OTL Blog

  [TRIGGER WARNING! Sharp Irish-Montreal humour may offend corporate “Fringe” Managers!] As an Irish-Montrealer and Fringe theatre artist with both critical thinking skills and a serious trans-generational mental disability (Major Depressive Disorder, a.k.a. “the common cold of mental illness”), I have the proud honuor of being the most censored and excluded Fringe practitioner on the planet! This […]

Car Stories is coming once again to the Buffalo Infringement Festival! Created in Montreal in 2001 and promptly kicked out of the so-called St. Ambroise Fringe Festival after a corporate sponsor was offended, Car Stories had to quit the corporate Fringe and redesign the game. As such, the infringement festival was born in 2004 to […]

When infringement festival founder Donovan King was invited to the first-ever World Fringe Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, he thought there had been a mistake! After being kicked out of the Montreal Fringe Festival in 2001 for criticizing a corporate sponsor, King has made a point of crusading to protect Fringe Festivals from excessive corporate interference in order […]

After five intensive days featuring dozens of performances in 10 venues, the 2014 Montreal infringement festival has wrapped up, energized more than ever before! Festival-goers were treated to a variety of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) performances in strikingly different locations all over the city. Starting at Labo de la Taverne Jarry, the festival then meandered all over […]

Montreal’s infringement festival is one of the city’s most amazing cultural exports and has inspired a whole new way of doing the arts in cities and countries far beyond Montreal’s island shores. In 2014, the Infringement Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary with 3 festivals in 2 countries, and a plan to provoke critical discussions […]

Optative Theatrical Laboratories is going to the Buffalo Infringement Festival, easily Western New York’s largest and most popular arts festival, and arguably the world’s most independent and authentic one! With absolutely no corporate interference, artists can breathe freely and get  important work done within a supportive community. It’s an artistic paradise that doesn’t normally exist under the […]

The second day of the World Fringe Congress, Friday August 17, had a jam-packed schedule of panel discussions, break-out sessions, and a reception chez the Lord Provost (Edinburgh’s mayor), leaving absolutely no time to attend any shows at the Fringe, Forest Fringe or Free Fringes. The themes I narrowed in on were seemingly contradictory. Fringe […]

All is not well at the Edinburgh Fringe, and like in North America, there is considerable discontent amongst artists on the street regarding an increasingly corporate festival. It seems that most artists go into an unreasonable amount of debt to play at the Fringe, while at the same time a deceptive new system,  the re-branded “Edinburgh […]

I have arrived in glorious Edinburgh, Scotland, in the midst of both a strong downpour and the world-famous Fringe Festival. The city can only be described as beautiful, with its mediaeval architecture, quaint pubs and shops, and surprising nooks and crannies in every winding lane. While it’s tempting to just soak it all in by […]

The Montreal infringement festival, sometimes described as “the anti-Fringe”, has been invited to the first-ever World Fringe Congress, a gathering of the leaders of 40 Fringe Festivals  – and one infringement festival – from 13 countries across the globe. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, now the largest arts festival in the world, will be hosting the unique event this year from […]