Fringe is done. It went really, really well. Thank you to everyone who made it out to see it. The last two weeks before were hectic of course. It’s the combination of rehearsing, producing, and dealing with my day to day life. I had a couple of breakdowns, but all in all it was a pretty enjoyable process. When Adam (my director) and I were in the room working we had a lot of fun. It was great to have done the groundwork and to refine, switch things around, get detailed. One of the things we updated was making Zdenka the opening and she
basically was what interwove the characters. She was telling the story. Also since I did the show last year, GM has filed for bankruptcy so we needed to address that with Barb. Bob, the Inuit rapper, was revamped as well. It’s such a strange process, in retrospect the changes all seem obvious, but doing them it’s such a blind process.
I find it similar to having a baby. While you’re doing it, you just do it. But afterwards you’re like, “How the heck did I do that? The thought of all that rigamorel just makes me tired.” And fringe is so intense. After doing the show in Winnipeg, it was guerilla theatre all over again. Load in the theatre, set up, throw on your costume and go go go.
So opening night, I had a pretty good crowd. They were tentative at first, as was I. I was nervous. I’m not going to lie. Then we get to the audience participation, where I, as Zdenka, interview someone who has a love or relationship problem. And who do I pick? The real Zdenka! I didn’t know what night she was coming. I just saw this woman squirm and smile when I asked the audience who wanted to speak with me, which immediately made me pick her. And then…I realized. It’s the REAL ZDENKA! Oh sh-t. In the split second, slow motion of performance time, I think “this could go really well or really badly”. I mean, how well will my accent hold up against the real deal? But I just went with it. And it was awesome. Surreal. Existential. Magical. Zdenka interviewing Zdenka. After that moment, I relaxed. It was a gift from the universe. I had so much fun. And the show was a blast.
Of course the next show. The noon show, with like 25 people, I had a really good time. Opening night is hard. So much pressure. Reviewers. Like an exam. But the reviews, (most of them, I guess, I haven’t googled the bad ones), were great. The Eye gave us 5 stars! Jon Kaplan from the Now also gave us a great review. Now…of course…reviews don’t matter. But they do. For me, it was my first show in Toronto. So the fact that it was well received was so very helpful. To get people to come to my show. And even if they don’t make it out, to read about it. For practical producing reasons it’s good. But as an artist. Well, I worked with an actor once who said, “I’ve never been as great as my best review or as bad as my worst one.” I try to keep that in mind. (nb: I might have already quoted this in a past blog, so please forgive me).
So now, it’s done. It’s been a week. I am nursing an eye infection and the come down that happens after the hectic pace of the show. I have no idea what’s next. I’d like to do the show in Vancouver, New York, and Los Angeles. That’s my goal.
I got my living room floors done. I got rid of the gross, dirty, once cream colored carpet and now have bamboo wood floors. Jack went to circus camp last week. He loved it. The cut off age is 5 but they let him go. I’m currently “seeing” someone. It’s relatively new. Really fun. Mildly terrifying, I guess…Weird…Life goes on.
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