Autumn Update

Hello, blog. It's been a while.

It's my fault, I know. I'm not the faithful pen pal I should be. But Autumn is here and rainy days and colorful leaves just lend themselves to a hot cup of tea and letter writing so I feel confident you shall hear from me more often.

Today's blog post is about disappointments, miscommunications and feeling burnt out. I tend to take on the world all at once, without properly portioning out my time (and keeping my sanity in mind).

In my last few posts I was excited for the River City Rumble - Winnipeg's own Rockabilly festival. I had been asked in February to be part of the burlesque entertainment for the event. Throughout the year our burlesque sponsor kept us updated on everything she was told by the board regarding our performances and tried to get answers for us regarding things like how long they would like the performances to be, whether we would be performing twice (Saturday & Sunday) or just one day, if we were performing twice whether we would be doing the same performance or whether we should prepare multiple acts. We weren't given the answers to these questions in a timely fashion but we would have made do the best we could. However, shortly before the festival our burlesque sponsor was asked not to participate in the festival and when I was contacted directly by the RCR board I was informed that my burlesque act had to be "family friendly". It was explained to me that there were going to be children present at this event and that while the parents would be informed that burlesque was going on, there was no way guarantee that young children would not be in the room while my act was being performed.

Family Friendly. Burlesque. I'm not going to go into details here but I was very, very angered by this - partly because burlesque, to me, is a celebration of my body and I should not be told to hide my body in an art form where I deliberately show it off and partly because I was informed of this new requirement so close to the festival date that there was no time to create a new act. Because of this I declined to participate in the burlesque portion of the show. I was planning on attending the event but word got around that Roxi D'Lite was no longer coming to the RCR for exactly the same "family friendly" reasons that had prompted me not to perform. And that was too much disappointment to bear. I ended up not going to the River City Rumble as either a performer or a participant.

This summer I was also part of a Fringe show - Miss Mumford's Marvelous Mummy Unwrapping. I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to perform and meet so many great friends. That being said KUDOS to the professional actors and actresses who routinely do shows night after night after night! Hoo boy our show ran for seven nights and I was so exhausted by the time Fringe was over that I could have slept for a solid week. (I wish I had but the real world beckoned - pesky jobs ;-P ) One night in particular was particularly memorable as our lead actresses became too ill to perform, so I stepped in as the cousin from out of town who was helping to host the soiree while the maids each took it upon themselves to perform one of my tableaus. Talk about improv! We had so much fun dashing about stage with only a vague idea of how the play was supposed to end. It was my favorite performance of the week.

After Fringe however a lassitude set in. It was accompanied by a lack of enthusiasm for burlesque, a nagging dislike of my body and the sinking feeling that Winnipeg was just not the place for performance artists, despite the large collection that dwells here. I can't say that I'm completely over these feelings. My creative well is still churning out ideas but the fortitude to bring them to life is flagging. For the meantime I've decided to pursue some other forms of performing - I won't spoil the surprise of future blog posts by naming which ones - and connecting with other performers who deal/have dealt with similar issues.

Here's to getting back on the burlesque pony.

Saucily yours,
Miss Scarlet