And... it begins. Tuesday night after rehearsal was the official Edmonton FRINGE Festival kick-off. Before heading over to the event the whole The Man Who Wasn't There family ate dinner at Chianti, an Italian cafe and restaurant in Old Strathcona.
We reminisced about our journey here over a bottle of wine and merrily ate pasta at an affordable $8.99 a plate. Through our process, I can say that we've all seen tremendous growth and this was certainly something to celebrate.
After dinner we migrated to a cocktail hour at a local bar called The Pint. A private back room with a square bar at it's center was surrounded by members of every show in the FRINGE this year. Accompanying each cast were hosts from Edmonton who had graciously taken each cast in for the two weeks.
The rest of the night is simple: socializing, drinks, laughs, ketchup flavored potato chips, Oreo cookies and then Zzz's.
Here are some photos from today:
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Edmonton FRINGE – Part 1 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 2 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 3 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 4 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 5 Edmonton FRINGE - Part 6
After our first relaxing day in Edmonton we all went our separate ways because five different homes were taking us in for the next two week. For the first night Lauren Cox, Maya Oliva and I, James Koroni, went to a home just four blocks from The FRINGE sight. Our generous hosts have a two story home with a basement, a beautiful tree with two swings in it, three bright children and two handsome guinea pigs. In their backyard there's a raspberry bush, two kinds of apple trees and every Tuesday a fresh shipment of organic produce is dropped off. Wow! Too much excitement for one day. We called it an early night.
After three months of rehearsal and performing in various New York City venues we, the cast of The Man Who Wasn't There, were ready to depart for The FRINGE Festival in Edmonton, Canada. We excitedly and sleepily arrived at LaGuardia Airport on August 12th at 3:30 AM with hopes to get through airport check-in and security with ease. This wasn't the case. Our check-in alone, with our group of nine people, took over an hour and a half to complete. We then arrived at Airport Security around 5:15 AM.
With a boarding time of 5:45 AM and our flight at 6:15 AM we thought we were set but that was before we noticed the line was longer than that of Splash Mountain at Disneyland. This is when we started to sweat. Fortunately with our New Yorker sense of urgency and a lot of sarcasm we managed to get on our flight right on time.
Our hosts live in is a cozy home with family portraits lining the stairwells, an organic garden with tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, apple trees etc. and a scent of fresh baked bread that filled every room. Heidi even crocheted a scarf for everyone in the cast and production crew!
In the beginning, all was played in my memory in reverse, starting with death and ending with birth. I don’t fear death. I fear birth. Here is where I seek answers.
-James Koroni