Category: Theatre

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?

(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.

Tonight I open “The Stranger” as a part of the first week of Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. We have now performed this show for two small audiences: once Monday evening foe some members of the cast of the week’s other shows, and last night for a dress rehearsal for an invited audience.

Both of these two performances were fine for me. Monday night I felt somewhat “off”, and last night I felt as though the character was there but that I wasn’t listening as well as I could be but rather going over the lines in my head while they were spoken.

My challenge for tonight is to put the full moon inspired madness of the workday behind me, and allow myself to sit in the character, find the moment and listen.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Arriving for a tech rehearsal for The Stranger.

Scripts on chairs, waiting for the reading to start.

Last night I read the role of Doctor Nefarious in the first public reading of D.J. Sylvis’ play, THE NEFARIOUS BED AND BREAKFAST.  This was the first public reading of the play, and it was great fun.  Hearing audience reacting to things that work (or don’t work) is always rewarding.

Afterwards, I lead a feedback session on behalf of D.J. (so that he could concentrate on taking notes), and from what i heard, most of the feedback was positive, and there was some really helpful feedback.

All in all, a fun night.