Positive strokes from a fellow performer

Oh Hell yeah! This is from a guy who was doing a solo show at the Winnipeg fringe, which I am so disappointed I didn't see (the worst part of the fringe - the fact that you only ever see a tiny fraction of all the shows - I got to 25 this year, out of 146 - and thought I was doing pretty good). Wilson, if you're reading this, I so hope our paths cross someday. Thanks for the message - it is SO helpful for us to hear from people like you.

(this is what Wilson wrote to us)

To the Women of Inviting Desire,

I've been meaning to write you this since seeing your show last Thursday. First and foremost I loved your show. It was easily at the top if not number one show I saw at this years Fringe. It was just so refreshing, fun, moving, touching, daring, funny and a crap load more. Such wonderful performances from these four women. As a performer myself I was so inspired by these wonderful actors. The writing and performances push me to be a better writer/actor myself and I was so happy to have had a chance to see your show. Beautiful! Just beautiful show.

My one regret was that with performing my own show, working my job, and searching for a new apartment, I was only able to see your second last show on Thursday. Had I seen it earlier I would have been able to tell more people to see it rather then the two days I was gabbing about it. In reading your blog for your final noon show all I could think was how easy it is to see the empty seats, crossed arms, and hear the silence. My Tuesday noon show (13 people) was beyond draining as I rely so much on the energy from the audience. I hate the fact that your last show would be a noon one as I just think what your show had to say was so important and refreshing. I love your motto for Dance Naked Productions and look forward to seeing much more from you. I wish you much success in your time in Calgary and Edmonton. By success I mean I hope your rake it in with audiences and moo-la but also success in getting your message from your show out there. I remember leaving it feeling so energized and happy, and just wanting to share what I saw and heard. I hope more people get an opportunity to experience it as well. Break a leg and please come back. Hope to see something from you again soon in the future.

Ending with a nooner in the peg

I wish I could say we went out with a bang. Speaking for myself, it was more of a whimper. I don't feel great about this last show. I felt like I was really affected by what I perceived to be audience stand-offishness. We came out before the show and sang My Vagina is Eight Miles Wide and I was highly aware of the people in the audience who seemed completely closed to us. Even though I could see my new friend Shy in the audience (there for the THIRD time!) I crumpled a little to see people with their arms crossed over their chests, and all those empty seats.

In the opening scene with Tonya where she plays the phone sex operator, I dropped a line. I've never dropped a line in this show. I just felt a little off. Like I kept trying to figure out how to make the unbelievers into believers. And I think my performance, and presence to the moment, suffered.

Take away lesson? THere are people in the audience who are there for you, who want your success (and there really were - I just looked passed them so I could focus on the jury). Do the show for them. Don't give up and give into your self-pity that people aren't liking the show, it's not for them, they are disgusted or disappointed or horrified. I am making this all up in my head and projecting it. There really are live people in the audience who are delighted to be there, who share our enthusiasm for sexual openness. When I give into fear, I do them a real disservice.

Standing in line to see another show, the volunteer usher asked me what show I was in, as I looked familiar. I mumbled something about how I'd probably flyered him at one point. He said, "No, I've seen you onstage" and I said, "Well, I'm doing the sex play." And he said, "OH! We loved your show. You shouldn't appologize, don't say "the sex play," say, "THE SEX PLAY." You should be proud." And that was yet another reminder that we do have audience out there who respond, and who are thrilled to have us here, and no, I'm not going to please everyone, but there are quite a few out there who have been quite pleased indeed.

Well I'm having a blast on this theater immersion program. Performing, seeing 1-3 shows per day, meeting theater artists and shooting the proverbial shit with them. Last night we had a party on our RV. I think the max we had in there at any one time was 10 or 11. We parked it right near the King's Head pub, which is where everyone tends to convene at night, and we had a rotating cast of characters coming in to pile cozily and drink box wine, lounge on the bed, play games, eat chocolates, etc. It feels like a party so fast in there because of how limited the space is. Immediately, everyone is right on top of one another, talking too loud, spilling wine and making the place rock. It felt like a proper use of our little Betty,(aka the Chariot of Desire), and hopefully a precedent for times to come. There was mention of a martini party on thursday...

Our shows have been going really well, especially last night's. Something was special last night. Maybe it was the really responsive audience, or maybe it was the pair of mating dragonflies that landed on me during one of the scenes, or maybe it was just the magic within the cast, but we were on. I felt so alive out there, and it seemed like everyone else was feeling it too. I'm excited to be experiencing the changes every day as we grow more and more into our show.
Funny little anecdote: The other day, I don't know what we had eaten, but suddenly I had to fart right as we were about to go out onto the stage. I admit, I could have probably moved away a bit, but we were at places, and I stayed right with everyone else when I let one rip. Everyone exclaimed in disgust and resentment as they covered their noses from the awful smell and we tried to hold back our laughter so the audience wouldn't hear us. We started the show, and no problems until...in the middle of Adrienna and my scene, right at the part where she is below me and I am looking at her face lovingly, I smell a foul stench sneaking up into my nose. Revenge. Adrienna has farted right as I have to look lovingly at her face and say the line, "The light reflects against your face. I see only love, open adoration". My head is positioned directly above her ass. That was truly a moment of acting. My face had to force itself into a look of admiration when internally I was cringing and trying not to breathe. Well done Adrienna.

Yesterday, we found a food co-op to my great joy and celebration. I have been feeling horribly removed from my familiar food habits, and it was reassuring to find organic greens, overpriced eggs, bulk grains and nutritional yeast. The co-op here is small, but not too small to have a little deli counter where they make vegan delights such as Yam and pumkin seed pate, Bliss balls, and tofu bacon strips. Everything they had was really delicious and brought me right back home. First thing I did with the groceries was make a big kale and parsley salad with lemon juice and olive oil and whoops, we don't have salt, so Adrienna did the best she could by rubbing the salt off of the macadamia nuts. You make do with what you've got. Delicious.

Today is a free day, which means seeing shows, flyering and promoting our show as much as possible,(the task that never gets checked off the to-do list), and relaxing. But first my blessed egg breakfast that I have so missed...
--Mary

We Asked for Signs

I have no idea how to move the pictures around so that the words and the pictures look good together, but I wanted to put these up on the blog. As we were driving to Winnipeg, Mary said, "Let's ask the universe for signs." Or something to that effect. Within an hour, swear to god, we passed "Be Kind" and Be Grateful."

I also put up the photo of the fringe postering that goes on all over the place. It is totally OTT - we have gone through hundreds of posters just to keep up, but that is kind of the nature of the beast.

Another 4 STAR review! (Not that we care aboot reviews)

It's true - I give way to much power to reveiws - not so much the positive ones, though I am grateful for them, but the negative ones, or rather, the possibility of negative ones. I fear having the words ring in my head for years to come (Toronto review of Girls Guide - "Unsexy, unfunny, unprepared." Can I remember a word of my Edmonton 5 star reviews? Nope).

BUT thank god I don't have to deal with that TODAY. Because our reveiw in the Winnipeg Free Press was another rave.

For your reading pleasure....

"I have always been curious about sex. And I love inappropriate questions." With those two statements as her scene-setter, Portland, Ore.-based writer/performer Eleanor O’Brien gives her audience fair warning that the hour that follows will be as frank, feverish and in-your-face sexual as anyone could hope to handle.

Inviting Desire is for decidedly mature and disinclined-to-blushing audiences. Flanked by Tonya Jone Miller, Mary Rose and Adrienna Ogin, fellow travellers on the road to fulfilment, O’Brien is determined to make this tightly choreographed and startlingly graphic exploration of female sexual fantasy a fully, er, satisfying encounter.

The premise is simple: as a woman of a certain age, O’Brien has found herself, on occasion, coming up short in the self-satisfaction department. Someone suggests a deeper kind of fantasizing, the kind that creates a more direct brain-to-groin connection. But how?

Well, with a little help from friends who respond to an anonymous online survey, O’Brien compiles a list of fantasy-driven suggestions in which every option, every opportunity and every orifice are explored.

And then the girls get down to the gritty business of acting it all out onstage, in full, flush-inducing detail. Daringly hot stuff, indeed.

The First Show, The First Review

We held our breath after the lights came up and the show was over. We quietly packed up our stuff and put it away in the stage shop space.
"Well. We hope they didn't totally hate it."

Portland audiences were loud and filled with laughter. The stage was small and intimate. We could feel their energy. Our first audience at the Winnipeg fringe was far from us. The venue is large, the stage is large, and they were quiet. We had no idea what they thought.

We know the subject matter is hard for some to swallow but still... we were nervous as we talked about the review not being important: it's the show that's important. And this is true, it is the show that is impotant, and we know this, and we love this, but we are also humans, and we put our love, and our life, and our personal stories up there on the stage for people to view, and we all in our own personal way, were preparing for a possible blow. We are strong, and we have each other, and we have you at home Portland so we hold hands, and hold each other up, and wait, and say, we can take it, bring it on! And...

They liked us. They really liked us in fact they four star liked us. We are jumping with joy! Our first review said we are "the sexiest show at the fringe," can there be anything better?

Read the rest here.

Once again, thank you Portland, thank you home for supporting us. This baby done good, and she's only gonna get better and better with age.

Getting the word out in Winnipeg

The first day of the Winnipeg fringe has come and gone and the rain, oh that stinkin' rain, kept the crowds small but not the energy.
As Eleanor blogged on yesterday's post, we have a large venue to fill. The stage is so much larger than what we have worked on before; for an intimate play we do not have an intimate stage. We'll have to work even harder than we already do, but we can do it. CAN I GET A CHEER HERE! Wup!

So, when you gotta fill a stage you gotta let the people know your here. So we run to ques as people wait to get into a show and we serenade them with "My Vagina is 8 Miles Wide" (Thank you again Storm) and pass out fliers and chat with people as they go into the theatre.

As a group we have seen two shows: The Cock Whisperer and The Hefner Monologues. Both very enjoyable witty show with personal touching moments, and much humor. The Cock whisperer is our competition tomorrow for audience, I had been nervous about that show because I was concerned it might be just like ours. After watching it though, my worries have faded, the only thing our shows have in common is sexuality and humor, and as our show highlights sexuality and humor come in a million different colors. I think we'll have some audience members that will enjoy both our show and hers, but there will also be people that gravitate to us more than her and vice versa. The thing that I realized is that it is silly to worry about competition of one play when there are many shows going on at the same time as ours, and we all want the audience, and we all want to see each others shows, and we all want the audience to see the shows we want to see. It all comes out in the wash right? Still, we are working our asses off to make sure that we get our laundry done first!

Tech Rehearsal - CHECK!

We had our tech this morning and it went great. Super smooth - the two guys who are running our lights and sound are totally on it. They even added interesting gobos (lighting effects) and are both have an artistic touch with calling cues. YAY.

We are in a HUGE venue - which is exciting and intimidating. We have to goose up our volume, and even delivery to some extent. It's a theatre which often houses musicals, so you get the idea.

Just to run the show felt great - it helped us remember the reason that we're here - not just to promote but to actually DO the show.

I admit, I am terrified of how the show will do - critically and in terms of numbers. When I think about it I get all seized with panic - but I do recognize that it's better than it was the last time I was here. I was just a ball of anxiety the first time round - coming off Toronto and the worst review of my life. That time Winnipeg felt like a warm bath - totally welcoming and generous in response. I pray for the same reception - that people will welcome an empowering show about women's sexuality, and not freak out and keep embarrassment from getting them into the theatre. Our first show goes up the same time as The Cock Whisperer (which I personally can't wait to see). So that's scary - kind of a similar demographic I imagine.

But I am trying to keep in the front of my mind that first and foremost we are here to have an artistic adventure. To meet people and make friends and see shows and do theatre. PLAY. Despite flashes of terror, I feel like I am right where I want to be.

The Tour!

It has been some time since any of us has had the chance to blog, so sorry, we've been very busy, a little anxious, and completely excited about our artistic adventure.

Thank you to everyone who supported our show while it was in Portland (both the first and the second shows) you are greatly appreciated, and you have helped us get to Canada- we only almost ran out of gas, twice. We've discovered that Mary and Adrienna are not a good combination when driving because they talk too much, and forget to look at the gas gage, and then they look at each other and say, "woops."

See our RV? Isn' t great? This picture is from our last day in Portland minutes before we all jumped in the ol' camper and hit the road.

We made amazing time, especially when we could only drive at 50-55 miles an hour. Let me tell you we were passed a lot, I mean a lot, other RV's passed us, it was great. The RV is the perfect size for the four of us. Everyone takes turns driving, we always have a navigator so the driver isn't alone, and that leave tons of space in the back for the other two. It took us about two days to get to Winnipeg, and the drive was beautiful.

We stopped in Spokane for some dinner (we have snacks galore but a meal was sometimes needed) and Mary and I did a little slow dance for some of the customers as a live band played. We drove late in the night till we found an abandoned ski lodge in Idaho, where we parked to get some sleep. It was so beautiful, the sky curved like a fishbowl and was black with so many stars visible. The moon was bright yellow and rose over the mountains. In the morning we drove through Montana. Oh, Montana, big, beautiful and a long drive. It was hot but it wasn't terrible, well it was a little hot in the cab but nothing we couldn't handle.


If you ever find yourself in Montana and need some used cows the place in the photo is where to go.


Montana is spectacular and they don't call it Big Sky for nothing. The sunsets where vibrant and deep magenta and burgundy, just brilliant. Tonya and Eleanor watched an electrical storm and said the lighting was the same deep range of pinks and reds as the sunset. I'm so bummed I missed that!


We stopped in a truck stop in Montana our second night, but the mosquitoes, the loud trucks and the deep muck of mud and sludge put us quickly back on the road, until we found a construction site with a closed road in North Dakota where we parked and slept.


North Dakota was so green and lush, with wetlands and clear sparkling ponds with grey trees growing out of the water like crooked fingers reaching toward the sky. We all were so awed by the beauty of North Dakota and its expansive fields of green. We were not so awed by possibly the worst coffee in the world served at Krolls cafe in Bismark, very nice people, very bad, bad coffee. We called it Coffer: water coffee.








Mary loves bears.





Tonya is pretty much embodying all of our joy.

Eleanor is so excited she can't help but sing




And, Mary Rose and Adrienna made up a great cheer, I mean we are set to Invite Canada into so much desire they may just explode. Perhaps we should come with a warning label?

We only got stuck at the boarder for about 45 mins, during our examinations, we sang "My Vagina is 8 miles Wide," yes, that's right we are here, Canada, we are here.

We have postered, met a few other fringe performers and are staying with the most wonderful host- ever- really, things couldn't be more enjoyable.
Our tech is on the 15th and our 1st performance is on the 17th. We have a pretty large venue to fill so wish us luck with our seduction at pulling in an audience.

We will post again soon with our Winnipeg, Fringe experience- CHEERS! LIBIDO!


Doesn't it seem like this should be our venue?


The Wind and the Willows right here in Winnipeg.


That's right baby, it's a sign. Literally