While in Edmonton, Canada for The International Fringe Festival the cast of The Man Who Wasn't There took time to Busk on The Fringe Grounds. This not only gave us more opportunities to perform but was a fulfilling way to connect with people and invite them to our show!
I've cut together a few great moments. Check it out:
Edmonton FRINGE – Part 1 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 2 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 3 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 4 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 5 Edmonton FRINGE - Part 6
Our tech rehearsal is finally here which means we get see the performance space for the first time. The Fringe festival only allows 3 hours in the space to take care of all technical issues such as; lighting, sound, spacing, etc. We managed to cover all our bases and more. By more I mean we managed to sneak in a little photo shoot.
Our venue is on the King Edward School campus, only two blocks from the FRINGE sight. The school is absolutely breathtaking!
The King Edward School first opened its doors to students March 9th, 1914, the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper was moved to note that its new shower baths "will be a novelty to many of the children, who never before saw hot water come down like rain." The new school also featured 17 classrooms, an automatic heat regulator (also notable for its day), separate playrooms for boys and girls and dedicated manual training and domestic science rooms.
Named for the eldest son of Queen Victoria, King Edward was the first school in Edmonton constructed with reinforced concrete. The Bulletin reported it took a million pounds of cement and one long train load of gravel, millions of brick (sic), miles of pipe, carloads of glass and in all about five train loads of material. But there is very little lumber or wood in the building, for it is built to be fireproof. (source)
We are honored to be performing in such a historic building in their community.
After tech rehearsal Lauren Cox and I, James Koroni, invited everyone over to our hosts home to eat dinner, prepared by us. 
Our hosts have an organic garden that provides half of their produce and the other half comes in every Tuesday from a farming co-op, which is evenly split amongst local families. You basically receive whatever can be grown with current weather conditions in consideration. With our host family out of town there were so many veggies to eat. The trick is, you must use what is available which was mostly onions, potatoes, cucumbers, parsley and peas. We got creative with some tempeh and here's the result:
Marinated Tempeh with green pearl onions and string beans Green onion, red quinoa Garlicky baked potato wedges with parsley Oven roasted sweet onions Cucumber salad with cherry tomatoes
We're excited to see how local produce can inspire every meal for the rest of our stay here in Edmonton.
A gallery from today for your viewing pleasure: [flagallery gid=8 name="Gallery"]
Edmonton FRINGE – Part 1 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 2 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 3 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 4 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 5 Edmonton FRINGE - Part 6
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.
A bright and sunny morning brought us into our second day in Edmonton. We knew there was a lot on our schedule so we had a slow morning to get ourselves grounded before embarking on today's journey.
Our new hosts provided us with fresh strawberries from the farmers market, organic flax seed granola and freshly cut mango slices. I just mixed all three together! The sweet fruit with crunchy granola made the perfect breakfast with French press coffee.
We met at the FRINGE offices where we were each given an artist tag and transit pass to cover our travel expenses for the rest of our stay. We then took a car across the river to Mile Zero Dance where we will be rehearsing for the next few days.
Rehearsal went swimmingly. Maya Oliva, a Canadian born, Italian artist who now lives in New York City only joined our The Man Who Wasn't There family a week ago. Today was officially her first day to run the entire piece. She not only came ready to execute what she had been given but also incorporated her own experiences and artistic voice. We're excited to see her redefine the mother character in The Man Who Wasn't There!
Here are a few moments from today's journey:
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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 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.
We finally arrived at 1:00 PM with a warm greeting from our hosts, Heidi and Gordon. Our hosts took us to their home in the south end of Edmonton. 
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!
We spent most of the rest of the day lounging, drinking virgin daiquiri's and eating veggie burgers. Our jet-lag soon wore off and we were basking in the sunshine of the most ideal day to arrive in such a charming city!
I've captured a number of moments for you to get a glimpse of our experiences here thus far. Enjoy!
[flagallery gid=5 name="Gallery"]
Edmonton FRINGE – Part 1 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 2 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 3 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 4 Edmonton FRINGE – Part 5 Edmonton FRINGE - Part 6
Our ensembles' interests and talents are as diverse as the group itself. We come from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Providence, Jamaica, Singapore, Puerto Rico, and beyond. Between us we have worked on performance projects across the globe. We are interested in what we have in common as human beings. We believe that performance is a bridge, that it is deeply imbedded in our nature, and provides a means toward social change and greater understanding of our shared condition.
Help us get to Canada and back us on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/60934704/the-man-who-wasnt-there
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE Three performances will be held in Shapiro Theater: August 3 @ 8:00pm August 4 @ 7:00pm and 10:00pm
The production will then travel to Canada and participate in the Edmonton International Fringe Festival. August 12-26
FT Collab Members - Bryan Quick, A Writer Mei Ann Teo, A Director Adam "Robot" Nash, A Composer/Musician Adrian Silver, A Choreographer/Dramaturg Mariana Ortiz, A Producer Lauren Cox, A Dancer Mary Ellen Beaudreau, A Dancer James Koroni, A Dancer Jessica Myers, A Dancer Kevon Simpson, A Dancer
We ask you to join us on this journey, toward asking the right questions, engaging in a serious investigation, and gaining a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Click to enlarge images:
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
In the beginning, she sat in the middle of the sunny warm patch on the linoleum tile floor. She wore the color blue, pale, worn out. The ocean waves knocked. -Mary Ellen Beaudreau
In the beginning, between the heat and the fireworks I was unable to sleep. -Jessica Myers
In the beginning, there was no enemy. -Lauren Cox
In the beginning there was the end and all were confused about which way to turn next. There were no orbits, and so bodies collided, and as they collided, entire galaxies were birthed from the chaos. This was long before trust would come and ruin everything. In the beginning there was fear. So all was created, to balance, all this stupid shit out. -Kevon Simpson
Click here to read more about TMWWT!
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Journeys are seldom undertaken voluntarily. Somehow we look up to find that we've been traveling with no clear direction or destination. We collide with others and imprint their experiences onto our own- we take on each other's mannerisms, thoughts, points of view. Occasionally we are injured, and these experiences can teach us to withdraw, to retreat within ourselves for fear of rejection, inadequacy, sorrow. But if we take care, we can move through the world expanding, our spirits growing at every intersection of two souls, growing to include every joy and every sorrow, preserving through this expansion all that is essential in human experience.-Jessica Myers
FT Collab presents: 'The Man Who Wasn't There' at DIXON Place Thursday, June 21 8PM
Our creative process is a journey of it's own and we invite you to join us! We will be updating our blog throughout our rehearsals and performance season which begins Next week! Here's the link: