3 shows down and the 11-strong Constance Brown team are getting into their stride. Still plenty of tweaking to be done as re-calibrated cogs find their new meeting points. Some scenes seem to slip by smoother than ever, as does the ‘Office Crisis’ scene, which is enormous fun to perform and has us grinning and a-gurning at each other backstage. Other scenes are more difficult to pin down, as in the final ‘Negotiation’ scene, whose rhythm has been upset by the new cocktail of persons’ energies. It’s a strange one to put your finger on – it might be the slightest shifts in timings which make for a completely different feel of the scene. This difference may go unnoticed by an audience but onstage it becomes a critical thing.

A couple of local reviews have appeared, in the Toronto Star and an online reviewer shedoesthecity 

Tiredness was very evident after two performance last night, but not to be defeated Alex, Arvo, myself and Torontonian Chris jumped onto a streetcar to the College & Clinton intersection where we joined some of our new Canadian buddies at The Orbit Room. The legendary LMT Connection were funking the joint, as they have done every wednesday night for over a decade, it seems. It was an awesome night. We danced some… and some more, but far from disgraced ourselves.

The funk is difficult to shake off, but the fire within set off the Hotel fire alarms on the dot of 9am, which was very rude. I, like many others apparently spent 5 minutes hunting down the source of the bleep, pressing buttons, switches, etc. in an attempt to end the wailing. I even found myself vainly pressing the on/off button on the coffee machine. Feeling dog rough, I went out into the hallway to check whether there really was a conflagration. The cleaner seemed none the wiser, but the sound of approaching fire tenders confirmed for me that it probably was serious. My room’s on the 14th floor and with the lifts out of action, the rapid clockwise descent down a concrete stairwell left me a bit nauseous. Many of the Stan posse are on the 33rd floor! I felt for those who actually bothered to get out of bed and respond to the threat of towering inferno.

Toronto Fire Dept. to the rescue

There’d been a light drizzle overnight…and as the conscientious few stood on the pavement waiting for the all-clear from the Fire Dept., I felt that my Funk had been well and truly quenched…at least, that is, until next wednesday night.