Shyzerblog

Ravyn’s favourite parts of NYC

In the last few days of the run Sarah and I managed to hit a couple of places in NYC that I’d never been to: the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

We made it to the latter shortly after sunset, in between our last show and the festival’s closing party. The view was stunning but sad. From that high up it really strikes you that Manhattan is an island, and not a very big one at that. The Brooklyn bridge stretches out on the left and the Statue of Liberty is a pinprick that seems only a stone’s throw away on the right. All around you’re surrounded by buildings; to the north are a few distinct ones, and you can see a hint of Time’s Square, but aside from that it’s just a mass of short blocky buildings piled around narrow streets at right angles, stacked up on top of each other with the same orange light peeking out of millions of square windows; like a dimly phosphorescent cubic coral reef.

Urban alienation and melancholy aside, I really just wanted to share these panoramas. The first one is from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, near where we were staying (see if you can spot the Statue of Liberty!). The second is of the Manhattan skyline, taken from Liberty Island.

I’m going to post a more comprehensive summary of the whole FRIGID festival experience in the next week or so. So far, suffice to say that our houses improved, but not by much, we had a lot of fun at the late night events, met some really cool people, and nabbed an Audience Choice Award.

But I’m still glad to be home.

We arrived in New York just in time for the 4th biggest snow storm they’ve ever had, which made everything more difficult, and, for a couple of days afterward, made everything more wet.

This has not stopped us from getting out to see the sights.

But so far my favourite piece of art has been this impromptu work, seen on the High Line.

Our audiences for the show have been pitifully small so far (the weather is one factor in this, no doubt), but growing, and hopefully that will continue. Sarah and I got home tonight to find this review, which was a pleasant surprise, and even moreso when I realized that it was written by a reviewer who sat in the quietest (and second smallest) audience I have ever had. Playing to an unresponsive house can really make you question what you’ve got – weren’t there jokes in here? I’m sure I wrote some jokes. I mean, people have laughed at it before, but maybe they were just thinking of funny things that happened to them earlier? – so it’s nice to have reassurance that even in a dead house you might still be getting through.

The bus ride to New York went by much more quickly than I thought it would. While the bus had wifi, its electrical outlets weren’t working, which meant I couldn’t get all the work done that I needed to, but at least that forced me to try to sleep.

It’s raining in New York, and we spent much of the day running around trying to find last minute props and other things we didn’t want to carry with us. We managed to get it all done and slide into the theatre just in time for our tech run, which went amazingly well. For every problem we had there seemed to be a counteracting pleasant surprise.

After we finished our tech we had to run over to another theatre – still dragging all our luggage with us in the rain – for the out-of-towner’s showcase. When we arrived the show had already started – and the door to the theatre had been locked. After a few frantic calls to every phone number we had connected to the festival we got hold of someone who gave us the door code and we stumbled into the packed room just in time for me to be introduced as the final act.

Sarah and I then headed to our room in Brooklyn where finally, more than 14 hours after arriving in the city, we were able to put down our bags and settle in. As a nice finishing touch on the day we finally managed to get our hands on a copy of the Village Voice, which we’d been told had run one of Tanja’s pictures of the show.

Sleep now. Opening tomorrow night at 9:30. No idea what to expect.

Did a photo shoot with Tanja last week to get some new images for Fishbowl’s marketing materials, including the new website. The photos are fantastic, but behind the cut are a few images that you won’t be seeing on a poster any time soon.

(more…)

It’s over! The goldfish all survived, and the PET computer actually booted up for the final performance, both surely good omens of things to come. I’ve had two days of complete vegetation and I’m back to my ho-hum life (read: day job) tomorrow.

Several people have suggested I’m going to be very bored now that the show is over, and they may be right. But at the moment I’m a little relieved to be able to relax. I’ll post a distillation of my thoughts on the whole experience soon (perhaps during a dull moment at work).

It’s nice to have a day off – even though it’s not really a day off, as I’m back in at my day job today. But that’s fine, because I spent all week sitting around for most of the day before running off to make my call before the show. Then I spend forty five minutes sitting in the dressing room alone, then if there’s no one in the audience who I know who wants to come out for a drink after the show, I just go home. That’s the rough part of doing a one-man show: the cast parties suck. Although I still get a chuckle out of the page of my contract that stipulates that the cast will be billed in alphabetical order.

Last night was the opening, and before that the preview/open dress. Both went well, although definitely two very different audiences – I think it’s going to be interesting over the course of the run to see which audiences relate to which characters.

There were a handful of reviewers at last night’s shows, and while I don’t put much stock in reviews – for anything, really – I’ve been waiting on the reviews all day. I have limited  experience with being reviewed, and it’s a strange thing. A reviewer is in a completely different demographic and headspace than your average audience member, so their comments are sometimes insightful and sometimes right out of left field, usually with a pinch of snark and always, for some reason, including some terrible puns on the show’s title.

I’m not against word play. In fact, the only thing I love more than a good pun is a bad pun, so long as it’s not taking itself seriously. Secretly, I’m hoping I get one really bad review with a headline like “Fishbowl Doesn’t Hold Water”.

The inimitable Tanja-Tiziana took some fantastic shots of last night’s dress – but be warned, these do give away a few of the surprises of the show. So if you’re coming to the show, hold off on these till after you’ve seen it – then make sure you come back and take a look!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanjatiziana/tags/fishbowl/show/

Tonight was the first performance of the show in front of an audience, albeit a small one of friends. This came as part of a 12 hour rehearsal day, so I’m exhausted.

But the show went well. Some bungled cues at the end, and it looks like there will be some changes made before tomorrow’s performance. About as well as a dress rehearsal can be expected to go, I guess, especially considering it was only the second run of the show we’ve done – the first one being this morning.

People keep asking me how I feel, and I don’t know what to tell them. I’ve never done a performance before that wasn’t a one-off, so I’m used to getting off stage and then feeling relieved that it’s all over. So it’s different to get off stage and know that I still have to do it 11 more times. And I don’t really want it all to be over anyway.

Sleep now. Opening tomorrow.