{"id":47396,"date":"2025-08-22T01:43:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T08:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=47396"},"modified":"2025-08-21T16:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:47:50","slug":"victoria-fringe-has-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/victoria-fringe-has-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Fringe has started"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director Francis G. Matheu, right, with actors Nolan Fidyk and Dan Landry rehearsing Alan Segal\u2019s Shade Apparel. <\/i>(photo by Sarah Nicole Faucher)<\/i><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Victoria Fringe Festival, billed as \u201c12 days of madcap fun this summer,\u201d started on Aug. 20 and runs to Aug. 31. Included in the lineup are pieces by two local Jewish community members, Alan Segal and David Heyman.<\/p>\n

Segal describes his play, Shade Apparel<\/i>, as \u201ccomedy, drama and absurdity.\u201d It features Danver, a playwright rooted in daily routine, who tries to find answers to questions he never knew he had. And, Segal told the Independent<\/i>, \u201cHe is not prepared for the answers. Shade Apparel<\/i> is a play about wanting to know more and not knowing where to find anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Segal\u2019s words, our society is \u201cheavily psychologized,\u201d in that everything is given a psychological or emotional origin story, he said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cBut, if we breathe, we absorb culture, ideas, ideals and assumptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, we have a slight awareness of the precise origin of these. Their origin tale, however, is found in the social cauldron of daily life. This, too, is our apparel. We are clothed in more than material fabric,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From an early age, Segal has had an interest in how people become, well, anything; for example, how are allegiance, assurance, belonging, anger, dissent, happiness, or its opposite, created?<\/p>\n

Segal\u2019s first Victoria Fringe experience was not as a playwright but as a supporter of the arts who was captivated by the aura and array of creativity he observed. Last year, he founded Imbroglio Theatre, which will put on Shade Apparel<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond headlines and supposed fame, people venture into many realms of expression. I loved it from the start, and I expect many will be enlivened by what is approaching in Victoria at the end of August,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The creative team for the Fringe show comprises Dan Landry, Nolan Fidyk and Kendra Bidwell (cast), Alan Segal (writer), Francis G. Matheu (director), Elaine Montgomery (stage manager), Luke Weston and Andrea Gregg (lighting design), Phil Letourneau (music and sound design), Sarah Nicole Faucher (costume design) and Doug Wills (poster and program).<\/p>\n

\u201cShade Apparel <\/i>is the second play I have written \u2013 a project I never intended to write and had no inkling of, until it leaped into my mind as a single scene,\u201d said Segal.<\/p>\n

His first play, Frey\u2019s Anguish<\/i>, premiered in March 2024 at Paul Phillips Hall in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
David Heyman\u2019s Ducks co-stars, right to left, Gloria Snider, Lorene Cammiade, Ryan Kniel and Danielle Greschner. (photo from David Heyman)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Heyman\u2019s play, Ducks<\/i>, takes place in the aftermath of an incident in which 1,600 ducks flew into an oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta and died \u2013 a true event that caused international criticism of the provincial government. Years later, the oil company that owned and operated the pond was fined and the government promised tighter restrictions; however, the damage to\u00a0<\/span>Alberta\u2019s reputation was significant.<\/p>\n

The fictionalized theatrical story centres on a government communications director who has 20 minutes to retrieve an embarrassing, career-ending invitation erroneously sent out in his name before the media or public find out about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was communications manager for the premier of Alberta at the time [of the real-life incident] and, although I was not involved in managing the issue \u2026\u00a0 <\/span>I was able to observe the crisis-management efforts from up close,\u201d Heyman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe characters and events in the play are entirely made up but are informed by my inside knowledge of how communications offices work, and how the media deal with such situations,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore joining the Alberta Premier\u2019s Office, I was a political reporter at the Calgary Herald <\/i>for many years. Many people who work in governments in Alberta and BC have told me that the play feels authentic, which was my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ducks<\/i> premiered at the Victoria One-Act Play Festival in 2023, it won the prize for outstanding original script. When it was performed at the 2024 Edmonton Fringe Festival, five of eight shows sold out and the play received stellar reviews. The play has also been performed at the Nanaimo Fringe Festival and in Tofino.<\/p>\n

Heading into the Victoria Fringe, Heyman said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a top-notch cast, a great director and a great stage manager this year. The rehearsals are going very well and I\u2019m confident it will be a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heyman is the show\u2019s producer and, joining him in mounting the Fringe show are Ryan Kniel, Lorene Cammiade, Gloria Snider and Danielle Greschner (cast), Francis G. Matheu (director), Andrea Gregg (stage manager) and Sarah Heyman (associate producer).<\/p>\n

David Heyman has written an as-yet-unperformed sequel, Rhymes with Ducks<\/i>, that he hopes to put on at next year\u2019s festival. \u201cThe sequel is designed also to be a second (and final) act, and perhaps one day both will be performed as a single show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the Fringe, Shade Apparel<\/i> is at Victoria Conservatory of Music\u2019s Wood Hall, while Ducks<\/i> is at James Bay United Church. Both plays are 45 minutes long. For tickets and more information, visit victoriafringe.com.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/b> has written for the Globe and Mail, the <\/i>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Francis G. Matheu, right, with actors Nolan Fidyk and Dan Landry rehearsing Alan Segal\u2019s Shade Apparel. (photo by Sarah Nicole Faucher) This year\u2019s Victoria Fringe Festival, billed as \u201c12 days of madcap fun this summer,\u201d started on Aug. 20 and runs to Aug. 31. Included in the lineup are pieces by two local Jewish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[24245,24244,5914,23624,3597,9011,24243],"class_list":["post-47396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-alan-segal","tag-david-heyman","tag-identity","tag-playwrighting","tag-politics","tag-social-commentary","tag-victoria-fringe-festival"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}