Welcome to the To Wit To Wed To Woo Fringe Tour Diary!
Thank you to Mercedes Dunphy, co-producer and actor extraordinaire for keeping us poor saps back home updated!

Fringe in Victoria Day 1 - Opening day Much coffee at the Mocha House in Cook Street Village and flirting with the cutie at the coffee bar counter. Show went off without a hitch. A good sized and appreciative crowd in attendance. Huge thank-yous to Teresa, Andrea and Glen, who came over to offer moral support and run the tech for us. Such a luxury to have people looking after you. Ken, our handsome technician, was wonderful too, perfect timing with the cues and so generous with helping us out backstage (our not so accidental backstage nudity may have had something to do with that). The Tarts are (again) closing down the Fringe club. Corina and I cut quite the rug at the opening night party and Denise and Robin spread the Fringe cheer over to The Mint, our favourite martini bar from last year. No word on where tomorrow night's festivities will be. We're looking forward to a day off (kind of) tomorrow - our show is really late (10 pm) and we'll be indulging in a little bit of prancing around in our garters (all in the name of self-promotion, of course!).

Victoria Fringe Day 2 - Lazy day.... ok, I went to Aveda and had a manicure. The girls, Denise, Robin and Corina, had breakfast at Victoria's famed Blue Fox and did a little sightseeing. They had been planning on going to the beach, but the weather wasn't very co-operative. Flyered some lines. Watched La Vita Grande and closed out our venue with a lovely and appreciative audience. I don't know what all the hooting at the curtain call was about, but I presume it had something to do with our very athletic show and displays of gravity defying cleavage. Sometimes I feel like I'm the token flat-chested girl in a Russ Meyers film. We also kidnapped our tech, Ken, plied him with alcohol and closed out the floating Fringe party at The Mint. Comme d'habitude. Tomorrow we are making an appearance at the Kids Fringe in Market Square. We will be commandeering the Bouncy Castle for a few minutes (at least) of fun.

Victoria Fringe Day 3 - Kids Fringe. Balloons and bouncy castles. Walking around Victoria in costume, basically doing the whole "Ambassadors of Fringe" thing. I always forget how many tourists are in town. We get asked directions a lot. Afternoon show. Decent sized house. Very laughy off the top. Then the girls went off to catch Cuppa Jo and I went off to see SKAM's Lt. Nun. A wonderful show, reminded me of Greek theatre. Very moving and awe-inspiring and funny. Met old friends and family. Went to paper the line-up at The Ugly Duchess. Good response, people are so receptive here. Saw the show. It was much funnier than I remembered from the Vancouver Fringe. Excellent show, Paul Terry is always a treat and Janet's words are mesmerizing. Party after, of course, at the old SKAM ground zero. A busy, busy, amazing day.

Day 4 of the Fringe - O.K. Spent the day walking around Victoria in full costume. We are on soooo many rolls of film. The city should have us on their payroll as goodwill ambassadors. People just love our costumes. Guys from the American Air-force, tourists from Germany, Japan and England, it's just crazy. The bylaw police haven't come out to bust us yet, but I'm betting dollars that next year they have a bylaw against walking around in costume in public. (Ha!) Had a wonderful show. Everyone was so excited, there just seemed to be something in the air... maybe that's just the peach pie from The Mint talking, but we definitely had it going on! The audience was very appreciative. A wonderful note to end the weekend on. Bought some Birthday cheer for Laura, our favourite tech, and guess what??? Todd's Lunch just got into town. We have a standing date with them Thursday night at the Fringe Club... I have a feeling we'll be missed till then. Now it's off to Vancouver for some early promo, the girls are coming to pick me up at 7:20 am.... ugh! Gotta love that ferry.

Victoria Fringe - August 29th It is 2:10 am. Just grabbed some Wendy's. Fringing is hungry work. We got in last night, papered some lines, the girls went to see T.J.'s show and then we met at the Fringe club and closed the joint down. Then home to sleep. Me... I'm up at dawn... ok, 9 am, to head out for my pedicure... really... I'm not making this up. The Aveda school in Victoria is a definite stop for a footsore self promoter. So I spent the rest of the day giving foot fetishists a thrill (with my purple painted toes) and then met the girls at Uncle Willie's Bakery for some coffee and an italian. Papered. Papered. Papered. Then off to our venue.... holy cow! A line-up as we were heading into our venue... 45 minutes before the show!!! Yes, our stellar review in Monday magazine seems to have caught up with us. Great show. Two bows. Then dinner and two Fringe shows.... which brings me to now.

Victoria Fringe - August 30th - After the late night before, what with play watching and all, today ended up being a day of take it easy and prepare for tonight. I spent the day with my friends Marlis Schweitzer (soon to be Doctor Schweitzer, but that is a different story) and Erin Macklem (designer of "Transit of Venus" and lately Theatre SKAM's Fringe hit "Lt. Nun"). Checked in at the Fringe office ... we had 111 people last night!!! Spent time in my usual Victoria haunts and mooned over the charming server at Willie's Bakery. The show was wonderful... two bows again. The audience was very loud and appreciative, which we love and our technician, Ken, was (as usual) spot on with our cues. After the show we headed to The Mint, which was packed... I was starving, so my belly took precedence over good manners and I hoofed it over to The Brickyard for pizza. then back to The Mint for a martini. Checked out the Fringe Club, danced a little and then over to T.J.'s show, colloquially referred to as "Butlin's". Awesome show. T.J. is so very funny, I think "Git op ewe sleepy Canaydee-in fokker" might be my new catch phrase. You'll have to see the show to understand that one. Well, one Fringe down, one to go. We're sorry to leave Victoria, but happy to get back home to our own beds. A huge thank you to all the Victoria Fringe worker bees and volunteers especially Alan, Janet, Jen, Ken, Nathan, Rebecca, Laura, Jackie, Andrew and Kevin.

And... on to VANCOUVER!!

September 7 - O.K. I confess that I've been a little behind in the Fringe Diary. Chalk it up to being back in my hometown, back at the job (the one that feeds me) and having my awesome sister, Isolde, in town from New York. Or is that Philly?? I can never remember where she lives.... London, Moscow, New York... it's all just one big jet-setting party wherever she is, so you can imagine how crazy it has been. Our tech on Tuesday went well, a little hectic with our archival photos going on, a full dress rehearsal and tech run. Robert, our new technician seems a super guy, very accommodating and friendly... our dressing room is big, but interesting in that "Wow... these windows with no covering whatsoever just look right out onto the street, don't they?" kind of way. P.S. there really is a peep show every performance night, I'm not kidding. Our first performance was charged, but maybe a little rough... I have it on my sis's authority that our show today (Saturday, September 6) was far superior. We had a crew in from Switzerland filming the show (segment to be aired on Swiss national television on October 23rd - for any of our international fans out there with access to Swiss TV) A huge thank you to Gardi and Monika and their crew for how wonderful they were before, during and after the show! Things did seem a little more energized today, possibly because we had a day off, or maybe because we somehow missed our 5 minute call and were suddenly in standby. Nothing galvanizes an actor like the sudden misplacement of "getting my crap together time". The show was sharper (I thought) because of that sudden burst of urgency off the top. It is amazing what a panic attack will do. The house was lovely, there seemed to be much more laughter during the Shakespeare characters stage time and we got two bows (again!!!).

September 9 - Holy big house batman!! What a great show. I admit that I was a little worried, being a Tuesday and all.... so many people elect to go to the movies instead of live theatre, go figure! Our lovely director, Andrea, and producer, Jessica, were real troopers and papered the lines for shows just ahead of ours.... people in this town are really into the "What else can I see tonight?" vibe. Yes, the peep show is still on. Yes, we still sweat like horses during the show, but man is it fun! Bumped into folks from Victoria while papering the lines... can you believe that technicians and office staff from Victoria came over here to see our show??? Also, a huge thank you to everyone who has been passing the word along, we do only have three shows left and we would love to keep building on our momentum.

FINAL ENTRY -- September 16 - Still a little shell shocked. The Fringe is over and what a whirlwind it was. I have to say Vancouver is my least favourite Fringe, but only because I have to do the day job thing and that means that I hardly get to experience the Fringe in my own hometown. How lame is that??? As far as the last two shows went, we felt pretty good. The afternoon show was a killer.... not a big fan myself of the afternoon on a weekday timeslots, but huge thank yous to everyone who came to see the show. Our last performance had a more favourable time slot and a much larger crowd. Always nice to finish with a bang. A few fun moments....I tried to grab Denise's bum when I kissed her as Joan of Arc, couldn't get past the bumroll... and we almost went down in a heap because I overbalanced. Then there was the magic carpet that just didn't want to lie flat... I'm pretty sure that I missed a line while madly staring at the carpet hoping to make it lie flat with the power of my mind. All in all, I think I can safely say that we head a great run from beginning to end. We came, we saw, we kicked some Shakespearean ass. Nobody got hurt (despite our amazing sword-play and wild cavorting) and lots of fun was had. Of course, as soon as the show was over we had to pack up costumes, props, set and sandwichboards... the last performance of the last Fringe is always so melancholy. You pack everything up and move on. Kind of sad....but then, suddenly, the Closing Night Party... I wish that I could tell you wonderful stories about that, but you'll have to ask Andrea, Glen, Denise, Corina and Robin about the party as I was (for once!) a party pooper... but so was T, so I don't feel too bad... gotta hate those Monday morning committments.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of To Wit To Wed To Woo on a fantastic run!

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