Screenshot provided
The 2018 Fringe Festival results are in, and UVic’s theatrical talents are award-winning. The Fitting Room, put on by RoseMarie Productions — a team made up mostly of UVic grads — received the Overall Favourite Show prize at this year’s Pick of the Fringe Awards.
The Pick of the Fringe Awards are voted for by the audience, and awarded on the last night of the Fringe Festival. Awards were given in fifteen categories this year, representing different genres as well as different aspects of production like performance and design, with the Overall Favourite Show standing as the grand prize of the night. This year set a new record for the number of votes, after an increase in overall attendance to the festival of nearly 10 per cent.
The team at RoseMarie Productions describes tying for Bravest Show and winning the overall Pick of the Fringe as “a win for representation, for seeing yourself reflected on a stage, and for the validity of teenage emotions and experiences.
In addition to winning Overall Favourite Show, The Fitting Room tied for the award of Bravest Show with Ren Lunicke’s Blood Relative. As well, The Fitting Room‘s Ciaran Volke was a runner-up for Favourite Performer for his performance as Henry.
The team at RoseMarie Productions describes tying for Bravest Show and winning the overall Pick of the Fringe as “a win for representation, for seeing yourself reflected on a stage, and for the validity of teenage emotions and experiences.
“We are immensely proud of our six-show-run and the amazing amount of work our entire team poured into The Fitting Room,” said the team in an email to the Martlet. “Everyone involved in the show truly believed in the play and the story we were able to tell . . . It’s very meaningful to know that this story that means so much to us, means a lot to audiences as well.”
And this isn’t the end for The Fitting Room. The team describes the win as “a huge encouragement to keep moving forward,” and that’s what they’re doing: the playwright, Ellery Lamm, and director, Anna Marie Anderson, plan to remount the play this spring, and have another new piece in the works.
“We feel overwhelmed with love,” the team’s statement concludes. For those who loved The Fitting Room, these are definitely creators to watch for in the future.
