Day 6: 7 p.m. Time Slot

Show: LoveWise
Die Roll: 8
Venue: Intermedia Arts
Performer: Dot Cleveland

So, I found myself back at Intermedia Arts for the second time in one day.

Before I say anything about this show, I want to tell you about my lobby experience. Here it is in sequential segments:

1. I arrived and got my ticket from a box officer who looked shocked to see me. I assumed this meant that I was a bit early, and that I'd caught him off guard and unprepared.
2. I sat down on a chair near to the theatre's entrance. Normally when I go to Intermedia Arts I look through the galleries while I wait, but since I'd already been there once that afternoon, I didn't feel the need to peruse the same art that I'd gawked at earlier.
3. I watched the performer arrive, and chat with two of her friends. Somewhat rudely eavesdropping, I heard her say that she'd been playing to ridiculously small houses, and that if today's audience were just those two of her friends she'd do a shortened version of the show and then the three of them could go imbibe something elsewhere.
4. I got up and got myself an astoundingly good iced chai from the cute chica in dreadlocks behind the coffee bar counter.
5. I bumped into Katherine Pike who is performing Something Else Occurred as part of the Fringe. She's also been getting small houses, but her show has been a sell-out at other festivals, so I'm hoping that I scare up some business for her with this plug.
6. I went through the process of giving my ticket to the usher, and walked in ahead of Penny Dale, who is appearing in Assassins.

The best things that happened to me at this venue were numbers 4, 5, and 6. Number 2 is just in there to fill in the chronology. But numbers 1 & 3 should've sent up red flags all over the place.

I spent an hour and 5 minutes (yes, this show ran long) watching a story being told by a woman who wished she was somewhere else doing anything else than telling this story. It is painful to watch a story teller who has no interest in her own story.

I would've walked out, but the house lights were up at full, so I couldn't sneak.

The story itself was an odd one that I'd never heard before, although it is by the Brothers Grimm. The title, "The Handless Maiden." It's a story of love, betrayal, the devil and trickery, and I'll bet it would be quite good if told by someone who didn't hold their material in contempt. She even made snide comments about how she disliked the Grimm style of story while whe was telling it.

I could fill a column the length of the Declaration of Independence with my negative thoughts about this performance, but I won't. Only because I have other columns to write.