ssssSSSPooff!
It's been a little while! 10 days!
Saskatoon is done with, and tomorrow Alison and I leave for Edmonton, planning to get there in time to not only pick up the posters from Industry Images, but to poster them - along Whyte Ave shopwindows.
I'm not really all that keen about returning to the big city. Edmonton felt like a small city when I was in it, a bit too small for my Toronto-bred sensibilities. I like to be able to be anonymous in big crowds, big traffic, crowds that aren't mostly middle-class and white - but that's another story. During Fringe, though...I like my life to be kind of calm. Predictable, simple. During Fringe I don't tend to spend too much time exploring a city. I spend most of my time on the Fringe grounds and I like to be able to go home fairly quickly when it's 2 or more AM and I'm tired. And Saskatoon has been great for that. I've been billeted a 5 minute walk from the Oskayak high school, where I was performing! Edmonton will not be like this at all. I'm staying near the Stadium - which is not too far - but Alison is way out at Clareview, the end of the LRT and pretty much the edge of Edmonton. I used to drive my friend Alan home there, and at night I always worried that I would fall out of the city and be lost in endless black prairieness. There are roads near Clareview that lead into nowhere.
And Edmonton seems complicated - big city complicated. There is a new technology-dependant ticketing system. Tickets are more expensive than in previous years and getting them takes more forethought. And we have what may be the worst schedule I've ever seen: opening show first on the opening night, and in fact during the Free For All; half the shows done by the first weekend, two afternoon shows during the week, and the final show in the venue, 9:00 pm on the final Sunday after everyone's given up completely on Fringe '07.
We didn't do spectacularly well in Saskatoon, but we made some money. I'm kind of worried about heading into an overly complicated Edmonton, and a Vancouver where Fringe artists are in conflict with the juried "Encore Series" of hot Fringe shows from previous years, produced by Vancouver Fringe during primetime slots (a conflict of interest over which one Fringe performer (who happens to be an attourney) has threatened legal action). And all the while travelling further from home.
Our final show in Saskatoon was in a perfect, primetime slot, with (for once) no competition with top-selling shows. We had flyered solidly starting the night before. I felt good. But then, it rained - a little. We had 38 people. We never broke the 40 mark in this town. I'm told that the crowds are small, but "Homeless" nearly sold out 6 shows. Sigh. But you can see where my disappointment stems from, and that leads to worry when I see what I'm up against in the next 2 festivals.
The highlight of Saskatoon, as always, was the spoof night. Rob Gee (performance poet from England) nailed my costume and some of my demeanour, trying to play 250 characters (non-actor that he is), "all of them bonkers". We spoofed "Tale of a T-Shirt" by basically performing it again (quirky, even goofy high-energy skit-based show that it is) really fast and making it about the travel of a Fringe van instead of a T-shirt. Spoof night is over 2 nights here - 4-5 hours of spoofing! I don't know how many late nights I had here in S'ktoon (once I recovered from my sickness) but those two were particularly late!
Some companies are talking about pulling out of Vancouver, but I think Alison and I are going to stick with it. We're talking about a show for next year, set in B.C. The place, not the time. So we have some research to do.
Saskatoon is done with, and tomorrow Alison and I leave for Edmonton, planning to get there in time to not only pick up the posters from Industry Images, but to poster them - along Whyte Ave shopwindows.
I'm not really all that keen about returning to the big city. Edmonton felt like a small city when I was in it, a bit too small for my Toronto-bred sensibilities. I like to be able to be anonymous in big crowds, big traffic, crowds that aren't mostly middle-class and white - but that's another story. During Fringe, though...I like my life to be kind of calm. Predictable, simple. During Fringe I don't tend to spend too much time exploring a city. I spend most of my time on the Fringe grounds and I like to be able to go home fairly quickly when it's 2 or more AM and I'm tired. And Saskatoon has been great for that. I've been billeted a 5 minute walk from the Oskayak high school, where I was performing! Edmonton will not be like this at all. I'm staying near the Stadium - which is not too far - but Alison is way out at Clareview, the end of the LRT and pretty much the edge of Edmonton. I used to drive my friend Alan home there, and at night I always worried that I would fall out of the city and be lost in endless black prairieness. There are roads near Clareview that lead into nowhere.
And Edmonton seems complicated - big city complicated. There is a new technology-dependant ticketing system. Tickets are more expensive than in previous years and getting them takes more forethought. And we have what may be the worst schedule I've ever seen: opening show first on the opening night, and in fact during the Free For All; half the shows done by the first weekend, two afternoon shows during the week, and the final show in the venue, 9:00 pm on the final Sunday after everyone's given up completely on Fringe '07.
We didn't do spectacularly well in Saskatoon, but we made some money. I'm kind of worried about heading into an overly complicated Edmonton, and a Vancouver where Fringe artists are in conflict with the juried "Encore Series" of hot Fringe shows from previous years, produced by Vancouver Fringe during primetime slots (a conflict of interest over which one Fringe performer (who happens to be an attourney) has threatened legal action). And all the while travelling further from home.
Our final show in Saskatoon was in a perfect, primetime slot, with (for once) no competition with top-selling shows. We had flyered solidly starting the night before. I felt good. But then, it rained - a little. We had 38 people. We never broke the 40 mark in this town. I'm told that the crowds are small, but "Homeless" nearly sold out 6 shows. Sigh. But you can see where my disappointment stems from, and that leads to worry when I see what I'm up against in the next 2 festivals.
The highlight of Saskatoon, as always, was the spoof night. Rob Gee (performance poet from England) nailed my costume and some of my demeanour, trying to play 250 characters (non-actor that he is), "all of them bonkers". We spoofed "Tale of a T-Shirt" by basically performing it again (quirky, even goofy high-energy skit-based show that it is) really fast and making it about the travel of a Fringe van instead of a T-shirt. Spoof night is over 2 nights here - 4-5 hours of spoofing! I don't know how many late nights I had here in S'ktoon (once I recovered from my sickness) but those two were particularly late!
Some companies are talking about pulling out of Vancouver, but I think Alison and I are going to stick with it. We're talking about a show for next year, set in B.C. The place, not the time. So we have some research to do.
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