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Okay, I haven’t even told you how my opening night went - despite our wishes for an empty theater and fears of a totally fubar show, we had a decent house of 31 people. We went an hour over on our tech rehearsal, my projectionist didn’t show up (the venue manager kindly stepped in), and we didn’t get to run the show during tech, so opening night kind of served as our dress rehearsal. And aside from a couple of technical snafus and me completely forgetting the ending monologue (nobody noticed! in fact, awesome review from Sam Goldblatt, Fringe Marketing dude), we had a great show. I met a cool guy, Art Levine, who gives me a shout-out in his blog - he asked me a lot of great questions about the show, which I love because the more people wonder about the universe I’ve created, the more solid it becomes in my head. And it is a VAST universe.

I also met the fantabulous Slash Coleman, who is a very talented solo artist, but he’s not an intense handful like some people we know (read: me). He gave me a LOT of info about getting out there as a solo performer - that’s all he does now! He quit his day job! It IS possible!!

I’m also featured on this cool video on Theatermania.com!

So, I still have 4 shows left and I’m sellin’ those tickets! I pulled a Jimmy Hogg today and went to a handful of venues and just passed out postcards as patrons were leaving shows (Jimmy’s the best self-promoter I know and the guy SELLS OUT his shows - and not just ’cause they’re good)… I got told by a Fringe Volunteer she thought that was “tacky” (not because she saw me doing it, but another show was doing it), but HEY! That’s FRINGE for ya!!

I’ve taken a handful of photos and they are HERE!
My next show is tonight!!! YEAH!

I can’t believe I’m back on the g***amn computer. I have been finishing up the animation for the past 7 hours. No joke. I had to pull myself out of the house and force myself to come downtown just to get away. But here I am, because I brought my computer with me, back on the computer. But now it’s to do my programs and do a lil bloggin’. And the animation… still not done. It took me SEVEN HOURS to do TWO MINUTES of animation. On the computer. I can’t imagine in the old days of Mickey Mouse’s heyday when they were doing this stuff by hand. And I’m just moving pictures around - I’m not really making anything animate. Geez. But the truth is, I love it… almost more than performing (if your love for something can be determined by the amount of blood, sweat and tears put into it as I haven’t been on my feet in a rehearsal for 10 days. What? Omigosh that can’t be true. Guess why I have to get everything done tonight?) So, anyway, that’s my story.

Last night was fun! I was definitely making it up as we went along, but everyone’s improv skills were serviceable and you’re only as strong as your weakest link (me!). But we had a great time and it doesn’t hurt to have Damian Sinclair as my personal pimp. “Have you met Courtney?” was his tagline of the evening and I can’t say I opposed! Also, the City Pages set up a little “confessional booth” where one would confess their Fringe sins on a video camera. After a few Jamesons, I was confessing to my torrid 2006 affair and once I found out people were finding out within 2 minutes, I ran over to him to confess what I had confessed… but he had already heard! Ah well… we had a good laugh. That’s one of the things Fringe is about when you’re single. That’s what theatre is about, actually. Really. It’s all about who you sleep with. My kinda bizness.

Jenny comes into town tonight!! And then tomorrow is rehearsal in the morning and tech and then SHOW!! Yesssssss. I really can’t wait.

I just ate a watermelon wedge. I hate watermelon. I’m that hungry. And now I will wash it down with Wild Turkey.

A) I love that “Nutshell,” the play by my friend and who-I-wanna-be-when-I-grow-up, Callie Kimball, totally is doing the “T-Minus” thing on her DCTS blog too.  YEAH!

B) um,  did I forget to mention I got a, um, mention in the Washington Times??? Thank yoooooou.

C) buy a ticket to my show, man.

Okay, I’ve cheated a little on the countdown. Technically, Capital Fringe starts tonight (or has already started for some companies), but since I don’t open till Saturday, I’m giving ya the 2 day countdown.

And I’m sooooo ready. Kind of.

I still haven’t finished a part of the multi-media aspect that is animated. I know, I know, I’ve totally been putting it off and wanted to get to it this afternoon, but because of my own personal confusion with the opening night festivities, I spent the afternoon researching the companies I’m going to be interacting with on stage. And I’m not totally, completely memorized, but as opposed to last year, I’m not really worried about that. Oddly enough, I think I could do the show backwards. But not forwards. I get the scenes mixed up. TWO DAYS!

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Dudes, I totally broke my toe last night. What happened to my depth perception? I fully slammed my right baby toe into the wall, walking by a corner. I didn’t want to have to go into work because I’m on my feet all night and I just wanted to keep it elevated and with ice on it, but alas, I work in the restaurant industry and calling out sick is not a luxury available to us riff-raff. So, I limped my ass into work, allowing my anger to spiral out of control and I took it out on a co-worker who drives me crazy normally, but in a cutesy way. So naturally, I do my routine of cooling down then apologizing and everything’s well and good. Luckily, it was painfully slow last night (which I would normally not be happy about, but the fact that I didn’t have to rush-limp anywhere made it easier to stand it, literally). Afterwards, I attended the birthday party of one of my best friends whose wife also happens to be my doctor. And, yes, my toe is definitely broken. But they don’t really do anything about broken toes unless it’s the big one, so she told me to put a cotton ball between the broken toe and the next one and then tape them together. And that would support my healing. Although I tried it and it only makes it hurt more. Oh well. Also, my doctor said that the point of the cotton ball is so that the toes don’t grow together and I don’t end up with webbed feet. What? Well, you know I immediately went home and bound up both my feet. Think of the possibilities with webbed feet! Snorkeling would be so much easier and cheaper too, since I’d save money on renting fins. I said to her I don’t know why she’d be discouraging me of all people to give myself webbed feet, she knowingly rolled her eyes and said, well, you do what you want, Court.

Today: more sound editing, more slideshow goodness (including testing the new projector, which I should just have on the whole time, so I can see what I’m working on in full, huge screen. Yes!), updating my site with ticket info for the Capital Fringe (tickets on sale this Monday, people! Get yours here), and various other stuff like making my costumes and designing a digital version of the baker at my work, naked with a pie over his naughty parts. Busy day.

Currently, my hair sits atop my head in a smelly, chemical mush of blood-red hair dye.   After hitting FIVE Duane Reades this afternoon and evening and coming to terms with the apparent fact that Feria no longer makes “Flaming Red” hair color, I settled for “Ruby Fusion: Rich Auburn True Red.”  I looked for other Flaming Red-esque colors in other haircolor lines, but nobody makes a red that would even come close.  What do we fake redheads have to do here?  I mean, there is every shade of black, brown, blonde, and even that disgusting maroon that the Boriquasin my neighborhood seem to love, but when it comes to red, these haircolor companies are playing it safe and giving me two shades of “Auburn.”  I’m using my “The Secret” powers to think my haircolor into the perfect shade as it processes on my head.  Why am I bitching about my hair on the Fringe Blog, anyhoo?  The first line of my show is “I’m not a natural redhead.”  And the joke is that it’s supposed to be extremely obvious.  But I can’t go out there with Manic Panic clown red because my character thinks she’s telling the audience a secret and not even she’s that stupid.  But apparently when I did “Super Glossy!” for the NY Frigid Fest in March after a fresh dye-job with the now-defunct “Flaming Red,” everyone thought it was natural anyway.  What?  My eyebrows are BROWN, people!  Ah well,  ’tis my blessing and my curse:  I’m lucky enough to be considered a natural redhead, but it goes against the purpose of the stupid first joke of my show. (more…)

Today is sound-editing day. I have a bit of “voice-over” in my show and today is the day I have designated to chop it up and make it sound good. I can’t wait till I have a sound editor in my creative team to do this for me. But what comes first? The chicken? Or the money? Do I find someone to do my sound editing for free or nominal fee or do I get the money to pay them first? Obviously the answer is the former because a) my director and stage manager are examples of this in action and b) I would do it for someone else if I had the time. Karma, you know? Whatever the case, I’m doing it myself this year. This is totally fine. But I haven’t started yet because on the day I did the recording (yeah, I do that part by myself too), I decided to leave it all to one 8-hour period and I’m scared that I’m totally not going to be satisfied with the recordings and there will be no combination of effects that can save their mediocrity. Not that I remember how the recordings went anyway because afterwards I watched “The Exorcist” (for the first time ever) on cable (edited, but still scary) and my thoughts have basically been consumed with 360 degree head-turns and projectile vomiting ever since.

And on that note, I’ve got some voice over to craft.

All right, I suppose it’s 16 days since it’s freakin’ 1:19am on what is technically July 3.  I have just arrived home via taxi (gift to self after well-tipped evening) after a few glasses of rose with a co-worker and I thought, what the hell, it’s been a WEEK since I blogged last and I owe my faithful fans of the overtaxed, underrepresented district a blog entry already!  So, what has happened since last I talked at you?  (Because, this is a blog about my experience of bringing my show to Fringe, people)  Uh… I dunno.  Rehearsal?  Sending out press releases?  I emailed a woman at the Washington Times some convoluted information about my show, “Super Glossy!” - does that count?  My point is that I am exhausted to the point that I don’t really know what I’m doing anymore.  I met with Brett Jackson, my “technologist” and great friend, to figure out the slideshow for my play (I like to torture myself by being a “multi-media” artist.  To those aspiring I say save yourself the headache and just learn how to act properly.  As in theatre-act, not etiquette.  F that) on Saturday and that went really well (he’s a genius), but then I went to a bachelorette party type-thing and got drunk and sang “I Want Your Sex” with my friend Deborah in front of many karaoke fans.  I rehearsed a few times and became irritated with my director as I am wont to do because sometimes I am a diva.  I hate it too.  I opted out on advertising with some fellow performers because I don’t have time!!  I found some crates in the trash that might just become my set.  And I have worked and worked and worked serving delicious food to the daddy’s girls of Murray Hill.

So, I dare to say, that’s all I have for now.  More tomorrow.  After another rehearsal.  And it will STILL be T-minus 16 days!!!  Time is on my side, people!

After a phonecall with my director just now cementing our rehearsal schedule for the next (gasp!) 4 weeks, I can feel the panic set in. Here’s the thing: I am NOTORIOUS for not having my lines memorized. Last year I did a fundraising performance of “Normal-C” in NYC 5 days before Cap Fringe and I was not fully memorized during tech. I was calling “LINE!” during TECH!! What? Who does that to themselves???? I was fine the next night for the actual performance (in fact, I was brilliant, if I do say so myself), but it’s been the same story for many years: if it weren’t for the last minute, I’d never get my lines down.

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Today I had lunch with one of my colleagues and favorite people, DC native Susan Oetgen. These days, it’s difficult for me to even think about scheduling a casual lunch with anyone because it’s like I HAVE TOO MUCH TO DO!! But I believe it is extremely important, especially in times of crunch, to take a moment and connect with the people that inspire you to do what you do. I don’t know if you were lucky enough to see Susan’s show, “EID: Experimental Improvisational Diva,” at last year’s Cap Fringe, but I loved it. Susan came and saw my show last year too and the feeling was mutual, but we never exchanged information! I guess we just assumed we’d run into each other being that we’re both artists in New York and that’s what happens - you just run into people. And we did!

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