The Drag Races went on as scheduled, the usual crowd (though I didn't stick around to watch). People arriving early to get seats, and strollers starting to appear when I went off, some people think it's wholesome family goodness.
The big news is the former venue manager did break the gender barrier, running the race as a man, and shock of shocks, she won. Our team wins, though now I'm confused, was it a win for men or women?
As a prize, I gave her the copy of that Berenstein Bears "No Girls Allowed" taht I bought some years back and featured in the Diary a few years back. She liked that, she said she liked the Berenstein Bears. She would have gotten it anway, for merely running the race.
In retrospect, I now see one reason why the boys/girls didn't want the girls/boys to participate. Running in flat shoes is so much easier than running in high heels, our boy likely won on that basis alone. So maybe the next time a Drag King participates, there will have to be some handicapping.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Who is Aristippus?
I saw this on the Final Saturday, and it was alost sold out, and had the most audience in a show I've seen this Fringe. Though, it seemed to be family and friends night.
The Steampunk angle, I guess one could define Steampunk as imagining the past to have more advanced technology than it did, is what drew me in. They do play that out in the costumes, and the quest of the main character.
But the blurb also says this is Commedia Dell'arte which I still don't completely know the meaning of, but now have a better idea of. The San Francisco Mime Troupe is said to have originally been based on Commedia Dell'arte, and I've seen them twice. Once in a park in San Francisco in 1980, then here in Montreal when they performed in November of 1982 (and I finally after some years of wondering where it is, found my San Francisco Mime Troupe tshirt, though it's too small now). I can see the similarity in form between those shows and "Who is..."A level of comedy, and the actors at times address the audience.
Anyway, it's fairly old form of theatre, so this show is somewhat different (not unique, the form has appeared at the Fringe at least once, likely more times), but souped up with the notion of Steampunk. There was some talk of rivalry between this and another show earlier in the week, but really, there's no comparison. "How We Went to mars" isn't exotic theatre, but the science fiction angle is important. Here, the Steampunk is just a way to dress up the actors, the type of story is quite old, as is the form of performance. This one does come across as theatre types wanting to try out a different form, rather than science fiction types wanting to put on a show.
The Steampunk angle, I guess one could define Steampunk as imagining the past to have more advanced technology than it did, is what drew me in. They do play that out in the costumes, and the quest of the main character.
But the blurb also says this is Commedia Dell'arte which I still don't completely know the meaning of, but now have a better idea of. The San Francisco Mime Troupe is said to have originally been based on Commedia Dell'arte, and I've seen them twice. Once in a park in San Francisco in 1980, then here in Montreal when they performed in November of 1982 (and I finally after some years of wondering where it is, found my San Francisco Mime Troupe tshirt, though it's too small now). I can see the similarity in form between those shows and "Who is..."A level of comedy, and the actors at times address the audience.
Anyway, it's fairly old form of theatre, so this show is somewhat different (not unique, the form has appeared at the Fringe at least once, likely more times), but souped up with the notion of Steampunk. There was some talk of rivalry between this and another show earlier in the week, but really, there's no comparison. "How We Went to mars" isn't exotic theatre, but the science fiction angle is important. Here, the Steampunk is just a way to dress up the actors, the type of story is quite old, as is the form of performance. This one does come across as theatre types wanting to try out a different form, rather than science fiction types wanting to put on a show.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Buzz
The days of the paper buzz seem in the past. Very few has been put up, and there doesn't seem to be much lost somewhere, unlike some years. The paper program doesn't even address buzz, though it has space for all the branded spaces on the internet. The process has faded as new peole come in and don't remember the origins. I've seen acts hand out the paper forms, only for it to be useless when turned in, since people are rating the show "three stars" rather than commenting, or they don't bother to put the title on the paper.
In its place, the Fringe is printing electronic buzz and putting that up. Some of it, maybe from teh Fringe website, is badly done. Why do I care about "This show is Awesome!!!", rather than the title so I can look for comments about a show I'm curious about? Yet the form gives larger fonts to that initial comment rather than the title, of the show, which is pretty tiny. I also don't think it wo5rks as well when spread across a page, the paper buzz was small but it didn't require reading across a full page length. Print the buzz in small columns.
In its place, the Fringe is printing electronic buzz and putting that up. Some of it, maybe from teh Fringe website, is badly done. Why do I care about "This show is Awesome!!!", rather than the title so I can look for comments about a show I'm curious about? Yet the form gives larger fonts to that initial comment rather than the title, of the show, which is pretty tiny. I also don't think it wo5rks as well when spread across a page, the paper buzz was small but it didn't require reading across a full page length. Print the buzz in small columns.
Sponsors and Fundraisers are people too
The teenagers from LOVE (Leave Out Violence Everyone) were at the Beer Tent on Friday soliciting donations. Some of last year's group returned, like a little reunion. I'd wanted to show them a book, but guessed wrong about what day they'd appear, and of course, they miss the Drag Race, that they seemed to enjoy last year, when I said unlike the other groups, they seemed to get something from their visit to the Fringe.
Actually, the groups have seemed more into it this year. There was one woman from the Native women's shelter who was surprised and pleased by t e offer of the cookies, and then I had a plastic bag for the woman who seemed to be the organizer when she was packing up. I said "We want your visit to the Fringe to be good". One of the women from Ami-Quebec gave a big smile when she rode off on her bicycle. I realized we should have given each four Fringe Bucks so they could get into a show (or just some outright single show pass). They sit at the table, surrounded by the Fringe, and we should give them a chance to see what it's really like. I'd give them my own Fringe Bucks, but I haven't gotten any in five years, so I no longer have a stash to hand out.
But this is one thing wrong with the Fringe. They have sponsors, but don't really tell us about them. We hear about the groups coming to collect donations, but there is no intimicy shown. It's hard to tell if the Fringe really likes these groups, or if it's mercenary, figuring people may be more likely to donate for these other causes than the Fringe (and sometimes it's hard to tell whether the Fringe needs money or not, it's not like they ever tell us anything).
I wrote about the teens from LOVE last year, because they were animated, becoming part of the Fringe. I pointed to a piece about Peter McAuslan last year, because I think he deserves more notice. I gave cookies to Debora who sat at the Beer Tent one year for Maisoneuve Magazine, and over a decade ago to the woman working at the little Nantha's tent, just because they were there and they should be considered part of it all. Last week when the Beer Rep appeared carrying one of the coolers for the beer, I rushed over to help her. Not because we should be good to the Beer Company, but because it seemed a polite thing to do. I helped blow up those purple feet from the wine company when the woman seemed to be struggling (the pump was overkill for the task, and required a lot of push for a small amount of air, Santropol Roulant had a much easier to use pump when they were tuning up bikes on Wednesday).
But the Fringe just points to them, "these are the sponsors". If I was running things, I'd be writing something about them, defining the relationship, because it's the thing to do. Otherwise, they are just blank objects, they are merely sponsors that some others can dismiss as controlling the festival. The Fringe has always been an intimate place, all those acts trying to get you to their show by interacting with you, seeing the staff and volunteers around so you feel like volunteering, and at least can respect the producer because they aren't just bossing people around. We are a different festival, not by defining but by action, and one way is to offer up more detail. Gossip is a connecting thing, and I'm not talking about malicious gossip. It brings people in.
For a couple of years, Ile sans Fils was listed as a sponsor (as I said at the time, kind of illusionary since the group is more an organizer, talking commercial entities like Mainline into sharing their wideband connection). Yet the most important thing to reveal was that there'd be wifi access at the Beer Tent, information rather than promotion. Yes, they helped, but that's far less important than how they helped. Indeed, the group is nothing if people aren't actually using the unified log-in that they are offering. The Fringe seemed to assume everyone would know why they were a sponsor, or maybe didn't care, they just felt an obligation to list them as a sponsor.
Even circa 1997, when maybe I said something somewhere that got CAM to be a sponsor (they even had a venue named after them at least one year), we could have leveraged that and had a terminal on site. But since the only information the Fringe wanted us to know was that they were a sponsor, the information didn't arrive until it was too late to organize something.
Indyish came for a few years, the Fringe didn't tell us really about them, though Indyish blew its horn. Some of that could have been far better handled by the Fringe telling us about them, rather than something new to live with.
There's a whole trail of things that have been part of the Fringe, yet they just often seem inflicted on us, the Fringe doesn't tell us "we like what they are doing, we asked them to come, and here are the reasons". We are not merely consumers of the art that appears at the Fringe, we are a key component of the Fringe.
One year, 1998, the Fringe did send out a sort of "newspaper" letting us knmow of the plans for that year, but it was more humorous than detail. But for a decade they'd send out email, likely still do, but they never really told us anything. Theatre St. Catherine suddenly opens up, the Fringe says out announcements of what was happenning there, but no mention of who was running it (I had to read that somewhere else). Initially, I thought the Fringe was running it. Then the Fringe did get its own venue, and some made up story about a poker game rather than truth, and they'd lready done the rennovations by the time we heard.
No, the Fringe can't put detail in the paper program, not without making it a whole lot larger. But that's what the internet is for, easy distribution, cheap printing cost. Indeed, it is the very existence of the webpage that begs the Fringe to say more. In the early days, there would be an ntroduction in the program that tried to drag us in, that's faded, as if we are just consumers of culture, to see the shows, to buy the beer, to be passive. The Fringe needs to change this, because either sponsors are obnoxious or they actually mean something to us.
I can remember saying to Patrick "you should work the crowd", but that meant being more visible during the year, being out there when it came time to bring in volunteers or have troupes apply for a slot in the Festival. The sad thing is, once they started doing that, they were acting, often putting on a role to work the crowd, rather than being honest.
Actually, the groups have seemed more into it this year. There was one woman from the Native women's shelter who was surprised and pleased by t e offer of the cookies, and then I had a plastic bag for the woman who seemed to be the organizer when she was packing up. I said "We want your visit to the Fringe to be good". One of the women from Ami-Quebec gave a big smile when she rode off on her bicycle. I realized we should have given each four Fringe Bucks so they could get into a show (or just some outright single show pass). They sit at the table, surrounded by the Fringe, and we should give them a chance to see what it's really like. I'd give them my own Fringe Bucks, but I haven't gotten any in five years, so I no longer have a stash to hand out.
But this is one thing wrong with the Fringe. They have sponsors, but don't really tell us about them. We hear about the groups coming to collect donations, but there is no intimicy shown. It's hard to tell if the Fringe really likes these groups, or if it's mercenary, figuring people may be more likely to donate for these other causes than the Fringe (and sometimes it's hard to tell whether the Fringe needs money or not, it's not like they ever tell us anything).
I wrote about the teens from LOVE last year, because they were animated, becoming part of the Fringe. I pointed to a piece about Peter McAuslan last year, because I think he deserves more notice. I gave cookies to Debora who sat at the Beer Tent one year for Maisoneuve Magazine, and over a decade ago to the woman working at the little Nantha's tent, just because they were there and they should be considered part of it all. Last week when the Beer Rep appeared carrying one of the coolers for the beer, I rushed over to help her. Not because we should be good to the Beer Company, but because it seemed a polite thing to do. I helped blow up those purple feet from the wine company when the woman seemed to be struggling (the pump was overkill for the task, and required a lot of push for a small amount of air, Santropol Roulant had a much easier to use pump when they were tuning up bikes on Wednesday).
But the Fringe just points to them, "these are the sponsors". If I was running things, I'd be writing something about them, defining the relationship, because it's the thing to do. Otherwise, they are just blank objects, they are merely sponsors that some others can dismiss as controlling the festival. The Fringe has always been an intimate place, all those acts trying to get you to their show by interacting with you, seeing the staff and volunteers around so you feel like volunteering, and at least can respect the producer because they aren't just bossing people around. We are a different festival, not by defining but by action, and one way is to offer up more detail. Gossip is a connecting thing, and I'm not talking about malicious gossip. It brings people in.
For a couple of years, Ile sans Fils was listed as a sponsor (as I said at the time, kind of illusionary since the group is more an organizer, talking commercial entities like Mainline into sharing their wideband connection). Yet the most important thing to reveal was that there'd be wifi access at the Beer Tent, information rather than promotion. Yes, they helped, but that's far less important than how they helped. Indeed, the group is nothing if people aren't actually using the unified log-in that they are offering. The Fringe seemed to assume everyone would know why they were a sponsor, or maybe didn't care, they just felt an obligation to list them as a sponsor.
Even circa 1997, when maybe I said something somewhere that got CAM to be a sponsor (they even had a venue named after them at least one year), we could have leveraged that and had a terminal on site. But since the only information the Fringe wanted us to know was that they were a sponsor, the information didn't arrive until it was too late to organize something.
Indyish came for a few years, the Fringe didn't tell us really about them, though Indyish blew its horn. Some of that could have been far better handled by the Fringe telling us about them, rather than something new to live with.
There's a whole trail of things that have been part of the Fringe, yet they just often seem inflicted on us, the Fringe doesn't tell us "we like what they are doing, we asked them to come, and here are the reasons". We are not merely consumers of the art that appears at the Fringe, we are a key component of the Fringe.
One year, 1998, the Fringe did send out a sort of "newspaper" letting us knmow of the plans for that year, but it was more humorous than detail. But for a decade they'd send out email, likely still do, but they never really told us anything. Theatre St. Catherine suddenly opens up, the Fringe says out announcements of what was happenning there, but no mention of who was running it (I had to read that somewhere else). Initially, I thought the Fringe was running it. Then the Fringe did get its own venue, and some made up story about a poker game rather than truth, and they'd lready done the rennovations by the time we heard.
No, the Fringe can't put detail in the paper program, not without making it a whole lot larger. But that's what the internet is for, easy distribution, cheap printing cost. Indeed, it is the very existence of the webpage that begs the Fringe to say more. In the early days, there would be an ntroduction in the program that tried to drag us in, that's faded, as if we are just consumers of culture, to see the shows, to buy the beer, to be passive. The Fringe needs to change this, because either sponsors are obnoxious or they actually mean something to us.
I can remember saying to Patrick "you should work the crowd", but that meant being more visible during the year, being out there when it came time to bring in volunteers or have troupes apply for a slot in the Festival. The sad thing is, once they started doing that, they were acting, often putting on a role to work the crowd, rather than being honest.
Justice for Some
Political art should not hit you on the head, Carmen Ruiz said that in Hour last year before her show at the MAI. Oops, I said that in 2007, about one dance show that tried hard to be political. (The concept is actually a variation on politics in general, you want to change people to your point, not hit them until they convert).
So do I give inFluxdance a pass here? I loved their first two shows years back, the complicated patterns, the fun, the vegetables and the keys. There's no humor here, but I did have mild tears in my eyes towards the end. I can't figure out if they've just things that would trigger that in me, or if the show does work properly, affect people without hitting them over the head. Yet I know I would react badly if they were hitting us on the head with it, that's my makeup, so I think I'm not overlooking it because they are inFluxdance. They are actually dancing to say something, unlike that show four years ago where the dance seemed so separate from the political quotes being played through the sound system. Once again, they have a fair number of dancers for a Fringe show, I think I counted six, which of course gives the show a different tone from one that is a solo or duet. I think they captured a crowd well at one point.
Sometimes the Fringe has shoehorned dance into too small a venue especially when lots of dancers appear), though I once saw Jane Gabriels recite poetry in the late Bistro 4 while dancers squeezed beteen tables. But, while Tangente has the space I find it less appealing. The MAI seems better for dance, even La Chapelle, they have big enough stages, but not that depth that sometimes the dancers seem lost in. I like the years when it's grouped together, since some shows seem to get lost when off somewhere else, but this show fit okay in Club Espanol.
So do I give inFluxdance a pass here? I loved their first two shows years back, the complicated patterns, the fun, the vegetables and the keys. There's no humor here, but I did have mild tears in my eyes towards the end. I can't figure out if they've just things that would trigger that in me, or if the show does work properly, affect people without hitting them over the head. Yet I know I would react badly if they were hitting us on the head with it, that's my makeup, so I think I'm not overlooking it because they are inFluxdance. They are actually dancing to say something, unlike that show four years ago where the dance seemed so separate from the political quotes being played through the sound system. Once again, they have a fair number of dancers for a Fringe show, I think I counted six, which of course gives the show a different tone from one that is a solo or duet. I think they captured a crowd well at one point.
Sometimes the Fringe has shoehorned dance into too small a venue especially when lots of dancers appear), though I once saw Jane Gabriels recite poetry in the late Bistro 4 while dancers squeezed beteen tables. But, while Tangente has the space I find it less appealing. The MAI seems better for dance, even La Chapelle, they have big enough stages, but not that depth that sometimes the dancers seem lost in. I like the years when it's grouped together, since some shows seem to get lost when off somewhere else, but this show fit okay in Club Espanol.
Siblings
This is only a 15minute/$4 show (well $6 with the service charge, why are the shows with a lower price penalized by the Fringe more than the full limit ticket price shows?). I'd like to hear the story of why it's an excerpt, it can't be a test run since Lynsey Billing is not new to the Fringe.
I saw it at 23:45 on Friday night, one show I was willing to go to that late (even though I spent about 90 minutes waiting for it to happen). It seemed to bring out her friends, not a particularly large audience, but at least we all sat in the same section so it was concentrated.
Maybe it was the smaller venue, somehow more inviting than the depth of Tangente, but it felt like they are doing something different with dance. Like when she did "Barbie World" in 2008, the ballet influence is noticed. It thus becomes interesting because the vocabulary of the dance is somewhat different from the rest of the shows, that are generally using the vocabulary of modern dance (except for the breakdancing shows)
Lynsey Billing teaches dance, but it seems away from the usual places. Three years ago, I expected the Barbie piece to be more commercial or more entertainment dance, but it wasn't, and it was only one of a few pieces in the show. And maybe the distance from the status quo enables her to do something different, which may somehow be folded into the local status quo.
On the other hand, one of the musicians listed in the program is Becky Fooms (I think I spelled that wrong) who I've seen accompany someone at Studio 303, maybe Allison.
I saw it at 23:45 on Friday night, one show I was willing to go to that late (even though I spent about 90 minutes waiting for it to happen). It seemed to bring out her friends, not a particularly large audience, but at least we all sat in the same section so it was concentrated.
Maybe it was the smaller venue, somehow more inviting than the depth of Tangente, but it felt like they are doing something different with dance. Like when she did "Barbie World" in 2008, the ballet influence is noticed. It thus becomes interesting because the vocabulary of the dance is somewhat different from the rest of the shows, that are generally using the vocabulary of modern dance (except for the breakdancing shows)
Lynsey Billing teaches dance, but it seems away from the usual places. Three years ago, I expected the Barbie piece to be more commercial or more entertainment dance, but it wasn't, and it was only one of a few pieces in the show. And maybe the distance from the status quo enables her to do something different, which may somehow be folded into the local status quo.
On the other hand, one of the musicians listed in the program is Becky Fooms (I think I spelled that wrong) who I've seen accompany someone at Studio 303, maybe Allison.
Raven Causes Mischief
I mentioned native storytelling last year because I was trying to suggest things that don't appear at the Fringe which would broaden it. There is a lot out there where the people doing it might not define themselves as artists, so they may overlook the Fringe, yet still be good at doing what they do.
And then wham, here's a native storyteller, even from the Pacific Northwest. And we get to contrast her style with the storytelling that usually happens at the Fringe. This is creation storytelling, not "Joe went out on the ocean and a funny thing happened to him..." And there's a style to it different from what we normally see, though there is movement that makes for good spoken word. She even used a microphone, which maybe should be announced, I don't like the acoustics in that venue and haven't been in there for years, though suddenly I've been in twice, two shows I couldn't ignore. The microphone helped.
This is different performance art, which helps to make the Fringe diverse. But, of course it also brings a different voice to the Fringe (I like the two years when the Kanawake Theatre Company did shows at the Fringe, but at least one of those shows was fairly mainstream, about safe sex).
Coincidentally, the 40th anniversary issue of "This Magazine" (it started out life as "This Magazine is About Schools", complete with at least one piece by Bill Ayers) has a bit about "Native Earth Performing Arts" in Toronto. "so few places exist where any of us can hear Aboriginal voices live and unmediated", which is true.
During "The Oka Crisis", CJAD had regular reports from the Kanawake radio station, about the Crisis, yet once it was all over, that disappeared. Most of the time, the only stories we hear from there are about cigarettes or other squabbles, not about the library, or that they want to build a new sports complex.
Most don't get to stay the night at Kanawake and hear the clump, clump, clump of someone in boots walking around all night, he staying up to keep the woodstove going so we'd be warm, or know the woman who loved cashews, or the guy from AIM who said, after two concentric rainbows appeared on the plains of South Dakota, "that's nothing, I once saw three rainbows at a time". Or meet Floyd Westerman before he became a movie star, or have that guy carrying the medecine bundle come over and say something when he knew I was feeling a bit off. I was once in a crowd of 500,000 people in New York City and suddenly there was someone from Kanawake who remembered me. Most people don't get that, just regular people.
I'd like to think I did cause this show to appear, someone reading what I posted last year and thinking "I can do that". But I fear it was more sculpting by the Fringe, someone perhaps whispering in the right place so they'd know about our Fringe. Fine if it's Joe Nobody doing the whispering, kind of tampering if it's the Fringe.
And then wham, here's a native storyteller, even from the Pacific Northwest. And we get to contrast her style with the storytelling that usually happens at the Fringe. This is creation storytelling, not "Joe went out on the ocean and a funny thing happened to him..." And there's a style to it different from what we normally see, though there is movement that makes for good spoken word. She even used a microphone, which maybe should be announced, I don't like the acoustics in that venue and haven't been in there for years, though suddenly I've been in twice, two shows I couldn't ignore. The microphone helped.
This is different performance art, which helps to make the Fringe diverse. But, of course it also brings a different voice to the Fringe (I like the two years when the Kanawake Theatre Company did shows at the Fringe, but at least one of those shows was fairly mainstream, about safe sex).
Coincidentally, the 40th anniversary issue of "This Magazine" (it started out life as "This Magazine is About Schools", complete with at least one piece by Bill Ayers) has a bit about "Native Earth Performing Arts" in Toronto. "so few places exist where any of us can hear Aboriginal voices live and unmediated", which is true.
During "The Oka Crisis", CJAD had regular reports from the Kanawake radio station, about the Crisis, yet once it was all over, that disappeared. Most of the time, the only stories we hear from there are about cigarettes or other squabbles, not about the library, or that they want to build a new sports complex.
Most don't get to stay the night at Kanawake and hear the clump, clump, clump of someone in boots walking around all night, he staying up to keep the woodstove going so we'd be warm, or know the woman who loved cashews, or the guy from AIM who said, after two concentric rainbows appeared on the plains of South Dakota, "that's nothing, I once saw three rainbows at a time". Or meet Floyd Westerman before he became a movie star, or have that guy carrying the medecine bundle come over and say something when he knew I was feeling a bit off. I was once in a crowd of 500,000 people in New York City and suddenly there was someone from Kanawake who remembered me. Most people don't get that, just regular people.
I'd like to think I did cause this show to appear, someone reading what I posted last year and thinking "I can do that". But I fear it was more sculpting by the Fringe, someone perhaps whispering in the right place so they'd know about our Fringe. Fine if it's Joe Nobody doing the whispering, kind of tampering if it's the Fringe.
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