"This show kicked my ass"

There was a lot riding on last night, it was like Opening Night all over again. The last several days have been very hard, I was close to completely wigging out on Tuesday ... I was able to deal with it by rushing around town, dropping off more postcards, I needed to feel like I was doing something. Yes, the word of mouth has been very strong, I have handed postcards to all kinds of folks and I have had other artists from all kinds of shows saying I was at the top of their list. But I had no idea whether or not that would translate into a decent house.

By yesterday, I was a walking ball of nerves. Toni, Denny, Z. and I had a lovely picnic by one of Minnesota's many lakes - the weather, which has been so cool, has turned hot again, but we had grocery store sushi (Kowalski's!) in the shade and just lazed about. Later I announced I was going to see MEDEA, by myself, right before my performance (that was supposed to produce a laugh) which I did. Two women performing the entire show in an hour, female actors from the past, one Chorus and one Medea, with thick Manchestrian accents (they are, indeed, from Manchester) with the actress chosen to play Medea protesting having to play this most villainous of women for so long I thought there was no way they could bring it back and produce the desired, tragic effect. You will be happy to know they did - and that was no mean feat with my mind wandering to my own, imminent performance from time to time.

To cut to the chase, we had 55 people last night. (Oh, and Nick did make his flight.) I fulfilled my mandate to double the house every night ... can't do that again unless we sell-out and though I am optimistic, I don't see that happening. But it was great to see so many people there.

There were friends, Ben and Pam drove all the way from Chicago, I was surprised to see them after the show. We didn't get to talk too much, they needed to head right back, we'll see them again the drive home. And Tim Perfect, late of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival and now of Minneapolis' Pig's Eye Theatre. And Denny brought his friends from the other night, including the certain member of the local media establishment.

And then came the Fringe Elite! Yes, MN Fringe Executive Director Leah Cooper was in the house! I got Leah! And Fringe web designer, Ministry of Cultural Warfare artistic director and all-around cynical bastard (or so he says) Matthew Foster, and members of his company! Fringe Aide de Camp Andrew Cleveland was there, and he laughed in the weirdest places. And Rik Reppe (whose name I completely mangled during my post-show spiel) was in attendance ... afterwards he gave me the low-down on how moved all the aforementioned, hardened theater types were by the show.

I now have (to date) five audience reviews and a collective rating of five stars. You can read them at the above link. I am very fortunate, I am very grateful ... and I also fell a little weird. I was so strung out yesterday, I didn't feel I did a very good job. Or maybe I did, the reaction was quite strong. Sometimes I feel my show is like pizza - when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

And so things have progressed. It feels like we have been here forever, and I still have two performances left, but we are at the weekend, the second weekend, the last weekend, and the four of us are scrambling to figure out how to see as many shows as possible and juggle Zelda. It will all be done before we know it. I think I can spend out remaining days not being a total neurotic freak.