This was a triumph

I think I can call last night a success.  We had a good turn out in terms of numbers, and the crowd (yes, there were enough people to accurately be termed a “crowd”) were enthusiastic.  The performances by the folks who donated their time to appear at the event were great fun, and the performances that we did (two scenes illustrating the style of the show we’re working on) went over well.

I’d love to give a play-by-play of the evening, but its really a blur for me, and since I didn’t get home till 1am, my brain functions are also a bit of a blur.

But I thought it was important to update you on how I thought things went.

Drained….and yet not

Ok.  So, looks like I broke that promise.

Since the post in question used the name of Batman, I wonder if I’m going to be sued by a town in Turkey?  I really hope not.

The last week or so has been draining on a few levels.  Work has been really busy, and working on Keystone Theatre stuff has also kept me busy.  Life has been a real roller coaster ride, and I’ve found myself marvelling at the things I can and cannot control.  I’m holding tightly to the things I can control and hoping that the things I can’t don’t get too out of hand.  Its a balancing act, and I’m hoping that I don’t drop anything.

As I’ve mentioned several times, the Keystone Fundraiser is this Thursday, and I’m quite nervous.  I’m nervous for a couple of reasons:

1. There’s a lot riding on this, and I hope that we manage to get at least enough people that the Bloor (which is basically letting us have their building for the night) gets enough people through the doors that its worth their while.  We’d kinda like them to like us.  Oh, and we’d like to be able to…y’know…raise some funds.
2. We’re presenting two scenes that we’ve been working on.  No one outside the group has seen any scenes that we’ve done, so there’s a fear that they might not be as funny as we think they are. Naturally, we won’t know until an audience sees them. Fingers crossed.

And once this is done, we’re the project goes onwards.  However, we won’t have this fundraiser uncertainty hanging over our heads.

I hope it all goes well.

Holy Twitter, Batman!

So, something happened the last little while: I let the blog get reduced to simply a daily aggregation of Twitter posts.  For that I’m sorry.  I have few enough readers as it is!  I shouldn’t ignore you.

The problem is that finding the time and energy to blog has been very difficult of late.  Not that there hasn’t been anything to blog about.  You might have noticed that there’s a lot going on in the world.  I mean, usually, I make it a point not to comment on US Politics, but the events of this past week, have made comment inevitable.  I’m certain that in the next couple of days, I’ll have managed to post about it at least once.

In other news, Keystone Theatre’s fundraiser is 7 days away, and that’s been taking a lot of my time.  I think its all going to pay off in the end, but right now…there hasn’t been a lot of brainspace for blogging.

I’ll leave with two things:

1. A promise that I won’t leave you at the mercy of the twitter compilation for days on end.
2. This:

Silent Picture show

This past Saturday, I spent the day with the Keystone Ensemble in a nice little pioneer village type place out by Guelph.  We were there to take some promotional shots for the upcoming Keystone Theatre fundraiser (and the project as a whole).  Thought I’d take a moment to share a couple shots with you.  First up, a shot of the ensemble, sans Siobhan Richardson, who is sadly out of town.

Next up, Me and Adam Bradley (who observant types might recognize from DragonQuest).

Finally, just me.

There’s more on the Keystone Theatre Fan Page, and there will soon be many more there and on the Keystone website.

Let’s call him Shawn, eh?*

*quote from Wallace and Gromit, A Close Shave.

On Saturday, we’re doing a photo shoot for Keystone Theatre, and since the style of the silent film era really requires me to be clean shaven, tonight I have gone from this:

To this:

Pretty frightening, isn’t it?

Truth is, I hate doing this. I’m so used to seeing myself with facial hair, that its quite a shock to me to see my face without it.  I don’t even really register that its even me.  It looks like someone else.  Which is really awkward when a face I don’t really recognize is looking at me from the mirror.

The things we do for art.

In other news, its really hit me today that my dog is getting on in years.  I mean really getting on.  I noticed today that when we went on our walk that he was looking like he was working at it harder than he used to.  And he moved slower than I recalled from what seems like just a short while ago.  Worst of all, twice, he lost his back legs out from under him.  Both times, he got excited about seeing a squirrel and tried to lunge forward, but is back legs just wouldn’t cooperate.  It was sad to see.  Made me realize that I’m probably not going to have him for much longer, because age will claim him. 

I remember during some of the worst times in my life, over the past few years, he’s been there.  When Erika and my sister died, he stuck by me, lying at my feet, following me around, making me laugh when I really needed it. Its going to be hard to say goodbye when I have to.

Practically speaking…I’ve also realized that I have no idea what to do when he does.  If he dies at home, then I’m really not sure what to do.  Don’t know any of the legalities around, what to do with the body.  Even though I don’t want to think about it, I’m going to have to.  Anyone out there know what one is supposed to do when a pet dies?  Especially if they are a larger animal?

Silent Film Project

For a long while now, I’ve been working on a project that I haven’t spoken too much about.  This project has been in the works for over year, and is starting to gear up towards a full production.  We’ve referred to it as the “Silent Film Project” but a while back we gave our group a name: Keystone Theatre.  The goal of this project is to create on the stage the style of performance we know as the silent film comedy.

If you’re one of those poor people who hasn’t ever seen a silent film, here’s one of my favourite Buster Keaton films: Cops.

Part 2
Part 3

Of course, there’s a lot that has to go into this.   You can’t simply do what’s done on the screen.  We don’t have camera changes, can’t do close ups, can’t speed up the film.  And since its done before an audience, we have to make sure that the folks at the back of the theatre can see what’s going on.  This has necessitated the creation of a new performance style that we’re creating, in order to translate the silent style for the stage.

Why am I talking about this now?  I’m glad you asked.  Soon, I’ll be posting details about an upcoming fundraiser for this production that will take place in November.  I want to give you plenty of notice, so that you can come out and see both some great silent films, some exciting performances, and some examples of the style we’re creating.

Watch for more.