Why, oh why?!

... Filed under Fringe Prep

AUTHOR's NOTE... this entry is actually from sometime back in June, and appeared on last year's blog site... http://fringe1234.blogspot.com, which is where you can currently find any of the "Fringe By Numbers" things prior to July 5th. Hereafter all new entries will be posted here.
And here we go...

As a theatre person (read: actor, director, playwright, etc.), it is virtually impossible to see all the shows in which your friends are involved. That's fine. Everyone knows that, and it is accepted practice to tell your friends that you couldn't make a show because you were in a show (or, in rehearsals) yourself. That's normally what I have to tell my friends when I miss a production that they had invited me to see. However, the Fringe Festival is a time in which one show doesn't ever have exactly the same show times as any other, so time-slot conflicts aren't really a legitimate excuse for missing a show. It is even worse when your entire involvement with the Fringe is as a columnist/blogger/reviewer. That's the situation in which I've found myself over the last couple of years.

So, that means that I can catch all the shows that my friends are in during the Fringe, right? Well, theoretically, yes. Although my own show doesn't conflict with their shows, it is always possible that the one time-slot in which I could see a friend's show is booked with attendance at another friend's show. So, now I find myself in a predicament. I have to choose between friends. Which one is more important? Which one will be okay with being brushed off? Which one is in a show that doesn't sound like it will suck like a Hoover?

It's that last question that gets me into trouble. You see, I have friends who make bad choices. Continuously. Not all of my friends are lumped together in this statement. Basically only one or two of them. And those two lovely ladies, who I would die for, if need be, often ask me to attend their shows. I occasionally attend entirely out of support, but the shows are dreadful...just dreadful. So, when I get the invitation to see a show that they are doing in the Fringe, I look for whatever excuse I can to avoid having to take in another bout of oh-goodness-I-need-to-gouge-my-eyes-out-this-is-so-bad!

The solution? Whip up some charts and randomly attend shows according to how the die rolls. That's right. I avoid playing favorites; I avoid making choices entirely. My excuse to my friends is this..."I'm sorry, I don't know if I can make it or not. If the dice will let me, then I'll be there. If not, then I'll have to catch one of your other shows some other time." It's beautiful. It's true. And that makes it even more beautiful.

So, about this time last year I got a PDF file from the folks at the Fringe office by way of fellow LXF member Matthew Everett. Which, I've done again this year. I then compiled charts similar to those in Dungeons & Dragons books (or any other gaming book). Which, I've started to do again this year. Thereafter, I updated the charts once the Fringe program came out in the City Pages. Which, I foresee myself doing again this year.

Once I had the charts complete I rolled for my first show. Then for each show thereafter I would roll once I arrived at the show prior. Wow, that sentence was confusing. Let's try again... I rolled for the first show before the festival, since it didn't matter when I rolled. It was at the Illusion. I went there, sat in the audience next to the lovely Christy DeSmith (freelance reviewer), and rolled the die to see what I'd be seeing next immediately before the first show started. That was my modus operandi throughout the Festival. Get to one show, roll for the next. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That plan functioned pretty well, and it would've meant that I would get to see a veritable treasure trove of plays. 40 or 50-some plays, in fact. And the beauty of it is that I'd see some plays that I would otherwise not choose to see. And sometimes I would be surprised at the quality of what I was seeing, thereby uncovering a few unexpected gems. Unfortunately there were a couple of road blocks in my way. First was the fact that I was acting in a Fringe Show. That meant that I was unable to attend all the Fringe Shows I wanted to. Also, I had just rejoined the cast of Carmen at Theatre de la Jeune Lune. That took me away from the festival a bunch, too. Not to mention that I was just starting my gig as Assitant Director of Christmas of Swing at the Great American History Theatre, which was holding callbacks on two nights of the Festival. My schedule was a mess. I only saw plays in about half of the time-slots because of it being that way.

So, this year, I've got the charts going. I've got my d20 (20-sided die). I'm arranging for "Fringe Buddies" to join me on the wild journey. And most importantly, I'm not doing anything in August until after the Fringe Festival closes. I'm doing nothing during the Fringe but Fringing...and that feels good!

I'm even looking into buying a bicycle for the event. It's only been 10 years since I was last on one (not counting the fake ones at Bally's). Should be interesting. I'm currently trying to teach my daughter to ride a bike. Goodness knows it'll be doubly interesting having to re-teach myself, as well.

I guess that's pretty much it. So... Time for Random Bits:

-- Ginger Altoids are a wonderful thing. I'm not sure if they are helping my sore throat, or not, but I want to believe that they are. I have an audition this weekend that's going to require me to sing well, and I need this throat thing to go away before then.

-- I have four rolls of film to take to be developed. Since the advent of digital photography, it has become much more difficult for me to drive some place to have my photos processed. Of course, that means that I don't get the pictures as quickly, since I am procrastinating. At some point I think I'll need to switch entirely to digital. For whatever reason I have some emotional attachment to B&W film in a legitimate SLR camera. It's hard to let go to old technology sometimes. One merely has to peruse my collection of record albums on vinyl to see what I mean.

-- From www.hookedonfacts.com: "One punishment for an adulterous wife in medieval France was to make her chase a chicken through town naked. " -- I'm not sure why, but that just amuses me to no end. What it accomplished, I can't even imagine, but it sure must've been funny to see!

-- "There is bound to be some animosity in the beginning." -- from The American Animal Hospital Association Encyclopedia of Cat Health and Care, regarding introducing a second cat into a household...but when you take the time to ponder it, that statement holds true in so many situations.

-- There are 11 days until I fly to Spain.

-- There are 7 empty Gatorade bottles next to me. It is really a pain trying to rehydrate the sick on what is supposed to be the hottest day of the year. Aargh!

—Chris Kidder