Since the Fringe...

Howdy Y'all! And, Hola!

I'd like to start off by apologizing for taking so long to type anything since the end of the Fringe Festival. As you know, that was back in Mid-August, and here we are at the top of November. Thing is, I've had an odd Fall that has featured a lot of unexpected developments. Because of that, I've not been your faithful colunist... but I do have a bunch of stuff to catch you up on. So in brief... Here we go:

1. Fringe Remounts-- During the Fringe I was a little disappointed that I had to miss so many of the really great shows that I was hearing about from others. That is an occupational hazard when you roll dice to choose what shows you go to. The nice thing is how many of the shows get remounted in the following months. I was lucky enough to catch two remounts this year. The first was Inspector Rex, by Four Humours Theatre. It was remounted at the Old Arizona Studio. What a show! I would love to direct that some time at another theater. It was a solid script. Very funny, and very fun, generally.


The second show that I was able to catch belatedly, was the remount/Katrina-Fundraiser version of Glorious Noise by Rik Reppe. IT was a terrific show. And I would belatedly call it the best show of my Fringing this year...I have more to say on it, but that'll have to wait a minute, because it falls under my next category...

2. Hurricane Woes -- As you may or may not remember, I attend the University of New Orleans for my grad school. Although I go via the internet most of the time (and spend my summers in Madrid), many of my classmates and all of my professors actually live in New Orleans. We had already been in school for a week and a half when Katrina hit. We were expecting a nice week-long vacation due to the storm in the same way that Hugo gave us a few days off last year. You all know what really happened. So... My education went on hiatus. All of my friends and teachers got out alive. There was a frenzy of trying to locate people at the beginning of it all, but things have gotten better since then. Everyone is safe, the university relocated temporarily into a wing of LSU in Baton Rouge, and classes started up again on October 10th via the internet for everyone who chose to stay enrolled for the Fall term.

Rik Reppe and company put together a lovely fundraiser that was held at the Great American History Theater. It raised money to support the musicians who have been displaced by the storm's wrath. My only gripe about that evening was that not enough people came. I was really disappointed by the turn out. C'mon Fringers! I know I personally sent out over 550 e-mails about the event. Others must have too. I think I counted about 75 people there. While it was good that that many made it, many more ought to have. I'm including a link here so those of you who feel guilty about missing it can make a contribution to the group that funds went through.

3. Thirst -- I have a show that I wrote in this series of Thirst shows. It features Charlie Bethel and Nathan Christopher. Those are two darned fine actors, and I feel lucky to have them bringing my play to life. If you get a chance, there are two more performances of my script. They are on Monday, November 28 and Monday, December 5, 2005, at Joe's Garage. Start time is 7:30 p.m.

4. The Y-Show -- It's always nice to receive a bit of recognition for being who you are. I don't know so much as the recognition was warranted, but I was sent a VIP invitation to see The Y-Show when it openned last week. So I went. I took in an evening that claimed that it was going to redefine theater for the future. That's a pretty bold statement. Not too far from one that was made by a theatre company during the Fringe Festival (something about a new paradigm of theatre, as I recall). Anyway, here's my synopsis in a nutshell...

The interactive parts of the show were an entertaining bit that involved the use of handheld digital devices that were programmed to send words up onto the screen from time to time. They were also supposed to allow you to select answers that the main character would occaisionally interact with as well. BUT, from teh very first answer, it was clear that her responses would be the same no matter what we'd answered. When audience-provided text hit the screen it was only taken semi-seriously, and pulled away from the show. Although, I'm not sure that's unfortunate. Why? Well, the lead actress (this is basically a one-woman show) was not good. The video clips that she interacted with weren't good either, but that's probably because she was the main character in those, too. The show was a sermon about liberal values, and the preachiness of it managed to turn me off, and I agree with almost everything that they're trying to sell.

It's sad that the whole thing couldn't have had a plot, had compelling characters, or something like that so that people in the audience would've identified with the liberal message rather than ramming it down our throats. OH! Did I mention that part of it was in 3-D? At least they made us wear the glasses. Can I say something here There is a spinning red lozenge that appears to almost be 3-d. Beyond that, nothing benefitted from wearing the glasses. In good 3-d (read: Disney's Philharmagica) it hurts the head to take the glasses off. This isn't good 3-d... take the glasses off. Side thing... I was seated in the $80 seats. All in all, I'd save the $80 toward a trip to Disney World and go see some really good 3-D. Skip this show altogether. If this is the new definition of theatre, then I'm changing careers right now.

-----Okay, no randomness today, it was just enough for me to get something written at all! Tune-in in a few days. After all, it is only 9 days until the applications for the 2006 Fringe Festival are put out there! Yay!