Opening Night!

I think, all in all, it went off incredibly well.  There were a few snags, as always.  They let us in 5 minutes late, so we scrambled a bit.  Next time we'll set up the stage first and then get into costume.  The sound was a bit low at the very start, but they fixed that.

There were a few line drops but nothing too significant and nobody froze.  The most significant misstep was when an actor skipped pretty close to a whole page, leaving out a song!  (In fact the only song, though intentionally it wasn't an amazing song.)  Amazingly, the other two actors in the scene were able to keep going, even after he realized his mistake and redirected back to the song.  (I would have been upset for the actor who is supposed to sing if his whole moment was lost.)  So it feels like things are under control, and I can probably just leave the script at home from here on out.

One slight downside is that while Alumnae is air conditioned, it is so loud, they only run it between performances, so the audience did start to wilt and I think the second scene suffered a bit due to that.  But there were good laughs in the first and third scenes.  

We had over 40 people for the opening, which is terrific.  Most night we are doing pretty well, though Sat. evening is low, so I will make it one of the Daily Deals.  We have 75 people booked to show up on Sun., which is incredible.

We're sitting at just over 240 seats sold (plus passes).  I will have to adjust my expectations somewhat, as I thought we would be doing pretty well if we got to 250, and we will clearly surpass that.  Maybe 300, with 350 as a stretch goal.  We still won't actually break even, that would take probably 500-600, but it isn't going to be a complete financial disaster...  I thought there was an outside chance we might be Patron Pick at Alumnae, but we are up against a ringer -- Every Fringe Show You've Ever Seen All At Once.  I think the only way we would get it is if they had too many schedule conflicts (as they are already performing on Sunday!) and bowed out, which they would be crazy to do.  So I think I will likely be able to see Whose Lineage is It Anyway again on Sunday, but again I will hold off for a while.  Hopefully that performance doesn't sell out.  (I mean I do have an unused voucher, so I could book it anyway and pass it to someone else if we somehow do end up being Patron Pick for Alumnae.)

Today, I am off to see Little One, by Leroy Company.  I'm still looking forward to it, but am still also annoyed that they moved the venue from Bloor down to Queen, so getting between Little One and Fray will be challenging, particularly if this when we get hit with the sporadic thunderstorms in the forecast.  I wouldn't have constructed my schedule this way if I had known beforehand what the ultimate venue would be.  Interestingly, Fray is in a tiny black box theatre not far at all from Aluna, where we did all our rehearsing.  There is an outside chance that I will hit Potato Potato Saves the World at Soulpepper.  (It's more or less on the way back, though I would have to dip a bit further south, but it is at the brutal time of 10:30 pm.  In fact, I see they made this show a Daily Discount, though I would use my rush pass, given I don't want to commit to going until I know how I feel, and if I get soaked in the rain...)

 

 

Day One (and a Half) of Fringe

Day One got off to a pretty good start.

I stopped by Fringe Central (in the Distillery).  I was there to try to get the artist lanyards, but they still weren't ready!  They will have some temporary lanyards, apparently on Thurs.  Then I will need to stop by one last time when the real ones come in.  Sigh.  I was able to pick up the artist rush passes, so I'll bring those to the show on Thurs.

I also talked to someone about upping the number of comp. tickets I can request for each show, which I do need to fix before I book the next round of comps.

I saw our poster has a decent position on wall of posters in Fringe Central in Distillery.  It has decent but not amazing positioning on the wall.

 

I was also able to leave a decent amount of postcards inside the Soulpepper atrium.

Then I swung by Equity, which has an office on Victoria St.  I was pretty late on the paperwork, and I really wanted to get it in before the first show.  I had to call someone, since you can't just go up to their floor.  Then I got a voice mail saying they had closed early.  I was a bit miffed, but I saw a security guard and asked him if they had a drop box or something.  He actually agreed to drop off the envelope to the floor, which I thought was great.  Then he came back down and said the receptionist was still there, and she wanted to talk to me.  This was pretty baffling to me, but I quickly realized she had thought I was Eric Peterson (whom she knew), but she then told me twice that she wasn't disappointed I wasn't him...  Anyway, she had my cheque and said it would be processed on Thurs.  At any rate, she said she knew Mark Terene, who is playing one of the leads in At Home with the Bards, and that she and a few others were coming to see the show.

I had a very short stint at work after this, mostly coming in for Book Club, where we were discussing Murata's Convenience Store Woman.  I didn't really care for it, as I am just not feeling up to reading books about autistic characters.  It was a quick read, however.  And Nermean brought in rice cakes as a snack.

On the way up to Tarragon to see You Choose (an improvised murder mystery by the Howland Company), I was able to stop by Robarts and return the book.  It wasn't a bad ride up there, though it was hot.  I was wearing the cast t-shirt and passed out a ton of postcards.  My 5 second pitch is "Stratford bed and breakfast comedy" and hand over a postcard, which worked pretty well.  In general, I think Fringe audiences really respect the hustle more than anything.  One couple I talked to already had tickets, which is a pretty great feeling!  Inside the theatre, I was sitting close to the actor who was in King Gilgamesh.  We didn't really talk about it, but I said I liked it, and then handed over a postcards.  I definitely convinced the woman sitting next to me at the show to come to see our show.  

You Choose is quite good, though it doesn't quite hit the same heights as Entrances and Exits, which was truly next level improv.  I'm actually seeing it two more times, so we'll see how it goes the other times.

I thought the next show was at 9 at Tarragon, so I would go around the corner to grab some pizza and get back in line (as I had almost no postcards left!).  However, it turns out Whose Lineage is It Anyway? is at Factory, so I biked straight down Bathurst to see that (and didn't eat after all).  Because they have added red paint and made the central lanes streetcar only, the cars are in the right lane, and it truly feels like a deathtrap for cyclists.  I certainly hope I don't have any other days I need to go straight from Factory to Tarragon or vice versa!  I'll have to investigate some other routes, as I really want to avoid Bathurst from here on out.

I ran into our stage manager, Victoria, at Factory.  We were both going to the show.  I told a few people in the line about our show (and displayed a smaller poster I had with me).  One woman is going to be at opening.  

Whose Lineage is It Anyway? was outstanding.  They do an improvised show in the style of a Shakespeare history play (using Victoria's prompt no less!), and often manage to speak in rhyming couplets.  It really is impressive.  I'd like to see it again, but I think the only time I could go is late on the last Sunday.  I'll forebear from booking that time slot for a little bit longer, even though I just realized we are up against a ringer for Critic's Choice at Alumnae.  Every Fringe Show You've Ever Seen All At Once is almost certainly going to be the show at Alumnae that gets the extra show on Sunday, and we'll likely come in second.  (Which means I might go see Whose Lineage is It Anyway after all, though I won't book just yet...)

We're still doing quite well.  When I checked on the numbers, we had jumped from 150 to 190 in a single day.  I know I can't take credit for all of that...

Canada Day is a more low-key day, as there are very few shows going on, not least because it is super hard to convince the main venues to open up, so it is mostly stuff happening at Fringe Central and the unconventional venues.

I had certainly considered going to see Such Ado, but it was sold out today!  And I might still have run up and tried to use my rush pass, but I was actually proctoring my daughter taking a math test at that time!

I did get to the gym a bit later than I hoped, and it was so very crowded.  I put in about half a workout (and I still need to make up for skipping the gym last Saturday!).  Then I biked straight over to Fringe Central and participated in the Fringe parade.  Brian (the actor playing Robin Bard) was there, along with the director.  I'm glad I turned up, as they didn't have any posters to promote the show.

The crowds watching the parade were on the thin side, probably due to the extreme heat, as well as competing activities (like watching the World Cup).  Nonetheless, I talked to several people, and I think I convinced some volunteers to go.

Our first performance is tomorrow after work.  I'm excited and yet still nervous all at the same time.  I guess at this point, I just have to let it all go and let the actors do their thing.

Futurama Interlude

My wife is back from a quick jaunt to Chicago.  She managed to see one concert (Patrice Rushen) but Lionel Richie was still recovering (from dehydration apparently) and that Lionel Richie/Earth-Wind-Fire concert was cancelled (and ultimately rescheduled for late Sept.).  This means she will most likely be going back for that.  It reminds me a bit of The Fixx cancelling on me in NYC.  They may have rescheduled eventually, but by that point I wasn't going south.  Interestingly, they have a new tour (where on some of the dates, they are backed by The Smithereens, not that I think seeing them would really be worth it without the original lead singer).  They do have a Vancouver date.  They are slowing adding shows in New York (though the venues are very small).  They actually come to Rochester, which is pretty close but still further than I want to venture into the States.  I probably would go if they came to Buffalo, but I really wish they would just tour Toronto and/or Montreal.

The reason I bring this up is that I had a few Futurama items that I picked up where the sellers simply wouldn't ship to Canada.  Mostly they were pins that celebrated seasons 11 and 12 (the new ones from when Hulu picked Futurama up and resurrected it).  I overall enjoyed the new material, with a few exceptions (like a particularly terrible COVID-19 themed episode), though I agree it wasn't peak Futurama.

I also got a grey market copy of what was supposed to be Season 13.  When I finally played it, it was Season 12, which I already sourced, so that was extremely disappointing.  It's not like the seller was going to offer up a refund, and I had placed the order several months ago.

I've read on some forums that Season 13 was actually better than Seasons 11 or 12.  It looks like Season 14 will drop in mid Aug.  I guess I'll consider looking for one of those deals where you sign up for Disney+ for 3 months, then cancel, so I can binge both of these Futurama.  Of course, I wish Hulu would get with the program and sell DVDs of their shows, but that is extremely unlikely to happen, sadly.  I don't have any idea if they will renew once again, but hopefully so.

Canada Day Reflections

Going through the news today is basically as depressing as ever.  Trump decided to tear up the CUSMA trade agreement, which wasn't a surprise, but still will cause real hardship up here, as well as being quite bad overall for US manufacturing.  Such an incredible dolt and a disgrace to humanity.  

I am not at all happy about Carney's recent moves and announcement that he is scaling back Canada's climate change goals to focus more on "national unity" (i.e. sucking up to those horrible Albertans) and economic growth.  This is extremely short sighted, on a week that is breaking all kinds of heat records in Canada, to say nothing of the US and Europe.  This complete inability to force hard choices on the public, i.e. actually making them pay the full external costs of carbon and thus reining in consumption and eventually restoring some sort of balance to the environment, really shows up the limitations of Western democracy (and the general short-sightedness of human nature).  So I am not particularly proud of where Canada is heading, though I guess it is still somewhat better than most of the alternatives (and much better than living in the States!), aside from a few European countries that actually do have their transportation and environmental priorities in better order.  But immigrating to any of them is pretty much out of the question at my age, and unfortunately, they themselves are starting to show their racism as immigration levels increase throughout Western Europe.  I guess not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I am just not in a great mood these days.

On the other hand, Canada will apparently be joining Eurovision in 2027.  I might even watch for once, though I would be a lot more interested if Israeli was booted out.  If they ever come to their senses and stop occupying Gaza and imposing apartheid on Palestinians, I would be willing to cut them more slack...

I might as well cut this short and move on to more diverting and less serious topics.

Happy Canada Day, eh?

More Fringe odds and ends

I do wish I had been just a bit more prepared, as I really should have had the Equity info printed out for the 5 Equity (and ACTRA) members to sign last night.  I've been meaning to deal with this, but the form was lost in a deep email chain, and I have been so busy (including being behind on some work work).  I'm pretty sure as long as I drop this off with Equity (with the cheque* to cover insurance!) they will overlook this, or in the worst case I can get the signatures before the show on Thurs.  (I did get the cast to sign one of the big posters, as discussed here.)

I also got everyone to sign off on their bios in the program, so I will run a bunch of those off, as well as one more round of postcards from the printer.  If I had had them ready, I could have done a bit of a folding party last night at my place.  Oh well.  It would have been premature in case someone needed any rewrites; then I would have had to reprint the programs.

Anyway, the cast came by and we did two more run-throughs of just the lines.  I don't think it was a mistake doing this, though a few of them found it hard to do their lines without all the blocking and the set, etc., since it is all tied together in their mind now.  I'm actually at the point where I don't need to hear the play again; I need to see how outsiders react to it, which is why Thurs. and Sat. will be so exciting and terrifying.  (Tickets here!)

The lanyards still haven't come in, which is annoying, though I worked pretty late on Monday anyway, which would have made it hard to break and mosey on over to Fringe HQ.  I sure hope they are in soon, though I am not sure if there will be a way to get them on Wed. (Canada Day!) if they aren't in today.  I'm not even sure how I would pick them up today, though maybe if I took the Queen streetcar over, then I could hit Equity as well.  That's probably not a terrible plan...  But it does depend a great deal on when the lanyards actually come in.

Our t-shirts came in and look quite snazzy.  (They do run a bit small, which I was pretty sure would be the case.)

I'm off to Tarragon this evening to see two improv shows, so I will wear the t-shirt and hand out some of the remaining postcards while I am there.  Two birds with one stone, as it were...

 

* Between the extra fees and more postcards and covering part of the cast t-shirts, we are back in the red (appropriate given the t-shirts, I guess).  I'm not sure I really want to know how many tickets we would need to sell to cover everything.  Maybe 500 or 600.  Probably even more than that now that I think about it.  But we are at 150 sold, and the Fringe is just starting, and I'm actually hoping for pretty good word of mouth, so here's hoping...

Drawing a Blank at the Doras

The Doras are the local Toronto theatre awards.  Curiously, a few years back Mirvish pulled out from the umbrella organization that supports these awards, perhaps miffed that they often lost out to much smaller theatres in the musical awards' categories, so the awards now generally go to mid-sized theatre companies like Soulpepper, Crow's and sometimes Tarragon, and sometimes to even smaller indy companies.

Generally, I find there is relatively little overlap between what has won an award and what I enjoyed (or even seen).  I had debated going to see The Division at Crow's, but it just didn't grab me, and of course that was one of the big winners of the evening.  I also passed on The Neighbours at Tarragon.  I don't even remember if I heard about Through the Eyes of God, over at Theatre Passe Muraille, but I probably did and decided it was just too damn depressing (like A Fine Balance will be and thus it will inevitably win a Dora next year...).  I actually had wanted to see Camus's Le malentendu (which won in the costume design category), but I thought the tickets were too darn expensive and the one night I could go (when they finally announced there would be rush tickets) they sold out.  Now perhaps I should have still dropped by just to see what would happen as often something does open up, but the Theatre Centre is nowhere near my house.  I probably would have if Theatre francaise was still putting on shows at the space on Berkeley Street.*

Now it isn't literally a complete shut out.  I did see Red Hats' Narnia and Octet at Crow's, and they both won Doras as well.  But it does suggest I am not particularly attuned with the critical community in Toronto (and not just Joshua Chong at the Star).  Well, so be it.

 

* I actually have already subscribed to Crow's for one more season, even though I think this next season is a bit weak, but I am really appalled at the prices, so I think this will be my last go around.  In addition, I am even more appalled at their rush ticket policy, which is if you show up an hour before the show, looking for a rush ticket, they still will charge full price, which I find unconscionable.  I wasn't willing to do that so my wife didn't go see Primary Trust (which was ok but vastly overpraised for what was a low-key retelling of the movie Harvey!  And absolutely not worth $100 for a ticket!!!).  I actually find this abusive, and I told the house manager that, that these policies and overall high prices were going to drive me away from Crow's completely.  She said she had been hearing a lot of that... 

Tech Date

I now have the photos from our Tech. date on Sunday.

Here we are, just slowly getting set up, deciding how much space we need between the table and the cart and so on.  We actually have much more space in front of the furniture, though the stage isn't actually as wide as I had thought, due to how the side curtains are arranged.  (And oddly enough, their back curtain has a bit of a gap in it stage left, which really shouldn't be that hard to fix...)

This is the view from the stage out into the audience.  Not a view I am used to...  (And the ladder will be gone during the actual performances...)

Then we worked on the transitions and the sound and lighting cues, and then had nearly enough time for a full run.  Probably needed 10 more minutes.  So things are definitely falling into place.

Here are some shots from that last run-through.

.

And practicing for the curtain call...

We may or may not have time for shout-outs to other companies.  I don't think we'll really know until we've gotten through an actual performance or two.

Anyway, it is all very exciting to see it come together finally.  More info on the schedule and links to tickets here.