Well, here I am sitting at home, missing an evening out at the Crush Improv Cross Canada Showcase  just to hang out at home in mah blazer with Winston the Cat, celebrating the birthday of one KATIE THE HOOD:

Katie, of course, is the critter-lovin’ phenom behind THE ANIMAL SHOW, one of the bestest Fringe theatre shows in the history of EVER.  She’s also someone who I met in person once, and she STILL acts like she likes me!    Katie is the bee’s knees, world, and if you don’t like that then I don’t like you.  Happy, happy birthday, Miss Katie the Hood, Ottawa luvs ya.  And we ARE getting LITTLE ORANGE MAN during our Fringe fest this year, maybe we can tempt you over for a visit..?  But Fringe, wow…I’m getting ahead of myself…

IN TOWN THIS WEEK:  Let’s see, there’s GCTC’s EAST OF BERLIN, playing til Sunday (come on Saturday, I’ll be volunteering!), and Ottawa Little Theatre’s SELF HELP all week as well.   THE COMMUNICATION CORD plays all week at the Gladstone theatre, and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS runs its second week at the Ron Maslin theatre in Kanata. At ARts Court, TotoToo’s OTHER EYES plays from the 4th to 7th, and I just got wind of a special one-night only performance of the legendary COUNTRIES SHAPED LIKE STARS on the 7th.  I’ll share more info with you once I’ve secured MY ticket, thanks very much.

But time for a video (which I sure hope isn’t a copyright infringement of any kind on my part…YouTube is safe, right..??), and since today is the day of the amazing Katie Hood, let’s do one for her:

Wow, now what…I forget what I usually DO in these posts.  No auditioning lately, bit dry there…there WAS that odd cease and desist letter I got a couple days ago, but time enough for that later.  Although here’s an idea that’s been punting about in my brain for a few days, and that’s the notion that we need a…

QUARTERLY REPORT: So what’s the Ottawa Theatre scene looking like, three months into the year?  I’ve caught about 33 shows (including, oddly enough, ’33), and so far I have to say it’s looking like a tits-out FANTASTIC year brewing for us.  Amazing productions like WE WANT LIFE, MAMAMOUCHI and LA CIMITIERE DES VOITURES, a memorable second year for UNDERCURRENTS, great performances in CYRANO DE BERGERAC, FALLING OPEN, THE PLAYERS ADVICE TO SHAKESPEARE, EAST OF BERLIN, the return to Ottawa of BLOOD ON THE MOON and GIANT INVISIBLE ROBOT…shit be smellin’ SWEET, yo.  That’s not even mentioning Alain Chauvin’s awesome double bill in both THE LARAMIE PROJECT and ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE, both great shows.  And the best community theatre I’ve seen yet,  LOST IN YONKERS.  Good times.

And now, because it’s the closest thing to a GIANT INVISIBLE ROBOT video I can find:

CEASE AND DESIST:  Oh yeah, THAT thing.  Well, it turns out that in my somewhat dumb zeal to talk about and promote local theatre, I ended up using a couple of promotional photographs that the photographer wishes I had NOT.  Fair enough, sez I!  I immediately replied to his cease and desist letter, removing said pictures with, hopefully, no hard feelings.

…Except, his ‘cease and desist’ letter didn’t actually look right.  It took the odd form off a pair of invoices, charging me a decent sum of cash up-front for the photos in question, never ONCE asking me to take the pictures off my site at all.  Which must certainly have been a typo, as I’m SURE a photog of any caliber wouldn’t stoop to gouging cash out of an amateur theatre blog, hoping I would be so cowed and intimidated by his ability to create PDF files out of thin air that I would simply throw my money at him, money which would be better spent on the theatre we BOTH supposedly strive to promote.  A typo, then, for sure.

An aside here….I know I’ve got LOTS of photos on my site here, including a prodigious many by the amazing Andrew Alexander, and I know I never credit them enough.  They make our Ottawa actors look GREAT, and by extension, my shitty blog.  I know I don’t ask permission enough, and that’s almost entirely out my own pathological fear of human contact.  It’s a thing I’m working on, I swear.  So, good on ya, Theatre photogs, you’re all the goods.

Except for maybe ONE guy.  For that guy…this one’s for you:

So that’s it then…I still have an extra ticket for THE COMMUNICATION CORD tomorrow nite, and as usual am hopeless at finding a date.  Takers?  Don’t be shy…if  weirdo-photographer guy can find me on the interwebs, you can too!  Tho if he has his way, I may not have much money to buy you drinks, be forewarned.  Can we still be friends..?
Peace, love and soul, and Happy Birthday Katie,

The Visitor (and Winston)