Last night, we opened Out of Character at the Fringe.

I will admit to some nervousness (ok, a lot).  I wasn’t sure how the show would play for an audience.  I wasn’t sure if an audience would get it.  And I wasn’t sure if I would remember the lines for a certain scene (yes, that scene).

In the end, we had a small but engaged audience, who seemed to really enjoy the show.  I remembered my lines.  The audience got it, and all was well with the world.

At the end of the night, I was informed that a reviewer from Eye Weekly had been in attendance.  Here’s hoping that they are kind.  The review official Eye review, plus audience reviews will appear here.

Tonight, we’ll do it again.

Backstage, Kat Leonard watches the onstage action:

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For people who aren’t regular Fringers, there is a very important thing that might not be known:  for plays in the Fringe, the most important thing for any show is Word of Mouth.  Advertising may be important for Fringe, but Word of Mouth is king.   Shows live or die by the buzz they receive (or don’t receive).  If you liked a show, the best thing you can do for that show, is tell someone.  You can tell your friends, you can tell fellow fringers.  Or, you can leave a review at the Eye Weekly Fringe page, where the weekly newspapers reviews mix with audience reviews, to give potential audience members as  many opinions on all the shows as possible.

I’m not just saying this because I’m in a show in the Toronto Fringe that could use some good buzz.  All Fringe shows could use good buzz.  So, if you saw something you liked…tell someone.

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Tonight is our sixth performance of Out of Character.  After that, we have just five more performances.

I have really been enjoying the run of this show.  The cast is a lot of fun to play with, and we’ve been having some very receptive and appreciative audiences.

Last night, I learned a valuable lesson: even though they serve jerk chicken at the Fringe tent, and even though it is delicious…do not eat jerk chicken before the show.  I did this yesterday, and it was definitely a mistake.  Just remember, jerk chicken is an after show treat.

Dark tomorrow, and then we head into our final five performances.  Hope to see you there.

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Heading into a day off from performing, I thought I would point out a review of Out of Character that appears in Plank Magazine.

Reviewer Ryan West, says:

Delving into the mysterious and bizarre world of LARPing (Live Action Roleplaying, for the non-geeks), the play foregoes easy humour at the expense of these social outcasts and delivers a surprisingly poignant love story.

A powerful cast flow in and out of their characterizations, with each player donning the mantle of both their ‘real’ persona and the ‘shadow’ one, a fantasy identity created to exist in an imaginary world of intrigue and deception

Read the full review here.

Remember: although we are dark tonight, there are 5 more chances for you to see Out of Character, starting again on Wednesday July 8th.  Show details can be found here.

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Including tonight, you have only 3 more chances to see Out of Character.  Houses have been really great, and more people are coming each night.  Tickets go on sale at 7pm.  You can get advance tickets at the Fringe tent, but really…the easiest thing is just to show up early.  We open the doors at about 7:30 and start right at 8pm.

Hope we’ll see you there this weekend.

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Well, now that’s over.

Out of Character closed on Sunday night, to an enthusiastic crowd.  There were very few backstage (or onstage) shenannigans, and the show was probably one of the best: it clipped along, the entire cast was “on”, and there was a great energy from start to finish.

The show, overall, was a good experience.  We had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot (which is always good).

I have done a bit of thinking on the Fringe BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) experience, however.  I love the concept of the BYOV.  I love the idea of creating site specific theatrical productions.  The downside, however, is whether the BYOV is really a part of Fringe.  In most of the “regular” venues, shows rotate on the schedule, never performing at the same time, and often with a day or two in between performances.   Since the shows all spend time in the same theatre, when one show is letting out, another show is getting ready to go in.  The audiences mingle and word of mouth happens.   Also, if a show happens to be sold out, people may hang around and buy tickets for the next show. Actors mingle before and after shows, connections get made, and ideas get shared.

With the BYOV, however, the show exists in a bit of a vacuum. People come to the location specifically for the show that’s performing. Its usually not in a “traditional” theatre space, so people might have trouble finding it.  Audiences don’t mingle with the show letting out or coming in, its rare to meet actors from other shows (unless they come specifically to see the BYOV show).  Being away from the other venues, means that you lose out on some buzz generating things, such as the audiences mingling, vying for the Patron’s Pick, or the Best of the Fringe.

I’m certainly not complaining though.  BYOV shows are always exciting, often experimental, and never quite what you expect.  And this was an incredible experience.  I just think that to get the full Fringe experience, its best to be in one of the “main venues”.

Another great thing that happened over Fringe, was that I got a much needed kick in the pants on the writing front, and gave myself a goal to have two shows written and ready, so that I can submit one of them for next year’s Fringe Lottery.  I’m also starting to wonder about trying to do a Fringe tour, but that’s on the back burner.  Right now, the concentration is on the writing.

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well, after a brutal hour and a half (brutal for the antici…pation), I did not get into the Toronto Fringe Festival. Neither did I make the waiting list. While this is disappointing from the point of view of getting my play on stage this summer, there are a couple of positive aspects:

1) I don’t have to spend $700 right before Christmas.
2) I have more time to work on the play.

Thinking about it on the way home, it occurred to me that I could submit it as a Bring Your Own Venue (byov). It wouldn’t take too much to turn the play into something site specific. I could see it, for example, in a church (long as they didn’t mind the cussing), or perhaps an alley.

A byov does present some unique challenges, however. Having performed in one last year, I found that we were far to separated from the festival as a whole. There’s a certain comraderie to the regular Fringe venues. You pass by other vast members before and after your show, and there a lot of opportunity for cross promotion. With the byov, it’s just your show in one space, and that means you miss out on a lot of the Fringe experience. The other reason I’d be reluctant to do a byov, is that you have to work that much harder to get an audience. If I was to do the play as a byov, I’d need s real promotions wiz to help me get the word out. Additionally, I’d need to combat my own self sabotaging instincts, and fight the voice (the one that’s there even now) that whispers to me that no one wants to see me perform a one-man show (or at least not enough people to make it worthwhile).

Regardless (self-esteem issues aside) whether to submit the play as a byov will take some careful thought, though I refuse to rule it out completely just yet.

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There are really two arts festivals that I really look forward to.  And when I say “look forward”, I mean arts festivals that I actually get excited thinking about.  Festivals that, in the weeks leading up to them, I think to myself “I wish it was here already”.

The first is the Toronto Fringe Festival, which I have loved for a long time.  During this festival, the attention of the media is focused on small theatre like at no other time of the year.  Certainly there are several news papers that do a wonderful job of covering smaller companies during the rest of the year; papers like Now and blogs like Mooney on Theatre and Amanda Campbell’s The Way I See It do a great job of covering small to mid theatre companies.  But during Fringe, there’s more attention focused than at any time of the year.  The media covers theatre more, and some large producers go looking for the next possible hit that they can transplant to one of their theatres.  Combine the attention with the lottery selection system for Fringe, and you have something almost…dangerous, because the theatre goer never really knows what they are getting until they sit down to watch the show.  The fact that productions for Fringe are chosen at random, means that anyone can get into the festival, regardless of their experience or pedigree or even the quality of the show.  This means you might see something mediocre, or you might see something that’s really bad, or you might see something really amazing.  And that’s pretty damned exciting.

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is the other arts festival that I really look forward to. Described as an “all night contemporary art event”, Nuit Blanche is not a stuffy art museum exhibit filled with paintings or sculptures, its art on a large scale.  Installations in spaces around the city, indoors and outdoors.  It shuts down some main streets in Toronto, allowing the many thousands of people who attend to move freely, unheeded by cars.  People fill the streets, wander through the art installations, and generally have a great time. You are guaranteed to see something cool.  This year, there are installations in Lower Bay subway station, a “Nuit Market” in an alley, a van that’s turned into a light box, and those are just three of installations I want to see.  Some exhibits are more performance based, making Nuit Blanche more of a celebration of the arts in general rather than a capital “A” Art event.  It goes all night, and I’ll be honest…its been ages since I could stay up all night, even for something as cool as this, but I’ll certainly be out until quite late.  I’ve you’ve never gone, I highly recommend that you check it out.  It will be like nothing you’ve seen before.

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After a weekend of Fringing, I thought I’d do a quick rundown of some shows I would recommend you see at the Toronto Fringe Festival 2011.

First up: Sex, Religion, and Other Hang-Ups. This show, written and performed by James Gangl is a quick, well performed and engaging one man show with plenty of laughs.  As a solo performer, Gangl makes a strong connection with his audience, taking them on the journey through the titular hangups.  The only complaint I might have about the show, is that James seems to be running so tightly along the edge of his 60 minute time limit, that he frequently has to ask his audience to stop laughing because there’s “no time” for it.

Next was Love, Virtually, by Chloë Ariane Whitehorn, who’s writing I quite enjoy.  The play is a look at online dating, with some smart takes on the kinds of profiles one is likely to find on those sites.  I enjoyed the play, and can recommend it as something worth seeing at the Fringe.

Virginia Alderidge, BSc, is the story of a girl following in the footsteps of her childhood heroine, in an attempt to impress a boy.  Janelle Hanna as the title character is funny in her naivete and heartbreaking in her longing for a boy who may not really know she exists.  The play is well written, and definitely worth your time.

Kim’s Convenience is by far the standout show of this year’s Fringe. It is not just the best Fringe show I have seen in a long time, it is the best show period that I have seen in a long time. This is the show to see (if you can get in), and its worth the wait in the ticket line (show up at least 30 minutes before tickets go on sale).  Great script, well acted by a talented cast.  I have never seen a more heart-felt and genuine standing ovation in a theatre.  I hope this show has a long life after Fringe, because it it well deserved.

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Lately I have found myself talking a lot about writing, but actually doing very little of it. Oh, I will sit down at the computer, or with pen in hand, and I will turn off the Internet and focus only on writing for a bit, but no words end up in the page. And that has frustrated me. I haven’t been able to write that play, or even a short story. Which of course has frustrated me more.

The other day, Adrianna Prosser reminded me that writing needs to be practiced, and that if the writing muscle isn’t regularly exercised, it gets out of shape. So I need to exercise my writing muscles.

I need to write something every day, whether it’s a short (even a very short) story, a blog post or what ever. The important thing at this point is to just write.

So that’s the plan. Write something – anything – each day. Starting now.

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