And so we've started! Woo Hoo! Saw some shows too!

On Friday I had two Openings - Shout! and Double Double.  It's the tightest two show day in my Fringe schedule and all went terrifically well! With Shout! at 4 p.m. and Double Double at 8:45 p.m. I had a nice 2 hour turn around to change make-up and eat and refocus and it was enough.  It makes the other 2 double show days feel imminently manageable! Whew!

Shout! kicked off the day.  We had a fabulous, receptive audience and despite some mic issues (mostly mic tape coming off due to our womanly glows...) we rolled with it and had a great time. So great to be singing these songs and playing these characters in front of an audience again.  We've since been reviewed by the Edmonton Journal (3 stars - and an exceptional write-up!) and VUE Weekly (4 Stars - YAY! and another great write-up). Our Saturday night show was even better and it was great to have so many people there for an 11 pm show! Tomorrow's show is selling incredibly well - I can't wait!

Double Double was also terrific fun.  Since it's a new work, we weren't sure how it would be received, but the laughs started off the top and we left the theatre floating. I can't wait until Tuesday when we get to do it again! We haven't been reviewed yet - but I found this fabulous tweet series on twitter and it made me feel pretty good!

I also got out to see a few more shows - not as many as usual, but I gave it a good shot!

Assassins - I'm a Sondheim fan so I was drawn to see this.  You don't get to see Assassins done very often, as it's challenging and hard for audiences to connect to because all the characters are, well, assassins.  I was frustrated by the lighting and the the pace, but it was a good show overall. Highlights for me were Jeff Page as Sam Bick, Nancy McAlear's comic timing as Sarah Jane Moore, and Chris W. Cook as Charles Guiteau. 

Self(ish) - This is simply a beautiful modern dance piece. It was humorous, strong, touching, and very complete.  I want to see more things like this throughout the season. I've been to a few dance shows, but some of them felt like they were still experimenting. This one feels like it is well developed and I was amazed by both the story-telling and the physical abilities of the dancers. 
No Belles - I don't usually go to Storytelling shows, but the topic was and is compelling.  This is the show to take you children - girls AND boys - from ages 10 and up to.  They need to be able to listen, but that's the age we need to reinforce the message of the show.  The stories of the Nobel prize winners (and should-have-been winners) are so inspiring and heart-breaking and we need to realize that we still have further to go.  It's not a theatrical piece - but it is delivered thoughtfully and artfully. I did feel that the standing ovation at the end was more for the women the play was about, than for the performance itself, but that's okay - those women deserved it. 

Release the McCrackin - the third installment in the McCrackin trilogy was SO MUCH FUN! We took the boys and they howled with laughter. Even if you haven't seen the first two, you will be familiar with the movie tropes they are playing with and they build in enough back story to keep everyone in the loop. Their merging of film and theatre is so good that the audience broke into spontaneous applause several times after particularly cool sequences. Here are the boys mini-reviews:

Gibson - "I get this! I really get this! I want to see that again! Oh, and my sides hurt from laughing so much!"

Oliver - "That was HILARIOUS! Oh, the references! They have, like, ALL the references! So good."

They are not that articulate, but you get the idea... 

See a show! 

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