Toronto Fringe 2017

from WICKED:

 

Something has changed within me

Something is not the same

I’m through with playing by the rules

Of someone else’s game

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It’s time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes and leap!

 

It’s time to try

Defying gravity

I think I’ll try

Defying gravity

And you can’t pull me down!

 

 

On that note I’m using this space to tell my truth, to defy gravity.

I’m in show business.

In Toronto.

You’re not supposed to tell the truth in my business. You’re supposed to pretend everything is great – we’re all friends.

 

Went to a Fringe event & a mean person (MP) corners me:

 

MP: Haven’t you put this play up before?

DJW: Yes but they were workshops & previews…I like to tweak the work until its just right, just right until it…

MP: Barb Scheffler’s in it I see.

DJW: Yes! Our understudy!

MP: It’s the Fringe, why do you need an understudy (no question mark here).

DJW: My agencies don’t want me taking time off because there’s so much shooting right now…

MP: What, so you can shoot another commercial? (scoffs) You’re work is going nowhere, you know, the good shows are the ones with young people….

DJW: Is that PIZZA? (scuttles away sideways)

 

I’m beaten today, feeling like a bad cupcake: raw in the middle burnt on the outside. This is FRINGE: shouldn’t we all try to support each other on this crumbling theatre raft floating in an ocean of Netflix & contact sports?

Why be mean?

Truth is that Fringe Toronto chooses it favorites & surrounds them with HIGH walls.

And while we’re on the subject, why make lists of ‘Picks of the Fest’ when none of the shows have been seen yet?

Do YOU ever feel beaten…burnt by a harsh system that bastes it favorites & broils its underlings?

 

Please, friends, come see this show. Bring friends. Ask your friends to bring friends.

You will not find us interviewed by media (we tried & tried).  Middle aged women like us do not get funding for marketing. 

Understandably they give funding to younger creators.

Interviews, too, are for young theatre makers or those who started making theatre a long time ago.

I stayed home with my children.

Made play dough / cut vegetables / watched Eureka’s Castle. It was my choice & I turned out 3 healthy, happy people, each making a positive difference.

And I am being punished for it.

You’ll not see A Mickey Full of Mouse on any ‘best to come of the Fringe’ list.

 

We are the underdog.

 

I am calling ALL my camp to come see A Mickey Full of Mouse.  I’m asking you to take up this banner for every time you’ve ever been left out / ignored / bullied.

This show is fun, fast, & furiously courageous theatre.

See you at the Fringe.

Love you to the moon & back & twice as much as that, friend,

Dawna