To All The Shows I've Loved Before...

...and even those I haven't...

Well, dang it all if the Fringe hasn't arrived and I'm still not done yapping about it and now I've got shows to go see and review (yay! and boo!)

As you'll see in the sidebar to the left, I really did try to start back in April (there were countless emails to artists and even a handful of entries), but May and June were consumed with, oh, silly things like

my writing - Bedlam Theatre's Ten Minute Play Festival -

and Fringe-related duties - the TV show, the producing of Fast Fringe 1 and 2, the ramp-up for rehearsals of the play I wrote Dandelion Snow -

and really silly things like my day job (which is steadfastly refusing to calm down for Fringe season).

Seriously, in my own peculiar way, I love you all (but there's no need to file a restraining order - even the guys who I said were cute, really, I'm harmless - it's probably why I'm still single, I'm just not persistent enough to be a stalker).

I have indeed received the emails and show cards and pleas and so much more and I am flattered by the attention.

My top ten and other shows I've profiled (Sure Things, Honorable Mentions, While You're At It, Hidden Gems, Save This Show From Its Title, Guilty Pleasures, and so many more...) are completely and wildly subjective and in many cases, just like last year, I have no idea what I'm in for and my mind will change as I actually experience the many shows ahead of me.

I will endeavour to keep throwing out random suggestions throughout the festival and mention shows I have not as yet seen. And I still haven't published my schedule for Sunday, 8/8 and beyond, so there's a lot more territory to cover.

I will hit the Fringe site show pages of the shows I see as soon after I see them as I can and post a little mini-review (just like last year, because I know that's where people look first) and I will then later (hopefully sooner) post a more detailed review on my blog as I am able (just like last year). So feel free to keep checking back.

If you don't want to scroll down through all these entries, you can go to my website (www.matthewaeverett.com) and hop through a list of each of the articles individually in the section entitled "In My Humble Opinion." My goal is to keep posting these new entries in both places as simultaneously as I can.

I would have posted more yesterday but I spent the better part (or worse part) of the afternoon and evening defusing a situation that shouldn't have happened which quite literally threatened to cause one of my shows not to be in the Fringe at all, less than 24 hours before the Fringe was supposed to start. The parties and the show shall remain nameless but as a subtle chiding to the two people involved in the incident - please remember that I have a blog (which appears to have an audience) and I'm not afraid to use it. (Insert strained smiley face here)

Right now, it's about time for me to go to the day job for four hours, and then go pick up my mom (and special guest reviewer on Friday and Saturday) at the airport and begin the great Fringe rush of 2004.

Break a leg, one and all. I can't wait to see your shows and help tell the rest of the Fringe about them. Thanks for all your hard work.

(For more of my writing - plays, past blog entries and more - visit www.matthewaeverett.com)