52 PICK UP review - here in Orlando Hey from Orlando!
Stories about... US! (look - pic! and on page 2)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
entertainment/stage/theater/
orl-fringe1807may18,0,5858321.story?coll=orl-caltheatertop
-- and the review (with a comment) is here:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/
entertainment_stage_theat/2007/05/
fringe_review_5_1.html#comments
I suppose anyone can comment on it. Hmmm....
yay! (Bummer, though - it's only online - no paper copy to clip. Arrrrrgh.)
Speaking of Arrrrr-gh -
off to Dizzywhirled today - to the Animal kingdom with a park performer (who is doing a special Pirates show for high rollers tonight - he get to swash and buckle about pirate-ly with cutlass and actual sash... We are SOOOOOOO looking forward to getting to see him, and spend some time off-fringesite.
Llysa
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
There's A First Time For EVERYTHING
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The scene: the Orlando Fringe Festival, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time we were here 10 years ago, with 9 air-conditioned venues tucked into the buildings that house the Orlando Shakespeare Festival and The Orlando Repertory Theatre, a lovely and lively beer garden in between, and most importantly....audience members to come and see the shows!!
The set up: our first show of 52 Pick Up (6:45 last Saturday), which is gloriously nearly sold-out, which has anticipation running high as it is co-written by TJ Dawe (a local Fringe god in these parts). The show is also running at 74 minutes, as best we can tell, and we have been informed that if the show runs 75:01, they will bring up the lights and STOP THE SHOW!!! And, in fact, the show right before us has been shut down by our sweet venue technician because it has gone two minutes over. One of the actors is in tears as they come off-stage. We are worried.
The cause: in our air-conditioned digs at the Orlando Shakes, we are sharing a green room (backstage lounge area) with two other theatres. We each have our own dressing room with a monitor that allows us to hear announcements from our own theatre, BUT the green room is also serving as the backstage for a gay-burlesque show called "Varie-TEASE" (flamboyant gay content is, oddly, what the Orlando Fringe has become famous for) with half-naked boys(?) in plumes and glitter running off-stage while throbbing club music slams us from their sold-out performance.
The effect: as we are worried about time and the show itself, we neglect to recognize the most dangerous dynamic in our surroundings; that because of the sound and frenzy from "Varie-TEASE".......we cannot HEAR the announcements from our own theater! Unwittingly we wonder towards our stage thinking "it must be about time" only to find that the lights are up, the audience is quiet, the clock is ticking (two minutes, perhaps!)..........and, for the first time in 926 performances, we are LATE for our own show :( !!
THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING.
The response: Llysa boldly steps on-stage to start the show, but Andrew (that's me) in a stubborn lack of comprehension and/or refusing to believe what is happening, stays in the wings. Llysa beckons me (with sweet daggers coming from her eyes) and finally I join and we begin performing for the most confused audience in theater simple history.
The outcome: although the concern, confusion (and perhaps annoyance) from the audience is palpable, we compartmentalize our own white-hot dismay, and set out to win them back. Mercifully, about five minutes into the show comes (randomly, of course) a great scene that receives a huge response, and an audible sigh is heard. The show goes great, laughter is abundant, tears are reported.... and we are so intent on "being" with them that we do the show in 69 minutes (perhaps by not breathing....ever!).
Epilogue: we drink heavily.
It is a far, far better thing I do.....
The scene: the Orlando Fringe Festival, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time we were here 10 years ago, with 9 air-conditioned venues tucked into the buildings that house the Orlando Shakespeare Festival and The Orlando Repertory Theatre, a lovely and lively beer garden in between, and most importantly....audience members to come and see the shows!!
The set up: our first show of 52 Pick Up (6:45 last Saturday), which is gloriously nearly sold-out, which has anticipation running high as it is co-written by TJ Dawe (a local Fringe god in these parts). The show is also running at 74 minutes, as best we can tell, and we have been informed that if the show runs 75:01, they will bring up the lights and STOP THE SHOW!!! And, in fact, the show right before us has been shut down by our sweet venue technician because it has gone two minutes over. One of the actors is in tears as they come off-stage. We are worried.
The cause: in our air-conditioned digs at the Orlando Shakes, we are sharing a green room (backstage lounge area) with two other theatres. We each have our own dressing room with a monitor that allows us to hear announcements from our own theatre, BUT the green room is also serving as the backstage for a gay-burlesque show called "Varie-TEASE" (flamboyant gay content is, oddly, what the Orlando Fringe has become famous for) with half-naked boys(?) in plumes and glitter running off-stage while throbbing club music slams us from their sold-out performance.
The effect: as we are worried about time and the show itself, we neglect to recognize the most dangerous dynamic in our surroundings; that because of the sound and frenzy from "Varie-TEASE".......we cannot HEAR the announcements from our own theater! Unwittingly we wonder towards our stage thinking "it must be about time" only to find that the lights are up, the audience is quiet, the clock is ticking (two minutes, perhaps!)..........and, for the first time in 926 performances, we are LATE for our own show :( !!
THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING.
The response: Llysa boldly steps on-stage to start the show, but Andrew (that's me) in a stubborn lack of comprehension and/or refusing to believe what is happening, stays in the wings. Llysa beckons me (with sweet daggers coming from her eyes) and finally I join and we begin performing for the most confused audience in theater simple history.
The outcome: although the concern, confusion (and perhaps annoyance) from the audience is palpable, we compartmentalize our own white-hot dismay, and set out to win them back. Mercifully, about five minutes into the show comes (randomly, of course) a great scene that receives a huge response, and an audible sigh is heard. The show goes great, laughter is abundant, tears are reported.... and we are so intent on "being" with them that we do the show in 69 minutes (perhaps by not breathing....ever!).
Epilogue: we drink heavily.
It is a far, far better thing I do.....
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