Another week, another Foofarah…who knew I could be this productive? And does this really count AS being productive? Doesn’t that require the creation of something useful? I suppose I should stop splitting hairs, I don’t have that many to spare anymore (don’t worry, it’s growing back). Rather, let’s get down to business, and see if I actually have enough in my head to fill another one of these nonsense posts!

First up, let’s see what’s playing in town this week, so you can decide what order you’ree going to see ALL OF THE THINGS in, because you are, right? Right.

Well, there’s CORPUS from Counterpoint Players, still running this week at Arts Court Theatre. MAURITIUS at the Ottawa Little Theatre. HUFF at the NAC Studio from Cliff Cardinal. LE PROJET TURANDOT at Studio Leonard-Beaulne, from le Theatre Tremplin. NUNSENSE A-MEN at Academic Hall, from Tototoo Theatre. DIAL M FOR MOUNTIE, the current dinner theatre from Eddie May Mysteries, is also still going. Improv-wise the latest ‘BOUT TIME from Crush Improv is on this Monday, and GRIMprov plays at the Cock’n’Lion on Wednesday. If you’re mobile, my OTS classmate Alex is partaking in RAPA’s musical production of THE FULL MONTY out Russell way…still trying to figure out how to get down there myself! And for the kids: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE at the NAC 4th Stage. Wild Things played at last year’s OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL, and its return coincides with this years festival, kicking off on Friday. I’ll be there for FROGZ on Friday, can’t wait!

COMIX: Well, this past weekend was Free Comic Book Day, and from the looks of how picked clean both the Snail and the Shoppe were when I checked them out after my brunch shift, FCBD is more popular than ever. And while I’ll have to continue hunting for my Valiant Universe Handbook, dagnabbit, I’m glad to see my other fanboy addiction is thriving to some extent.

As I’ve mentioned a time or three in these pages before, I’m a Valiant fan from back in the 90’s, and am so far delighted with their modern-day resurrection. Titles like ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG and HARBINGER continue to knock it out of the park month after month, the new RAI is so flippin’ gorgeous I can hardly bear to look at it, and the upcoming ARMOR HUNTERS event looks like major fun. But what the Hell ELSE do I buy? After a lifetime of being a DC man, the soulless ‘new 52′ initiative has cured me of that (although Fringe bigshot Pat Gauthier tells me the current BATMAN title is still worth picking up). I actually AM buying a DC Batman title, but it’s the awesomely retro BATMAN ‘66, based on the classic tv series and handled just perfectly. There’s a Green Hornet crossover coming up, y’all should check it out for sure.

My Valiant addiction has spread to other publishers as well, as the classic ‘Gold Key Three’ of Turok, Magnus and Solar have been licensed by Dynamite entertainment and relaunched in their own new mini-universe, along with the revival of Gold Key mystery character Doctor Spektor later this month. I’m mostly enjoying them so far…a few sweeping changes in the characters that I call into question, like the elimination of the ‘Lost Land’ concept from Turok. I always wonder, why license the character if you’re not interested in using 90% of what made them unique? And a lot of the revamp makes me giggle, because they’re clearly inspired by and using so much of the original reboot at Valiant, from the ‘Dinosaur Hunter’ tagline on Turok right down to having Bob Layton do BWS-inspired cover riffs for Solar. But it’s all good, and I’ll keep buying for the time being. But I could probably do with a little more indie street cred in my weekly haul…any rec’s for me? Let’s get some comment threading going, comic-discussion style!

#VISI4IUM: Still edging towards the big anniversary party on June the 1st! Had my first proper rehearsal last night, getting what will be my second vocal masque (a term coined for our end-of-semester presentations at the Ottawa Theatre School) off the page and onto its feet. And as always when that happens, I learned a lot right away. Even played a bit with some of the Laban techniques that Alix Sideris drilled into me at her workshop last week, something I plan to do with scripts until the day I die. I’ll need to do some wardrobe shopping for the second masque, and will need some help with that part. But at least mine won’t be the only OTS style vocal masque appearing that night…esteemed graduate Madeleine Hall will be performing HER epic final masque, and I can’t wait for y’all to see this one. I’m pretty obviously at this point an OTS keener, and me and Maddy aren’t the only alumni who will be representing at the party. The fantastic Hannah Gibson-Fraser and Jodi Morden have teamed up and created Pretty Ugly Productions, and will be performing a sneak peek into their new Fringe show RACHEL AND ZOE. Likewise, my second year heroes Alexa Higgins and Phil Merriman will be previewing their show GETTING THROUGH (Written by another OTSer, Aidan Dewhirst!). Plus the inimitable Nick Wade himself, Nick Fournier will be going solo in a piece all his own that I can’t wait to see. It’s gonna be a killer night, and I really hope you pack the joint. And if anyone is still interested in being part of the performance, give me a shout at visitor.tba@gmail.com , still room on the bill!

TACTICS: Okay, so I till haven’t seen CORPUS, and shame on me. I hear it’s faboo, and I’ll be there early next week to catch it. That’s the latest show from the Counterpoint Players, as mentioned earlier, who are also spearheading a new multi-show initiative starting later this year, called TACTICS. Featuring four shows from four different companies in a very cool sounding season, the first show will be a welcome return for local fav’rits Evolution Theatre (fresh off some Rideau award honors for HROSES) with their latest, THE YOUNG LADY IN WHITE. A new translation by Maureen Labonte of a play from Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf, I managed to catch a free reading of the piece this weekend at Arts Court. I don’t wanna spoil much about the plot this early in the proceedings, but the reading by Catriona Leger, Zachary Counsil and John Doucet was just goddamned lovely and the story, featuring a beautiful and original look at the history of the last century or so through some very unique eyes, is gonna be a showstopper. I’m dying to see how Chris Bedford ends up staging the whole thing (I couldn’t help but get some ideas of my own during the reading), and also wonder if this will be the final cast or if auditions will take place. Not that there’s anything wrong with the dream team they had up there already…most directors would kill for a trio of that calibre. The show proper will apparently go up this November, so start making life plans to be nearby when that happens NOW. It will be worth it.

MENTAL HEALTH: I had a whole bit written about the state of my heart/mind mashup lately and why it kept me from going out to ‘Bout Time tonight, but it was getting all kinds of dark that might make somebody call someone, and then someone would come over and take away all my sharp things that I totally need for cutting baloney and tomatoes and stuff (reminder: I am a PROFESSIONAL COOK, dammit), so let’s just say IT’S BEEN BETTER, and here’s Maria Bamford on Doctor Katz:

And on that fantastic note…same time next week, yeah?  Peace, love and soul,

Kevin Reid, the Visitor (and Winston)