Don’t let the name fool you. The Toronto Fringe Festival is anything but a "small potatoes" performance festival. In fact, it’s become Toronto’s largest theatre festival, with more than 140 associated productions running each summer. In honour of the festival’s kick-off (June 6 — yep, that’s today!), we put Executive Director Gideon Arthurs in the proverbial hot seat — and asked him to give us an idea of what we can expect from the Fringe this year, and from Arthurs in the future.

How did you get into the theatre biz?
I have always been a theatre kid. I started acting when I was six years old, and I went to Claude Watson in North York, and to Earl Haig later on. I went on to school for theatre at university in the States, and came back to Toronto, where I tried not to do theatre for a while — but it didn’t work! So I ended up working as the company manager at Soulpepper, and producing my own stuff through my own company, Groundwater production. And then the most amazing job in the world came around — this job — and I got it!

And how was it that you first got involved with Fringe?
I had been "fringing" since high school days. So I was already a longtime fringer as an artist and as a participant before I started working here. And [the position at Fringe] was a job that I couldn’t not apply to. I think I was probably an underdog candidate … but I think I was just so excited to be there, that they had to hire me.

How would you say the festival evolved since its inception in 1989?
I’ve been fringer since 1996 or thereabouts— but I think that the truth is the core value of the Fringe has stayed the same. And that’s kind of what’s made it grow and expand over the years. The idea is that anyone should have help and permission to do whatever it is they think is right when they express themselves creatively. And nobody should get in the way of what they say. That idea proved so popular — that we’ve seen the festival explode over the past decade. First under the watch of my predecessors, and then under me. And now it’s a really significant event in the city. Not just for the artists, but for the public as well. And in this day and age where maybe there’s a bit of negativity about the arts, the Fringe is still really beloved. And that’s one of its biggest strengths.

How has the festival evolved since you took the proverbial reigns?
I think I carried on the good work that was in progress before I got there. We sat down as a staff when I came on board, and we had to ask the question: What’s the essence of the Fringe? And how can we extend that philosophy to everything we do? We used to be a fairly grassroots organization, with one festival. But we wondered if there was a way we could keep serving people — our audiences and our artists — all through the year. Just before I came on, we launched the Next Stage Festival, which has been a huge success. It’s grown by over 40 per cent over the past four years. And has been critically, and incredibly, well-received. We launched a whole bunch of youth programs, we give out passes to priority youth across the city, and just recently we opened the Fringe Creation Lab.

And what exactly is the Fringe Creation Lab?
It’s sort of our year-round home, which, during the year, is a subsidized creation space for artists. It’s this beautiful, new, soon-to-be state-of-the-art space that we will be offering up for super-subsidized rates for anybody to do whatever creative activity they want in. So it’s the same philosophy as the Fringe: we never interfere with the art you want to make.

What’s been your most memorable Fringe play to date?
[Laughs.] Well that’s a very political question! My handlers always tell me I’m not supposed to say this, but, honestly, I haven’t seen a play at the Fringe since I started this job. Partially because I’m so busy during the festival — but it’s also about not playing favourites. So, for me, I think it’s more about the kind of pitches of the shows that you remember. This year, for instance, there’s this marathon version of Waiting for Godot. It’s going to run for 54 hours straight — and that is pure Fringe drama; it could only happen here.

After the Fringe, what’s next for Gideon Arthurs?
Now that’s a scary question. I have to say: I don’t know! I love the Fringe very, very dearly. The idea of the Fringe is kind of in my DNA, I feel; I’m just naturally inclined to it. So don’t know what I could do next that I’d care about as much. But I think the thing for me — and this is what the Fringe is amazing at doing— is always working on ways to make creative opportunities for people. Whether I can do this through the Fringe, or another festival, I’ll take it.