Here are some stories from the
opening night of the Fringe.
Some strong crowds on the
first night of the Fringe. Trojan Women and The Tricky Part
were near capacity and The Dining Room was a sellout.
Good advice from actor Peter
Hayes (The Tricky Part) – “Never see more Fringe
shows than you can stay awake for.”
Nice symbolism. Before the 6:30
pm
show of The Tricky Part, the sky was dark black. After the play
ended at 8 pm, the sky was light blue and the sun was
shining. The Tricky Part is about an adult coming to some
understanding about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.
Good deed of the day. After Crude
Love, the actors announced that they are collected money on their 8
city cross Canada Fringe tour for Greenpeace’s new Edmonton office. I hope they raise a
lot of money because the tar sands are Canada’s climate crime and we
need every voice to speak out against taking more oil from them.
Comment overhead after Guernica -“How do you review a
show like this?” Like any work, it’s very subjective and my
review is what I thought after leaving the show. Read it here.
Next stop
Edinburgh
After their run of Sherlock
Holmes & The Salene Solution in Winnipeg, Sound & Fury will be
heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August to perform Cyranose!,
the show they did at last year’s Winnipeg Fringe. Prices range from 8
to 10 pounds Sterling, which is double the price of a Winnipeg Fringe ticket
(and reminds us how lucky we are to have an affordable Fringe Festival).
Two
Different Paths
I bumped into local
actor Lisa Nelson on the bus a few weeks ago. As you might remember, Lisa was
part of Westwood Collegiate’s terrific show Pimping Fate at the
1999 Winnipeg Fringe and can currently be seen in The Bush Ladies at
this year’s Fringe. Lisa recently graduated from the University
of Winnipeg’s theatre
program taking courses in both performance and stage management. When I
talked to her, she admitted she would like to do both. However, she
acknowledged that, in theatre, people are usually forced to make a choice.
Additionally, the two paths require different mindsets – acting is more
creative whereas stage management is more detailed and by the book. It will
be interesting to follow Lisa’s career as the year’s progress.
Quote of
the Day
“A siege is
like a marriage – those on the outside want in and those on the inside
want out.”
