Fringeless and frustrated

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This article was published 20/07/2020 (2092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg International Fringe Theatre Festival’s pandemic-induced hiatus has affected few more than Tim Webster.

The East Kildonan-based performer has only missed one Winnipeg Fringe Festival since its inception in 1988. As the event has grown, so has Webster along with it, to the point that he says it hurts to be without it.

After graduating from high school, Webster took a year off before deciding what to do. Friends invited him to this “amazing event” downtown, and Webster said it changed his life.

“I was hooked,” Webster recalled. “I saw a group called SAK Theatre. They were doing commedia dell’arte and Fractured Fairy Tales. Something in my soul leapt up and said, ‘I have to do that’.”

Webster went on to study theatre and said the rest is almost history. In 1991 he developed Captain Braggadocio, his alter ego whose debut was as a last-minute fill-in for a children’s entertainer.

“People who don’t meet Tim and Captain Braggadocio don’t understand we’re the same person,” Webster said. “We move differently, we talk differently, and we behave differently.”

Along with his wife and fellow performer Xiam, Webster has organized the Kids’ Fringe for the past 20 years. In addition to entertaining generations of children himself he has watched his children grow up with the festival.

“My oldest daughter learned to walk there,” Webster said. “My second-oldest daughter was a babe in arms there.”

The growing Webster family led to the Fringe Nannies tradition, whereby performers hire teens to watch their kids during the event. The Websters’ kids are now old enough to be nannies for other artists.

Webster has performed across Ontario and central Canada, but his love is the Winnipeg Fringe, where Captain Braggadocio is a popular part of the fun. He is also a member of the troupe Crosseyed Rascals, which haswon awards for such performances as The Mennonite’s Guide to Savage Street Fighting and the story of the devil making a bet with God and having to live in Transcona for a year. The ambiguous ending left people wanting to know more.

Webster said the Crosseyed Rascals spent the winter rehearsing for the summer festival season at the Station 8 Café in Elmwood. They now rehearse online, and have developed new bits as a result. Their next online show, Ay, Corona! takes place on Facebook Live on July 27 at 7:30 p.m. Visit crosseyed.ca for details.

Webster plans his holidays around the Fringe Festiand would normally be setting up during the week we spoke.

A higher-education administrator during the day, Webster said performing at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival is like stepping through the wardrobe door and into Narnia.

“That’s because I know the time is limited,” Webster said.

Instead of spending his summer seeing old friends from around the world and living for two weeks in the Exchange District, Webster will patiently wait for 2021.

“Winnipeg is a favourite of the performers,’ Webster said. “It satisfies that sense of belonging for so many people and that is missing in the world right now.”