringe since my first my solo-Fringe. I didn’t know it yet, but perhaps I needed that rest for what was to come in 2010 because late in 2009 I was to win another spot in for 2010 CAFF Touring Lottery. I felt tremendously lucky!

Having recently taken a series of clown trainings with prominent Canadian Clown teachers Sue Morrison and John Turner, I was inspired to create a new clown character and a new solo clown show, pushing myself to take huge creative risks and go beyond my comfort zone. So in 2010, Fizzy Tiff was born in unADULTeRATED me.

In unADULTeRATED me, as Fizzy Tiff, I pushed myself to do things I had never done before, such as involving audience members in the play — and in a huge way, too: I had someone on stage with me for at least half the play — which naturally meant a lot of improvisation. In addition to that, there was feeding my audience volunteer while (s)he was blindfolded, doing a playful clowny lap-dance strip-tease for said volunteer, and singing opera… while naked.

I opted to tour unADULTeRATED me to (only) six cities: Montreal, London, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton. The show was still coming together and being re-written while in Montreal, but from the first performance in London, it was a hit and a huge success!

unADULTeRATED me went on to earn a lot of praise and even a few 5-Star reviews (my first), and many, many standing ovations.  So many audiences were moved to both uproarious laughter and vulnerable tears. That play was truly my most memorable and rewarding creation and performance to date.

In 2012 I created a new play with Fizzy Tiff, a stand-alone sequel of sorts, called unADULTeRATED LOVE. I premiered it in London, testing out a few things with the audience there until I settled on the format for the show. I wasn’t reviewed in London, but I had been getting some very positive feedback and was excited to perform it in Winnipeg, where it got an encouraging standing ovation on opening (even despite some minor technical kinks that interrupted the flow of the initial performance); and that certainly wouldn’t be the last, either!

Following suit after unADULTeRATED me, I wanted to try to take more huge risks in unADULTeRATED LOVE… this time, in the form of having three audience members up on stage with me, playing raunchy games full of sexual innuendo (think “the dating game”), kissing one of my volunteers, and then getting her to help me prepare and rehearse a surprise wedding-night threesome for Fizzy’s husband-to-be. It was a riot, and I can tell the audience had such a fun time. I remember seeing one guy in the audience at least twice, maybe even three times, he loved it so much! (And he was always on the edge of his seat, laughing up a storm!) And since I’d involve audience participation and volunteers, each performance was always a little different.

(MINI) DEMON OF DEATH  is my first show since unADULTeRATED LOVE, so it has a lot of expectations to live up to. I really hope I can live up to them. I’m planning on taking some new big risks involving the entire audience vs just 1-3 audience volunteers, and I’m really excited to see how that will work and what the end result will be like.

Ultimately, I won’t know until I’m up there, playing with my audience. But my hope and goal is that it’s going to be magical.  <3