fours and fives

boy oh boy am I having trouble getting my blog posts to post! If this one posts, I'll be amazed. "If you're reading this, you probably..." The elder of my two unposted posts has been missing from the blog for so long that it's starting to show up on milk cartons.

Oh, wait. I just figured out why this is happening. FTP password stuff ... this is embarassing. c'mon Alex, if your *website* password changes, then so does... geez.

Anyway, here we are together.

I got my first four-star review of the tour! Getting a four-star review at a big festival is sort of like cutting a hole in the glass ceiling and pulling yourself up. In Edmonton, particularly, if you get a four-star, you're likely to sell out. Three-and-a-half? No. Edmontonians are, bless them, obsessed with the star ratings in the Edmonton Journal. I always see crowds of people all doing the same task: checking the day's show schedule against their clipped out star list from the Journal. Four and up, they can fit it in - regardless of weather, regardless of time of day, regardless of what the show IS, even. If it's a five-star, they'll fight each other, and line up for five hours in rain and snow (Edmonton Fringe can have volatile weather) just to buy a ticket, and quit their jobs and leave their families just to see it. No matter what it is. And sometimes, I'm told, the cold stare of a give-me-the-five-star-show-I've-been-promised crowd is a little too much to bear.

Thankfully/unthankfully, we're in Winnipeg, where the star-rating / attendance relationship is a little bit less direct. So, we're the four-star show that is still getting half houses. In an 80-seat house. My understanding is that, in Winnipeg at least, I sell a certain percentage of my house, regardless of total capacity. It's like they *know*. It's the half-house city, for me at least.

But whatever, things might pick up - we have four shows left and we're working hard. And we're in the four-star club! Keir Cutler ("Teaching the Fringe") has been giving me four (like giving five with the thumb folded) everytime he sees me.

There really is something going on with that here. Nile Seguin ("Fear of a Brown Planet") has been trying to resurrect the retro "low five". I'm still getting used to it. I go high, and then I correct down. To make sure I go low enough with my five, I repeat this mantra: "So low that you might miss". The contact and the resultant sound are not nearly as electrifying when the five is low...but it's so much more relaxing. I've been trying to teach Nile my high six - and hand plus a finger. You have to make sure you're mirroring each other, or the solitary fingers can get hurt.

This has been an odd Winnipeg Fringe. Really odd. Ticket sales are down (visibly) despite amazing weather (not hot like the last two years - very little rain). Cell phones are going off during shows all over the place. Two days ago, Keir Cutler had to restart his show three times because the (probably sold-out) audience wouldn't settle down! CBC dropped its Fringe bloggers (I was one for the last two years, so I'm a little sad about this) and Uptown Magazine has hardly reviewed 20% of the shows, as far as I can tell.

Ah well, off to see Bat Boy the Musical. Because, why not?

AAA

Three days in the wilderness

Toronto... was stressful. I didn't think my hometown could do that to me. Suddenly, it seemed like the show wasn't reaching very many people. Reviewers were snarky - crowds were small - reactions were mixed... and whereas in Ottawa a lot of people had constructive things to say about the show (or much-needed kudos), in Toronto, there were a lot of evasions and blank stares and "Well...we'll talk about it"s. It didn't feel like the same show. How could we be sure of something in one city and then suddenly lose our OWN confidence in it in the next?

The good in this is that I looked at the show from a new perspective, and two things happened: I made changes to the script, and Aura and I began to reconfigure how we looked at the story and the characters. By the time Toronto Fringe was done, Old Growth had changed - and was going in a better direction. And then we were going West, and I'm sorry to say it but I was glad to get out of there. Deep breaths, come back in September. That's me talking to myself. We're going to be okay.

And anyway, two things happened toward the end of Toronto fest: 1) we started having great comments float in, from friends who saw the show even on days we were really down about it - and 2) we realised how utterly, totally bad that theatre (the Glen Morris) was for us. Apparently the acoustics swallowed nuance and made our show into a boomy tirade. When Alison came down to Toronto for the final shows, she was insistent that the hall itself was the reason behind some of our problems.

Anyway. Now, after three days of driving, we're in Winnipeg. Actually, we got here on Tuesday evening, and according to tradition we checked in at Fringe central and schmoozed with performers before even going to our THREE billets. Yes, we're billeting separately. And yes, Alison Williams is here, as director and as technician, wrangling the wild flocks of theatre lights at lucky Venue Thirteen (Ragpickers). Alison's staying with the family she was with last year - an elderly matron, a gaggle of pets, and random family members in and out. Aura's staying with my amazing billets from last year, way out Portage Ave. And I'm staying with a fellow Fringe performer down in Corydon - little Italy! I haven't hit the gelato yet, but oh, I will.

Anyway. I guess I feel great about this place. I always do. Winnipeg is the oasis after the wilderness. Or something. I think you have to drive here from Toronto to understand it. It takes THREE DAYS, all but one and a half hours of which are in Ontario. We stayed with my old geography teacher near Iron Bridge, and with a composer colleague (of mine AND Aura's) in Thunder Bay. And then, we're here. We've had three shows. Last night was the best one of the tour (we're still waiting on the pronouncements of whatever reviewers were there). It...sang. And today - today was a matinee. And now, I'm going to go see Steve Larkin the performance poet play in a band. And then?

Lator.

Alright, who here is *for* the continuation of life on earth. Can we have a show of hands, please?

Oh... mah.......Gord......

We're in Toronto - we opened yesterday afternoovening (5pm) and all my effort has been focussed on that, and not getting terribly sick. I've been exhausted, so illness wasn't surprising. Every night in Ottawa was a late one - Ottawa was fun, if not very profitable (Ottawans, bless their hearts, don't seem to Fringe in the rain, whereas Winnipeggers and Edmontonians will see the shows their star critics tell them to see, no matter what - and believe me, I've experienced quite the temperature swing and wacky stormage between those two festivals these past few summers!) Then the next day (Monday) we went to Wakefield Quebec, just for the day, to perform one show in their new little "Piggyback" Fringe festival. Which was very well run! We sold out! Okay, it was 35 seats, but *still*. Wakefield is gorgeous, but of course it rained. Like Ottawa. Every day.

An odd thing happened there - or was said to have happened. Near the end of Old Growth, my character goes a bit (or a lot) over the edge of despair, and gets pretty down and dirty accusatory against the human species (don't worry, he manages to pull back with Aura's help). Well, according to one of the festival organizers, some of the Wakefielders were contemplating voicing their protests during this section. Like "But we *do* agree with what you are saying! Don't accuse us! Which is interesting. I have wondered how self-professed ecophiles would take the show (most realise I'm really speaking to someone larger i.e. all of us and someone smaller i.e. myself). But the question, which only occured to me the next day, is - do I need to poll my audience before every show to determine how to pitch the ending? And the answer of course, is - not so much at all, really.

I already have to get ready for another show in Toronto. 5 days in a row! I'll write more later.

Tchuss!