The View From Here #146: IN, IL, PA, NC, IL, MO

My phone crashed!

I guess we’re used to hearing about my various computers crashing, but this time my phone crashed, and with it all of my numbers and addresses!

If you’re a faithful (more or less) reader of The View From Here, this would be the perfect time to e-mail me your name/address/phone number (to tim@timmooneyrep.com) so that I can make sure that I’ve got you entered into my hot new 3G/4G-coolest-phone-ever… which I am desperately trying to figure out how to make work, even as I type these words.

And, while you’re sending me your info… here’s another thought…

I’ve spent this summer doing about four new drafts on the new book: Acting at the Speed of Life, and I’ve got 99.9% of my typos squeezed out of the text, and the narrative trimmed down to fighting weight.

It expands on my workshop, Acting in the Classical Theatre, introduces some other ideas and exercises, and captures some wry and (if-I-do-say-so-myself) hilarious anecdotes and life lessons as well. The book (260 pp, give or take) is right on the brink of completion, and I am planning to have it self-published by Moliere's birthday, January 15, 2011, if not before. (Selling for $19.95 plus shipping.)

For a limited time, you can order a copy of the very first edition!

If this sounds like the sort of thing that you want for your personal library (or your acting class, or your cast…), then please mention that in your e-mail to tim@timmooneyrep.com  (I’ll even autograph it if you want!…or… not.) You don’t have to pay for it now, but if I know that you want a copy, I can adjust my numbers to the anticipated size of the order!

IN THE MEANTIME... in case you're not sure if it's something you'll want ... I am starting a NEW BLOG!!!

I am going to release selected chapters of the new book to my new blog! I'll be uploading a new chapter every week! Given that some of you are more interested in Moliere from the French perspective, than the Acting perspective, I don't want to drag you through a lot of my wonky Acting theories (actually, they're not wonky AT ALL! That's me feigning humility...), and so, when you send this ALL-IMPORTANT E-MAIL back to me(!), do let me know if you'd like to be on the list for the new blog! (Which you can find: HERE.)

I'll be putting chapters out in somewhat random order, and once the book is published, I expect I'll be using the new blog for other postings on acting and the theatre. (Once I start something like this, I generally find something to continue to talk about...!)

In OTHER publishing news…

In honor of my 15th script published through Playscripts, Inc, they have made me this month’s “Featured Playwright” in their newsletter that just went out to some 25,000 producers and theatre practitioners. In it, they include my bio and my answers to four interview questions, as follows:

Timothy Mooney
Timothy Mooney has given tens of thousands of students their first introduction to Moliere through his one-man play, Moliere Than Thou. He has written seventeen iambic pentameter variations of the plays of Moliere, produced around the world. High School productions of Mr. Mooney's The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid, and Tartuffe have gone on to state finals in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama. Mr. Mooney continues to present Moliere across North America, while teaching classical acting and performing his other one-man shows, including the sci-fi thriller Criteria and Lot o' Shakespeare!
What made you decide to become a playwright?
When I was an actor, I believed that it was the directors who got all of the power and control, but when I was a director I could see that that person was really the playwright... though, now that I'm the playwright, the life of an actor looks pretty good.
What's the best thing about being a playwright?
Stumbling onto the perfect word at two in the morning, that makes me howl with laughter as I write it, and then discovering, years later, that same word makes an audience, likewise, howl with laughter.Why have you made Playscripts the home for your plays?
I could see Playscripts leading the play publishing universe (sometimes kicking and screaming) into the current century, using the power of the internet, both as a distributive and an interactive force, without skimping on the books-in-hand that are such a tactile joy.
What are you working on now?
When not on tour performing Moliere Than Thou or Lot o' Shakespeare, I'm working on an acting book, (Acting at the Speed of Life) aimed at supporting actors who are tackling classical material.

But back to “The View From Here!” Where last we left me, I was wrapping up the Indianapolis Fringe! The last two Indy shows went well, though the full houses I’d hoped for never quite materialized. The next to last show was the last show of the day in my space, so the technician let me run over. I don’t know if a 75 minute show is simply a better time span to grasp the vastness of Shakespeare’s vision, but the response was exceptionally enthusiastic, ending with a standing ovation. Then, to top things off, on the final, Saturday show, I took a lot of requests (once the t-shirt had been won via the random bingo-spin), and afterwards, seemingly about half of the audience came up to put tips in my tip jar!

For one scene, I requested a volunteer for the sexual harassment scene of Measure for Measure, and a girl volunteered, noting “What’s the difference? I get that at work every day!”

April and her daughter Amber came down to see that show, and Amber ran the video camera so that we could capture some fresh video which would feature the new costume. (captured on a new video camera, purchased after my last camera was stolen in Minneapolis…!)

We drove back to Chicago right after that performance, and I got back just as the Chicago Fringe was getting underway, with the opening night party that same night!

The Chicago performances were thinly attended… On the one hand, I didn’t know who in Chicago to invite who hadn’t seen the show already! And then when I saw the conditions of the auditorium, with audience seated on boards stretched across cinder blocks in an un-air-conditioned room (I thought of this as the Theatre Gulag!), I was hesitant to promote it. Even so, several close friends came, including Michael Herzovi, who I hadn't seen since college, and my friend, Linda, from Dramatic Publishing.

I managed to get through the festival without doing too much harm to my dignity, with audiences of 8, 9, 5, 15 and 20 over the five performances, and got packed and onto the road the very next day with the official start of the fall tour.

And with that particular departure, I said au revoir to Dad, who, by the time of my first return, would be on the road himself. After 48 years in the same house, he was moving to Norfolk, Virginia, where he now lives with my sister, Maureen, and her husband, Tim. It’s the end of an era…

First stop: Detroit, and dinner and a movie with Isaac.

Then, on to Steubenville, Ohio, where I would be performing Moliere Than Thou, and doing workshops with the students, who were working on a production of my version of Bourgeois Gentleman.

The show was a blast. The theatre was almost packed, with a group of students that had bussed in from about an hour away. The video doesn’t quite capture the electricity of the event, (which was so edgy that there were a couple of walkouts during the Tartuffe scene), but there was one very memorable ad-lib sequence (below), when I apparently stumbled across a reviewer while climbing through the audience.

The workshops the next day were almost as good. I did an hour in the afternoon about “the business side” of acting, followed by Acting in the Classical Theatre, which seems to have significantly improved, after all of the time that I’ve spent on the book this past summer. The actors in Bourgeois Gentleman were listening very attentatively, and we did a little bit of extra exploration with monologues and scenes from that show. One of the exercises went so well, that I immediately went back to my computer and added a chapter to the book, while integrating the exercise into my workshop lineup. (It was one of those scenes where the actors speak in fragments of lines of verse, with several one or two-word lines combining to make up larger lines, and four actors working together to create order in the midst of chaos.)

I got the chance to try out that new material almost immediately, as my next stop, at Wake Forest University, was bringing me in for workshops only. They, too, were producing a Moliere play, though not one of my scripts, and I did a French class, a Theatre workshop and a combined Life-of-Moliere workshop.

They put me up in the poshest hotel I think I’ve ever been in. It was a grand mansion.

My host pointed out at least twice before the final workshop that I would have access to a dressing room, so I took that as a sign that they would really like this workshop done in costume. Given that I’d already given much of my Life of Moliere material to the French class earlier on, I donned some of the Moliere costume for the evening workshop, and added as much performance to this event as I had stored away in my memory. All seemed pleased and even the director of the Moliere production, who’d chosen some OTHER translator for her text, seemed to appreciate the stylistic direction that my workshop was promoting.

I headed home the next day, making it as far as Indianapolis, where I met up once again with the host of the Fringe Festival, who was now engaging in serious conversations about hosting all four of my one-man shows as part of a two week One-Man-One-Man Theatre Festival this coming May. It also happened that a big booking conference was going on in town, and I stuck around the next morning, to hang out in the exhibit hall for an hour or so, running into a bunch of people that I’d met on the booking conference circuit.

Back home. I had a show at Dominican University the next day, which was very well received. The French professor ran the video camera, so I came away with a bit of footage on that one. And, like many of my recent bookings, I was actively promoting the Shakespeare show as an effective follow-up for next year.

That weekend the old homestead seemed quiet and empty. I was working on getting the Shakespeare show back up to speed, and putting together a photo session. April took pictures of the new show (the product of which you’ve seen scattered throughout, above). A few weeks ago, I’d gotten an offer from Marcus Fernando, a good friend from the Canadian Fringe circuit several years back, that if I needed any help with photoshopping, that he’d be happy to contribute his talents… and so I sent to him some of the best shots that April had captured, and he almost immediately turned around the PERFECT composite photo below.

Off again… this time to St. Joseph, Missouri, with performances of both Moliere and Shakespeare in a single night! Last March, with the very first public performance of Lot o’ Shakespeare, I'd also done both, feeling extremely apprehensive, but LoS had grown a lot since last March, and I was confident enough that either show might stand on their own.

But together…? I thought their heads were going to explode!

MTT went about as well as some of my best performances, with an audience of perhaps 150 responding raucously, and a standing ovation at the end. LoS was almost as successful… with several t-shirts sold after the fact, and enthusiastic students coming up to shake my hand.

The next morning, I was pushing west, with a stop in Kearney, Nebraska, droping in on a friend from UN-Kearney and then on to Denver, CO, to check in with friends from DU, all of whom continue to talk about wanting to book another show.

I’ve had a bit of down time before my Monday, October 4 show at California Lutheran, and holing up in Salt Lake City, Fresno and L.A., I've managed to do some final prep-work on “The Book”.

Okay, now that you’ve read all the way through to the end… don’t forget your assignment from the beginning of this newsletter:

Send me your contact info (address/phone to tim@timmooneyrep.com), and indicate if you’d like to order a copy (or copies) of the new book, or to be added to the new blog list!

Love,
Tim

Miles on the Escape: 36,000
Temperature: 90s falling to the 50s
Discoveries: I was actually relieved that my phone crashed, as finally I could get a phone that wasn’t dependent on Palm Software, which enabled me to get the very flashy Evo! * The real entertainment value of farce comedies performed in verse is seeing just how, even in the very formal structure of verse, riotous chaos can ensue.
Next performances: California Lutheran University, 10/4; Rogue Theatre Festival, 10/5
On the I-Pod: Kate Nash, Shakira, The Killers

Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre Tour Schedule
(Available dates in CAPITAL LETTERS; Already-booked dates in GREEN; Pending bookings in PURPLE) )

FALL 2010
10/4 California Lutheran U, Thousand Oaks, CA
10/5-7 CALIFORNIA / OREGON
10/8 Oregon Theatre Arts Association, Cannon Beach, OR
10/8-9 OREGON / WASHINGTON
10/10-11 WASHINGTON / OREGON
10/12 North Idaho College, Coeur d’Alene, ID
10/13 IDAHO / MONTANA / UTAH
10/14 UTAH / COLORADO / MONTANA
10/15-16 WYOMING / SOUTH/NORTH DAKOTA / NEBRASKA
10/17-18 MINNESOTA
10/10 U-Wisconsin-GB, Green Bay, WI
10/20 WISCONSIN / ILLINOIS
10/21-22 ILLINOIS / INDIANA / MICHIGAN / IOWA
10/23-24 INDIANA / MICHIGAN
10/25 Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw, MI
10/26 Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY
10/27 KENTUCKY
10/28-29 PENNSYLVANIA / NEW YORK
10/30-31 NEW YORK / NEW ENGLAND
11/1 NEW ENGLAND
11/2 Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
11/3 NEW JERSEY / DELAWARE / MARYLAND / DC
11/4 Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, VA
11/5-6 West Virginia Theatre Association
11/7 SOUTH CAROLINA
11/8 Columbia College, Columbia, SC
11/9-10 Spartanburg Day School, Spartanburg, SC
11/11 Francis Marion University, Florence, SC
11/12-13 SOUTH CAROLINA / GEORGIA / FLORIDA
11/14-15 TENNESSEE / ALABAMA / MISSISSIPPI
11/16-17 ARKANSAS / LOUISIANA
11/18-22 TEXAS
11/23-24 OKLAHOMA / KANSAS / MISSOURI / IOWA / ILLINOIS
11/25-28 THANKSGIVING
11/29-12/11 TENNESSEE

WINTER/SPRING 2011
1/17-18 TENNESSEE
1/19-20 MISSISSIPPI / ALABAMA
1/21 Southeast Oklahoma University, Durant, OK
1/22-23 ARKANSAS / LOUISIANA / OKLAHOMA
1/24-26 TEXAS
1/27-30 Texas Educational Theatre Association, Houston, TX
1/31-2/1 LOUISIANA / MISSISSIPPI / ARKANSAS
2/2 ALABAMA / GEORGIA
2/3 FLORIDA
2/4-5 Highlands Little Theatre, Sebring, FL
2/6-7 FLORIDA
2/8-10 GEORGIA / TENNESSEE / NORTH CAROLINA
2/25-3/1 Alabama Thespian Festival/Randolph School, Huntsville, AL
3/2-6 SETC, Atlanta, GA
3/7 TENNESSEE / KENTUCKY
3/8 Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV
3/9-10 WEST VIRGINIA / OHIO / INDIANA
3/10-13 Pathways to Successful Living Seminar
3/15 Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL
3/14-17 MICHIGAN / MISSOURI / WISCONSIN / ILLINOIS / OHIO /INDIANA
3/18 U-Penn-Fayette, Fayette, PA
3/19-22 PENNSYLVANIA / NEW YORK / NEW ENGLAND
3/23-24 NEW JERSEY / DELAWARE / MARYLAND / DC / VIRGINIA
3/25-27 VIRGINIA / NORTH/SOUTH CAROLINA
3/28-31 GEORGIA / FLORIDA
4/1-2 GEORGIA / ALABAMA / TENNESSEE / MISSISSIPPI
4/3-4 MISSISSIPPI / ARKANSAS / LOUISIANA / MISSOURI / TEXAS
4/5 Texas Wesleyan University, Ft. Worth, TX
4/5-8 TEXAS / OKLAHOMA
4/9-11 KANSAS / MISSOURI
4/12-13NEBRASKA / IOWA
4/14 Saint John’s Prep, Collegeville, MN
4/15-16 MINNESOTA / WISCONSIN
4/17-18 NORTH DAKOTA / SOUTH DAKOTA / COLORADO
4/19-21MONTANA / IDAHO / UTAH / NEVADA
4/22-25 WASHINGTON / OREGON
4/26-30 CALIFORNIA
5/1-3 NEVADA / ARIZONA / NEW MEXICO
5/4-6 UTAH / COLORADO
5/6-9 TEXAS / OKLAHOMA
5/9-13 LOUISIANA / ARKANSAS / MISSISSIPPI / ALABAMA

SUMMER, 2011
5/5-15 Indianapolis, Indiana
5/19-29 (est) Orlando Fringe Festival
6/20-26 American Association of Community Theatre, Rochester, NY

FALL 2011
8/25-10/9 University of Central Oklahoma: Directing “Tartuffe”
10/10 KANSAS
10/11 KANSAS / NEBRASKA
10/12 COLORADO / WYOMING
10/13 COLORADO / UTAH
10/14 (N) NEVADA / UTAH / IDAHO
10/15-16 (N) CALIFORNIA / OREGON
10/17-18 OREGON / WASHINGTON
10/19 IDAHO / MONTANA
10/20 MONTANA / WYOMING
10/21 NORTH/SOUTH DAKOTA / NEBRASKA
10/22-23 MINNESOTA / IOWA
10/24 IOWA /MISSOURI / MINNESOTA / WISCONSIN
10/25 MISSOURI / WISCONSIN / ILLINOIS
10/26 ILLINOIS
10/27 ILLINOIS / INDIANA
10/28 INDIANA / MICHIGAN
10/29-30 MICHIGAN
10/31 INDIANA / OHIO
11/1 KENTUCKY / OHIO
11/2 KENTUCKY / TENNESSEE
11/3 TENNESSEE
11/4 TENNESSEE / WEST VIRGINIA
11/5 WEST VIRGINIA
11/6 WEST VIRGINIA / PENNSYLVANIA
11/7 PENNSYLVANIA / NEW YORK
11/8 NEW YORK / NEW ENGLAND
11/9 NEW ENGLAND
11/10 NEW ENGLAND / NEW JERSEY
11/11 NEW JERSEY / DELAWARE /MARYLAND / D.C.
11/12-13 MARYLAND
11/14 VIRGINIA
11/15 VIRGINIA / NORTH CAROLINA
11/16 NORTH/SOUTH CAROLINA
11/17 SOUTH CAROLINA / GEORGIA
11/18-20 GEORGIA / FLORIDA
11/21-23 FLORIDA
11/24-27 Thanksgiving Break
11/28 GEORGIA / ALABAMA
11/29 ALABAMA / MISSISSIPPI
11/30 Louisiana Tech, Ruston, LA
12/1-4 ARKANSAS / LOUISIANA / TEXAS
12/5-6 NEW MEXICO / ARIZONA
12/7-11 CALIFORNIA
12/12 NEVADA
12/13 UTAH
12/14 COLORADO
12/15 KANSAS
12/16-17 MISSOURI

WINTER-SPRING 2012
1/2-2/25 GUEST ARTIST OPENING
2/27 WASHINGTON / OREGON or KANSAS / COLORADO
2/28 OREGON / CALIFORNIA or UTAH / COLORADO
2/29 CALIFORNIA or NEVADA
3/1-2 CALIFORNIA
3/3 ARIZONA
3/4 NEW MEXICO
3/5-6 TEXAS
3/7 TEXAS / LOUISIANA
3/8 LOUISIANA / MISSISSIPPI / ALABAMA
3/9 ALABAMA / GEORGIA / SETC
3/9-11 SETC
3/12-13 FLORIDA
3/14 GEORGIA
3/15 SOUTH CAROLINA
3/16-17 NORTH CAROLINA
3/18 NORTH CAROLINA / TENNESSEE
3/19 TENNESSEE / GEORGIA
3/20 ALABAMA / TENNESSEE
3/21 ARKANSAS / MISSOURI
3/22 ARKANSAS / OKLAHOMA / MISSOURI
3/23 NEW MEXICO / KANSAS / COLORADO
3/24-25 COLORADO
3/26 COLORADO / UTAH / WYOMING
3/27 UTAH / NEVADA
3/28 NEVADA / IDAHO
3/29 OREGON
3/30 WASHINGTON
3/31-4/1 WASHINGTON / IDAHO
4/2 IDAHO
4/3 IDAHO / MONTANA
4/4 MONTANA / WYOMING
4/5 MONTANA / NORTH/SOUTH DAKOTA
4/6 NEBRASKA / MINNESOTA / IOWA
4/7 IOWA / MISSOURI
4/8 MISSOURI
4/9 MISSOURI / ILLINOIS
4/10 ILLINOIS / KENTUCKY
4/11 KENTUCKY / INDIANA
4/12 INDIANA / OHIO
4/13 OHIO / WEST VIRGINIA
4/14-16 VIRGINIA
4/17 MARYLAND / DELAWARE / D.C.
4/18 NEW JERSEY / PENNSYLVANIA
4/19 PENNSYLVANIA / NEW YORK / NEW ENGLAND
4/20-23 NEW ENGLAND
4/24 NEW YORK
4/25 NEW YORK / PENNSYLVANIA
4/26 PENNSYLVANIA / OHIO
4/27-29 MICHIGAN
4/30 INDIANA / ILLINOIS
5/1-2 ILLINOIS / WISCONSIN
5/3 WISCONSIN / MINNESOTA
5/4 MINNESOTA

The View From Here #145: MO, MN, IN

My brother Pat came out for one last visit to the old family home, and we spent a bit of time together, when I wasn't running my lines, or chasing down props, or editing my book.

I hung out in town for Anne Lucas & John Quigley’s wedding before taking off for Kansas City and the Kansas City Fringe Festival. I’d been working the two hours of Shakespeare material twice a day for the past week, and was waiting on several pieces to fall into place, while adding seven SONNETS to my collection of THIRTY-EIGHT monologues! (People kept asking me if I was doing sonnets, too. I figured they must have had a good reason.)

April was working on final developments to the “slide show” that accompanies the performance (as well as the IAGO cards) and Kathleen, my costume designer, was putting together a brand new costume. Kathy was in Virginia, while I was in Chicago, and so she was sending me mock-ups and swatches in the mail, while I was guestimating how much the costume ought to be tightened or adjusted. (“I think the pumpkin breeches should be thinner by the volume of a cantaloupe, or a small football.”)


The final costume didn’t arrive until the day before I was to leave, and I only managed to rehearse about 25% of the material while wearing it, but it looked pretty rockin’ gorgeous.

The next morning, I was on the road to Kansas City, with a two-minute preview performance that night at Fringe Central… which was steamy hot! I managed to get the new costume nice and sweaty, while catching up with some old fringe friends, particularly Phillip Lowe and Kurt Fitzpatrick and meeting new ones, such as the casts of Grind and Revenge of Rumplepunchkin. (some in photo)

Also, I have a new sticker for this show, as featured on the belly of this member of the cast of Rumplepunchkin.

I was staying at my friend, Lisa’s house, and she had a second floor room that I could use for sleeping, working out and rehearsing. Fortunately it had an air conditioner in the window, as the weather was in the 90s the entire week! (I think the final day we topped 100!)

I had no show the first Monday of the Festival, and spent the time pulling some final details together, such as getting a 25 foot “S-Video” cord so that the technician could operate my slide show at a distance from the projector. Chris, my technician, worked for this particular venue, which meant that he was around all day, and I could come in whenever I wanted to rehearse. I spent most of the afternoon working my way through all of the monologues, testing the spatial relationship with the audience, and was glad to have the chance to think through all of these things before an actual audience was witnessing it. A couple of the monologues, and especially the sonnets were still feeling particularly “clunky”, and I pulled those ping pong balls out of the hopper, so that opening night, at least, would feature material that I was confident in. (The sonnets made for an excellent change of pace, but after one or two performances tripping over some shaky lines, I pulled those out of circulation, at least until the next fringe festival.)

As long as the video cord was, it still couldn’t reach up to the “booth,” and so we created a single light setting, ditched the single planned internal music cue, and Chris came down to stage level to operate the slides from the counter where they were also selling refreshments. When I pulled out a ping-pong ball, Chris would cue up the particular slide, so that the audience could “read along” portions of the text from the first folio, if they were so inclined.

As the week proceeded, with scant attendance (maybe an average of 20 for each performance) I found myself making adjustments to the “rules” of the game as it went. I was determined to establish the ultimate random nature of the IAGO game, which generally occupied the first 30 minutes of the show, but after having convinced the audience that I could do ANY of the monologues that came up, I started giving them the option of having me continue the show with “requests” or with monologues that were MY favorites. (They generally wanted me to do my own favorites.)

In general, I didn’t want to leave any of the performances without a showing of either Julius Caesar or Twelfth Night, as those two were more than double the length of the average monologue and evolved at a different pace than the other “quick hits.” “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” especially, felt epic in stature. But some other monologues were also becoming favorites among the crowd, including Comedy of Errors, King John and Titus Andronicus.

Occasionally, I would choose to skip monologues, if only because the audience had seen a fair amount of “the obscure stuff” already, but in one instance I heard a bit of a groan going up from the crowd, and discovered that the audience member had actually come hoping, especially, to catch Timon of Athens. And so I went ahead and did that one, and later found out from the grateful patron that he was working on a degree in Shakespearean Studies, and his thesis project was Timon of Athens. (Apparently, my interpretation gave him some ideas for his project.)

A variety of responses were tugging me one way and another about the choices I was making. One fellow performer was disappointed when I would skip material, and didn’t like the audience interactive sequences. Another liked the audience interactive stuff, and was glad to have the sense that he was getting “the good stuff.” My own sense was that I didn’t want anybody in the audience to walk away feeling like they’d seen the show on a bad day, when all of the “wrong” balls came out.

(Illustration by Lee Howard)

Eventually, a 5-star review showed up on line at KCStage.com:

For the last two years, I’ve caught Alan Tilson at the Fringe, and I highly recommend seeing his show this year. This year, he's joined by another outstanding Shakespearean one-man-showman— Tim Mooney of Chicago — whom I also highly recommend.

In fact, how about a double-header: seeing both Mooney’s and Tilson’s shows? Then you can weigh in yourself on the KC Stage site as to whom (if either) you liked better by leaving your rating here.

The energetic and engaging Mooney introduces an element of chance to his show: his program is set by the Bingo balls he draws randomly from a spinning cage containing 38 of them — meaning he has this many scenes ready to go! One woman took away a Lot o’Shakespeare! T-shirt (also on sale) for her luck on the Bingo card we picked up with our tickets, and another took away a CD (also on sale) for her yeoman’s work in volunteering to read a couple of second parts on stage.

Along the way, we all were treated to a 54-minute tour de force comprising no fewer than 19 Shakespeare scenes and sonnets. A couple of times, the entire audience chimed in for a line or two by another character, in addition to the audience volunteer who joined Mooney onstage.

Mooney’s interpretations were outstanding, and not infrequently cast new light on obscure corners of Shakespeare’s work. Why did my high-school English teacher never point out Mercutio’s jealousy of Juliet, as Romeo’s spurned gay lover? Or the flagrant queen’s-ass-kissing in Henry VIII? Or the sexual-harassment element of Angelo in Measure for Measure? Sure would have spurred our adolescent interest in the not-so-boring bard of Avon!

Mooney’s interpretations were introduced by short, but illuminating commentary. Spur yourself over to the Off Broadway theater for this: Friday at 6:30, Saturday at 8 or Sunday at 3:30. Chiam Eliyahu, KCStage.com

In fact, the KC Fringe had chosen a somewhat hard-to-get-to venue, in an idyllic park setting, as their “Shakespeare Ghetto.” Myself and another Shakespeare monologist were in the same space, along with a burlesque show that used Shakespeare plays as a uniting theme. (two other Shakespeare-themed shows dropped out before opening night.) Since this venue had low sales in previous years, they’d hoped that the Shakespeare partnership might bring people out who would stick around to see all of the shows in the venue. They even encouraged us to buy an ad in the local Shakespeare Festival program to promote this event collectively. (This was predicated on the assumption that we, as perhaps competing interests, would actually bring ourselves to work together.)

Unfortunately, the crowd that comes out to see Shakespeare-themed burlesque, is not actually there for the “Shakespeare” part of the equation. They played to an audience of 100 one night, and I flyered that entire audience on their way out of the theatre, but did not see one of them in attendance at my performance which started a half-hour later. Meanwhile, the other Shakespeare monologue guy was getting even thinner audiences than mine, so the synergy was not happening. Between the cost of the festival entry, the flyers and the ad in the Shakespeare Festival program, I ended up losing money on this one.

A couple of days later, I was off to Minnesota, returning to my stand-up/poetry/ monologue show. This rather personal show is unlike anything I’ve tried before, though it seems to strike a strong chord with a lot of people. I avoid describing the specifics of it at length here, as I feel that I can’t do it justice out of context of the performance, and it may well seem too sensationalized to people who book my other shows.

Once again, I was staying with my friends, Dave and Klee, just a few blocks from the beautiful Minnehaha Falls, where I would go to run my lines almost every day while I was visiting. This year, the Minnesota Fringe seems to have completely recaptured its mojo since its stutter-step several years back with the collapse of the I-35 bridge on the first day of the Fringe. In fact the Minnesota Fringe ended up breaking their previous record with over 50,000 tickets sold, and an 8% improvement over the previous year, but again, venue was everything.

The festival was stretched out around four different neighborhoods in Minneapolis and (for the first time) St. Paul, but clearly the neighborhood to be in was the “West Bank,” where there were at least seven venues within walking distance of each other, as well as Fringe Central, the bar/theatre where everyone wound up at the end of a long night. In particular, shows in the “Rarig Center,” where four auditoria within spitting distance of each other, did very well. Audiences had a natural tendency to want to park their car once for the evening, and then walk about from show to show.

My venue, the Ritz Theatre Studio was in the Northeast quadrant of the city, with only one other venue adjacent to it. I only had sixty seats in my space, which was very intimate and made for a playful connection with the audience, but my audiences were averaging around thirty, even with April coming up to Minneapolis to help me with handing out flyers. Even so, the responses were terrific, and the major thing that this festival does right is organize their website. People check the site obsessively, and new audience reviews are constantly being posted. The Fringe “mascot” is a cartoon “kitty” cat, and the shows are rated by how many “kitties” they received. Out of 33 reviews submitted, I got one “zero kitty” review, one “two kitty” review, seven “four kitty” reviews and twenty four “five kitty” reviews.

Here are some of their comments:

do. not. miss. this. show. By mark milner Rating 5 kitties
remove mooney's glasses, shine a spotlight on the man, and he's a charisma machine… a wry and winning examination... do. not. miss. this. show.

wow. just wow. by Jess Pants Rating 5 kitties
So honest, so out there, so moving...this show really was amazing. I can't even find the words right now to accurately or fully describe what went on--for me--during the show this afternoon… For anyone who missed it, you better hope there is an encore performance of this piece.

Hilarious and provocative by Angela Polk Rating 5 kitties
… Not only was I entertained by Tim's tales, but after hearing them, I couldn't help but feel inspired to ruminate on my own experiences. I'd left them on the shelf to gather dust for years, and suddenly they were brought to light again by Tim's stories. Art that elicits that profound of a response is rare and wonderful, and I am grateful to Tim for taking us on such a journey… It is clear that he is a master of his craft; there is no sentence, gesture, facial expression, pause, or tone of voice that seems out of place. It's all expertly crafted and delivered. At the same time, it never feels like it's scripted or recited by rote, because his delivery is so honest. When Tim was telling his stories, it felt like a conversation with a friend--a friend you feel like you can really confide in, who also just happens to be fantastically witty... There is so much lighthearted charm, silliness, and exuberance in this show that I left with a smile on my face, feeling light, and filled with a certain joie de vivre.

Truly something special by Dave Stagner Rating 5 kitties
The confessional story is nothing new to Fringe... The good ones get past the personal, to the universal, to feelings that we can all understand and relate. Then there's Tim Mooney. Tim is best known as a stellar, professional actor and scholar of the works of great writers like Moliere and Shakespeare. His past Fringe performances have been driven by his rich, emotive, rock-solid acting. But this time, he turned that skill and power on his personal story, and the results are stunning... It feels powerful and brave on his part, and really turns that power back on the audience. And did I mention that large parts of the story are in iambic pentameter? His love and scholarship of the classics, and his skill in reading them, takes this confessional to levels of wit I've never seen in this sort of show before! As far as I'm concerned, it's a must-see, and the only show I've seen this Fringe that I intend to to see again. It's that good.

I've had a Fringe crush on Tim Mooney since seeing Moliere than Thou a few years ago, but didn't remember his name - until I got to the show. Oh boy! His style is entertaining and open, with a joyful, gleeful confessional bent. The stories themselves are perfectly scripted, hilarious and touching, and deeply personal. The kind of raw vulnerability he displays, without the slightest reservation, is rare and creates a sense of trust and confidence with the audience. Excellent and not to be missed. And the iambic pentameter... *fans self* by Bree Nolastnamesontheinternet Rating 5 kitties

Honest, bold and touching... Highly recommend. by kelly C. Rating 5 kitties

…Extremely funny, touching, clever... there was a kind of positive, celebratory energy in the theatre. I truly think Tim is the most energetic actor I've ever seen… Absolutely contagious. by Alina Mostov Rating 5 kitties

…Funny and well-delivered, as I've come to expect. I've yet to see any one-man show… done with as much poise as Tim always seems to have. ... by The Letter M Rating 5 kitties

…A commanding stage presence… Highly recommended. by Kale Ganann Rating 5 kitties

Definitely cathartic and thought-provoking. The perfect end to the Fringe. by Laurel Hansen Rating 5 kitties

What a fun show and so poetic. This was funny and sad, touching and challenging... by Lance Zarimba Rating 5 kitties

Possibly the best Fringe show I've seen in the last several years. Brilliantly written, deeply honest, and laugh-your-ass-off funny. Captivating from start to finish... by Amelie Poulin Rating 5 kitties

Tim Mooney is very funny, yet thought-provoking. The monologue was very tight and poetic, and his delivery is perfect... Go see it! by Tracy Anderson Rating 5 kitties

...This show, more than any other, tests the audiences willingness to - literally - get immersed on a personal level. by daniel taradash Rating 5 kitties

While the attendance in this venue was particularly low, it turned out that mine was the best attended show in the venue, which meant that I got the “encore” performance on Sunday evening of the Fringe. I’d assumed that the encore was going to another performer, and so when they announced this at the Saturday night party, I was really thrilled and gratified, and the excitement for the celebration went through the roof.

I can’t say quite the same for the final performance though. At the end of a long ten days of “fringing,” the audience seemed listless, and while some good friends came back to see the show a second time, this was mostly a quiet denoument to the event.

A quick stop home. Dad was getting closer to his planned move to his planned move out east to join my sister, Maureen. She and her husband, Tim, have found a rental house in Norfolk, Virginia that they are going to be moving to, probably in September/October, and Dad has planned one final party in the old homestead for this Sunday, August 29, starting at 2 pm. Come join us!

Next up: the Indianapolis Fringe Festival, a cozy billet with a couple on the Festival's board of directors in the northern reaches of Indianapolis, and a return to “Lot o’ Shakespeare!” Kathy, the costume designer, had worked a few refinements into the costume during the Minnesota Fringe, and April had updated the IAGO card somewhat, while putting together a sandwich board as an advertisement that would sit outside my venue.

I drove in, arriving just about thirty minutes in advance of a preview performance at the opening night festivities, and I did my All’s Well speech: “Are you meditating on virginity?...” which got some good response from the crowd.

The next day was my tech rehearsal, and the technician was extremely supportive, and able to run the slides, lights, AND sound from his position. It was a small venue, about the size of a couple of classrooms put together. The acoustics were deceptively challenging, as two dividers broke up the room into three sections which inhibited the free passage of sound from one area to the next.

I’d pretty much written this fringe off as an unlikely money-maker (and I still don’t expect to come away with a huge profit), but not knowing anybody in town, at a relatively “young” fringe (6 years old), I didn’t anticipate seeing a lot of people lining up to see the show.

But there, the first night, a good fifteen people, none of whom did I know, had found their way to the theatre. The show was really “on”, and the recent rehearsals seemed to have brought me to the next level with this performance. I was going at the characters more aggressively, putting out a lot of energy, attitude and volume. And the audience was responding. I could hear not only laughs, but also gasps, “wows” and the occasional “bravo!” Which only encouraged me to turn up the volume even more.

The second night, the energy felt just as strong, but the monologues that were popping out were more obscure. I was reminded of how I handled this in Kansas City, and by the third performance (back down to a dozen in the audience on a late Sunday night), I reinstituted the opportunity for the audience to make requests once the t-shirt had been won. They were glad for the opportunity, and started calling out for The Tempest, Macbeth, Much Ado and for The Sonnets. It felt like just the right mix of randomness and audience participation, as there was demonstrably no way I could have prepared for the requests that they were going to make. (I did slip in my own choice of Twelfth Night at one point.)

As it turned out, there was a blogger in attendance that evening (he took this photo with his phone), and his response was enthusiastic:

Lot o’ Shakespeare, by Jackodile (www.jackodile.com)

It’s Shakespeare, lottery style… with a little Bingo thrown in. Actually, it wasn’t really Bingo, but IAGO, named after the villain from Othello.
I have to admit, that I probably haven’t sat through this much Shakespeare since I was a grad student in Virginia and that was a production of Twelfth NightBeach Boys style. Because of my Shakespeare ignorance and a feeling that I needed to give myself a little educational entertainment, I chose to see Lot o’Shakespeare. Tim Mooney, the creator and performer, did not disappoint.

As Mooney explained, the concept for the show came from an idea that he could be ready at a moment’s notice to perform an audition monologue from any of Shakespeare’s plays. What resulted from his work in memorizing hours worth of monologues became the 60 minute show, Lot o’Shakespeare.

At the beginning all audience member are given an IAGO card, which was essentially a Bingo card. As Mooney would spin the lottery balls around one would fall out and that would direct him as to what play and monologue to perform. Then before each monologue, Mooney would give a one sentence explanation of the the scene and character.

The first ball was I18, Julius Caesar. That was a long, long monologue, but Mooney performed it with great passion and skill. Throughout the next 60 minutes, Mooney performed from Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, King John, and Taming of the Shrew to name a few. Not only were all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in the repertoire, but all of his sonnets too.

After one of the audience members won the game of IAGO, Mooney then opened up the show to requests. I was very impressed that he was ready to dive into the next monologue without any real preparation. As soon as the play was called out, he would jump eagerly into explanation and then monologue. I have to admit that when requests were being shouted, I was tempted to call out Hamlet, but I was afraid that I would look too much like the Shakespeare amateur. So, I went without hearing “to be or not to be.”

Overall, this was a fun show to see. I enjoyed Mooney’s enthusiasm for the material. I also enjoyed the intimate community that was created in the audience as we laughed, applauded and yelled out requests. To sum it all up into one word, I’ll defer to the gentleman who sat in front of me, “Bravo!”

The blogger’s final reference was to a man sitting in the second row who was now in attendance for his third performance. He wanted to catch as many of the monologues as he could, and when I opened up the floor for requests, he asked me to choose the most obscure piece that I could think of… and so I did Two Noble Kinsmen for him.

 I’d been hoping for an Indianapolis Star review, as I was sure that would boost attendance, but there seemed to be none forthcoming (if one shows up, I’ll tack it on here). I did, however, get some exposure on Tuesday morning, as the local Fox Morning News affiliate featured performances from three groups that day, including two features from me, in the 7 am hour and the 9 am hour. The anchors, who I couldn’t hear from the venue where I was performing, seemed fairly clueless, but the reporter who was interviewing me was a nice guy, and the exposure seemed to have increased my attendance on Tuesday night. Of course, that might also have been the review from Jack Odile, or it might well have been a couple of other reviews that were showing up on-line:

First up was Lot O' Shakespeare. Timothy Mooney from Arlington Heights, IL. does Shakespeare monologues from every play and about 10 sonnets. The selections are different every performance and are dictated by numbered balls that come out of a LOTTO/Bingo dispenser. This is a great show and you actually play a form of BINGO renamed IAGO. I got a double IAGO and got a CD from one of his other shows. I do wonder if he's related to Mooney The Magnificent from the Ren. Faire circuit. I'll have to ask him. Taylor Martin

Great show. Should be a "must see" on your IndyFringe dance card. Don't miss it. Kevin B

Tuesday’s show was better than ever. I spotted a “laugher” in the audience before I even started, and I knew that it would go well. The first half dozen or so ping pong balls were all obscure ones, but even so I found myself attacking each one with a new sense of commitment and verve, never “surrendering” my hopes for the success of any given monologue, but reminding myself of the dramatic impact that originally drew me to it, however obscure the source might have been. Julius Caesar broke the succession of obscure monologues, and I’ve begun to introduce that one as perhaps “the greatest speech of all time.” This, of course, sets the bar pretty high for my performance, but if the audience is trusting my judgement by then, it gets them to listen with a renewed commitment. I could feel that paying off in the latter half of that monologue, and I could feel them “with me” in a breathless series of moments. As that piece concluded with Antony’s piercing call to “MUTINY!” one audience member actually stood up at her seat to give that monologue its own standing ovation!

With the audience choice phase of the performance, the loud laugher (who was practically reciting some of the lines along with me as I proceeded), insisted that I go back and pick up the Richard III monologue that I’d set aside when it came out the first time (I’d already done a Richard speech from Henry VI, Pt. 3.) And so, I followe through on that one, as well as Measure for Measure, As You Like It and a couple of Sonnets, before winding things up with Puck from Midsummer Night’s Dream. This time around, after the show I sold two extra t-shirts and a copy of my Misanthrope to an eager fan. At least one attendee was a Shakespeare scholar who’d recommended the performance to her students. And a couple of different local venues were starting to chat with me about booking several of my shows in their theatres!

Two more audience reviews showed up on line:

Caught his 6:00 show on Tuesday and what a fantastic show. Tim is extremely engaging and a true performer. My head is still reeling over his Antony speech from Julius Caesar. Definitely a must-see. Ryan Powell

Tim_Mooney_Kicks_Bottom. Tristan

And a couple of less universally positive reviews. I don’t agree with the conclusions that they reach, but I’ll resist the desire to comment:

Tim Mooney has memorized 40-plus Shakespeare soliloquies and sonnets with a promise to perform a surprise mix every show according to the whims of his spinning bingo cage. Even delivered out of context, the speeches of Richard III, King Lear and lesser-known Timon still stir our admiration for how the Bard's words jump and play. Unfortunately, Mooney is too steadily playful. His thin voice dips and rises and his hands fly, as if punctuating syllables hard will translate Elizabethan phrasing better and faster. Lot o' Shakespeare would be better if we got less and felt more. Josefa Beyer, Nuvo

With a monologue from each of Shakespeare's plays and some sonnets, Timothy Mooney invites audiences to play IAGO (his version of BINGO) randomly deciding what and when he performs. Mooney's feat of memorizing such a vast amount of language is no doubt impressive. His handle on Shakespeare's text makes for a completely accessible performance from beginning to end, regardless of the obscurity of the chosen monologue. Yet as he moves from character to character, Mooney's readings begin to run together as he fails to find unique qualities for each mask he dons. His readings seem rote, with little wiggle room from performance to performance. Yet when simply speaking a sonnet, Mooney drops any "actory" pretense, finally sharing a moment of honesty and truth. Regardless, he is clearly an entertainer at heart, and worth seeing for that alone. Katelyn Coyne

Two more performances yet to go, Thursday night at 9:00 and Saturday afternoon at 4 pm. These should be prime opportunities to sell out, if the “buzz” keeps up!

Speaking of Buzz, here's a late entry of a review from a fellow fringe touring artist:

Chances are, due to scheduling conflicts, I'm not going to get the opportunity to see Tim at Indy Fringe this year--but I still adore him and I'm not going to let that stop me from encouraging others to see him! I was lucky enough to catch Lot 'O Shakespeare during the Kansas City Fringe Festival this year and...well, I'll just say this: Tim's performance of the Saint Crispin's Day speech from Henry V is incredible--even better than Kenneth Branagh's Oscar nominated turn in the role. It gave me chills. Furthermore, I'll never be able to read or hear my favorite speech in all of Shakespeare--Marc Antony's from Julius Caesar--without thinking of the performance Tim delivered. There isn't much else to say, other than: I heart Tim Mooney. See Lot 'O Shakespeare. Lydia Ballard

And another:

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Mooney's "Moliere Than Thou" back when I was in college. It was interesting, entertaining, funny, unique, and, if one were to let down their guard, educational. The same can be said of this new show. The selection process is random, so don't come in expecting a perfunctory "Shakespeare's Greatest Hits," but Mooney's performances will more than make up for the potential absence of some famous favorites (but do you really need to hear Hamlet's soliloquy for the hundredth time?). If the opportunity arrives to make requests, I would recommend asking for his Titus Andronicus. -- Randy Cox

Whoops! We're not done yet! Now we've got TWEETS coming in! Yes! For the first time ever, The View From Here is quoting TWEETS! What are we coming to?

"Lot o Shakespeare" is a treat. Thrilling to hear many famous speeches & sonnets live for 1st time. #indyfringe

I won a t-shirt in Iago Bingo & wept over Antony's speech over Caesar's body. Lot o Shakespeare. #indyfringe #Indy #theatre

Not a tweet; an on-line review:

Wow...as a sometimes-dabbler in the Bard's works, I was thrilled to see the speeches I knew worked by such a great performer. Even more exciting though, were some I was less familiar with: sonnets and especially the monologue from King John. Go see this show! -- Pesky

Temperature: From 100+ in Kansas City, down to a manageable 75 in Indianapolis.

Miles on the Escape: 34,000

On the I-Pod: “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz

Discoveries: The Sonnets are the closest we can get to hearing Shakespeare’s actual “voice.” * People resent having the “rules” of the show change on them, unless you’ve set up that likelihood at the outset. Even so, they may have attachments to pieces that I might assume that they DON’T want to see. * Some of the discoveries or observations that I may make offhand about these Shakespeare works may be genuine revelations to people who didn’t instinctively come to those same conclusions. * Artificial groupings of play themes don’t necessarily result in increased attendance. The opposite may well be more likely. * Venue probably impacts sales by 50-100%. * Once I have clearly established that the spin of the cage is, indeed, random, taking requests keeps the audience engaged and happy. * Never “surrender” the likelihood of any monolgue’s success. Attack each one as if it were the best ping pong ball that the cage could have spit out at that particular moment. * The audience is as interested in what it is that draws ME to the monologue as they are in the plot description.

Next performances: “Moliere Than Thou” at The Chicago Fringe Festival, 2003 S. Halsted (Pilsen Neighborhood) September 1-5: Wednesday, 9/1, 8:30; Thursday, 9/2, 7 pm; Friday, 9/3, 5:30 pm; Saturday, 9/4, 2:30 pm; Sun, 9/5, 4 pm

The View From Here #144: UT, MN, FL, FL, PA

Somewhere, in there, British Petroleum started spewing toxic sludge into the Gulf of Mexico, denying how much they were spewing, how easy it would be to stop, how incapable they were of protecting the shores, and proceeded to say a number of impolitic things which quickly found them amongst the most despised corporations on the planet. … Let’s enjoy a couple photos of the gulf, while we still might.

As usual, when I hit the west coast, there’s lots more driving per performance than in the east, and with time on my hands, I dropped in on my brother Pat, my old college friend, Cil, Jayne from the Rogue Performance Festival, and Kirsten from High School, before swinging back up to Utah for a show at Snow College.

The hosts at Snow College were a really charming couple who’d built their own ecologically-green house tucked back into the mountains, complete with horses, a pond and hay.

Snow College had decided to pick up “Lot o’ Shakespeare” for a daytime assembly. I was performing in a large auditorium, with perhaps 600 seats. The technicians were late in arriving, and the need to project my voice to fill this space limited some of the subtleties and textured characterizations that I had managed to get across in previous performances, and yet, the audience continued to respond, applauding with each completed monologue. As I approached the end of the performance, with about 3 minutes remaining, I had to skip performing the (8-minute) “Twelfth Night” (Malvolio) monologue, which is one of my favorites.

After the show, a handful of theatre students lingered to visit, and asked about the “Twelfth Night” piece. I offered to do it for them, and they responded enthusiastically. My host extended an invitation to these students to join us for lunch at the local Asian restaurant, and we had a great visit, before I hit the road once again.


Continuing east, I got a little lost in Western Colorado, as what I thought would be a “scenic route” turned into a dead end, delaying me a couple of hours. I pushed on ahead, dropping in on friends at U of Denver and, upon hitting Omaha, I realized that I was about an hour away from Northwest Missouri State U, where they were producing my version of “Tartuffe” that weekend. Steering south, I made a surprise drop in on the matinee performance, which was very well done. I continued on to Minneapolis, and eventually to Brainerd, MN, where I was performing Moliere at Central Lakes College.

Patrick, my host at Central Lakes was actually an old student of mine from NIU, and we caught lunch and caught up on 20+ years of water under the bridge. There were several folks coming up from Minneapolis to catch the show that night, and I had a good feeling about the performance. The feeling paid off, as I finished off the Spring tour with one of my best shows of the year, with the audience tuned in and responding to just about everything.

Patrick belatedly got the idea that it would be good to have me drop in on a class the next morning, but as that would delay my start for home by several hours, I begged off, and we agreed to take it up another time.

At home I “hit the ground running,” immediately starting up the big e-mail campaign for the 2010-2011 bookings. I had the new Shakespeare show to promote, and had begun collecting some enthusiastic quotes to promote it. I also had five Fringe Festivals and two Conferences coming up over the summer, and wanted to put the campaign behind me as early as I possibly could. In particular, I wanted to get the 15,000-plus e-mails (!) out to the various faculty before they all left for the summer.

And so, I worked my way through the states, and the inbox piled up, and my back cramped up, and I worked it off with exercise and massage and worked through more states, and gathered inquiries and questions in the inbox, and designed new stickers and new flyers and postcards for Fringe publicity, and worked through more states.

And I paused to do the Pathways weekend once again, once again getting jazzed for everything I intended to accomplish, and for whatever life might throw my way.

Somewhere in there, we discovered that Dad was rethinking his future.

With me on the road most of the time, Dad had been rattling around by himself in a big empty house.

And he decided that it was time to sell.

After almost fifty years in the same place, he was starting to throw out the old and pack up the stuff he wanted to keep. The place that I’d lived in, off and on, since I was two, was going up for sale.

Which meant that I had the need, and the opportunity, to find a between-trips place to settle down.

I started thinking about all of the cities that I’ve visited over recent years, with a new eye toward where I might actually want to settle in and stay. Chicago winters were not a necessary fact of life. Chicago cost-of-living was not a fait accompli. A fresh start in a new place began to spark my imagination… But where to go?

With this in mind, I headed off to the Orlando Fringe Festival.

Passing through Louisville … hmmm.

Stopping in Chattanooga … heyyyyy…

Pushing through Atlanta… nnnnnnn…

And, on to Orlando, where I stayed once again with Al and Gail. Only this year, there was no rain, and it was plenty warm enough to swim out back during the day.

This year, I had a new show… a new one that was more like stand-up comedy, and poetry and serious-but-funny monologues and dance. It was a risky new exploration, and it went over very well…

“A fun and candid romp… he has you laughing and nodding in agreement over certain moments that we can all relate to in one way or another. What helps is Mooney’s manic but fantastically timed performance, mixing up Suessian-like rhymes with engaging monologues. Kelly Fitzpatrick, Orlando Sentinel

“A high energy meditation... Using first person horror stories and poetic monologs, the show is filled with innuendo and clever word play... using the word “Circumnavigate” in a way even the OED doesn’t cover… Carl F. Gauze, Ink19.com

Captivating…. Delicacy, honesty and humility… The intimacy I felt was powerful, and will not be forgotten. Lisamarie Addams

It was eye-opening to say the least... I was not prepared however for the look into the mirror your performance created for me... The truths were undeniable and so real they filled the air around me... Thank you sincerely for... your creativeness, expression, and your ability to dance through it all. John Brockman

While I was there, a radio producer who’d seen my show decided he really liked my voice, and hired me, first to do a single character in a single commercial, and then to do the main voice for a 5-commercial series for a renegotiate-your-debt company. Supposedly, these commercials should be playing on the Sirius network by now.

Also, a photographer (Tisse, of TisseArt.com), who’d snapped some shots of my Moliere show last year, returned to take some photos of the new show, and set up a separate photo session for me on the last Sunday of Fringe, capturing some really nice shots. Between this and the voiceover session, and the nice reviews it seemed that the universe was really stepping up to take care of me on this trip.

I raced home, through Atlanta, Chattanooga and Louisville, once again. I discovered that Chattanooga has a special program, aimed at wooing artists to their city. Artists can, in fact, apply for a grant to underwrite the costs of moving to Chattanooga. Hmm.

Back at home, I pushed through the big 15,000 piece e-mailing, sending off that last e-mail at 5:30 pm on June 11, envisioning that as being the moment that every teacher in the country was packing up and knocking off for the summer.

And right about then I dove in on packing up… sorting papers, boxing up books, giving away clothing… lightening the load.

I did the math on my schedule. As of late July, I would be off to Fringe festivals for about 6 weeks, followed by about ten weeks of touring the country. I wouldn’t be back home for any appreciable time until Thanksgiving.

And by that time, for all I know, the old homestead would be sold.

There’d be little point to moving into a new space before July, given that I would be paying for, but not enjoying, a new place. Rather, I decided I would move out as much as I possibly could (storing stuff in April’s garage), until Thanksgiving presented itself with whatever new landscape life lay out in front of me.

I was about to head back down to Florida once more, with plans to maintain a table in the lobby at the American Association of Community Theatres festival happening in Venice. But the day before, a call came in from the festival coordinator: This being the International Festival, there were performers coming to Venice from all over the world, but in this case, the group from Zimbabwe were looking “iffy” about showing up. Would I make myself available to perform in their scheduled slots? “Of couuuuurrrrsssse!”

Back on the road once more! Stopping in Clarksville! In Chattanooga! In Calhoun! And on to Venice. Which was about 100 degrees the whole time I was there!

Almost immediately after arriving, I met a girl who’d seen “Moliere Than Thou” when I performed it in Sarasota a couple of years before. I immediately knew that she would be the perfect volunteer for the “Doctor” scene. Meanwhile, I set up my table in the lobby, and chatted with the neighboring vendors, visited with Linda from Dramatic Publishing, and dropped in to watch shows here and there.

By the time my performance came up on Friday afternoon, the audience had largely been through a half-dozen shows in foreign languages (including some brilliant performances, most notably the “Miracle Worker” from Russia), and they seemed ready for a little English.

Of course they got more than their share of English from me, and they laughed big time. So much that I think they added 10 minutes to the show. The volunteers were really talented, and we did it all again on Saturday, with standing ovations for both performances. Of course, I got about 100 times more exposure than I would have gotten had I only had the table in the lobby, and several community theatre folks were starting to talk about booking my show in their theatres.

Meanwhile, I was meeting folks from the local theatre, and from around the world (the Australians were a lot of fun), and the local Venice Moliere expert and I got into a big Moliere pow-wow on closing night.

The next to last night of the festival was punctuated with a lot of dancing at an outdoor bar by the gulf, and given that the temperature was still around 100 degrees, I was soon pretty drenched. (Photos are floating around on Facebook.) At the closing night banquet, they awarded me a certificate and I accepted it with a brief 2-sentence speech: “Your lovely eyes make me die of love,” and “Peace on Earth; good will towards men.”

A week or two later, a review of my performance showed up on “aislesay.com” from a woman I’d met at the festival:

When travel problems prevented a Zimbabwe Group from performing at the American Association of Community Theatres International "Festival in Paradise" 2010, Timothy Mooney moved from promoting to presenting his one-man comedy Moliere Than Thou. It's an anthology of Mooney's translated scenes from Moliere's classic, still very funny and relevant comedies introduced by Mooney. In typical 17th century curled wigs and costume he can change by adding a tie or shedding a jacket, Mooney gives the setting and "point" of each selected play before assuming its principal role. Moliere has never been more accessible.

With a white wig, Mooney becomes crusty old Arnolphe in School for Wives, who shielded his ward Agnes since the age of 4 from all men, so that he might eventually wed her without rivals. He speaks to Agnes as if in his audience of how contact with young men can lead to perdition. Talking of Satan, he gets (actually) carried away! Back on stage, duded up, he's the Bourgeoise Gentilhomme with his silly ways and pretentious language. As he pulls out his shirt over plain trousers, shedding embellishments of clothing and hair, Mooney becomes the religious hypocrite Tartuffe. As Moliere he explains his effort to make his villain "an independent charlatan" -that is, not one of any specific religion, then as Tartuffe launches into an attempted seduction of his patron's wife, Elmire. Using an audience member to read her part, Mooney makes the most out of the coughs by which she's supposed to expose Tartuffe. He proves very skilled at evoking audience participation (later it's by a man listening to Scapin) without making his participants act silly. When he romps through the audience as Scapin or solicits for a "theatrical curtain fund," he's quite acrobatic and appealing.

As Sgnarelle in Don Juan, as the title character in the still pertinent medical send-up The Doctor In Spite of Himself, and as an uninspired nobleman pretending to be clever before a group of ladies, Mooney varies his poetic, satirical, and vocal tones. He's truly what the French call an homme orchestre and, as Moliere and his characters, the "music" he produces most is laughter. Marie J. Kilker, www.aislesay.com

The next morning, I was headed home, making it back in two days, knowing that I had only about two days at home before heading off yet again.

I zipped off to pick Isaac up in Detroit (catching one of his swimming meets that night), continuing on to West Virginia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and eventually, Philadelphia, and the conference of the American Association of Teachers of French. The temperatures were once again poking up towards 100 degrees (global warming anyone?), and I got a bit of a foot blister walking around the national mall in D.C.

The Philadelphia conference gave Moliere and I (and Isaac) a warm reception, and there were lots of old friends who’d booked the show in the past (some who remembered Isaac from the Belgium trip two years ago), along with new folks who hadn’t seen the show before. This time, rather than the truncated collection of my favorite monologues that I usually present at this conference, I opened the floor to whatever requests the audience might want to make, which enabled me to share a couple of pieces that I don’t usually get the chance to explore, including “The Learned Ladies” and “The Imaginary Cuckold.”

While Isaac and I managed to get out for dinner a couple of times, and caught some fireworks on July 4, along with our old friend Jenni, the heat was oppressive, and we got back on the road as soon as the exhibit hall closed that afternoon. We stayed in a cheap Youngstown, Ohio hotel that night, and I asked Isaac whether this was all as glamorous as he might have envisioned my life on the road. After dropping Isaac off in Detroit, I managed to check in with Tommy Nugent, a fellow performer who’d done the Orlando Fringe with me a year before (also staying at the famous Al & Gail place).

From there, it was on home. I spent several days working and reworking the 2010-11 schedule, and writing all of the folks who’d written back following the Big Mailing, trying to nail down particular dates. Some were writing back and following through, and as long as the bookings keep coming in through the summer, it looks like this will be a pretty good year.

Meanwhile, it’s back to rehearsing “Lot o’ Shakespeare,” which is enjoying its “Fringe Premiere” at the Kansas City Fringe at the end of this month. There’s a new costume in the works, new props (a sword and a dagger), Sonnets to add to the list of soliloquies, a reworked slide-show and “IAGO cards.” All the while packing up and touching base with more potential bookers. Given that I’m two months out from the beginning of the fall tour, I’m in pretty good shape.

And making one more editing pass on my Acting book, which I’m hoping to self-publish before the summer is done.

Miles on the Escape: 28,000
Attendance: 200 + 75 + 60 + 80 + 85 + 40 + 25 + 60 + 12 = 637
Temperatures: Up in the 90s and 100s, but finally settling down to the 80s in Chicago.
Discoveries: The universe sometimes steps up. * Need and opportunity are sometimes the same thing. * When you perform something with honesty, people will see themselves in it, whether or not the actual stories reflect their particular stories at all. * Sometimes life lays out a landscape for you to paint yourself into. And I have to trust that in that moment I will make the right decision, and be willing to wait for that moment to arrive. * Getting caught up in the day-to-day struggles of landing one more booking, I sometimes lose perspective on how many bookings are already landed. For once I can step back and say…I’m in good shape.
On the I-Pod: "Merry Happy" by Kate Nash
Next performances: “Lot o’ Shakespeare” at the Kansas City Fringe Festival, July 27-August 1