(mumble mumble) years ago, I was sitting in an apartment in Toronto, watching the real actors smoke, including Sam Rosenthal, now Artistic Director and General Manager of the Vaughn City Playhouse. This was a party of some sort (my memory is vague), possibly even the closing night party of The Diary of Anne Frank, my …
Tag Archive: 39
Sep 10
Victoria – Last Show
So it finally happened: the last show of the tour. I went out with a bang. The tech went smoothly; I rocked the show, I don’t know what else there is to write. What to do except sum up the tour (at least for now)? The Cons Smaller houses than planned …
Sep 05
Fourth Show
There was some scheduling weirdness yesterday, and It’s Raining in Barcelona finished right when we were supposed to load in, leaving only fifteen minutes for both their strike and our setup. Not their fault: like in London, there was some kind of scheduling SNAFU, but it’s a bit maddening. I’m not an actor who is …
Sep 05
Victoria – Fifth Show and Fuck You
Fuck you, Victoria Fringe organizers. Actually, you are generally nice people, and kudos on organizing such a great Fringe. But you’ve hit this performer where it hurts: his house, and he’s upset. For my other readers, let me give you some context: So here I am, doing my show, and other than a …
Sep 03
Third Show
Another great, high energy show today, with an even bigger house than yesterday (at least from what I could see). A few things marred tonight’s show, most of them to do with the show before us taking a fuck of a long time to load out and clear the dressing room for me. Now …
Sep 03
Victoria – second Show
Running on two consecutive nights of 4 hours of sleep or less, and a whole day of zipping all over Victoria, I found myself standing backstage as the clock crept closer and closer to 22:00; our curtain time. I’m still not satisfied with the first few moments of the show. I think I had …
Sep 02
Victoria Review
Monday Magazine has reviewed “39”. Three stars, but I don’t know what the James T. Kirk crack is about, unless it’s the crack the reviewer is smoking. Not a terrible review, though, considering how I felt about Monday’s show. http://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/2010-fringe-reviews-f I call this photo “Bones… Spock… you’ve got to help me!”
Sep 02
Opening Night in Victoria
I’m writing this in a Starbucks, in a Chapters, which redeems itself by having free wifi and an occasional Daniel Lanois song playing in the background. It’s taken me two days to get this up (we opened on Monday night), because we tend to get home quite late due to the necessary late night …
Aug 26
BC Ferry RECAP
I’m writing this on the Ferry over to Victoria just to create a quick recap (in pictures) of the Edmonton to Victoria leg of our trip. We drove out of Edmonton two mornings ago in our touring van: Vanessa. We said a fond farewell to our host in Edmonton, Lois Pawl, as she …
Aug 22
Seventh Show – Closing Edmonton
We had our last show tonight at 22:00. I’d hustled my ass off all afternoon to do whatever I could to boost our audience numbers. I wanted to go out on a high note. So we had 52 people in the audience tonight (I calculate that there were supposed to be 56, but …
Aug 20
Sixth Show
Had our sixth show today at 18:15. Decent house, though once again, somewhat papered. Today’s audience was really quiet again, but intent. Josiah once again heard people saying they liked it as they left the building. But almost NOTHING got a laugh today. Not even the “Ladies, gentlemen… racoons” got a giggle today. Only …
Aug 19
Fifth Show
Okay, so we’re over the hump now with two more shows to go. Today’s audience was quiet again, but they weren’t frowny like our Sunday audience, and I was able to, as we used to say in Theatre school, “bus’ a cap in its ass” and avoid the vampiric leaching effect that I felt …
Aug 18
Fourth Show
Very brief because it’s very late. Great show today. We papered the house and tried to get artists in, rather than what Ian Goodtime calls “the CBC greyhairs”, who are old people who just sit there and frown at you because I suppose they expected “a proper play”. Not all old people are CBC …
Aug 17
Day Off
We had another day off today, so we did some more fringing. We saw only three shows today (these are not reviews, just impressions): This Is Not A Play, a physical Theatre show which was amazing to watch, although my ability to follow physical Theatre is limited. It was well-conceived, fucking well performed, …
Aug 17
Third Performance – A Cup of Water
Blah. A moth flew around the stage as I plugged my way through a technically perfect performance #3. It may have all been my fault. Something strange happened when I went out on stage. Now, I’m an atheist and a sceptic. I don’t believe in “vibes” or “hoodoo” or vague notions of …
Aug 15
Second Edmonton Performance
It’s getting late, and we have an early brunch with our host’s family tomorrow morning, so I’ll make this short. We had our second performance this afternoon at 4:15. The official count says 30 people, but Ramona swears she counted 38 in the house. The venue was nice and cool, owing to the …
Aug 15
Reviews
Okay, here are the reviews. Quite a mixed bag so far. http://vueweekly.com/fringe/play/p_39/ (3 out of 5 stars) This one I take some pride in. I’ve read a few of her other reviews, and it seems that unlike some of her colleagues (one of whom gave the TERRIBLE show I saw yesterday a FOUR star …
Aug 14
First Show Edmonton
So, we rehearsed our butts off with our two new stagehands yesterday afternoon before the show. I went from being pants-shitting nervous to simple urine-stain nervous during that time, as they seemed to be quietly competent which was more than I had the right to expect from grade 11 students. The show went… well, all …
Aug 12
Networking and Signage
Or signage and networking, if you want the strict chronological order of things. No photos here, so I’ll keep this short to prevent my blog from becoming a wall of text. On Monday we started throwing signs up after being told by Jem Rolls that we’d better shit or get off the pot …
Aug 10
New Mission: Edmonton!
39 officially landed in Edmonton on Monday, August 9th 2010 when Andrew’s Greyhound bus pulled into the Edmonton bus terminal 30 minutes late. The 39 cast and touring crew (all two of us) are being billeted in Edmonton by a lovely woman named Lois and her greyhound (dog, not bus) Caesar. Lois has a …
Aug 10
Mountain Crossing Music
What I’m listening to and thoughts en route from Kamloops to Edmonton by bus (as long as my laptop battery lasts anyway): Love is Like A Bottle of Gin – The Magnetic Fields “Love is like a bottle of gin/ but a bottle of gin is not like love.” What a great sentiment …
Aug 06
On the Road Again
Well, I’m sitting in Narita airport, at my gate, just shy of two hours before boarding. I’m flying JAL this time, which isn’t so bad (they have a great Japanese lime drink that they serve), but I mislike Narita’s Terminal two. One: it’s too hot. I’m dressed in cotton for my flight, and …
Aug 06
Update… Of DOOM!
I’m writing this on the bus to the airport … I’m about to head off to do the second leg of my summer Theatre tour. I was at the house almost every day since the weekend, puttering around, finishing things up. Of course, I’m not nearly close to finishing, but my friend Dave has …
Jun 26
39 – Show Diaries – Show 4
Only one sound cue glitch in this show. This was also the show my family (mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin’s wife) came to. My good friend and scholar-about-town Jeff Orchard also managed to bus himself in to see me perform. It was our biggest house so far tonight at 25 people. Two more …
Jun 26
39 – Show Diaries – Show 5 & NO SHOW
For show five, we were back to the usual audience numbers hovering just over ten people. This was Dangerous Dave’s first show with us, and things went a little less than smoothly. Jordan, our previous stagehand, actually had a lot of experience backstage (although he didn’t know how to whisper instead of talk into the …
Jun 25
Character Profile: Clancy
Another cut character, poor Clancy didn’t even make it into the Yokohama show (though we did create a totally movement-based scene with him, and just couldn’t wedge it in). But the old boy is still rattling around in my head, and despite the fact that he didn’t even get a mention in either of the …
Jun 25
Deleted Scene – The Waste of Space
This is the scene from the Yokohama version of the show in which Ms. Umqhat revealed herself to be an avatar for The Waste of Space. Yes, the odd punctuation is deliberate. Umqhat’s office 39 is here with Umqhat. 39: And that’s when they kicked me out. UMQHAT: Shame. 39: Is it? Look, …
Jun 25
Deleted Scene – Goodbye to Maya
Here’s a scene that was cut from the Fringe version of the show. 39 has snuck back to the 39th Luddite Micronation in order to meet his sister, and say goodbye to her for what he thinks will be forever: The 39th Luddite Micronation. Maya’s bedroom. 39 is here, singing Spanish Ladies to …
Jun 25
Character Profile: Maya
Another character who ended up being cut after the Yokohama performance was Maya, 39’s sister. Here’s the character description I wrote for our designer: Maya is 39′s sister. She was born the year he left the 39th Luddite Micronation, and thus is eight years old when he leaves Earth. Before leaving, 39 makes a …
little birds