Sarah Rankin studied theatre at Mount Allison University and has been the director of Saint Johnβs Fundy Fringe Festival for six years. She plays a significant role in the art world as she works hard throughout the year to bring in talented performers and artists, connect with generous sponsors and venues, and hire the dedicated team of staff and volunteers that all work together to make the FRINGE possible.
Fundy Fringe happens for a week every summer. Throughout the year what does the process look like as you’re getting ready for it?
It usually starts with the grant applications because you canβt do anything unless you can pay your bills, so the moment that the festival is done I immediately go into grant writing for 2020 or whatever the next year is. And one of them is due almost right out of the gate, which seems like it would be stressful, but itβs actually really good because everything is fresh in my mind. So I can write that final report, get ready for the following year, knowing these were our successes, this is what worked out well, these are the things we need to step up for the next year. Itβs also fresh in everybodyβs minds too. I can go and sit down with a sponsor and say βWe had a great year. You were there. It just happened. Weβre already gearing up for the next year. Iβm hoping that youβll still be with us. Letβs talk about what thatβs going to look like.β Then we get into the lottery and get in the applications, which is always fun because I just love seeing ideas and I love seeing what people are coming up with. So thatβs always my favourite part and the ones that want to push the envelope or theyβre coming back to us. Those are really cool too. To know that they had a good time and they want to stick with us and theyβre part of that family now. Or seeing new local talent. I love seeing an application from Saint John and I donβt know the artist. That excites me. Who are you? I want to know what your story is. And then we have our big lottery draw in March and then it becomes the business of figuring out whoβs going to go into what venue, what are they going to play, how are we going to schedule this, what are we going to do around them, is there any(one) that we can partner with (like) specific organizations to promote them and hire the summer staff and then it just starts rolling out before we know it. Itβs the end of August and itβs time to fringe.
Tell me a little bit about your background.
I studied theatre at Mount Allison. (I) pretty much did two shows a year when I was there, predominantly acting, a bit of directing, a bit of stage background. I think when you do theatre everybody should have their goal. Do you want to be a director, do you want to be an actor, do you want to work backstage, but I also think that everybody needs to try all of them at least once because that way you gain an appreciation for what the other personβs doing. Being an actor on stage and not knowing how does the set get built, who does the paint job, how did they get the paint job, where did the props come from. That could be really detrimental because you donβt gain an appreciation for the hard work that the crew puts into making sure that that light thatβs shining on you is picking up the colour of your costume perfectly or itβs highlighting this mood in a certain way. Thereβs an art to those things. And then I do think there is something to be said for somebody in the crew treading the stage a little bit too because acting itself is not easy. (It involves) the memorization of lines, the absorbing of a character, warming up, throwing yourself out there at the mercy of the audience four times a week. I think itβs really good for everybody to try a little bit of everything and thatβs why I went to Mount Allison because theyβre not a conservatory program. They were a program where they wanted you to take courses in other things so I was taking all of my necessary courses to get my theatre degree, but I was also taking astronomy, I was taking art history, I was taking psychology, French, cinema studies, dabbling here and there. After that I went and got a teaching degree because (in) typical New Brunswick fashion I felt like I needed a back-up plan…I supply taught for a little while and a contract was put in front of me…Iβve been fortunate with the Saint John Theatre Company. Theyβve been really supportive of both of those things. I do my day job, but Iβve had the opportunity to tour with them as an actor and get paid and to run the Fringe. Those are huge. To have that balance, not a lot of people get those chances, so I know Iβm really fortunate.
Whatβs been a highlight so far of working with Fundy Fringe?
Every year with the festival I feel like thereβs always that one show that you go, βOh my gosh! This is incredible!β I would have to say the one show that will forever, ever stick with me is a show that we had applied…probably two years ago. I first met the artist the year before that when he brought a different show. His name is Paul Power. Heβs a director, actor, playwright, producer from Newfoundland and he brought a show to us called βRoomies.β And I loved it. I thought it was a great show about these two college roomies in the 1970βs. One of them (was) disabled and finding a way to get along and make that work despite his roommateβs prejudice. And then the next year he came at us with another show called βCrippledβ and that was the one that really was the most moving one for me because it was very autobiographical of Paulβs real life struggle of not only being disabled, but also losing his partner when his partner had a heart attack very suddenly at a very young age. So that was a heart wrencher for sure, but itβs one of those shows where you when you watch a show likeβ Crippledβ or you watch a show like βRoomiesβ and youβre seeing somebody who represents such diversity in the arts finally having an avenue for their voice to be heard, not only as a disabled performer, but also as an LGBTQ performer, a Canadian performer, an emerging one at that. Thatβs what fringe really is all about for me, getting those unheard voices on the stage…Itβs empowering for them because itβs something that theyβve never been able to do before and Fringe makes it so easy to get it done. If you can get in on the lottery, from there itβs easy because weβre going to give you a venue. Thereβs a small fee they have to pay, but from that little tiny fee they get a venue for 5 days, they get published in our program, they get promotion because we bust their press release out to everybody that we can. Weβll talk them up, weβll list them on our social media, we give them tech, we give them the volunteers to run the box office, which are all things that would normally cost thousands and thousands of dollars. And then they get to keep all their box office money so theyβre also getting paid, which doesnβt often happen in the arts. Itβs one of the few avenues for theatre performers to actually be paid if they are not a full professional.
So Iβm guessing the reason you guys are able to offer that is due to grants and sponsors?
Yeah, weβre very fortunate that we get grants from Canadian heritage, the province, the city. The cityβs been very supportive of us, the community arts board has been very supportive of us as well. All of our venues that we use we have formed really close relationships and partnerships with. Theyβve been very generous to us as well. The Saint John Theatre Company…we get to share their staff, we get to share their building. Itβs a great partnership. So without them it definitely wouldnβt have been possible.
Whatβs been a challenge that youβve had to face?
I think one of the greatest challenges for me personally, I donβt know that this is everybody, is finding a balance between my life and my work. I think thatβs something thatβs true for a lot of people and we often think of work/life balance as being something thatβs strictly for those who work in an office doing 9-5, but itβs a huge problem in the arts. Because weβre so entrepreneurial about how we do things it can really take over every single element. Youβre constantly checking your phone because youβre getting messages left, right, and center about this, that, and the other thing or youβre checking to make sure oh, did that e-mail get sent through, or youβre waiting for a sponsor to get back to you with a yes or a no. That can really, really be damaging if you have any form of anxiety and it can create an environment of anxiety which isnβt healthy. So that was kind of my big thing especially for this summer. I did not want to become that person again that just felt like full of anxiety and stress when I really should just be enjoying it with everybody else. So Iβve been trying to be really good about turning my phone off or taking an evening off and telling myself itβs ok, youβre allowed to do this, but itβs still always going to be a work in progress. I had to have my husband take my phone away from me yesterday. I was like itβs turned off, put it in your pocket, I donβt want to see it and then I went to ask him later on whereβd it go? Heβs like βOh, I just threw it in the toilet.β He didnβt, thank goodness, but he thought he was funny. So thatβs been a big deal for me, finding that balance between taking personal time, taking the time to re-evaluate, create a check-list, and just tackle the next day with the checklist in mind. So thatβs probably my biggest challenge personally. Because the problems that normally would be a problem donβt become a problem anymore when youβve had that time to just zen out for a little bit. Itβs easy to get stressed about a volunteer whose worried about their shifts or who theyβre partnered with or feels passionately about something and they really want to talk to you about it or an artist that is stressed out or upset about something. Itβs very easy to get rolled into that and carry that on your back, but if I can take that time to just zen out those problems donβt seem as big and I can handle them a lot better.
What kinds of things have you been inspired by lately?
I generally am most inspired by other peopleβs work and not specifically in theatre. Iβm inspired by what a lot of people are doing in the visual arts. I get inspired a lot by the music scene here in Saint John. I know a lot of people say Saint Johnβs been going through this huge transformation, this renaissance with the arts, itβs incredible, festival month, look at us go, look at us Saint John! But Saint John used to be like that. And when I look at other Fringe Festivals too I get so inspired by their work. I had the luck of going to the Toronto Fringe this year and just bopping around from show to show, talking to artists, talking to their staff, and just being in Toronto while that was happening was really inspiring because it gave me a chance to say βwow, hereβs some things that theyβre doing really, really well. Iβm going to borrow that. Iβm going to try to apply that, scale it down a little bit because itβs not necessarily going to work the same way in Saint John.β But also looking at things and saying βwe do a really good job of thisβ and feeling like there are good things that weβre doing (and) we can be inspiring as well. And that happened actually. I was at a conference in San Diego a couple of years ago and we had had a performer in the line up that year who was from San Francisco. She also runs the Fringe Festival in San Francisco, so I had known her already. I was all excited about her coming, but I was also all worried about her coming (thinking) oh god hereβs a fellow festival director. She knows me well enough I know her well enough. Everything has to be perfect. I canβt make a bad impression on this person. Sheβs been running a Fringe Festival for 30 some odd years. She knows this in and out and sideways. And I got to San Diego for a conference and weβre all sitting around, weβre all taking about our successes and things that weβre struggling (with) and it comes for her turn and so her partner Richard starts talking and said βwell one of the decisions we made this year was to send Christina to the Fundy Fringeβ and Iβm like oh no here it comes. And heβs like, βit was the best decision we ever made. We have been wondering do we need to make our festival bigger, should we be doing all these things? We went to Fundy and we went nope. You donβt need to do all that to have a great festival.β So the fact that we could inspire a festival thatβs been running for 30 plus years…I think it just comes down to our volunteers, our volunteers are incredible human beings that are kind and courteous and will do everything in their powers to help you out and just the general spirit of Saint John. We are, I would think, a fairly welcoming city. Weβre helpful.
So youβve been to the Fundy Fringe in Toronto. Have you picked up on any specific things when it comes to theatre in the Maritimes that are different from other places?
Yeah, I think thereβs a certain work ethic. Iβm not saying that there isnβt a work ethic in Toronto. I think they work hard too. I think if youβre a performer anywhere you have to work hard, but you have to work hard in a different way. For a Toronto based artist it might be (that) you have to work really hard at being special and unique so that you stand out because you can throw a stone and thereβs going to be 20 other actors like you. Whereas in Saint John itβs working hard at perfecting the craft, itβs working hard at promoting yourself, itβs working hard at creating something meaningful, something that has a purpose to it and I find thatβs where Saint John differs. When I look at the people in our line up year to year and the stories they write, the stories they are writing are meaningful with a purpose. They want to make a change, they want to see a change. I think thatβs the biggest difference for me personally. Weβre storytellers right? Thatβs the thing about the Maritimes. If I think back even to my grandfather and my aunts and uncles and I think of growing up. One of the best things that we do as Maritimers is…we wind up in the kitchen with the aunts and uncles and the cousins and someoneβs got a good story to tell. And thatβs who we are. Weβre storytellers.
Have you found ArtsLink resources to be helpful at all to you?
Where Iβm a festival director, there arenβt a lot of resources out there, unfortunately, for festival directors, which is why Iβm so fortunate that we have the chance to see these Fringe Festivals that I can pull resources from, but I would say as an artist myself I think…itβs just the knowledge that ArtsLink is there, that there is an organization that works as an advocate that will have our backs in a heartbeat to help either our artists or us in any way that they can. Just that knowledge, I think, is empowering. And being available to answer questions, or weβre trying to get this or that or whatever it might be, we need help with finding another sponsor, we need help with finding a place for this artist to sleep for five nights, even those little things. And I know that there are some of our artists that do benefit as well from your services. I just wouldnβt know who they are in particular because Iβm not hovering over them being like βso did you check out that Catapult program?β One of our artists, actually, that we do have in the line up this year did go through the Catapult program, Laura-Beth Bird, and I was her mentor so that was a weird thing for me. Sarah first approached me and she was like βdo you want to be a mentor?β And Iβm like, βyou want me to give somebody advice on how to…are you sure?β But it was great. It was pretty straightforward stuff. I met with her a couple times, gave her a couple of tips here and there.
What would you like to accomplish in the next five years?
As far as the Fringe goes, some of the goals that I had set years ago are finally starting to come into fruition, which is having a component that is for kids to help them develop their talents so weβre doing our first kids Fringe this year. Iβm very thankful because Interaction Performing Arts has been fabulous partnering with us on that one and being a godsend when it comes to providing space and resources. So (we) would not be able to do it without them. And then hopefully we can just grow that, and snowball it into an actual full out component of the festival. Iβd love to see more sight specific shows, so non-traditional theatre set up, shows that are more out in the community, in the public spaces. I think it would be really empowering for an artist to see their work in that light. And hopefully just keep growing our audience base because thatβs really the most important thing. The artists getting paid depends on how many bums in seats there are. If theyβre only getting ten people a night thatβs a hundred bucks for that show, but thatβs only 500 over all. Thatβs not enough, so if we can get more encouraging patrons to come see more shows and to come see shows that they might have to take a risk on. It doesnβt look like it might be interesting to them, but who knows, it might be. Instead of going to see a friendβs show that one night, go see your friendβs show that one night, but then also go in the next hour to see a guy thatβs come to us from Toronto whose got a story as well or take an afternoon and go check out the kids shows because we have to support as many of them as we can, not just the ones that we know.
For this upcoming Fundy Fringe you said the kids sessions are going to be a newer thing. What else do you guys have going on thatβs different from previous years?
We have partnered with an organization based out of Quebec called Nature Lab and we are going to be carbon neutral. Weβve purchased carbon credits from this group and they helped us to calculate the amount of CO2 emissions that the festival generate(s). It worked out to about 5 tonnes of CO2 between transportation, lighting, set up, printing, getting the printing stuff sent to us, volunteers travelling, the staff travelling, five different venues…It can create a huge carbon footprint. We wanted to somehow counteract that, so we purchased carbon credits from them and the money from the carbon credits is going to go (towards) planting trees. Thatβs brand new for us this year and I donβt think they would have come across our plate at all if it wasnβt for a show thatβs in the Fringe this year who originally partnered with them for their tour. They wanted to make the tour carbon neutral, so then the artist reached out to us and said, βwould you mind if we put you in the loop with this group?β And I said βno, not at all.β (I) had a phone conversation with them and everything seemed to make sense so thatβs going to be a new endeavour for us. We really like that weβre getting that. ACAP Saint John is helping us out with that too so theyβve been really cool. Those would be the big things that are brand new this year. We have our usual favourites with the Big Tease Preview Night and we do after hour events too just to keep things fun. Weβll have a dance party, weβll have a movie night, weβll have a board game night, things like that. Itβs just fun.