Take two.

I happily finished my blog post for Dusty Shoes minutes ago, in a café, links, pictures and all. Then it disappeared. And, I forgot to save it to word.

Never again. (Of course, it was my most brilliant post! Ha!)

Time constraints now force me to summarize.

Made it to Edmonton safely via Suzie, my Suzuki, after a harrowing last four hours of torrential rain, black highways, low beams, and a massive electrical storm that had me… …squealing in my car and wondering if I was truly safe with those fork lightning strikes so close. What we do for art!

I decided it was a sign of the energy about to happen in the next 10 days. And, we are off to that kind of a start.

Our awesome billet, Steve Grubich, awaited both my stage manager’s arrival and mine in the middle of the night and even made us calming tea to erase our electrical trauma!

The next couple of days became about wandering around, finding cafes, places and poles to put posters, putting some up, bumping into artists I only knew on twitter (yay.. Naked Empire Bouffon Co.!), doing our tech rehearsal – great venue (The Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre), fabulous technicians (Amy and Chris) to support my stage manager, Stephanie Bruce, and our show, and giving Dusty Shoes a voice at the Varscona Theatre fundraiser where they featured several snippets of shows in the Fringe. Madame Rouge found her first victim, and we had fun!

Today I finally got to a café in St. Albert, a bedroom community north of Edmonton, where I reconnected with a friend, put up some posters, and caught up with some computer work. And, the café? La Crema Caffe is amazingly gluten free, a great atmosphere, and very good coffee. (I think they think I’ve moved in as I’ve been to the till four times!)

So… there you have it! A summary of the probably much longer post I previously wrote.

One thing I forgot to mention, which I had done in the p.p., is that I think one of the biggest challenges of being part of this Fringe is to not get swept up in the manic marketing energy but to ensure a healthy balance of being rested and ready for my performing, and also having fun!

If you know anyone, or if you’re in Edmonton, please share my event, or come and see the show. And, stick around for a chat after! I’d like to hear your story!

Vive le theatre!