So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz! -- Part 1

One of the most beautiful things about the Fringe Festival is that a show can be done by people who actually think to themselves, "I could write a show, and put it on! Wouldn't that be great?!" For those who go through that method of show submittal, the process often goes like this:

1. Attend Fringe Festival as audience member (Early August)
2. Get the feeling that "Hey, I could do that!" (Early August, the same day)
3. Go home and start writing play. (Mid-August)
4. Register for Fringe Festival. (November-February, depending on procrastination factor)
5. Go through Hell trying to figure out how to produce a play for the first time ever. (April-July)
6. Put up show in Fringe Festival (Early August)

It's a one year process in that case. For Fringe veteran and storyteller extraordinaire Amy Salloway, the process has been drastically different from that this year. First, she was in at least two shows in last year's Fringe (one of her own and then one installment of the Spoken Word Fringe), so step one and two were already out the window. But it is step three that is where Amy has deviated most notably from the above list. When she replied to my e-mail about writing this series of articles last week, this was her candid admission, "I am sitting in a cafe trying to work on my fringe production right now. It's still not written -- like, not even a little! AUUUGH!"

Last week was late June, right? Just checking. 6 weeks to the festival and not a page of script finished! As a playwright and director, that scares me. And yet, because she is experienced in spinning a yarn or two, I imagine that she could do a solid show just from her notes.

It isn't like Ms. Salloway didn't have other stuff to do. She not only registered for this Fringe, she's been taking a show around to other ones as well (I'm assuming that she's been touring her last year's Fringe Show, although I don't know. We'll find out more on that next week.). Her Fringe dockett has included (or will shortly include) Cape May, Cincinnati, Halifax and Berkshire. That's a busy girl, to say the least.

I am looking forward to sharing more with you about this show, as it is bound to be hot off the presses when I write about it next week, you'll be getting your info like a true industry insider! Or, something like that...

Chaos is our friend:

• My left front tire was flat this morning when I tried to take my daughter to school. Now I'm going to spend the better part of my day sitting at a tire shop. Fun!
• I'm hungry.
• Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a sloth?
• 3 days 'til I'm an international traveler!
• Something from www.hookedonfacts.com: "Oenophobia is the Fear of wines." -- I was going to try to come up with something clever here, but the fact is, that is just silly to begin with.
• "Her agreement proves his point--but there is a reason." -- pg. 186, The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
• I've often listed song lyrics here, but NOT TODAY!
• Last night at the Co-op I purchased carbonated juice. It is 100% juice that has carbonation added to it. Sort of a healthy soda-pop. The brand is "The Switch." I bought three flavors, and I am remarkably pleasantly surprised by the Watermelon Strawberry. Not a flavor I would normally have thought to be good. It is one that I selected with the tastebuds of a 6 year-old in mind. Maybe I'm just a big kid, but it is tasty!