Fringe adventures began this afternoon at the George Ignatieff Theatre (GIT) when I met up with pals Kat, Lizzie, Janis, Laurie and playwright Brandon Pitts to see One Night  – co-written by Pitts and actor Angela Brown.

To say that One Night is just a romcom would be missing the point, but wouldn’t be entirely untrue either. Directed by Shaista Latif, One Night tells the story of a plus-sized woman’s journey to overcome low self-esteem and make her own way in the world despite societal and familial pressures and expectations.

Latif has assembled an amazing, funny cast for this story of Penny (Angela Brown), a smart, good-humoured single plus-sized woman who works transcribing medical notes but longs to be a chef. Barraged by invasive, sabotaging phone calls from her mother and pestered by her crazy cat lady co-worker Cassandra (Tanya Filipopoulos), and bolstered by her pals Julie (Sangeeta Wylie)…

Tonight’s Fringe adventure took Lizzie and I to the Randolph Theatre, where we bumped into Philip and Darren from The Judy Monologues – like us, there to see Lynne Kamm’s Mum and the Big C.

Written and directed by Kamm, this is the story of Ripley (Elvira Kurt), a single under-employed lesbian with commitment issues who comes to stay with her family therapist mum Donna (Janet-Laine Green), who’s been diagnosed with stage one breast cancer and due to have surgery. Mum is a busy lady – having an affair with married co-worker James and receiving the unwanted attentions of her sweet Italian widower neighbour Tony (both played by Trevor Hayes, who plays all the male characters) – while Ripley manages to hook up with single mom Maddie (Megan Fahlenbock) at a local bar. And we’re talking the suburbs here – Mississauga, to be exact.

Turns out, Maddie is Donna’s…

I have to confess that though I love Pride and the community progress it stands for, I also hate Pride and the massive opportunity to be ignored by more men at one time than my ego can take. Trying to stop and take in booths is nearly impossible with so many people wanting to do the same, or with booth operators more focused on their particular, & usually much younger, demographic.

The Beautiful & The Damed at Pride2012 gave a great show under standard, but taxing circumstances – we were on at 3 p.m. during the hight of the Parade – the audience was sizeable and responsive. Taxing included the sweltering heat, the unshaded stage, and for Amoeba Starfish – electronic equipment that ‘wilted’ under that intense heat.

They opened the show with a cooling ambient piece that Lizzie Violet,s words slipped into easily. I always enjoy being reminded…

While I was performing my ode to disco “Oogie Inferno” I realized that disco is truly the music of revolution – it was pop music that fearlessly opted to ignore the macho stance of rock’n’roll, c&w and even r&b. When the ‘disco sucks’ movement was burning Bee Gees albums before baseball games it seems like a futile gesture – today I realized that what the statement really was/is ‘disco sucks cock.’

As I read I saw the ode as a protest piece and that charged it with a different energy. Protest songs are usually strident and angry, this piece isn’t. Like much of disco music it extolled the sheer joy of dance, of being alive – which in a culture that sees pessimism as realistic and that pleasure is shallow plus its its intrenched sexophobia, disco joy is a subtle defiance. While protest music (& most r’n’r)  is heterosexist in…

Some very big fun times at Pride this year, chickens. And as I enjoy a day off to recover – so to speak, since I’m hanging with a friend this aft. – thought I’d take a moment to reflect and share some fun moments from the past weekend.

Friday night was Chic Productions Carnival women’s Pride dance at the Palais Royale. Always love going to that space and the Pride dance always sells out there – so the place is full of women (with us single gals tagged with glow-in-the-dark bracelets before they let us loose in the wild – optional). I met up with my friend Ty, her gf Liz and their friend Cathy, and bumped into a bunch of folks throughout the evening – some of whom I hadn’t seen in ages and some I usually bump into at the Pride dance.

With entertainment by Zero Gravity Circus…

Holy cow, Toronto, this is going to be a crazy week in the world of spoken word and poetry slam in the region! With Pride getting underway this week as well as a flurry of events as the calendar flips solidly into summer, this is the time to get out and see something if you’ve been hanging out in the AC at your house/apartment/best friend’s place the last little while. Here’s what’s on tap for the GTA in the next seven days:

Monday

Loose Leaf Poets Poets & Writers converge once again on The Gallery Studio Cafe (2877 Lakeshore Blvd. W.) for their weekly open mic event. If you have words to share with others, this is a great environment to get your work out there! Showtime is 7pm. Admission is free.

The Glad Day Bookshop (598 Yonge St. near Wellesley) will be hosting a number of events as…

Shortly after my friends, Kat, Lizzie, Lizzie’s friend Janis and I entered the back room of the Horseshoe last night, we met up with drummer Johnny Rowe, who was set to do double duty with two bands: Inlet Sound and Tin Star Orphans in back-to-back sets at the top of the evening – which is just fine by him because, stamina challenges aside, he loves to play.

First band up was Inlet Sound, a folk rock band from Hamilton with a great Celtic, violin-backed, east coast sound, bringing to mind great east coast bands like Great Big Sea and Rawlins Cross. Dream Awake, a lovely collection of lyric ballads, is their EP release – I picked up a copy at the venue last night – and their first full-length record The Romantics is nearing completion. Check them out and give them a listen here: http://www.inletsound.com/

I’d heard Tin Star…