Amy Blackmore is a Montreal impresario and is the founder and artistic director of the Bouge d'ici Dance Festival. She is also the Executive and Artistic Director of MainLine Theatre and the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival. She has worked with a variety of theatre companies and festivals as a producer, performer or choreographer, such as the Montreal Highlights Festival, The Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company and Infinitheatre. [1] Blackmore is described as coming from a generation of artists that are taking charge of their own careers with a "DIY philosophy" towards producing. [2]
Blackmore studied contemporary dance at Concordia University. [3]
Blackmore began her career at the Fringe as an artist and volunteer at the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival at the age of 17. She quickly became interested in the festival's community. After a few years of creating shows, she became the festival's assistant producer. In 2011, Blackmore became the festival's director, replacing longtime producer Jeremy Hechtman. [4]
In 2012, she assumed responsibility for the entire company that produces the Fringe, becoming MainLine Theatre's Executive and Artistic Director. Shortly thereafter, Blackmore was named Newsmaker of the Year for arts and culture by the Montreal Gazette, alongside Montreal comedian Sugar Sammy. [5] Blackmore is responsible for the incorporation of visual arts programming into the Montreal Fringe, a festival primarily known for its performing arts. [6]
Canada's contemporary theatre reflects a rich diversity of regional and cultural identities. Since the late 1960s, there has been a concerted effort to develop the voice of the 'Canadian playwright', which is reflected in the nationally focused programming of many of the country's theatres. Within this 'Canadian voice' are a plurality of perspectives - that of the First Nations, new immigrants, French Canadians, sexual minorities, etc. - and a multitude of theatre companies have been created to specifically service and support these voices.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale.
The National Arts Centre (NAC) is a performing arts organization in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre building.
Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.
Graeae Theatre Company, often abbreviated to Graeae, is a British organisation composed of deaf and disabled artists and theatre makers. As well as producing theatre which it tours nationally and internationally to traditional theatres and outdoor spaces, Graeae run a large and varied Creative Learning and training programme for emerging, young and mid-career deaf and disabled artists.
Tamara Rojo CBE is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. She became the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in late 2022.
The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at home and internationally.
Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020.
The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Grahamstown, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers.
The infringement Festival is an international, interdisciplinary critical arts festival that features theatre, music, film, culture jamming, street performance and visual arts, with an emphasis on activist art and work that challenges the commodification of culture.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a performing arts festival held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, every summer, usually during the first two weeks in August. The eleven-day event, which features performing artists of many genres and disciplines, is one of many Fringe Festivals in North America. Minnesota Fringe is the largest nonjuried festival in the United States and the third-largest Fringe festival in North America. In 2013, Minnesota Fringe ran August 1–11 and featured 176 shows with a total of 895 performances in multiple venues around the city and distributed 50,007 tickets over the eleven-day event. In 2007, attendance and box office revenue were adversely affected by the collapse of the I-35W bridge the day before the festival opened.
The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It was established as the official state theatre company by the State Theatre Company of South Australia Act 1972, on the initiative of Premier Don Dunstan.
Laura Anne Harling is a British actress, theatre producer and artist who has played roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the Royal Opera House. She began as a child actor on stage, in films and on television. After post-graduate training at the Drama Studio London, Harling has focused on stage and opera roles and producing. She co-founded First Draft Theatre (2010-2017), for which she was also Artistic Director, and in 2016 founded The Dot Collective, a registered charity which gives professional drama performances in care environments.
Donovan King is a professional actor, teacher, historian, and tour guide from Montreal, Quebec. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, a company that researches ghost stories and offers haunted tours, King hires professional actors to lead the tours and publishes a new ghost story every month on the Haunted Montreal Blog. King is also a performance activist and experimental theatre artist who juggles acting, teaching, directing, dramaturgy, and theory to create dramatic projects that challenge systemic oppression. Known for his commitment to education and community, King assisted with the establishment of the Montreal Fringe Festival in 1991, is the author of Doing Theatre in Montreal and he set up the Montreal Infringement Festival in 2004.
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The St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival is a festival that hosts fringe theatre, repertory, dance, music, and drag-queen performances in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The festival is held annually and lasts for 20 days in June. The festival was previously run by Jeremy Hechtman and Patrick Goddard, but Hechtman stepped down in 2010 after being in the position for 15 years. The festival has been run since 2011 by choreographer Amy Blackmore. McAuslan Brewing sponsors the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival and several other festivals in Montreal, including Pop Montreal, the Montreal World Film Festival, and the Fantasia Festival. The 2007 festival featured a mass fake marriage for theatre-goers at the beginning of the festival and then a corresponding mass fake divorce at the end symbolised by the eating of timbits.
Supporting Wall was an award-winning London-based theatre and general arts production, promotion and management company, founded in 2008 by producers Ben Monks and Will Young and operated for nine years until 2017. The company's own productions primarily focused on new writing and contemporary theatre, while management and publicity work has included projects across theatre, comedy, film, festivals, live music and dance - including work at the BFI Southbank, Royal National Theatre and many others. During most of this time, Ben Monks and Will Young were also based at the Actors Centre as creative producers for the Tristan Bates Theatre. In November 2023 Will Young was appointed executive director of London's Royal Court Theatre.
The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) is an international body that promotes and safeguards the ideals and principles of fringe theatre in North America.
Aishveryaa Nidhi is an Australian actress, director, writer, and theatre personality based in Los Angeles. She has performed with the Short and Sweet festivals, and has worked to start Short and Sweet Bollywood. Other works include Gandhari... In search of light, a play about the character Gandhari from Vyasa's Hindu epic Mahabharata which has toured widely. She is also the president and artistic director of Abhinay School of Performing Arts, in Sydney.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is the organisation that supports the running of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. The Society was established in 1958 to provide a centralised information and box office service for the Fringe, which had grown in numbers since eight theatre companies had effectively "created" the Fringe by performing uninvited alongside the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947.