Oh, The Places You Will Go!

On Friday, I had the privilege of seeing a wonderful little show at the National Arts Centre called Elephant Wake. I'm not going to write a review. However, I will say that I liked it and that it hit me on more than just a cultural stand-point (being from a town divided between French and English lines will do that - though I do wonder how people who cannot speak French appreciated the show?) To me, the show was about loneliness and finding refuge in the past. Though not always perfect, it was beautiful to watch. If you'd like to read a review of the piece, I recommend Jessica Ruano's at the Ottawa Arts Newsletter. I agree with most of what she says. No, what really struck me with this production was where it came from. Elephant Wake was originally created as a production for the Edmonton Fringe Festival in 1995. I've latched on to this little tidbit of information for over three days now. This was a FRINGE SHOW! Now, almost 15 years later, it was being presented at the National Arts Centre, the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver and even the Magnetic North Theatre Festival next June in Kitchener-Waterloo.

According to the program, it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for the production. When the show was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe, they were lucky to have 8 to 10 audience members a night. One day, they only had 3 people in the audience. Two people left partway through the show apologizing that they did not speak English. I know many actors who would have canceled a production after that, but Joey Tremblay kept going and performed a one man show for one person. It takes an incredible amount of dedication and integrity to keep going (and I'm sure it didn't hurt that he started winning awards shortly after, guaranteeing a sold-out run for the rest of the festival, but still, he didn't know that.)

I am realistic. This isn't easy and not all shows blossom like this. But what hope this fills me with as I try and create my own work!

Elephant Wake is at the NAC Studio until November 14.

My Apologies

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, my play No Exit Upstage will not be presented at UNHINGED: Kitchener's Festival of Site-Specific Theatre. I sincerely apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Chill Out, Virginia, It Can Be This Easy

I woke up a little earlier than 5:00 a.m. with the sun barely creeping through my blinds. I was ok with that since I was going to head out for some early morning yoga, but I couldn't figure out if I had slept. If I did sleep, I spent the entire night dreaming about THE SHOW and my tossing and turning was based on all of my blocking, or I didn't sleep and I just thought about the show all night... Ah well, being up that early reminded me that I needed to do laundry, since my costume top was in the basket and we were teching at 9:30 a.m. I also filled out an application for what will surely be another cool festival for No Exit Upstage in September. Yes, the application deadline is way beyond past, but the fine folks in Kitchener-Waterloo have been kind enough to grant me one massive extension.

All in all, with the working out and an impromptu coffee meeting with theatre friends post-yoga, I had a very productive morning before heading out to our venue in Studio Leonard Beaulne on the University of Ottawa campus.

The reality of the situation finally hit me when I got there. We open in LESS THAN TWO DAYS! While on the bus my director/stage manager called to say his own bus hadn't shown up and he would be late. I arrived at the venue and couldn't find either the technician or my fellow actor. I wanted to panic! Where was the Fringe office phone number? Where was everyone? What the hell is going on!?!

Then I looked at my phone. It wasn't even 9:30 yet...

Needless to say, everyone arrived and things went as smoothly as they possibly could. I worried a bit, some more, that I wouldn't be able to get the timing for some of my cues, but we just kept working them until we got it right. I also had to keep telling myself that a cue-to-cue was not a place to be worried about character development. An excellent technical rehearsal later (Vincent is awesome!), we were having lunch on the grass before tidying up a few bits of the story arc. It was wonderful. Post-rehearsal I went to tape up posters around the venues.

Two days before opening and I am confident we have a solid show. It is an incredibly uplifting feeling to know that we won't simply be running on adrenaline to pull this all together. I can't thank the gang enough for making my life so incredibly easy. I sincerely hope to see you all out there throughout the run!

Nancy Kenny's No Exit Upstage, opens with a 2-for-1 admission price Thursday, June 18 at 9:30 pm and plays in Venue #3 - Studio Leonard-Beaulne.

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As an added bonus, while we were finishing up our rehearsal, I received a call from Theatre New Brunswick. I guess I haven't simply been killing trees after all! I'll be heading to Toronto on June 23rd (a day we are not schedule to perform on - thank you Universe!) to audition for their TYA Touring Company.

If You Happen To Be In Singapore...

A WORLD PREMIERE! Some of you may remember my first adventure to Kitchener-Waterloo (I sure seem to talk about this place a lot, don't I?) with my play Buds through She Speaks - a celebration for International Women's Day. Prior to that, Buds also received and Honorable Mention from the InspiraTO Festival in Toronto.

Well, after all that and some new edits, Buds will be receiving it's World Premiere production in Singapore (yes, Singapore) as part of the SHORT+SWEET Festival from July 8 to 12, 2009. (Scroll way down to find my name.)

I, of course, will not be in attendance, but I wish the cast and crew all the best. I hope someone will take pictures!

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Buds By Nancy Kenny July 8-12, 2009 - 8 pm Flexible Performance Space, LASALLE College of the Arts

Directed by Sarah Cheng Cast: Amesh Kumar, Elizabeth Tan, Natalie Bala & Kishan Kumar Singh Even when you’re hungover, the Taste Buds still have to go to work.

Asphalt Jungle Shorts - The Twitter Experience

Driving back from Kitchener-Waterloo to Toronto at 1 am gives you plenty of time to think and to rant randomly. (First up, reason number 42 why I am different from my mom and my sister: I happen to like night driving - the roads are quiet and the car is bumpin'!) I can't even begin to describe how wonderful my evening was. Every song on the radio was a song I loved (though some ladies who lunch may argue that I love every song, which is mostly true but besides the point - come on, if you don't love C+C Music Factory, you have no soul!) Some of you may remember my previous adventures in KW. This time around, through some careful scheduling, I managed to be in town for the Asphalt Jungle Shorts, an absolutely wonderful little project of site specific theatre. Basically, you get taken on a trek through town and "witness" approximately 15 short plays on your journey. I had heard about the festival and applied with my own piece, Blind Date. I found out today that there were over 300 applications from playwrights so I feel very privileged to have been included.

My life is just such a beautiful dream and the best part is that I don't ever have to wake up. There is nothing quite like seeing some amazing and inspiring art taking place (and knowing that you played an albeit small part in making it happen) to really recharge your batteries. During one particularly heavy piece in the tour, two people walked up. They were covered in tattoos and scowls and didn't look like your typical theatre audience. I thought they would just walk around, but no, they stood there, and I saw giant grins form on their faces. When someone told them they could come along for the rest of the ride, they couldn't believe it. It was their first time seeing theatre and they were so enthralled, they will come back on another day to catch the show from the beginning. My heart melted. I am so amazed at this community of artists I keep finding all over the world and I am even more thrilled that all of them seem to be willing to let me sleep on their couches if I'm ever in town. And you can bet that I will one day take them up on that offer (especially with the Magnetic North Theatre Festival happening in KW next year!)

For those of you who won't be able to make it out, here is my live Twitter play-by-play of the evening (inspired by the lovely Lois and her frequent Tweets from backstage).

Enjoy!

We start at the Kava Bean Common on Gaukel Street:

@nancykenny - Free parking & french vanilla cappucino - rain or shine site specific theatre goes on

@nancykenny - Wondering if the crazy interview taking place at my table is part of the show...

@nancykenny - Groucho lookalike says something might happen

@nancykenny - Coffee shop argument We begin... I hope

@nancykenny - Aha! Interview is! part of it

@nancykenny - For copyright reasons, not Groucho but Whome

@nancykenny - Off to a great start - cat fight in the street over a clocktower - not a euphemism

@nancykenny - Group stopped by someone trying to figure out her cell camera

@nancykenny - Ah this is the clocktower

@nancykenny - Gosh lots of couples break up on this tour

@nancykenny - Group photo YAY robots!

@nancykenny - If we had chosen left would we get different shows?

@nancykenny - Whome runs all the way around the park to ensure being in the lead. Corny jokes abound

@nancykenny - Random ppl swear at the actors - not part of the show - geez learn to have fun

@nancykenny - Best valley explanation of Othello ever!

@nancykenny - Jaywalking is bad. Heard from Whome: I wish I had a camera for all the fascinating things that did not happen.

@nancykenny - That's what I like to see passerbys staring w/ joy n awe (these are the people I mentioned above)

@nancykenny - Whoa another breakup. Do not come to KW for love - come for the petting zoo

@nancykenny - Whome quote: Marriage is the leading cause of divorce

@nancykenny - Intermission in a bar - my show takes place in a bar! Anticipation!

@nancykenny - Now in the furthest room in the bar. Surprised I have reception. FYI-bar is Rum Runner

@nancykenny - Hmmm Whome has disappeared but a sexy married dragon lady is flirting w/ the bartender...

@nancykenny - My show's great!

@nancykenny - "There's a gay woman trapped inside this strait man's body" HA!

@nancykenny - Whome is back! Woo!

@nancykenny - Programs given at the end so as not to ruin the surprise - they asked me to bow! TY KW! Amazing show! Even the weather complied

@nancykenny - This has been a live tweetorama from the Asphalt Jungle Shorts