Final Dress for Cradle to Stage and a Flight Around Europe with a Viscount... All in a Saturday's Work!

I had a take a break from the Bee to handle some things at Walterdale as we had our last Dress Rehearsal and Theatre Clean before Preview and Opening for From Cradle to Stage. Things went remarkably smoothly and the only thing I didn't like was that it meant I had to find parking in the area on a Saturday.  For those of you who know the Strathcona Farmer's Market traffic situation you know why this was irksome.  I made it work and it only cost me $4.00! I have been so happy with how things have gone with Cradle this year.  I was upfront with the level of my busyness so I did a tonne of work to try and be super organized and everyone stepped up to the plate and we are in great shape with very low stress! Huzzah!  Today is the Artist's/Director's/Students' Preview and it will be nice to show the work to some people outside the team. Show is at 2 p.m. and students with ID can see it for FREE! We open tomorrow night at 8 p.m. The shows this year are lovely and strangely thematically linked.  Each deals with seeking healing and forgiveness after a traumatic event and coincidence/fate causes the people to meet the right people to allow that to happen. Some nice, strong work from these new playwrights.  After we ran the dress we cleaned the theatre and then celebrated with pizza! It's a nice group of people and it was great to visit with them all in a more social atmosphere.

Following the pizza I took my friend Heather to see Flight of the Viscount by David Belke at Shadow Theatre. The show was tonnes of fun as we followed the escaping Viscount James Westerly (Jamie Cavanaugh) across Europe as he is pursued by the relentless maid Maggie (Caley Suliak).  Along the way we encounter many strange and hilarious locals all played with much hilarity by Nathan Cuckow. Cuckow was a delight to watch, his accents more outrageously funny than strictly accurate and a variety in facial hair that added greatly to the comedy.  Cavanaugh and Suliak were fun to watch, playing off each other deftly.  I was fascinated by the main set piece which became a myriad of items in a Rubiks Cube-like fashion, but I was disappointed with the projections which provided the backbone of setting the scene.  I liked the use of maps, but to use a projection to represent so much, it meant that some of the other lighting was compromised and there were many a dark spot here and there on the remainder of the deck. I am being picky, but I have a pet peeve with projections in theatre - I only like them when they work perfectly. However, It was a nice light evening full of laughter and I did enjoy myself.  I think they close today, so if you want to catch this fun show you have to act fast!

So today, I return to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at La Cite.  We have a matinee today, then we pack up for a week and return on May 29th for four more shows. I missed it last night so I am excited to see it again and see what today's audience does with it!

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