Did a contact dance class tonight. I think it was very useful. It was in place of the normal advanced improv class that we usually do on Thursday nights. Hamilton improv tends to be a lot of talking heads, so it ws great to have everyone interacting on different physical levels and coming into contact with each other. It’s not like we’re uncomfortable with each other. It’s just that physicality seldom enters our minds when we’re on stage. I was enjoying watching how the instructor moved. Very smooth and graceful. I’m so klunky in comparison.

Today I arranged to shoot promo photos for the upcoming Sex and the City show that will be performed live at the Toronto Fringe Festival. I also firmed up plans to shoot an improv duo that improvises paintings and music from an audience suggestion. Another one that’s coming together is a hip hop dance team. I’m loving the variety of photo shoots I’m getting these days. Always a new challenge!

Well the first weekend of Crazy Eights shows has wrapped up, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Friday night’s show was the first ever, and I know I had some jitters. It’s the first time in a long time, maybe ever, that I’ve felt nervous going out on stage. But it was good to see it come together though. We had a few bugs in the first show. I played at the card table and picked a character who was introverted and didn’t know two of the other characters. That was a bad choice. When the show revolves around relationship and stories, it’s pretty crippling to make a choice like that. Anyway, I learned my lesson. I also put three men and one woman at the card table. It felt slightly awkward. The other problem was that there was not enough scene initiation from the bench players, which put a lot of pressure on the card table. Fortunately, the banter at the table was strong, and carried a lot of interest. However, the show was unbalanced, and it had me feeling kind of nervous. That’s never a good thing on stage.

I made some adjustments to the format for the second show. We warmed up doing quick and strong scene initiations with organic edits. Basically that’s the skeleton of Crazy Eights, and it was good for us to get into the habit early in the night. During the warmup, we even developed a few tricks that we called back in the show, like painting a scene like a movie scene, with camera directions and details added by outside players.

I also changed the lighting plan. On the first night, we tried using lighting to shift focus from the card table to centre stage depending on where the action was. It looked lovely, but put the bench in the dark most of the time. For tonight’s show I wanted just a plain wash of floods on the stage, so that the improvisors could instantly put focus where it needed to be. It also helped the bench feel more a part of the action. I removed the chairs that the bench players sat on, so we had to stand or crouch when not involved in a scene. That made it much faster for us to move onto stage when necessary. This approach worked well because Crazy Eights depends so heavily on split-second timing. Scenes need to be initiated in the middle of conversations at the card table. The delay caused by bench players having to get out of their chairs was disrupting the flow in Friday night’s show. Combine that with the darkness on that side of the stage, and I think the bench players felt more like spectators than players. I changed the casting a bit too. I put two women and two men at the card table, and two women and two men on the bench.

Anyway, the changes paid off. Tonight’s show was more energetic, better paced and had no lulls. We had a damn good time playing. Everyone was taking risks and playing smart. I think this is how Crazy Eights is meant to look and play. I’m looking forward to doing it again in April, this time with better promotion.

I was thinking all the way home from my dad’s house tonight about the Moken. I had just seen a documentary on 60 Minutes about this tribe known as the Sea Gypsies of the Andaman. They live in boats and on the small islands off the west coast of Thailand and Burma. Their live and die on the seas, spending as much as 6 months at a time on their boats. They can see twice as far as other people underwater, and can control their heart rates so they can stay underwater longer and dive deeper with no equipment. When the Tsunami hit, not a single Moken was killed, because they read the signs of the sea and the wildlife and had scrambled to higher ground long before the wave hit. The Moken who were in their boats headed to deeper water to avoid the wave. Burmese fishermen who were in the same area were killed when their boats were thrown into the air by the wave. The Moken said this happened because the Burmese were so intent on fishing for squid that they didn’t notice what was happening around them. They didn’t know how to look.

But what’s more impressive about the Moken is their language and culture, which influences the way they live and perceive. For instance, the concept of “when” does not exist in the Moken language. They have no word for it. Things just happen, and no concept of time is assigned. They also have no word for “want.” Can you imagine making it through your day without these two ideas that we use so often? The Moken don’t want anything. They use words for “give” and “take,” but without a sense of time, “want” is irrelevant.

These people live in the moment because that’s all they have. None of them knows or even cares how old he or she is. They just exist. They don’t have words for “hello” or “goodbye.” You can spend years with them, and then when you leave, you are gone. When you come back, you are there again. There’s something truly beautiful about that. It’s something that I’ll be thinking about for a while.

I was just thinking about how ironic it is that there’s a show called Disney on Ice. Did they call it that because Walt Disney’s body was cryogenically frozen?

That is all.

Well, many things have happened since my last journal entry, mostly birthday related. Birthdays are fun. I should celebrate at least once per year. Some years I skip, but this one was good, thanks to my excellent friends. Danie brought me a book full of delicious vegetarian recipes. I think tomorrow I will have to try one of them, because it is indeed vegetarian day tomorrow. Andrea took me for an insanely awesome Indian meal at Babur in Toronto. In between trips to Babur, I dream of Goan fish curry. It’s that good. Andrea knows this and makes sure I get at least one serving of it per year. And Lissa took me to see Rent last night.

I’ve got mixed feelings about Rent. On one hand, it has some great songs, and great dance numbers too. It can be a lot of fun to watch. On the other hand, some of the songs are downright jarring, and I find it hard to identify with the characters. None of them feel like they should have to pay rent, and are therefore being evicted from the building they’re squatting in. Some of them are artists, but feel like taking money for their work is “selling out.” So, the two key messages are, “Don’t pay your rent” and “Don’t take money for your art.” The latter message, especially, seems hypocritical when spouted in a lavish Broadway musical. Creating pathos from this formula is not easy.

This was the second time I’ve seen Rent. The first time was at the Pantages Theatre in Toronto. This one was a touring company making a stop at Hamilton Place. I would have to say that this production was a bit rockier than the first. The cast was definitely not of even quality. Some of the performers were first rate, singing and dancing, never missing a note. The actor playing the transvestite Angel had a riveting stage presence. The Mimi and Maureen characters were also outstanding. However, the strong actors only made the weak ones look weaker. The Tom Collins character seemed to lack soul and had little charisma, especially when paired with Angel. The Roger character, who was supposed to be a musician, frequently hit notes that were sharp.

Overall, it was fun to be out. The second act is better than the first, in my opinion, so it left me feeling good. And, having recently seen Team America: World Police, I was brought back to the Lease scene in my head, and the song “Everyone’s got AIDS!” It was a bonus laugh for the night.