The Vancouver Fringe Festival (Sept 6-16) is a fantastic annual showcase of independent theatre, easing the transition out of summer with comedy, drama, astonishing feats of burlesque and remarkably versatile one-man-performers.

This year there are a staggering 754 performances! Amazing! Overwhelming. Where to start? No worries- we will be bringing you reviews and performer Q&As throughout the festival, and to kick off two weeks of great original performance, here are some of the shows we will be lining up for. Look out for reviews of these (and more!) later this week.

Three More Sleepless Nights – Familiar relationships; unfamiliar spaces. A piece about ever changing human relationships, in dialogue with various apartments and houses in Vancouver. An intimate evening for a small audience, actors and audience will enter the performance space for the first time while bringing Churchill’s dynamic one-act play to life.

Fishbowl – Shockingly funny and equally moving,Fishbowl slyly reveals the connections between four wildly different “and outrageously hilarious” characters, all played by Mark Shyzer. Created and premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to great acclaim (Toronto 2009), then a festival favourite on tour, and Audience Choice Award winner (New York 2010).

Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque – You’ve never taken a sex-ed class like this one! Learn about safe sex, STDs, sexual orientation, menstruation, and much, much more through striptease, comedy, songs, dance, and all the parts of a traditional burlesque show.

Peter ‘n Chris Explore Their Bodies – They’ve saved the world. They’ve been murdered in a motel. Now Vancouver Pick of the Fringe comedy duo Peter ‘n Chris are going to explore their bodies. Chris’ Body. Peter ‘n Chris are going inside Chris, in a brand new show from the critically acclaimed, Toronto SketchFest Audience Choice winning comedy duo.

What are you excited to see? Tweet it at us or share on our Facebook Wall!

Sad Mag: Where did the idea for What I LOVE about being QUEER come from?

Vivek Shraya: Queer-based or queer-inspired art is often rooted in or weighted by some form of tragedy, as seen/heard in coming out narratives, stories relating to homophobic bullying, gaybashing or HIV/AIDS. These narratives are incredibly important and powerful as they provide healing, visibility, access to equal rights and remind us of our history, but as an artist who has explored similar themes and told similar stories, I found myself hungering for the other side of the spectrum, stories that celebrate who we are.

I decided that one way to approach this gap was to directly pose the question: “What do you LOVE about being QUEER?” To answer this question is essentially to think of queerness queerly, as for many queers, we first learn how to answer the opposite.

My other inspiration came from the work I do at George Brown College, where queer youth often disclose how much they are struggling with this part of their identity. I wanted to create something that didn’t ask them to wait for ten years to pass for things to get better, but rather, provided some reasons, here and now, why being queer is special and worth celebrating.

SM: Where did you find your subjects?

VS: In honesty, the first people I asked were my friends as they were the ones whose answers I was initially most interested in hearing. The other participants are activists, artists, educators and people who inspire me, mostly living in Ontario.

SM: What do you hope an audience goes away talking about after seeing your movie?

VS: The hope is that through this short film, viewers will engage in the often overlooked or undermined, positive aspects of being queer through a spectrum of queer voices and bodies. Positive representation and stories about queers are vital to a global community where “tolerance” and “acceptance” are still held as ideals versus genuine understanding and celebration of diversity. It is also my hope that queers struggling with this part of their identity will connect with an answer (or many!) that allows them to look at this complicated part of who they are a little differently.

SM: Is this your first film?

VS: This is my third short film. My first film explores racism in the gay community and is called Seeking Single White Male and the second film, Ache In My Name, is explores the challenges of immigrant identity.

SM: Is this your first film in the Queer Film Fest?

VS: No, I was very fortunate to have Seeking Single White Male screened at the festival last year. Amber Dawn, the festival’s Director of Programming, has been incredibly supportive of my work.

SM: How important is it for platforms like the Queer Film Fest for filmmakers such as yourself?

VS: Platforms such as the Vancouver Queer Film Festival are incredibly important because not only do they allow the opportunity for artists to have their work exposed to a broader audience, there is nothing quite like watching your film with a theatre full of people who end up providing direct feedback to your work via their laughter or oohs! or silence etc. So much consumption of video/film happens via the internet and that immediate connection to the audience is lost.

Also being part of festivals is a wonderful opportunity to meet other artists, engage with other art and be inspired! Being at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival last year actually provided the inspiration for What I LOVE about being QUEER and I began filming shortly after, so this screening feels like lovely completion of the circle.

SM: What’s next for Vivek?

VS: Aside from planning more screenings of What I LOVE about being QUEER, my main focus right now has been working on my second book.

For more info, RSVP on Facebook!