There will never be another production like last nights show in Calgary,oh no. I'm sure I wont be the only one from the cast to write about this show because it was just, um, a classic.
We've been in Calgary for the past couple of days, lovely city but different, way different, from Winnipeg when it comes to the fringe. Our venue is in an old theatre that just recently (like up to a week ago) was a retail store. It has a stage, from its old glory days of once being a theatre, but it's dirty from the days of being a stock room. We are honored to rechristen this theatre. Our techi, is awesome and our tech rehearsal went well, followed by a high energy, packed, and responsive audience. We were delighted!
Last night, nearing the end of the performance of a fellow fringer, the lights went out, all of them. The actress stood on stage in the darkness for a moment as the volunteers announced that a wind storm had knocked down power lines, and that the entire block was out. We held up flashlights, and the show we were watching continued.
We exited the theatre, and were greeted by a windy storm, and cold air as dark clouds enveloped the once blue and hot sky. As we all rushed to Betty (our RV) we noticed that, yes indeed, the entire street was out including our venue, and we had a show to do. The show was at ten. It was around eight. We discussed, maybe we could do it with flashlights too? Will the lights be up and running by ten? Will the show go on? We went to fringe central (this little tent in the corner of a parking lot). We were told, if the lights were up we were in our venue if not well there was another venue, we could move our stuff there and have the show, after all we had pre sold tickets. It was nine, we didn't have much time to decide, by nine thirty the lights still down in our venue, the show must go on.
I will be honest I didn't really look forward to breaking our stuff down shoving it in Betty and driving three blocks to have to set it up again, plus being on a stage we were not familiar with, and with no lighting or sound cues, I was weary, but I had no idea...
We were in a small gym inside a church. When we walked in it was so hot it was balmy, and it stunk like, well, a gym. The stage? There was none, it was the floor marked with lines from the basketball court. The audience? Right on top of us. The lighting? Lights on, lights off, let me add to that- fluorescent lights on, then lights off-no lighting. Sound? our awesome techi got his laptop hooked up to a small speaker and got prepared. Eleanor's brother Ben stood at the light switch to turn the lights on and off- the show, a full house, went on!
Sure doing a show last minute in a new venue with no lighting or sound is raw, fringey, and we have the capabilities of doing it, but add to it that the audience is right on top of us in full blaring lights and eye contact. When one of us is on our hands and knees our fingers nearly touch the foot of some one's boot, and you are doing a play about sex, well...hah fringy? I think that was one of the hardest performances we have ever done, and as Tonya said when it was over: "No one can say shit to me now, nothing will top that."
Eleanor had mentioned that while at the venue in Winnipeg she had missed the intimacy of a small stage she wanted to be close to the audience. Be careful what you wish for right? There is something be said about lighting and distance especially when you are one your knees pretending to simulate sex and climaxing on a what feels like a sixth grade gym. And the audience? Oh poor poor audience so stiff. As you look right at them men and women of all ages, no where to hide, and you swallow voraciously its just a little weird feeling. Our staging was improv-ed as most of the time there was no where to move things, the rug on the gym floor was sliding all over the place, in the plant piece the boxes were sliding apart, and I could feel my body falling through the cracks. It was so hot and we were so sweaty that during ritual, when Mary and I dance, Mary grabbed my hands to pull me up but our skin was slick and she slid right off me, and I watched her tumble backwards. Our faces and lines made a combination sound of terror and laughter. She caught her footing we continued to do the scene, but I had just lost it at that point. From the lines of a fellow fringer's show, "How did I get here?" It was to funny, I could barely stay in the scene, memories of Jr high and high school productions racing through my head as I could see, I mean really see, the look of horror on the faces of audience members.
The thing to note is that, when it comes to sexy, fluorescent lights in a church gym, is not sexy. I know we pulled it off, but we were uncomfortable, the audience was uncomfortable. Imagine this: you are in the audience watching four women dripping with sweat talking about a daddy fantasy, all hot and dirty and you are getting into it right, it's your fantasy maybe, or not, but it turns you on and you feel a smile breaking those tingles in your body, and you can feel the heat from people on both sides of you, then suddenly you are aware that a woman that looks just like your mother is sitting beside you horrified, and scared, of this sexy story about calling a man daddy in bed. In fact there are all these people around you- and they can see you- and they know, they know you want to spank that woman on stage so bad, and what do you do? You shrink back inside yourself, I mean your mother is watching! So yes they were quiet. Still, aside from one man that looked like he wanted to leave so bad, like I think he was hating every minute, and this is not projecting, I mean we could see everyone, and everything, oh god could we. I think people still liked it. And I think we are the bravest performers ever.
As we laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, and relishing the finer details of the crazy most awkward performance ever, I thought oh god I never want to do a show involving sex on the floor of a hot sweaty light glaring church gym again. Thank god we had some good supporters in the audience; Eleanor's mom and brother, and our friend and fellow fringer, Paul (How did I get here). Paul sat front and center, and we all mentioned later that since we could see, I mean really see, the audience most lines were delivered to Paul. Yes, "I wrap my salavating mouth around his penis," delivered right to Paul. I still am laughing, god I wish everyone who knows this show and knows us could have seen this show because I don't think there will ever be another like it, and those audience members? Oh they will never forget us either.
