Hagiwara's Review of Fringe

I'm just getting home from the last day of the Fringe. Closing up shop after the festival is always a pain, since there's dozens of little details to attend to that you forget about until they're right on you.

Had a good Fringe. Fewer than the usual number of irate patrons (our favo(u)rite being the man who asked "Do you know what it's like to find parking down here?" Yessir. Some of us do it every day, and we manage to get places on time.) The usual number of irate performers (no, we don't know how many tickets we sold for your show two hours ago, we've been busy doing something else for all this time). Only one serious downpour, and thank heaven it was between shows. No heatstrokes that I know of. No police raids, again as far as I know. So I guess it was a good Fringe.

I did have a bit of an adventure, with someone (a passenger) in car having a seizure, the driver pulling into the parking lot where we have our venues. Thank heavens a quick thinking patron called 911 so all I had to do was alert site security and then watch to make sure nothing untoward happened in the meantime. So I thought I might get through this Fringe without a First, but there it was, my first security call, and my first all-points all-clear call.

Saw more than my usual number of shows, all terrific. In order of viewing, "House" featuring Facebook buddy and Ribbit mainstay Jonathan Paterson, "Teaching the Fringe" by Facebook buddy Kier Cutler, "Sherlock Holmes and the Saline Solution" by the nuts from Sound and Fury, "Hands Off" by Hot Thespian Action, "African Folktales" by Facebook buddy Erik de Waal, "It's a Gay Gay Gay Gay World" by Curtis Lowton and his pals at hYsTeRiUm, and the 10th Anniversary revival of "Midsummer Night's Fever" by Leith Clark.

Also wormed my way into the staff/techie wrap party by hanging around FOHP counting money and making myself generally useful. That was fun. Free pizza, leftover beer and such from the Beer Tent and Beverage Patio. And lots of inside laughs from the staff and crew.

So that was Viva Las Fringe. Looking forward to next year already.

Now I have two days to catch up with work, see the endocrinologist, do laundry, pack and clean house before my flight out on Wednesday.