What a contrast from Montreal!
Ottawa citizens love the Fringe. And the audiences laugh. And cry.
We're having a great time playing to large houses (60+), and the theatre is a real theatre, with real curtains and a real stage floor with real seats.
Not that the experience in Montreal wasn't good - it was great to get the show up there. But Ottawa feels like manna is falling from heaven after a drought.
It's our last weekend, and people keep telling us, "You're going to win Best of Venue." We'll see. I never count my chickens... But it would be great to win....
The capital of Canada - not just a government town. Also a patron of independent theatre.
Oh, and before I fall asleep, a lovely young woman gave Gill and me praise for our acting talents, and said that Crude Love is the only show of 20 she saw that could be in a real theatre, like the Tarragon in Toronto. Music to my ears!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Helloooo Ottawa
Up at 6 am. Say goodbye to our wonderful billets who have the generosity of heart and incredible wisdom to make us coffee for the road. (They make coffee for us every day, in fact) Drive. Drive. Drive. Gas is 142. Sigh. Pump. Pump. Pump. Tim Horton's. Line up. Egg sandwich and potato which I think is less potato and more just old grease. Drive. Drive. I fall asleep. Russ needs me to talk. He is struggling to keep his eyes open. I wonder why we are doing this. Where are we going. Where will we live in September. What will we do with our lives. I mean, really. If we'll make our tech. If anyone will come to the show tonight. Will we be late for brunch with my sister and family? Will my niece and nephew remember me? What is the point of it all, again? What is our purpose in living? But I don't say this. Instead I put on Neil Diamond, look at our map and tell him "we are almost there". Make the tech. We are 5 minutes late. She is 15. She says she slept in. I want to kill her. But we finish the cues. Poster. Poster. Poster. Flyer people near the site. Flyer (hate myself) flyer (hate myself). Poster. See old friends from tours past. Gang's all here. Try to find breakfast place. Get lost. Get found. Get lost. And then see Ian, Karen, Audrey and Jasper. We made it! Ian even stands on the street and shows us where to park. After brunch, poster the glebe. I find where my sister has been before me as a flyer is already posted up on a bulletin board. I am grateful. Flyer people at cafes. Poster. Flyer. Get back to my sister's. We all sleep (except Ian and Audrey out getting supplies). I could sleep forever. But hear the tentative steps of a 5 year old down the stairs. Russ and I hurry and rehearse transitions and new entrances and exits in their back yard, since the set up of the theatre is totally different. I try to rehearse miming driving a truck. Jasper watches and is very quiet. I look over and he sits in a chair, holding one of our posters above his head with both hands like he is at a hockey game, rooting for his team. He gives suggestions for the show "I think you should exit Center" and sound effects for the geese. Ian and Karen make dinner. Ian BBQ's amazing asparagus and shrimp. We do nothing to help. Instead, finish rehearsing, throw on makeup, sit down to eat. Gorge ourselves. Get up, they insist we leave everything, and head for the show. We feel so well taken care of. Head to the show. Before I leave I tell Jasper I'm nervous. HE says "Don't worry. Just think about me". 10 minutes before show, trying to go over some new stuff. Russ and I are tense. I feel this is no fun. We snap at eachother to move the log here, no here, stop upstaging me, no do it like this. House comes in. Everything goes black. Then, then we let go and have an hour of absolute, no holds barred fun. We get to fall in love again and again on stage. Over and over. The world stops. Everything else is gone. People are laughing. Hard. In what feels like 5 minutes, we are at the end. I wonder if I lost the audience at the end. They are all on their feet. I look, surprised, at Russ and feel so at home, with him, holding his hand, on stage, and I think "I love these people!" I love my husband. I love the audience. I love the stage. I love my life. "Hello Ottawa"!
And tomorrow: Coffee, poster poster poster, flyer (hate myself), flyer (hate myself) Wonder "why am I doing this?" "What is the purpose of life?"....
And tomorrow: Coffee, poster poster poster, flyer (hate myself), flyer (hate myself) Wonder "why am I doing this?" "What is the purpose of life?"....
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Au Revoir Montreal
Just a quick one before I crash.
We have to be up in six hours to drive to Ottawa to do our last hour of tech rehearsing at 10 am. We just finished our last show here in Montreal to a very receptive audience. Crude Love is fully on its feet! Only seven fringe festivals to go!
We will still be changing some of the writing and trying out new things as we travel across the country - like new endings and new lines and even new scenes. It's a process of trial and error to develop a new play, and while it makes us very nervous, there's no better way to do it.
We got two great reviews - one in the Montreal Mirror, and the other in the Ottawa Xpress. And a great article about the show in Ottawa's 24 Hours. You can read them all through our website, bigsmokeproductions.com.
And I have to say - I really love the one hour I get to act with my amazingly talented wife, Gillian. It is worth all the blood, sweat and tears - yes, even tears - to get our butts up there on stage. Both of us keep wondering whether we should continue in this profession, where there is no support, no security and no jobs, and that hour where we get to leave all the bullshit of our lives behind us, and just connect and play together, is the happiest hour of my day. Apart from lying together in bed. But lately, we fall asleep really fast. By Winnipeg, I think we'll have caught up on our sleep....
Anyway, I'm totally wandering here, so GOOD NIGHT MONTREAL. Thanks for the start to an amazing cross-Canada Fringe Festival tour! And thanks to our billets, Phyl and Peter, who have been the best hosts I could have ever imagined.
We have to be up in six hours to drive to Ottawa to do our last hour of tech rehearsing at 10 am. We just finished our last show here in Montreal to a very receptive audience. Crude Love is fully on its feet! Only seven fringe festivals to go!
We will still be changing some of the writing and trying out new things as we travel across the country - like new endings and new lines and even new scenes. It's a process of trial and error to develop a new play, and while it makes us very nervous, there's no better way to do it.
We got two great reviews - one in the Montreal Mirror, and the other in the Ottawa Xpress. And a great article about the show in Ottawa's 24 Hours. You can read them all through our website, bigsmokeproductions.com.
And I have to say - I really love the one hour I get to act with my amazingly talented wife, Gillian. It is worth all the blood, sweat and tears - yes, even tears - to get our butts up there on stage. Both of us keep wondering whether we should continue in this profession, where there is no support, no security and no jobs, and that hour where we get to leave all the bullshit of our lives behind us, and just connect and play together, is the happiest hour of my day. Apart from lying together in bed. But lately, we fall asleep really fast. By Winnipeg, I think we'll have caught up on our sleep....
Anyway, I'm totally wandering here, so GOOD NIGHT MONTREAL. Thanks for the start to an amazing cross-Canada Fringe Festival tour! And thanks to our billets, Phyl and Peter, who have been the best hosts I could have ever imagined.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Opening Night!
I am constantly plagued by Larry David's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when he is preparing to be Max Bialostock (sp?) in The Producers, and can't remember his lines. "It's opening night!!"
Gill and I have rehearsed for four days straight at a perfect location: Concordia's dance school, where Jonno Katz helped us tremendously with our physicality.
But what an exhausting process! I am wiped. Thank god our opening night starts at 11:15pm - no one will come! Perfect. But even if people do come, we finally feel ready for an audience. It's been agony until this evening when we did our last run-through: tech rehearsals that don't go according to plan, changing lines constantly, and fixing our car.
Thankfully, our billets, the Havercrofts, are wonderful and so helpful - sewing ripped costumes, feeding us and driving us to the fix our car.
And we even got a great article in the Montreal Gazette today! See
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=797535
c8-bb46-47e0-a908-122f7012dba3
for the full story.
Alright Canadian Fringe Festival Tour, here we come! Crude Love is born!
Gill and I have rehearsed for four days straight at a perfect location: Concordia's dance school, where Jonno Katz helped us tremendously with our physicality.
But what an exhausting process! I am wiped. Thank god our opening night starts at 11:15pm - no one will come! Perfect. But even if people do come, we finally feel ready for an audience. It's been agony until this evening when we did our last run-through: tech rehearsals that don't go according to plan, changing lines constantly, and fixing our car.
Thankfully, our billets, the Havercrofts, are wonderful and so helpful - sewing ripped costumes, feeding us and driving us to the fix our car.
And we even got a great article in the Montreal Gazette today! See
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=797535
c8-bb46-47e0-a908-122f7012dba3
for the full story.
Alright Canadian Fringe Festival Tour, here we come! Crude Love is born!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Almost There
Ontario is big. It is really, really big. Once you get out of the prairies and get your first taste of Northern Ontario, and you think “I made it!”, you are actually only half way there. Because Lake Superior is big. It is really, really big.
Washed out highways, tornados 12 miles from us, thunderstorms, rainbows, moose crossing the road, lots of “Night Danger” signs (and it does feel dangerous at night even with no giant animals standing in the road) brings us about to where we are now. Montreal! And just when you think “I’m in Montreal!”, you are actually only half way there. Costumes, tech script, tech problems, blocking changes, missing cues, breaking down car (yes it is already breaking down), gridlock on highway, completely lost in Montreal…..and 4 days till show time. And did I mention HEAT WAVE? Why is there always a heat wave here in June? Then our first full day here, tornado warnings and a severe thunderstorm. But the show must go on, so on our way to tech we saw giant pieces of tree that had been ripped off like limbs off a body only hours before.
We are staying with lovely friends, Phyl and Peter, who have basically opened their door and are letting us come and go as we please. Had a great stopover at Golden Pond in Muskoka for a day, visiting Russ’ parents, who were also the most wonderful of hosts. Russ's dad is very angry at the beavers cutting down all the trees. We even heard one late at night splash loudly into the lake. So can you here a tree fall in the woods? Yes, you can.
Russ's dad helped us find tree stumps for our set (tree stumps ironically being all that beavers leave behind). Russ sanded them and put felt on the bottom.
Very tired. Long day and very long days ahead till we open. It’s almost one a.m . and Russ is filling out some kind of form for the Saskatoon Fringe on the net.
Why does everyone else seem more organized than us?
After a long and harrowing tech, we went to a Falafel joint and the guys there were so nice I almost cried. They even put up our poster on their garbage can. I love the people here. A trucker also asked if we were lost (with my map spread across the windshield on the highway). Oh yeah, Russ cut off a cop on our first day and he (the cop) was really mad.
Can I suggest, don’t quit smoking with your husband before traveling across the Country while trying to put a show together. Unless you want to see “There Will be Blood, Part II”. It ain’t pretty. If you must, though, bring lots of Bach’s Rescue Remedy (thanks Karen) and kleenex for when “smoking” the “imaginary” cigarettes just isn’t fun anymore.
Washed out highways, tornados 12 miles from us, thunderstorms, rainbows, moose crossing the road, lots of “Night Danger” signs (and it does feel dangerous at night even with no giant animals standing in the road) brings us about to where we are now. Montreal! And just when you think “I’m in Montreal!”, you are actually only half way there. Costumes, tech script, tech problems, blocking changes, missing cues, breaking down car (yes it is already breaking down), gridlock on highway, completely lost in Montreal…..and 4 days till show time. And did I mention HEAT WAVE? Why is there always a heat wave here in June? Then our first full day here, tornado warnings and a severe thunderstorm. But the show must go on, so on our way to tech we saw giant pieces of tree that had been ripped off like limbs off a body only hours before.
We are staying with lovely friends, Phyl and Peter, who have basically opened their door and are letting us come and go as we please. Had a great stopover at Golden Pond in Muskoka for a day, visiting Russ’ parents, who were also the most wonderful of hosts. Russ's dad is very angry at the beavers cutting down all the trees. We even heard one late at night splash loudly into the lake. So can you here a tree fall in the woods? Yes, you can.
Russ's dad helped us find tree stumps for our set (tree stumps ironically being all that beavers leave behind). Russ sanded them and put felt on the bottom.
Very tired. Long day and very long days ahead till we open. It’s almost one a.m . and Russ is filling out some kind of form for the Saskatoon Fringe on the net.
Why does everyone else seem more organized than us?
After a long and harrowing tech, we went to a Falafel joint and the guys there were so nice I almost cried. They even put up our poster on their garbage can. I love the people here. A trucker also asked if we were lost (with my map spread across the windshield on the highway). Oh yeah, Russ cut off a cop on our first day and he (the cop) was really mad.
Can I suggest, don’t quit smoking with your husband before traveling across the Country while trying to put a show together. Unless you want to see “There Will be Blood, Part II”. It ain’t pretty. If you must, though, bring lots of Bach’s Rescue Remedy (thanks Karen) and kleenex for when “smoking” the “imaginary” cigarettes just isn’t fun anymore.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
On the Road again
We are officially on the road again! On our third cross-Canadian Fringe Festival Tour!
On June 2, we left Vancouver, having packed up all our worldly possessions into a storage box with the guidance and strength of Ivan Penaluna, and set out on the trans-canada #1 for Montreal.
Opening night of Crude Love is at 11:15pm on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at Theatre Ste. Catherine. Check out www.bigsmokeproductions.com for a full schedule and the address of the theatre. Or www.montrealfringe.ca.
We have been writing Crude Love since November 2007, and are still rewriting it as we drive across the country. Today is DAY 4 of our drive, and we made it to Kenora, Ontario. It is also DAY 4 of our new lives as non-smokers, making for a very colourful car ride these past few days.
Yesterday we stopped in a town called Mundare, Alberta, Home of the Big Kubassa (Sausage). Gill posted a photo of it over there on the right.
We stopped in Edmonton and we warmly welcomed by Gill's dad and step-mom. We will stop in Muskoka and rest up with Russ's folks before heading onto Montreal to set up the show.
We would have liked to have more rehearsal time with our wonderful director and dramaturge, Emelia Symington Fedy, but hopefully she can join us in Toronto in July to give us more guidance.
Today we took a detour off the highway to drive through the town of Russell, Manitoba. Quite a trip to see a town so rooted in the 1950s where everything begins with your name: Russell Tires, Russell Post Office, Russell Street, Russell Memorial Center, Russell Regional Library, Russell Farm and Auto, Russell Video, Russell Golf Course, Russell Leisure Club, and Russell Civic Centre.
Alright, we have to rehearse the blocking before we head to bed. And type out the latest draft. And update the website with more press releases. And...
On June 2, we left Vancouver, having packed up all our worldly possessions into a storage box with the guidance and strength of Ivan Penaluna, and set out on the trans-canada #1 for Montreal.
Opening night of Crude Love is at 11:15pm on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at Theatre Ste. Catherine. Check out www.bigsmokeproductions.com for a full schedule and the address of the theatre. Or www.montrealfringe.ca.
We have been writing Crude Love since November 2007, and are still rewriting it as we drive across the country. Today is DAY 4 of our drive, and we made it to Kenora, Ontario. It is also DAY 4 of our new lives as non-smokers, making for a very colourful car ride these past few days.
Yesterday we stopped in a town called Mundare, Alberta, Home of the Big Kubassa (Sausage). Gill posted a photo of it over there on the right.
We stopped in Edmonton and we warmly welcomed by Gill's dad and step-mom. We will stop in Muskoka and rest up with Russ's folks before heading onto Montreal to set up the show.
We would have liked to have more rehearsal time with our wonderful director and dramaturge, Emelia Symington Fedy, but hopefully she can join us in Toronto in July to give us more guidance.
Today we took a detour off the highway to drive through the town of Russell, Manitoba. Quite a trip to see a town so rooted in the 1950s where everything begins with your name: Russell Tires, Russell Post Office, Russell Street, Russell Memorial Center, Russell Regional Library, Russell Farm and Auto, Russell Video, Russell Golf Course, Russell Leisure Club, and Russell Civic Centre.
Alright, we have to rehearse the blocking before we head to bed. And type out the latest draft. And update the website with more press releases. And...
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