News
Here's the short version:
- TJ’s on the road, doing the fringe tour again. Orlando, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver. His show: Totem Figures. Except in Edmonton, where he’s doing Maxim & Cosmo
- Charlie Ross is working up his new show Sev (and the Rise of the Wizard of Bong) and doing fringes in Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver
- Alice Nelson’s premiered her new piece Elephant in Zulu at Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary in June. She's doing Local Celebrity at the Edmonton Fringe
- Greg Landucci’s doing the entire circuit – Orlando to Vancouver – with his new one Mr. Fox, directed by TJ
- and Keir Cutler is touring from Montreal to Edmonton, with his new show Teaching the Fringe, directed by TJ
Here’s the slightly longer version:
TJ’s 2008 tour is underway. Totem Figures is the show, and it’s about personal mythology. About having your own Mt. Rushmore. It’s getting great reviews. The Montreal Mirror said it's “perhaps TJ Dawe's most spellbinding and mature work”. By the end of the tour TJ will have done 82 Fringe festivals, worldwide.
Greg Landucci (Dishpig) is on tour as well. The lucky bastard won a spot in the CAFF touring lottery, and is playing fringes from Orlando to Vancouver with his brand new show Mr. Fox – which tells the story of having been a furry mascot for Vancouver’s big rock radio station in the early 90s. TJ’s directing. The Orlando sentinel said “This is rock ‘n’ roll storytelling – high-energy, loud and lots of fun”
There are bits of Maxim & Cosmo on youtube. There’s the opening joke, the bachelors and spinsters routine, and the hooters bit. TJ’s planning on putting up more of the show, and getting an mp3 of the whole thing on this website.
Charlie Ross is hard at work on his new show Sev and the Rise of the Wizard of Bong – an autobiographical piece, not based on any movies. TJ’s directing. It’ll premiere at the Edmonton Fringe, and go on to tour to Victoria and Vancouver. There might also be scattered preview/workshop performances throughout BC.
Keir Cutler received a three page, handwritten letter of reaction to his show Teaching As You Like It, and has fashioned a sixty minute response, entitled Teaching the Fringe. TJ’s directing. Watch for that in fringes from Montreal to Edmonton. The Montreal Gazette said the show is “a witty and urbane look at the menace of rogue audience members” and said that Keir is “really, really funny”.
Keir got a role in a B Movie as a crazed killer possessed by the spirit of a bulldozer. No, I'm not making this up. It films in rural Quebec and will cause Keir to miss the Toronto Fringe. He came up with a plan, though. He's having fringe star Barry Smith – Jesus in Montana, American Squatter – do the show in Barry Smith Powerpoint style, along with Darla Biccum – Caberlesque – playing the various rogue audience members.
Alice Nelson premiered her show Elephant in Zulu (dramaturged and co-directed by TJ), about touring a clown show to South Africa. The Calgary Herald named it a Best Bet in Theatre: “Shadow puppetry, stilts and a host of wonderfully drawn characters help bring Calgary theatre artist and trained clown Alice Nelson's new one-woman show, Elephant in Zulu, to memorable life at Loose Moose Theatre. The hour-long solo production offers an informative, sometimes poignant, but often very funny first-person account of what it's like bringing laughter into the lives of people who need it most, such as those who live in the shadow of disease and death in the townships and outlying provinces of black South Africa.”
Alice will be at the Edmonton Fringe with her last year’s show Local Celebrity (directed by TJ), which got great reviews at the Calgary and Indianapolis Fringes last year. It was also mounted in the theatre department of the University of Pennsylvania, and Alice was flown in to see their production and do a Q & A afterwards.
Charlie’s still touring The One Man Star Wars Trilogy, six years running, and over 1200 performances so far. This year he’s been all around Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. He's even been to Arizona. In July he’ll tour the UK.
You can still order TJ’s scripts from any bookstore.
The Toothpaste & Cigars movie still might happen. More pieces of paper have been signed.
TJ and Michael Rinaldi are working on something new, too.
TJ’s living out a suitcase. He’s more or less based out of Vancouver. He’s still trying to figure out where he’ll go when the fringe tour ends.
and that’s the news.