Dirt City: Grime and Punishment

The 2015 Edmonton Fringe Festival is almost upon us and this year will be a very special one for me. I co-wrote a show, alongside Colin Matty, Sam Jeffery and Lee Boyes. It is a wild ride to put a show together from scratch, and while it may be old habit for some talented fringe veterans, I had a lot to learn.

The Concept #

Around June 2014, Colin and I were riffing on the idea of writing another show together after the wild (mild) success of My Name is Jonas (a concept-comedy-sketch show based on The Blue Album by Weezer, it was attended by Zach Galifianakis “which is probably the best endorsement any fringe show could ask for". The idea gets shelved after we lose the Fringe lottery and the writing begins.

The idea comes up over a small riff on ordering red herring at a diner, it flourishes from there…

Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1946 Film) with Bogart and Bacall. This scene is the origin of the ’take-off-the-glasses-let-down-the-hair” to make you more sexy move. If that is a move.

Writing #

During the writing process we ask two additional members of Rapid Fire Theatre to join the team, Sam and Lee. Both are extremely talented performers who bring their own special talents to the show. Writing begins and continues over the summer of 2015 with a Google Doc that expands and contracts with good ideas and bad.

Rehearsal in the best room in the Fine Arts Centre.

One idea that is presented by Joe Vanderhelm is the idea of writing a dramedy, but with each edit creating a second script with each of the removed chunks in chronological order, then presenting both shows in parallel (this is an obvious idea, but I wonder if it has ever been done?).

Paul Blinov and Lana Cuthbertson are great help and supports on the writing of the script, making sure that things make sense, flow, and stay interesting. Jokes are punched up, love is magnified and the mystery is expanded.

Character portraits of (L-R) The Mayor, Pinot Noir and Ella Twist. Lee, Kory and Sam.

Producing and Directing #

Putting a show together is hard work. The amazing team of talented artists and volunteers are Rapid Fire Theatre help to design promotional material (thank you Matt Schuurman) and handle administrative tasks (thank you Karen Brown Fournell).

We decide to self-direct the show as a co-creation team and elect not to bring in an outside director. Several individuals volunteer their time to come in and watch segments or runs of the show and provide an outside eye (thank you Matt, Paul, Andy and Lana).

Design #

Late in the game we ask Syd Gross to join the team as the technical designer and stage manager. Her eye for lighting and ear for sound help to elevate the script to a magical space of suspended reality where dangerous and sexy things can happen.

The lighting, sound and costumes in a film noir are integral to the motif and story-telling and the dirty underbelly world that we zoom in on is aided by the ambience.

Costume shopping with Ball’n Colin.

Press #

We have been lucky to be featured on the What It Is Podcast as part of the Forceful Fringe Promo 2015 show, discussing gender politics and how to pitch a show to BROS.

Podcasting with Taylor Chadwick and Colten Taylor Thomas.

As well, we had a nice little write up on After the House Lights by Jenna Marynowski, where we  discuss the show and coming from a world of improvisation into a scripted show.

Conclusions #

This city never sleeps, except when it does.

It takes a village to raise a fringe show, in this case it takes E-town, or E-ville, or EVIL…

Come see Dirt City: Grime and Punishment at the 2015 Edmonton Fringe Festival starting Friday August 14th at Noon at Fringe Venue #9: Telus Phone Museum at 10437 - 83 ave.

For more information check out http://grimeandpunishment.ca

Poster design by Matt Schuurman