If this is Thursday, Plank at the Victoria Fringe

Through the magic of the internet we move from Toronto to Victoria and begin our coverage of the Victoria Fringe Festival, which starts today. Stayed tuned as our small, but well formed, team bring you reviews and stories from the front-line.

This will be the biggest festival in the 22 year history of the Victoria Fringe. Inspired by the success of last year, Intrepid Theatre, the Festival’s organizers, have added new venues, extra shows and they even organized a block party and concert to kick things off.

Many of the shows in Victoria will cross over to the Vancouver Fringe Festival which starts September 3rd so if you’re in Vancouver this is your chance to get a preview of some of the acts and soak up the atmosphere online.

This is our fourth festival – in our third city – in less than three months. We will also be covering the Vancouver Fringe Festival when it starts on September 3rd. While we adore festivals (not only are they exciting to attend, they’re vital in connecting audiences with the work), there is more to Plank than just reviewing Festivals.

Over the next month we will be preparing for our first season of coverage of the performing arts in two cities, Vancouver and Toronto. In addition to our regular coverage, we will be launching new features and revamping the site a little to make it easier to navigate and find the information/stories you want for whichever city you’re interested in.

One new feature, starting this weekend, is an occasional series that we’re (tentatively) calling Guest Artist, where senior artists provide their views and opinions on a range of issues. It kicks off with the choreographer Chick Snipper, who provides a fascinating exploration of her history, creative process and dealing with some very bad boys.