Fringe: Memories of a Long-Time Volunteer
What follows are my memories, my perspectives, and my recollections of my Fringe experiences, and thus may contain but are not limited to accurate depictions.
Barbara Fingerote
Barbara Fingerote was born in Winnipeg (you can take the girl out of the prairie, but you can’t take the prairie out of the girl). After receiving a BA from United College at the University of Winnipeg and an MA in Library Science from the University of Western Ontario, she moved to Toronto, where she enjoyed a 40-plus year career as a librarian before retiring in 2013. Barbara is an unparalleled cultural participant, volunteer, and theatregoer, and has been recognized with such honours as the Harold Award (2002) and the inaugural eponymous Barbara Fingerote Award (2012) as well as made an honorary member of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (2016). Barbara misses live theatre terribly. She appreciates everyone’s terrific efforts online but the barrier of that experience just proves what she has always known: there is really no substitute for artists and audience members breathing and connecting in the same space, exchanging energy and learning about themselves and each other as they try to navigate this planet we call Earth. She hopes to feel safe and comfortable congregating in a live theatre space at some point in the unforeseeable future. That prospect keeps her alive.
