Next Chapter

The Fringe has been over for weeks now, and I'm finally getting back to some semblance of normal life. What a whirlwind of a wonderful experience. I think we all learned a lot and are very thankful that we came out of the festival without any major crises or injuries. (I am very clumsy and often had waking nightmares of tripping up the stairs to the stage or smashing the contents of the suitcase and bleeding everywhere. Luckily I managed to avoid both!)

Now we are in the next chapter. For Misha that means SappyFest and touring around with Daniel Romano. For me it means more editing, some shooting and working on a Bruce Peninsula video. And for both of us, together, it means figuring out what we want to tackle next with In the Room. So stay tuned!

Fade to Black

Picture it:

Monday.

4:44pm.

One minute to show time.

Misha is in costume, ready to sneak across the stage for her entrance.

I am applying my final layer of lipstick.

And then: the power goes COMPLETELY out.

It wasn't quite a city-wide black out, but it was enough to shut down our show as well as the shows at a few of the other Fringe venues. We haven't heard horror stories of anyone being on stage when it happened, but I'm sure they will trickle out over the next few days. We waited it out for a few minutes, but when it became apparent that the lights weren't going to come back on right away, we packed up our set by flashlight (it was REALLY dark in there) and called it a day.

Our apologies to our audience members that didn't get to see the show! We hope you can make it on another day, but if not, we would be happy to perform G&L in your living room. By candlelight, if necessary.

Three shows to go!

HEART-STRINGS at the Fringe!

Still flipping through your Fringe program? We've got another recommendation for you!

Tanya Elchuk & Amy Crnkovic present their surrealist romantic comedy

HEART-STRINGS at this year’s Toronto Fringe.

"A disarming, two-woman, clown show… Heart-Strings is a find" – MONTREAL GAZETTE

Hearts. We've all got 'em. (Don't we?) No one knows what to do with 'em. (Do they?) But at least we can still laugh about it. (Can't we?!) HEART-STRINGS is a new physical comedy exploring the frustrating irrationalities of love and the long sought balance between reason and emotion. Fed up with the unpredictable impulses of her heart, one girl declares hers defective and sends it back where it came from. Her new-found life of reckless hedonism is cut short, however, by her heart’s unexpected return. A rollicking, irreverent adventure through love, hope, despair, and discovery, HEART-STRINGS is a dynamic fusion of theatre, movement, and music in a high-energy, 2-woman show! Skeptics of love, eat your hearts out!

Heart-Strings is playing at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse
79A St. George Street (South of Harbord)

Wed July 7 (11:00pm)
Thurs July 8 (7:45pm)
Fri July 9 (1:45pm)
Sat July 10 (3:30pm)

Go behind the scenes at heartstringstheplay.blogspot.com

Shells hardening in the Sun. I mean, the Eye...

We’ve caught wind of a terrible online Eye Weekly review. I admit that we haven’t read it yet, but our loved ones are telling us that it’s a classic case of reviewer/show mismatch – some consolation, for sure! But even if this is the case, any sort of in-the-ditch review makes you ask yourself the kinds of juicy and important questions that a great review does not.

Apparently, the person who reviewed our show doesn’t usually write about theatre – and if this is the case, I must say that I feel for the guy. Walking into a show like ours – theatrical, experimental, monological – must’ve been a bore and a half.

Before the show opened, I fantasized about the prospect of a shitty review and was sort of dreading it. But now that it’s happened, I feel surprisingly alright about it. It’s the sort of thing that makes you ask, “What do we want from this show? What do we expect? Why are we putting this material before an audience?” Lara and I have talked about this from the first and we know that Georgia & Leona is a peculiar piece that asks a lot of its audience. But some people like it. And if those some people get something from it – a bit of comfort or relief; a flash of memory or recognition...then what the hell, right? We’ve done our job. If our answer to “What do you expect from this show?” was “We think Georgia & Leona should follow up the Bourne Ultimatum,” then we’d be in the third or fourth ring of mega-disillusionment by now. But thankfully, we know what we’re about with respect to this particular show.

Third performance today! It’s a crazy rhythm to get into, a crazy experience overall...we can feel some of the soft spots in our souls getting harder by the day!

Sex, Drugs & the Holy Ghost!!

If you are perusing the Fringe program book and are overwhelmed with what other shows to check out, may we suggest you see "Sex, Drugs & the Holy Ghost"? We are going to go, and we're looking for (hot) dates, so give us a call.

Here's the important details:

Under the Blood Productions presents

Sex, Drugs & the Holy Ghost

by Diane L. Johnstone

Directed by Winnie W. Wong

Starring & Written by Diane L. Johnstone

Sex, Drugs & the Holy Ghost (SDHG) will make its world debut at the Toronto Fringe

Festival. SDHG is a one-woman show that explores ideas of sex, drugs and God, through experiences of church members; an Ex-Stripper, Deacon’s wife and ‘tell it like it is’ Grandma Word.

Sex, Drugs & the Holy Ghost is playing at the Walmer Centre Theatre

188 Lowther Avenue (Bloor and Spadina)

Friday, July 2 (7pm)

Saturday, July 3 (3pm)

Sunday, July 4 (9pm)

Monday, July 5 (7pm)

Tuesday, July 6 (9pm)

Thursday, July 8 (5pm)

Saturday, July 10 (5pm)

Sunday, July 11 (7pm)

Go behind the scenes at www.bourgee-bushwoman.com

TASHA SMITH, Hollywood Actor, says go see the show! (see website clip)

The dreaded TECH RUN

I only say "dreaded" because we didn't know quite what to expect. And the lovely Fringe people frightened us a bit by telling us horror stories about shows that didn't get through all their cues in their allotted time and had to go to opening night flying by the seat of their pants. We were nervous, but prepared.

Jacob started the day by taking a break.

Our whole set nearly fit into one Yaris.

We waited patiently in the courtyard of the Factory Theatre until we were called in.

Then, we were called in:

GO GO GO!

We set up.

Stage Manager Extraordinaire!

(Not to mention also a babe.)

We set our lighting cues.

We got into character:

...and we ran a cue to cue.

And, I'm happy to report, we are under control. All of our cues have been set and even though we didn't get a full run through on our stage, we are as ready as we'll ever be for opening night.

(WHICH IS TOMORROW.)

Thank you to Brian and Shawn for their help in getting us through the tech run process and to kp for documenting the whole thing.

MAKE UP

My pal Kenji came over to give Misha and I a lesson on stage make-up. I worked with Kenji last year on a short film (directed by Erica Leung) that required Kenji to do this to me:

Amazing, right?

Unfortunately (or fortunately...?) G & L aren't burn victims, members of the undead or Lady Gaga so our make-up is a lot more tame.

Kenji taught us how to age ourselves slightly by changing the shape of our faces and the results were amazing--when I looked at Misha I saw LEONA and it gave me a slight prickle of goosebumps.

Kenji is a great teacher, not to mention a lovely person and very good at what he does. Here he is drawing a map of a face so we know what the hell we're doing when he's not around:

Thank you, Kenji, for being patient with us--especially Misha who doesn't like when the mascara wand comes close to her eye. ("It's like a goddamn millipede coming at me..!") To check out more of Kenji's work and to see why he was recently named the winner of the 2010 International Make-Up Artist Trade show in Vancouver, visit his blog HERE.

If you want to see the results of what he taught us (and whether or not we can pull it off on our own!), you will just have to come see the show.

Overheard at Rehearsal

"A pig would eat Gary Oldman, for chrissakes!"

--Misha, on the extent of what a pig would be willing to ingest.

BLOGS! (Our kids are growing up...)

Georgia & Leona are making their way into the world! We feel like proud parents over here...

Wavelength and Art & Culture Maven have done us a great service. Thanks a mil! Here are the links, if you get a sec:

http://www.artandculturemaven.com/2010/06/georgia-leona-at-toronto-fringe.htm

http://www.wavelengthtoronto.com/

!!!!!!!!

LESS THAN ONE WEEK TO OPENING NIGHT.

And.. script changes.

Misha said something to me last night about how, in high school, we were appalled to hear about script changes happening in the professional theatre down to the wire, even *gasp* between shows! And now we are doing it. To our own selves. And, honestly, it's not as bad as we imagined. Because with every change or cut, the show is getting tighter and more true to its theme. I support them, wholeheartedly. (Until, of course, I have to memorize new lines...)

Rehearsals are going well!

Jacqui has been bringing vegan baked goods. We've seen some really good performances as well but, MAN, those chocolate cookies with the peanut butter in the middle... best performance so far.

The Fashion District

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Come to The Fashion District and discover your personal style!!

We made a trailer!

Happy Birthday Georgia. I mean LARA...!

It's Lara's birthday today. She passed the midnight threshold cutting together our trailer, which we filmed yesterday. Well, her and Jak filmed it. I lifted stuff and made tea and chirped in with things like, "Holy shit, is that a computer...?!" But it looks great and sending it out makes me feel good - like we're doing all we can to draw a crowd.

Did I mention it's Lara's birthday today? I always defer to her wisdom and today I defer to her age. Every five minutes. I ring a bell and shout "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARA" into the world. Just to make it right, you know?

Anyways. We're in the final stretch. Rehearsals have become unexpectedly personal. Reaching deep into the self in order to act based on who you are, what you know - like what they say about wearing makeup so it looks like you're not wearing it? (...the phrase "act natural" suddenly comes back to me in a reexamined and clearer way--)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARA...! (I almost missed you that time...!) -love yr Leona

And the prize goes to...

Hayley Gratto.

For being the VERY FIRST ticket buyer of the entire festival, for getting undercharged for her ticket to "Georgia & Leona" because the lady selling them didn't know the price (having never sold a ticket), and for getting her service fee waived once the box office realized their mistake and called her back to charge the appropriate amount.

Good work Hayley!

See you at the show!

TICKETS ON SALE!!

Pals!

Advance tickets are now on sale!

You can buy them online at www.fringetoronto.com. Click on where it says "Buy Tickets or Donate Online" at the top right of the page. They only sell 50% of tickets in advance, so if you want 'em, get 'em quick!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Script changes!

I could print off a new script, but I like making the changes manually. I feel like this will help me learn them better. And I also like how my script is beginning to look like a Family Circus map. It's recording the process of getting this show to the stage.

The script changes are good. It's like we're finding that statue in the block of stone. This simultaneously puts my mind at ease and gives me heart palpitations.

Puts my mind at ease because Misha has cut out a fair bit, which means the likelihood of us going over our time slot is becoming less and less. The lovely people at the Fringe keep reminding us that if our show runs too long, they will give us one warning and then turn on the lights and usher the audience out, regardless of whether our show is over or not. We are terrified of that happening to us, so we will do everything we can to keep it from occurring.

The heart palpitations don't need an explanation, do they?

18 DAYS UNTIL OUR SHOW OPENS.

Line drop.

"I'm the director. So I can tell her not to do that..." -Lara on memorization (talking about how it's Jaqui's job to stop us every time we flub a line)

We've started our off book LDP ("Letter Damn Perfect") rehearsals and I can't wait to put the characterization work and the memorization work together - getting to that point, I mean, where you're saying the words because you're thinking them. That's been Lara's priority in the director's chair - to talk things through section by section, articulate each character's associations and motivations... Lara is so great at this. She's always asking questions, but she's always containing the thing too - in control in a good way, leading us to this point where the text seems to fall naturally into this groove we've cut in our brains.

Our brains... By the time this thing goes live, we'll be sharing one!

LINES

Oh, the SCRIPT.

I love reading it, I love discussing it with Misha, talking about where Georgia & Leona are coming from, when they are lying to themselves, when they are saying things out loud for the first time and when they are telling stories the same way they've told them countless times before. I can picture it now--I'm building the set in my head and starting to imagine the way Georgia & Leona move through their respective spaces.

But now... the words need to be memorized. 21 pages for me of double-spaced type. 10.5 pages of single spaced words. I generally have a good memory for this sort of thing, but we open in just over a month. So, it's not that I'm worried about memorizing the words, it's more that I'm terrified of forgetting them on stage. And I won't be able to say "Ah f@#k, I screwed up, can we do another take?" Thus, the glorious difference (one of many) between the stage and the screen. And this difference is the one that I'm dreaming about at night. (And not in a good way.)

So, what's the lesson here? STOP BLOGGING LV, AND GO LEARN YOUR LINES, that's what.

Recording !

Misha and I have recorded a coupla snippets from the play, to be used as radio promos. (Hear that CBC?) The lovely men over at Bruce Peninsula HQ set us up in their basement studio so all we had to do was press the record button.

Here's mb pressing the record button.



After this, I'm going to RIP on the drums. JUST WATCH ME.


Lv... dude... you, uh... you can't be in the band.

Line drop.

Jaqui and Jacob came over tonight. Since we're such a small staff at this stage, Lara made handouts for our get together tonight. Stage management stuff, front of house stuff, tech stuff... I love Lv, you know? "Mostly copy and paste" she says. I know better...

Lara and I just did a reading. If this was an episode of CSI Miami and I was Horatio Caine, I would put on my sunglasses and say something like, "It's done. Which means now it's time to begin..." But since...well, since a lot of things, eh? What I'm trying to say is that the script is done. Revising was a real pleasure this time around and a real success. At this point, there's just no substitute for Lv's excitement, and her telling me we're there.

LV: I'd be surprised if David Caruso was like that in real life.
DC: Well then get ready...to be surprised.

*I'm sorry! The script is done and I just feel...mischievous!* -mb

Time at Lv's place.

Lv's is in her new place and after five glorious minutes of being alone I moved in on her, colonized the couch and the kitchen table... But it' s good. We're well practiced at living in the same space. And we're relieved to be getting up together, working together, eating together and being alone. Together.

Right now I'm performing on the script something I've been calling 'the squeeze'. Lv and I read it a few times, talked about things, crossed things out, special ordered some minor changes - Georgia is solid. Leona is three quarters digested and needs, we feel, one more go-through. So she's the one I'm spending the time with. And it's a squeeze because the changes you make up top have to be carried down and down and down until you come out the other side of her story.

Before I fell asleep last night I was thinking about all the places this script has been and all the personalities it has been tested through - at the three readings we did with friends who offered their attention and feedback. As a storytelling piece, G & L had many authors from the start. By now though, I think its bibliography is about as long as the piece itself. You know what I mean? If the guy sleeping in the lobby at the Days Inn outside of Chicago was a playwright, I'd be out of business!

Direct quote from MB

"We've got enough quinoa here to start an ancient civilization"

--Misha, on how much quinoa is currently in my kitchen.

MacMill's

Indy. Helpful for finding sticks and chasing squirrels.


Misha at work.

A box of letters we found on MacMill's porch which will be
incorporated into the show as Carl's letters,
some of which were written to Leona.

Leona was raised a good Christian.

On the set of the photo shoot.


Misha in costume (on the right).


Indy is also helpful for holding up cardboard to block light on set.

We only spent one night at MacMill's house (which, admittedly, is a bit ridiculous after a 4.5 hour drive) but it felt like much longer. Our time was completely dedicated to Georgia & Leona, on the page and bringing them to life. Soon after we arrived, we did a photo shoot for our promo photos, and Jacqui took some fantastic shots of us in costume in our environments. I will post them once we have the finished product.

I read the new version of the script and I cried. Three times. Misha and I read the script to MacMill and Jacqui and got some great notes and some direction on what to work on for the next (and hopefully fairly final) draft. We spent the 4.5 hour drive home talking about Georgia & Leona... & Carl & Barry & Clyde & Donna. We talked about their parents, where they grew up, what happened in the years before the script, what jobs they did and currently work at, how they look in a pair of jeans (Clyde = dynamite, by the way), their social insecurities, everything. Once we started building the history of our characters it just flowed and they became more and more clear to us. After a while it felt like we were gossiping about people we know, and it's the essence of that feeling that we are now trying to inject into the script.

It's getting good, guys. Real good.

Off to the Ottawa Valley.

Misha, Jacqui (our stage manager), and I are heading off to the Ottawa Valley early tomorrow morning for two days of intensive work on Georgia & Leona. We will be staying with MacMill, our high school drama teacher and mentor. (Her name is actually Ann, but we've always been into nicknames and once we find a good one, it's hard to let it go.)

MacMill has a beautiful old house in the country that has belonged to her family for generations which she has now turned into an artist's retreat. We're hoping to use the time there to do some promo photos for the show and also to read through what is hopefully the (mostly) final draft of the play. Misha has been touring with Bruce Peninsula for the last five days in the U.S. with her trusty laptop by her side (or on her lap?). Somehow, in the midst of being in a rock band on tour, she is going to transform the script from this...


...into something that I can read too.

It's getting good, guys. I can't wait to read the latest draft and see how the play has evolved. I feel like I'm going to see a family member I haven't seen for years and years and I'm curious to see how they've changed... you know?

FACTORY STUDIO!!

We got our venue info and are pleased as punch. We'll be at the Factory Theatre in the Studio and here are our performance dates and times:

Friday, July 2nd @ 9:00pm

Saturday, July 3rd @ 3:45pm

Sunday, July 4th @ 1:45pm

Monday, July 5th @ 4:45pm

Tuesday, July 6th @ 8:30pm

Thursday, July 8th @ 12:15pm

Saturday, July 10th @ 10:30pm

Write them in your day planner or Blackberry or iPhone or on your hand. We'd love to have you there.

Patience is a virtue..

..and one that I seldom possess when it counts. It seems to be around when I don't need it, and then when I start feeling the stirrings of a restless brain, it flees the scene.

So what I'm saying is: I am feeling impatient.

Venue assignments today! It's 11:31am and we're still waiting for our official email.

Bated breath.

Fingers crossed. (..for what? not sure.)

I wish I could sit still long enough to meditate.

Thank you, Roxton.

"We are three commas, two pronouns and a
semi-colon away from greatness."

-M. Bower, 2.75 hours into a 3 hour writing session.

Misha and I spent the morning (and early afternoon) at the Roxton, writing a synopsis for "Georgia & Leona". Coming up with something that represents all the brewing thoughts, deliberated ideas and internal journeys of our characters by talking about "what happens" was a real challenge. But also a valuable experience--now when someone asks me "what is your play about?" I won't hesitate! I won't be at a loss for a description! I can confidently say "oh, well, since you asked, Georgia & Leona are strangers, returning home after reuniting with friends from the past. Georgia meets with Donna, who surprises her with news of her recent marriage; Leona meets with Barry, who arrives with letters written by their good friend Carl, dead now for two years. Each woman re-lives old experiences which lead to new realizations."

I'm memorizing it. Test me.

Special thanks to the lovely people at the Roxton who didn't give us dirty looks for occupying a booth for hours and an extra special YOU ARE GREAT to the server who kept bringing mb coffee even after we had over-stayed our welcome.

We find out our venue info and performance schedule on Monday. Keep those li'l fingers crossed for us!