And back in the game

Almost four weeks since my last update. You'd think things just didn't change in my world very often. Turns out they do, only my ability to communicate them to the world is equally variable. I've decided there are certain things I don't like about laptop ergonomics that completely gum up my creative juices. That's one of the reasons I've dropped $6 on 3 hours in one of the thousands of hole-in-the-wall internet cafes that exist along Yonge Street here in Toronto.

(Another more dominant reason is the deep geeking need I have to check out Façade, an interactive drama using a new kind of ai engine that will allow you to type realtime with the characters and affect the outcome like you would in a conversation. This was the only place I could get a machine with enough oomph to run it. I recommend everyone with even an inkling of interest in future gaming or entertainment technology and the hardware to straddle it go to http://interactivestory.net and get hopping. It's downloading as I type this, as I knew even with a good bittorrent it would take about 2 hours. So in the meantime, I blog.)

Toronto is on FIRE. I'm aware statements like that can be tricky in a post-London attack context, but I've seen dozens of fire trucks and ash falling from the sky and several days of +40C weather according to the Humidex. Why have I never heard this word before? Is it from living in Calgary, a veritable desert until it started flooding the very week I left on tour? Apparently it's like the equal opposite of windchill factor, with actual temperature bolstered by a muggy atmosphere. Thank Dionysis our venue is air-conditioned.

We're performing at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse this time at the Toronto Fringe, and out of the 3 cities we've done so far, this is the first one we've had that was an actual honest-to-murgatroyd THEATRE and not a "retasked art space." Don't get me wrong - the converted art gallery in Montreal and the archives library in Ottawa were both perfectly valid spaces and it's a shame we couldn't fill either of them, but the HGP is . . . well, the defining moment would be during our tech rehearsal. The stage was nice and deep, easily accomodating the rear-projection system that has become vital to the show; the seats were your standard metal-and-fabric stackers but spread out on an extensive riser system, and there were 115 of them (the highest capacity of any of our announced venues at this point); the booth was an actual booth, high at the back of the theatre and sealed from the elements instead of the back row of the audience or an open air balcony with an impossible viewing angle on the stage. All this was great, but it was when I had been standing in the middle of the audience, one of the techs whispering in my ear through an actual headset (full cans, baby), the house lights were down and he was describing and displaying the full lighting power of their fully-stocked grid, giving warm and cool, front-middle-back, side-high-top, and gobos and colours I refuse to sully with mortal names - THAT was when the little tech heart deep inside my body (near my left kidney I believe) swelled 3 sizes and started to believe in Christmas again.

Ding! Façade's ready! I'll post more as the night wears on I hope. I've got a LOT of catchup to do.