This Fringe thing is wiping.me.out, y’all. It is an exhausting couple of weeks, and I try to prepare for it, but this year it seems even more overwhelming than usual. However: I will keep up this relentless schedule and hope I don’t pay for it later. BECAUSE I’M NOT A QUITTER.

Last night I saw what is heretofore my favorite show in this year’s Festival (aside, of course, from This Show Might Be Terrible). It was a dance theatre piece called Let Them Eat Cake, created by one of my favorite local companies, TinHouse Experimental Dance. I seriously love this company. I have seen several of their productions and am always so entertained and amazed. They are seriously good dancers and here’s the kicker: they have a wonderful sense of humor, so their shows are always super funny and beautifully strange.

The show description alone is enough to entice someone like me:

“An idiosyncratic and illogical sojourn into the life of an ant family through the efforts and hard work of a gold medal winning (and wearing) post-post-modern dance team. The ants move their furniture as they have done for thousands of years, but when they abandon everything to eat cake, one has to ask: who are the ants that love you and who are the ants that don’t?”

There was a lot of cake, a lot of dirt, and a lot of love in this piece and I walked away feeling really inspired.

Here’s a picture I took of the aftermath:

Yeah: they made a huge fucking mess, and it was AWESOME.

Another show I saw earlier in the week that is worth checking out was Gemma Wilcox‘s latest solo work The Magical Mystery Detour. Gemma is a gifted performer and her newest exploration is definitely worth checking out.  She created the piece in collaboration with the fabulous Elizabeth Baron, who worked with me on square’s Fall 2011 production of Love Songs for Poomouse.

Tonight I am performing in ONE ACT‘s Tonight Only!, which is an improv show created and directed by my good friend Meridith C. Grundei. I honestly have no idea what will happen. She’s asked me to serve as the musician for the evening. I don’t really do much musical stuff in public, so it could be a disaster: who knows? Then right after, square has our 4th performance of This Show Might Be Terrible. So it will be a very busy evening.

Tomorrow, Kelsie and I are checking out the Band of Toughs‘ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and hoping that the “hiking” aspect of the show is light and that there are no bears. It’s been getting raves and we love these guys, so we’re looking forward to the adventure.

At this point, this may be the only thing getting me through:

Sad but true, folks: sad but true. See you on the other side (hopefully).