Fringe Fini!

What a week! I saw 31 shows and my brain is overloaded and bursting and cannot think about seeing another in the immediate future. That will likely change in a couple of days, but right now my brain is over-full. I saw so many great shows, some with friends in them and some full of strangers, but I really did well this Fringe. I don't know if I can do that kind of intensive viewing again, but I think 20 is a nice number for me, so that is what I will aim for next year.

After seeing my last show, I attended a Production Meeting for Much Ado About Nothing. I have a Production Meeting for Perfect Pie next weekend and it feels like the new season is starting. Mind switch!

Grimmly Amused....

I saw Grimmer Than Grimmer Than Grimm and LOVED IT. It is now my favorite show seen at this year's Fringe. It may not be the best show I saw, but it was my personal favorite. See, there's a difference! So funny, so very funny, so twisted and delightfully dark. I cackled heartily and luckily it was the girl who snorted that got mocked instead of me!

A Nice Clean Place to Play...

Because Oliver was in Zoo Camp this week, I had been arriving very early at the Fringe Site to avoid going home way up North and back down South to Strathcona again. What's the point of all that driving? Instead I would do a few errands and then head over to the site. Sometimes I would even get out of paying for parking because the booth wasn't set up yet. I always had my $5 ready, but on 2 of the days there was no one to hand it to. That was nice. Then I would head to Chapters, or the Strathcona Library or Shoppers or walk around Whyte and kill time until my show (usually around 12 noon). The most important thing I saw when I got there so early was the gang of Volunteers cleaning up the site. Those people, with their rakes and gloves and garbage bags, are the real stars of the Fringe. You'd be disgusted by what is left on the site each night if you saw it at 9:30 a.m. the next morning and thanks to those volunteers who took on the messiest and most unpleasant of jobs, you didn't have to see it. Kudos to the volunteers of the Fringe! We forget about all those people who put in so much of their time to make that tremendous festival happen. It's not just the clean-up crew, but the beer tent workers, the box office personnel and ushers, the information booth people and many, many more. I cannot imagine how many volunteers it takes to do it all.

Mid Point

Saw a few very different shows last night... Good, but for different reasons:

Hoboheme - I was cackling at this show (that's what the writer/director Mike Robertson said about my delicate laugh - a cackle....). The hobo aesthetic in script and concept and the way the actors attack this piece is ridiculous, in a very good way. Sure, it could be tighter, but really, would hobos make a tight, crisp show? I don't think so... Kudos to the tree/moon man - we loved him.

Jake's Gift - I heard about this show 2 years ago and was unable to get a ticket so I made sure I got one when I heard it was back. It was truly worth it. Like Shimmer, it was an amazing performance of one actor playing many roles with seamless transitions. Simple, yet beautiful.

I also missed my last show of the night. Be careful when you get your tickets. 15 Minutes might not be enough time to get from one venue to another, especially when one is a BYOV that has a little more freedom to creep over its time allotment and when you trip on the way and bang your big toe, causing you to limp... It was probably better that I get home early.

I also saw Bash'd yesterday - OUTSTANDING! You probably can't get tickets for this one, but hopefully it will be held over.

Fringing...

I am off to the Fringe again today. I will be seeing Bash'd, Night Sweats, Hoboheme and Jake's Gift today. The first two are in the afternoon and the other two are in the evening.

I am very pleased with my Fringe experience this year. Every show has had something to recommend it. Some were more successful in delivery than others but that's going to happen. I have so far avoided any outright duds! Yay! At this point my top "Word of Mouth" recommendation is Shimmer, but remember it all depends on what you look for in the Fringe experience. I look for a solid theatrical experience - good writing, great acting and direction and a clean show. It isn't necessarily the production values (cost of the set, costume, etc...) but rather the unity of the concept and how much it engaged me.

Four Good Shows

You know, usually Fringe is hit and miss but today I managed to see 4 shows and all of them were good shows. Not bad, not bad at all.

The last one I saw today was Forget Me Not, which was more of a story with music than a play, but the music was phenomenal and the story was one I connected to strongly due to my personal circumstances. It started off as a story of the girl that got away from the storyteller's grandfather, but ended as a love story to her Grandmother Margaret. Almost a year ago to the day, I lost my Grandmother Margaret and as the story turned, so did my mind, to recollections of the beautiful person that I loved so dearly and lost at this time of year last year. I spent the last 10 minutes of the show sobbing in a body shaking way, grieving and yet rejoicing in the wonderful person I knew and would always think about. I love you Margaret Ann Strand, and I miss you. I think of you every time I write a letter and every time I wear your red hat or see the Grandpa Bear that you made for me with Grandpa's shirt. Tonight I will make a cup of tea and drink it from one of the delicate teacups you passed along to me and I will think of you.

A Lovely Afternoon with Women Talking about Babies...

I had a lovely afternoon at a baby shower for Magnolia. I like baby showers and they make me feel wistful about possibly having another child. It is doubtful in my advancing years that I will, but who knows. It was fun to shower gifts upon the mother-to-be in our anticipation of the new little life! I do love the rituals that bring women together to talk and laugh and share whatever wisdom they might have. I also appreciated the lack of silly shower games as I prefer the visiting.

Tomorrow (Sunday, Aug 15) I will be back at the Fringe. I am going to the following shows, so if any of them interest you, buy a ticket and I will sit with you!

12:00 – The Way of All Fish
2:00 - Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat
4:15 PM - Dying City
7:00 PM - Forget Me Not

I am looking forward to returning to the Fringe tomorrow. I think I have paced it out right and I appreciate not having to pay twice for parking!

Things to Keep Me Really Busy!

Yippee! It's Fringe. I have seen 7 shows in 2 days (Simple Simon, Famished, Happy Whackin' Jim McCrackin, To HELL With the Rules!, Shimmer and Tornado: The Musical). I am having a great time seeing the variety that Fringe has to offer. Most of these were on the funny side and a couple were serious. All had great moments and some were super tight and very, very well done. Shimmer was very cool. A true example of how phenomenal acting, direction, writing, lighting and movement can sustain a show and even elevate it without the need for a huge production budget.

Back to the 80's

Went to see St. Aggie's 84 last night at the Old Cycle Building on 118 Avenue. This is the production that Strathcona High School is taking to the Edinburgh Fringe. I went with Magnolia and we met Lisa Brownie there and the three of us had a grand ol' time. I also drove Lisa home afterward so we got an extended visit. The show was a lot of fun. I do hope that the stage they play on in Scotland is a little bigger, or at least wider as I think that with that many bodies on stage more space would have been better. There were some great things on stage. The core groups of girls and guys were very strong and well-matched, and the supporting story with the Spanish students was very funny. I think the playwright maybe tried to follow the source material too tightly as I think the show would have been stronger if it were to end on either the first or second false ending instead of the third, but it may not be finished in that respect. You can always fine tune as playwright and edit as you go. It did, however, feel like Fringe had started (even though it's 2 weeks away) as we watched this fun, new musical in the hot box of a theatre space and laughed at the 80's references and enjoyed the story and the dancing!