Love in the Spiegeltent...

NOW I understand why there are so many tales of people running away with the CIRCUS!

Off the top of the eveing, Spiegeltent MC, the handsome and talented Brad Hampton, invites the audience to "breathe in the ghosts of the tent, and fall in love" - and my GOD, I've taken that to heart!

I AM IN LOVE!

There is a real magic in the air down at the tent, and all of the performers are feeling it. It has been a long time since I have been part of a cast of performers who are so content to come to work, be with each other in the dressing room, and are willing to clear their schedules and jump through any hoops it takes in order to continue being part of this show. Tina Rasmussen has put together a real theatre "family" and a fabulous show.

Arriving at the tent, I am always greeted by the sight of a few of our circus performers stretching and contorting on their warm-up mats in the grass outside the dressing room tent. I can only pray that my hips will one day be that open - being able to put a leg behiind your head must surely come in handy in so many circumstances. Entering the dressing room requires seperating a curtain of split blacks to reveal a jumble of feathers, sequins, pasties and G-strings...not to mention corsets, curling irons, body glitter and more naked flesh than I've seen in my lifetime! The "Spiegelettes" who do all the Burlesque numbers are a delight to encounter....and, in all honesty - being exposed to these gals night after night has deeply affected my choice in undergarments. In the last month I have dropped...well, I won't disclose the exact amount - but I have spent a PRETTY PENNY on PANTIES, and various other elaborate sundries!!! ( this all comes at an ideal time - as my goal for the summer has been to develop my FEMININE side...I'm so tired of the "practical Tom-Boy routine"....subject for another BLOG entry)...These women are a testament to being pretty and powerful!

The rotating cast of variety performers are too extensive and talented to go into here - but I am awed and inspired by people doing what they love to do and doing it WELL!

The audiences have been amazing...and I continue to be deeply moved and impressed by my "volunteers"! "Blind Date" has grown nicely over the last few weeks - and continues to do so. (I will be trying a few different endings this coming week...). Bruce is no longer part of the piece - I am flying "solo" and playing with whomever I pull up night, after night. I LOVE MEN! Each one I've had come up has been delightful in his own way. They are both bashful and bold....and Mimi, my "clown" (I still wince), is a character that I'm enjoying fully. Plans are already perculating in my mind to take this further and develop a long form with it. Improvising with an audience member is truly thrilling and I'm hungry for more....

Doing both the Fringe AND the Spiegeltent is perhaps more than I have energy for....But all exhaustion disappears the moment I set foot inside the tent and I feel....HOME. This is heightened by the number of old friends and Calgarians who are also in the show: Peter Oldring, Rae Ellen Bodie, Terra Hazelton, the Rumoli Bros. (Brandon and Kurt Furla) - I am SO PROUD to be Calgarian when I watch these people representing , "the elite of Toronto's cultural underbelly"!!!

If I can figure out a way to flatten myself into one of the crates when the Tent comes down....I won't be seen in these parts again! I know already that my heart will break when the show closes - and I am NOT one to be prone to post-show depression. This experience has been more than "just another gig".....There's something in the tent that gives PERMISSION to everyone who comes - and it seems that titilation, suggestion, risk taking and play are things that people are thirsty for in this world where so little is left to imagination anymore. The Spiegeltent takes us back in time....

'sigh'....

Yup.
I'm totally IN LOVE.

xo