Vancouver Fringe Festival announces Pick of the Fringe lineup, plus Josephine, Larry, and other award winners

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      Josephine and Larry were two of the shows that took home awards last night at the wrapup party for the Vancouver Fringe Festival.

      Held at Performance Works and hosted by Abdul Aziz (Fake Ghost Tours 2: Journey to the Other Side (of Granville Island) and Emma Cooper (Rape is Real and Everywhere), the event marked both annual prize-giving and the announcement of hold-overs you can catch again at the Granville Island Public Market Pick of the Fringe series that kicks off later this week.

      Josephine, the one-woman ode to Josephine Baker starring Tymisha Harris, took home both The Georgia Straight Critics’ Pick Award (handed out by theatre critic Andrea Warner) and the Volunteer Choice Award. Our critic said "Harris’s performance is smart, sexy, soulful, and inspiring."

      Josephine took home the Georgia Straight Critics’ Pick Award.

       

      Meanwhile, the Artistic Risk Award went to Larry, which Warner said in the pages of the Straight was a "daring, weird, hilarious show with headbanging, so basically everything you could want from the Fringe". Rape is Real and Everywhere was runner-up, while honourable mentions went to Didn’t Hurt, Where the Quiet Queers Are, and How to Confront a Rhinoceros.

      Cooper's Rape is Real and Everywhere, called powerful and unforgettable by our writer, also got a shoutout as winner of the SOFA (Spirit of the Fringe Award), while Dandelion snagged the BC Touring Council Award, and Midtwenties Theatre Society took home the Joanna Maratta Award for Two Modern Noh Plays By Yukio Mishima.

      Lili Robinson's form-mashing Mx, which had been propelled by last year's Fringe New Play Prize, received this year's Cultchivating the Fringe Award.

      Tadpole: the last episode won the TD Fringe Forward Award, with the following runners-up: Monica vs. The Internet: Tales of a Social Justice Warrior and Where the Quiet Queers Are. (The new award was the brainchild of Neworld Theatre artistic director and playwright/actor Marcus Youssef , who had the idea to partner with the Vancouver Fringe Festival on a prize that would celebrate excellent shows created by artists from historically marginalized communities; TD Bank Group came on to support it.)

      And you'll get a second chance to see these hits as part of the Public Market Pick of the Fringe, playing all week at Performance Works: Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life, Guards at the Taj, Larry, Old-ish, My Name is SUMIKO, and Pretty Beast.

      Last, but not least, the Fringe offers its annual Pick Plus series at Performance Works on Wednesday and Thursday evenings (September 18 and 19), a special offering of a few buzz-worthy shows from elsewhere on the massive Fringe circuit. Those productions are Rocko and Nakota: Tales from the LandFlute Loops, and The Ballad of Frank Allen.

      See the full schedule of hold-overs here.

       

       

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