Gruppo Rubato

The best thing about Toronto…

// July 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

I’m not afraid to say that I’m a Toronto Hater.  I take solace in the fact that everyone who lives outside of this city hates this city.  I have been pressed by many of the locals to think of reasons why I don’t like this town, and I could list several… but that’s not why I’m writing!  I just wanted to take a second to point out that I think the BEST thing about Toronto is the Fringe audience.

Audience members here are seasoned, educated Fringe folk who have a good handle on how Fringe festivals work.  The people here are very willing to take risks on shows without waiting until all the reviews are in.  They line up diligently while they wait to get into a theatre — even in the middle of a thunderstorm –  and they are eager to have conversations with artists about almost anything.  They ASK for flyers, and when they don’t WANT flyers, they are exceedingly polite about not taking them.

My favorite part of doing a Fringe tour is the chatting!  I’m not a fan of “drive-by” flyering, and neither is Patrick.  I get a huge kick out of meeting people and hearing about what they’ve seen and what they recommend, even if they turn out to be from Missouri, or a Sharon Osbourne look-alike.

Last night I met a woman outside the theatre for Moat & Castle, and talked to her about The Churchill Protocol.  SHe took a flyer and said that the play seemed intersting to her, so I said that it was our opening night and could give her a free ticket.  “I don’t know,” she said.  “You’re not on until 11:30 tonight, and I’m getting over a back problem so I really think I should go home and rest.”  I thanked her and moved down the line… and a few minutes later she piped up again: “I’m sorry — it’s your opening night and I know you’ll need a house because it’s late.  I’d love to come.”  Sure enough, she was there for our opening last night, and she sat right up front.

If I meet a few more like her this week, I may be forced to re-evaluate my conclusion on my taste for Hogtown!

What is up with all the people from Missouri?

// July 6th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

For two days in a row, I have had my Fringe flyer mojo slightly quashed (or earnestly misdirected) by people who say they don’t want to take a flyer because they’re leaving town.  For the second day in a row, the people who are leaving town are from Missouri.

What is WRONG with Missouri?  Is there something in the air down there that makes them wake up one morning in late June and think “Hey — Independence Day is coming up next week!  Let’s go to Canada and see a Fringe play in Toronto!”  How do tourists from the States who know nothing about Fringe end up sitting in a seat waiting to see a show they’ve never heard of before?  Americans are cool.  Like Ryan Pentecostal Wisconsin Paulson.  He’s cool, even though he walks around with cheese on his head.

I met a few other interesting people while flyering lines last night.  My favorite, by far, was a woman who I jokingly referred to as Sharon Osbourne because she looked rather like the infamous Brit rocker’s wife.  Little did I know that I had been successfully baited.   She was dressing in the hopes of being mistaken for Sharon Osbourne so she could find a way to talk about her experience as a look-alike, her new one-woman show about being a look-alike (called — wait for it — “Look-Alike”) , or her desire to come and join the cast of The Churchill Protocol as Sharon Osbourne, so she could spice up our military conspiracy play by introducing a monologue about the benefits of bikini waxing at about th half-way point.  Just to help bring in the crowds.  I gave her a flyer and moved on.

We finished our tech rehearsal in about two and a half hours yesterday, which is record time.  We owe a huge amount to our Ottawa director and stage manager (the very pregnant Natalie Joy Quesnel), who gave us a prompt book that should be a case study for how to build a stage manager’s prompt book for touring shows.  She forgot nothing, and thought of things that we didn’t even think we needed until 30 minutes into setting cues, when all of a sudden a list of “lighting cues by state” was immensely helpful.  Bless her lil’ pregnant heart.  The techs at Tarragon Extra were singing her praises, and they haven’t even MET her.  To thank her, I think we should bring her on down to help us out with the show… perhaps we could give her a new monologue about the benefits of bikini waxing (while pregnant, of course).

I forgot how exhausting this is

// July 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

We took a small stack of flyers out on the road yesterday to hand out while we did our postering for The Churchill Protocol.  I think we eventually chewed through about 150 of them, hitting up lines for shows that are already selling very well on their first night — Lord of the Rings: The Musical: The Musical! being one of them (and NO, I don’t care to see it but that’s a crusty post about Fringe-worthy musical theatre that I will save for sometime when nobody can get mad at me).  We met a million other performers (mostly other touring companies) and chatted to people in line-ups.  I met a couple from Missouri who decided to spend Independence Day seeing Fringe shows in Toronto, and a lovely lady who recommended a vegetarian restaurant on Bloor that has wicked takeout: she proudly displayed her $6.25 feast and even offered to let me try it.

Patrick is currently in the shower, taking a VERY brief break from his work on the 24 hour playwriting competition.  He has to finish the play in the next twenty minutes, because we have to do tech for our show.  Poor bastard.  The play doesn’t even have a title yet.

More flyering tonight.  W came to town with about 800 flyers to give away — and we may have to order more…

First day in Toronto

// July 4th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

It was a bit precarious, but we made it.  I got a lift to The Big Smoke with Dave Dawson and the crew from Blacksheep Theatre (they’re doing Tangelico and Trashcan Duet) and got into town sometime after 1 AM.  I imagine we would have been here earlier, but we had a lot of stuff to pack into Dave’s van (a seat, a goat, a pot, a very nice sweater, and a ton of clothes) and we had to attach Cara Yeates’ bike to the roof.  Cara Bye Bye Bombay Yeates bought a bike for the Ottawa run of her show and asked Dave to bring it to Toronto for her.  He said yes, because he’s a sweet guy, but he wasn’t thinking about how he was going to attach the bike to the van.  Being theatre people and having no bungee cords, we resorted to duct taping the bike to the top of the vehicle.  There were momentary fears of having to give Cara only one wheel when we got here, or having to pull over to pull a helpless woman out of a burning car that was suddenly stuck by a flying mountain bike on the highway… but it all worked out.

Today we hang up posters and give flyers to anyone who will take them.  Tomorrow, we tech.  I hope I remember my lines.

Ottawa Fringe recap

// June 25th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

The 11th Ottawa Fringe Festival drew to a close last night under a veil of light rain. For some folks it’s the end of a journey; for the bohemians like us it is just the beginning. Overall, this was one of the most incredible Ottawa Fringes the city has had — everything from the organization to the volunteers and especially the performances was top-notch!

We picked up a Best In Venue award as a jewel for the crown of our three sold-out performances; the award gave us an extra show last night (in addition to some bragging rights that will be handy for the show poster and publicity). I had to go from a 6:30 PM performance, to a friend’s gorgeous wedding, and then back to a 9:30 PM performance. I was tired after the 6:30 show but the wedding perked me up immensely for the second round. Both of last night’s shows sold well and I think we made enough money in Ottawa that we’re a little bit ahead in terms of paying off the up-front expenses for the production (which we were initially spreading out over our six festivals).

We have a week off, now, before heading out to Toronto for their Fringe. I got home from the closing night celebrations desperate to try out some script changes, and made a round of revisions before I went to bed at an insanely late hour. The time off is a gift because it is a chance to breathe before the whirlwind that will be Toronto and Winnipeg, but it also gives us a chance to reflect on the week’s performances and tweak the script. The show will be more tight in the new city — see you there when we open LATE on July 7!

Our first sellout!

// June 20th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

The gods of small venues and good buzz have smiled on us: we sold out last night’s performance!

The enthusiasm of the audience and the general reaction to show is a bit of bird-flip to the Ottawa Sun reviewer, who compared us to Dr. Strangelove, complimented the performance, and then gave us one star, saying that we made the audience work too hard.  I don’t fault him; I suspect that following a plot can be difficult for someone who confuses goats with sheep.

We’ve had fantastic feedback on the show, and some excellent constructive criticism as well.  We’re already making some minor changes to the script, and will likely do a bit of precision editing before we open in Toronto on July 7.

There are three more opportunities to see the show in Ottawa, so do check us out if you can!

Big black hole

// June 15th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

I spent much of yesterday preparing for our precious three-hour tech time.  I ran around to Home Depot and Canadian Tire and got some loose-end-type things that we needed for the show: chicken blood, batteries, tazer gun, screwdriver, ball gag. I also burned two copies of the audio cues CD for the show.  I carefully labeled one “Master” and one “Backup” and put them in two slightly different locations in my package of Things To Go To The Theatre.

I was incredibly pleased with myself once we were at the theatre, as I had an affirmative answer for every question: “Did we bring a screwdriver for the shelf?” “Yep!”  “Did anyone pick up black gaff tape?” “Yep!!”  “Have we decided to do the cue-to-cue naked?” “Yep!”  I was proud of my preparedness, proud to be naked, and even more proud of the 23 audio cues I had so carefully burned on to two different CDs.

At about 35 minutes in to the tech time, I went to get the CDs to give them to Natalie.  They weren’t where they were supposed to be.  Cheerily, I said “Oh!  You grabbed the audio CD already!”, to which an ominous “noooooooooo” was offered in response.

I ransacked my bag and the two big Ikea bags we were using to haul stuff.  I ransacked them again.  Both CDs were missing.  “Aw, f#$k,” I oh-so-calmly intoned, “I bet they’re both sitting on the dining room table.”  I grabbed my keys, ran to the car, drove 17 minutes to get home, and found that the CDs were not on the dining room table.  So I burned another CD while I continued looking.  The original two CDs were nowhere to be found.

I grabbed the new CD, got back in the car, and drove (faster) back to the theatre.  I ransacked my bag again because I was certain that the whole affair would end with me realizing the CDs were actually at the theatre the entire time.  But they weren’t.

We managed to get the tech finished with everything set correctly, but I still have no idea where those two CDs are.  I hope this is not an omen.

Just in case it is, I’m burning 18 more CDs this afternoon before we open tonight.

Pitching at Magnetic North

// June 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

We’re taking a brief diversion from Ottawa Fringe festival preparations this weekend to pitch The Churchill Protocol to a wide range of industry-types at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.  We are one of eight companies that were given the opportunity to pitch, and past experience has shown that these pitches can lead to all kinds of interesting relationships, development possibilities and even full-scale productions.

Patrick and I attended a continental breakfast this morning that kicked off the festival’s Industry Series, and tried not to play the part of the wallflower.  Festival and theatre bigwigs from as far away as India confidently snarfed back croissants and coffee as we tried to look like we were as exotic as people from India.  We met many of the other pitching companies, discovered that they are just as freaked out about their pitches as as we are about ours, and ultimately united with them in trying to look exotic as large groups of wallflowers.

Two hours from now, we will rehearse the pitch in the official venue.  The new version of the prologue video forms the core of the presentation, and it will be followed by several minutes of light banter between Patrick and me that aims to illuminate the themes behind the play, the target market for it, and our desire to have it seen outside of the Fringe circuit.

At this point, it’s too late to worry about technical or content issues.  Patrick is taking a director’s master class this week, and I am preparing for a very important audition for a project that involves a national orchestra — and some other things.  We are both preparing to perform a twenty-minute adaptation of Hamlet, called Hamlet’s Cat, which will be seen at Westfest about 90 minutes in advance of our REAL pitch, which is at noon tomorrow.

We don’t have time to panic.  But we’re panicking anyway.

On other fronts, the word on the street is that advance tickets are already selling for the Ottawa run of The Churchill Protocol, which is fantastic news.  It is worth noting that our venue — Studio Leonard-Beaulne — is one of the smallest ones at the local festival, and that it sells out quite handily.  If you’d like to see world premiere of The Churchill Protocol, we strongly recommend you spring for advance tickets!

Prologue video, version one

// May 28th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

The Ottawa Fringe Festival had its media launch this afternoon, and since everyone and their dog likes to use video to promote their show these days, we thought we should have a video.  Videos are shiny and pretty, and I want one.  We can’t manage anything quite as wild as the LoungeZilla promo video, but we can try.

Hoping that the festival was hungry for two-minute clips from local shows, and under the gun of a deadline, we rushed through production of a “prologue” script we wrote a few months ago.  We had some issues with the quality of the video footage, but on the whole it turned out okay.  Our concern, though, is that the result is a bit too dramatic… and we are, after all, producing a comedy.  It’s a dark comedy, true, and it has a meaty center… but it’s a comedy.  The current promo video, unfortunately, gives no indication of that.  As a result, we’ve made some revisions that bump up the humour quotient a bit, and we are going to do some re-shooting later this week.  Eventually, this here blog posting may be the only place to see the original.  Ooo.

If you’re reading this, you may be wondering if there are any hints in the video about what you’ll see on-stage.  The answer is an absolute yes.  I’m just not going to spoon-feed you, because I’m a dick.  At least, that’s what Patrick and my mother both tell me.

Getting it to stick

// May 27th, 2007 // No Comments » // Blog, Kris's Soapbox

Patrick and I are both supposed to be off-book (this means that we’re supposed to have all our lines memorized) before Monday’s rehearsal.  With 36 hours to go before that rehearsal, I am beginning to fear that our sweet, pregnant director is going to suddenly become a hormonally-driven tyrant.

Contrary to popular belief, memorizing a play that you wrote (or co-wrote) is very difficult.

I used to scoff at people who had trouble remembering the lines for the one-man show that they wrote, but now I get it.  The issue is not that you can’t remember what you said; it’s that getting it all to stick in your head without being tempted to revise, re-word, or edit is a near impossibility.  When faced with a script that someone else wrote, I am forced to fill my skull with precise recollection of the appointed text.  When faced with my own words, I am distracted every few syllables by the temptation to trim, or add, or cut, or revise, or stage a wanky talk show interview in my head where I pretend that people really want to know why I chose to accent an argument with the addition of alliteration.

Regarding the script for The Churchill Protocol, I used to say that a sign of how well Patrick and I collaborate was that we were losing track of what each of us had contributed to the final text.  The process of memorization is helping to re-expose the seams, though: all of Pat’s work is sitting in my head quite neatly, and all of mine is impossible to nail down because it keeps changing.

I take comfort in the fact that Pat is in the same boat.  If our show does not open on time on June 15, it is because our director has murdered us.