(I say “officially” because we opened last night, though we had audiences twice before that – once, the other actors in the other shows, and then an invited audience at our dress rehearsal.)

Tonight was a quiet audience for most of the show, but in the second half they came alive. Show started out a little low energy, and there was a bit of a struggle to pull the energy up, which we apparently succeeded in doing, judging from the reaction at the end.

Three more performances: one tomorrow, and two on Saturday. Tonight was sold out, and it looks like the other shows could be as well. If you are thinking about coming, arrive early or reserve tickets from the theatre.

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

This Crapshoot thing at Passe Muraille is a little nerve wracking. I’m performing a short scene from a play by Adam Bradley (a fellow Dragonquest alum).

Crapshoot works like this: there’s, I don’t know, 12 acts in the night; each act has only 5 minutes. After the show at the theatre that night, they open up the cabaret space, serve some drinks and hand everyone a “menu” of the acts on tap that night. Using the menu, the audience says what order they want to see the acts in. The votes are tabulated and the show starts. As I understand it, the acts don’t know their place in the line up until their name is called, and when your name is called, your 5 minutes start.

So, yeah. Nerve wracking.

Also nerve wracking (or adding to the wracking) is the fact that I’ve had only a week with the scene. Oh, I know: your thinking “it’s only a 5 minute scene” and you’d be right. But I feel like I could use more time. More time with the text. More time with rehearsing. Just more time.

But alas, there isn’t more time.

I should stop bitching though. It’s my birthday tomorrow and I’ll me spending the night of my bithday performing. What more could an actor want?

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

I have to say that it was fun.

It was a strange thing, though. Turns out the whole “crapshoot” idea went beyond the performers. The audienc in the cabaret space rolled a 6 sided die (of course only a gaming nerd like me would need to specify that it was a six sided die) and the number that came up is the amount that you paid. So getting the audience inside took a half hour. When they were all inside, there were 138 of them. So, yes the place was packed.

Adam and I were called up third, and the crowd was receptive. They laughed where we hoped they would and seemed to enjoy the scene. So that was good.

But there was one other thing that they were doing that I didn’t know about. After all the acts had performed, they had the audience fill out ballots to vote on their favourite, who would act as the headliner for the next edition of Crapshoot in month.

The upshot: our scene didn’t “win”. But the performed that did was great, and I was happy to “lose” to her.

So, a good night. But now I am tired and on my was home to sleep.

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

A while back, D.J. From Monkeyman Productions asked me to direct a one-act play as a part of a double-bill of his plays entitled MONKEY SCI-FI HORROR THEATRE (which is appropriately typed in all caps.  Only all caps. Ever).  I said yes, and so I am directing Dead Man’s Party, a play about Dungeons & Dragons and the Zombie Apocalypse.  Which, you have to admit is pretty awesome.  If a play about Dungeons & Dragons would be pretty cool, and a play about the Zombie apocalypse would be awesome cool, then a play combining both would be super awesome cool (what can I say, I gotta let my geek flag fly).

This last Wednesday, we had our first reading of the play and next week we will begin rehearsals in earnest.  I quite like this play, and so I’m very much looking forward to having it as the first entry on my directing resume.

For those interested, MONKEY SCI-FI HORROR THEATRE runs May 22-23 and 29-30 at the Imperial Pub (54 Dundas Street East, not far from Yonge Street) with special LATE-NIGHT second performances on Saturday nights at 11pm!

In other news, on hoping to be appearing in a BYOV in the Fringe Fest this July.  Details on that when they become available.

On the writing front, I’m working on a one-man play right now.  This is going to be a long-haul kind of project, but I’m liking the process so far.

Posted in Theatre, Writing | No Comments »

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m directing Dead Man’s Party for Monkeyman Productions.  This is the first time I’ve ever directed anything, and although I’ve had some ideas in my head about what it is to be a director, and what makes a good director (what actor doesn’t?), I’ve never actually had to put any of my ideas into practice.

And so, now that I’m directing this play, each time I get ready to walk into a rehearsal, I get slightly terrrified because, this being my first attempt at directing…I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing.  I’m hoping that the things I say to the actors is helpful and that I’m not getting in their way.  I suppose I’ll be happy if when its all over, it can be said that I’m not a “bad director”.  And if people enjoy the show despite my efforts (or even better…because of them), then I’ll be even happier.

I do plan to start shooting some video as things get more interesting and we start putting things on their feet, which I will eventually edit together and post here.

On another topic, yesterday I went for a walk at lunch.  Mount Pleasant Cemetary is closeby, so I ended up walking there for a bit, when I came upon this:

Yeah.  That’s a Fu Lion wearing sunglasses.

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

Continuing to direct Dead Man’s Party.  We’re heading into tech week, and there’s still some blocking to be done.  Yeah.  A little stressful.  Its worse for the actors, though.  I’m sure it will all come together, though.  I could be a bit of a wreck by the time we open, but I’m sure it will all come together.

I’m shooting a bit of video as we go, and when the show’s up, I’ll probably edit it together and throw it up here.

In the meantime, here’s a rehearsal shot.

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

MONKEY SCI-FI HORROR THEATRE is now closed.  Directing Dead Man’s Party was a completely new experience for me, having never directed before.  Granted, I had always wondered if I would be a good director, but until the Monkeymen approached me, I had never really though seriously about directing.

All in all, I think I learned a lot.  I don’t know that I am a particularly strong director.  I approached this particular show without a strong vision for the show.  Rather, my approach was pretty simple: I just wanted to be clear about the story.  Not that this is a bad thing, but I think perhaps a stronger “vision” for the show would have helped. Additionally, I don’t think I was very good at expressing what I was looking for, nor am I completely certain that my notes were very helpful.  That said, the Monkeymen (and all the other performers) were good about it, and didn’t complain.

The performance space was the backroom of the Imperial Pub, on Dundas in Toronto. Not a traditional performance space by any stretch of the imagination.  It presented some interesting challenges.   Here’s a 180 degree panorama of the space, before we set it up as a “theatre”.  Click (as the kids say) to embiggen).

I’m certain that I could become a stronger director with practice.  I’m not entirely sure that I want to do it regularly, though.  I think I’d rather remain focused on performing.

Now that I’m done with Zombies (not that I’m completely done with zombies. After all, the zombies could rise at any time, and we must all be vigilant), its on to Out of Character, a Bring your Own Venue for the Toronto Fringe.  Well, Fringe and some Keystone Theatre planning. Looking at my June schedule, I am seeing that I’m doing one or the other almost every night of the week.  Its going to be an exhausting month.

Posted in Theatre | No Comments »

Last night, most of the cast of Out of Character sat down to do some text work on the first few scenes of the play.  The cast is kicking some serious ass, and it looks like the rehearsal process is going to be fun.

The play is about…well, that’s the thing.  It would be easy to say that the play is about LARP (Live Action Role Playing).  Or perhaps that its a play about people who LARP.  But I don’t think that’s really it.  The Live Action Roleplaying is a backdrop, the setting.  The play is actually about what happens if you meet your soulmate, but you are already with someone else.

There’s a particular challenge to the setting of the play, and that’s the fact that the average theatre-goer isn’t familiar with LARP, so in order to catch them up and immerse them in the setting, the play has to very quickly give them information about the world and what its about. I think the play does this rather well.  Of course, I’m more familiar with the setting than the average theatre-goer would be.  Fortunately there are some folks in the cast who have no familiarity, so they should be able to tell if its not clear.

Here is a panorama of us sitting around the table (click to embiggen).  And ignore the phantom coke bottle.

Posted in Fringe, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Last night at rehearsal, we learned something important: we’re gigglers.  In a moment, we can go from working the scene to non-stop, side hurting laughter.  This is important to know early, so that we have a better chance of actually getting it out of our system.

It was really an entertaining rehearsal. I wish I could share with you the things that made us laugh, but it would end up being a case of “you had to be there”, and you probably wouldn’t find it funny.  So I’ll just tell you that it was high-larious, and you’ll have to trust me.

Its going to be a fun rehearsal process, to say the least.

Posted in Fringe, Theatre | No Comments »

Last night, another rehearsal, with a revised script.

I can’t say enough what fun the rehearsals have been.  The cast is still laughing a lot between scenes.  But there’s a lot that’s getting done.  The show is blocked almost completely.  Now we get into the repetition and exploration.  Its good that its blocked though: We open in 3 weeks from yesterday!

Last night, before rehearsal, I stopped by the Cat’s Eye (which is where we’ll be performing) to remind myself what the place looks like.  I couldn’t get in, but I did take a picture or two.  Here’s the outside (in Panoramic view, of course).

I like the location, because its a nice place to hang out before a show, and secluded enough that there isn’t a lot of extraneous noise when the show inside is going on.

If you’re curious where this little oasis is located, here’s a map.

View Larger Map

Also, I keep meaning to shoot some rehearsal video.  I haven’t gotten around to it.  I will soon.

Posted in Fringe, Out of Character, Theatre | No Comments »