It’s the Eve of Fringe! The ordinary blocks of Old Strathcona where people usually go to the library and the farmers’ market, the restaurants and pubs, the little park where people protest and hang out … is being transformed into the site of one of Edmonton’s best and biggest festivals. Beer tents are up but not stocked. Clean white hoardings have been covered with show posters. A few roads are closed, but there are no crowds around buskers yet, or long queues for green onion cakes and mini doughnuts. Theatre people can be spotted at a higher frequency than in Ordinary Time, as they rush to rehearsals, tech times, and volunteer training sessions. Today while I was carrying posters for i carry your heart with me around to local businesses, I spotted Jamie Cavanagh and Belinda Cornish (performer and director, respectively, for the Bright Young Things production Sea Wall.

The Box Office is open, in the Arts Barns and online. Artist Services is open. And a little under 24 hours from now, the first plays will start.

I’m stage managing i carry your heart with me, Michelle Martin’s solo about her mother, a fiery, funny, French-Canadian. It’s at Sugar Swing Ballroom Upstairs (air conditioned, liquor-licensed, and a short walk from the main grounds). I’m also doing a few shifts in the Beer Tents as usual.

And I haven’t booked any tickets yet, but I’m drafting out my schedule to fit in as much exciting theatre as I can. Some of the productions on my wish list are the following.

• Sad Girl Songs: A Comedy
• Tiger Lady
• Puck Bunnies
• Scooby Doosical
• Flicker
• Forest of Truth
• Fiji
• Lady Porn
• muse: an experiment in life drawing
• Lesbihonest
• Amor di Cosmos
• Bathsheba and the Books
• Sweet Jesus:
• Old God
• Anatomica
• Rat Academy
• Method Prix
• Tree
• Talk about Your Death
• Lia and Dor
• Breaking Bard
• Late Night Cabaret

Or maybe I’ll add some more that people are talking about. So, talk!

And rest up, it’s a busy 11 days!