by Carolynne Wilcox

Back before in February of this year, before MythFest graced The Pocket's roving stages, my cohorts participated in something of a preview/showcase event of upcoming attractions, where they showed a brief glimpse into the world of MythFest. I was in Mexico on the beach (which was just HORRIBLE and filled with suffering as I'm sure you can imagine).

Also part of this showcase was a singer/songwriter who sang of myth and tale. They all met her, listened to her stuff and thought she was amazing. We considered asking her to be part of our show at the time, but felt it was just too short notice.

Several months later, embarking upon our remounts, we thought it was a perfect time to see if she'd be interested and/or available to join us for our Fringe Fest shows, and maybe the remount at The Pocket...and she said YES!

So without further adieu, I present Abi Grace, singer-songwriter-storyteller extraordinaire! She's been performing since the age of 16, and currently, her music "intertwines elements of mythology and magic in attempt to explore the complicated and exhilarating experience of being human."  Sounds like a perfect fit for MythFest!

We are beside ourselves with enthusiasm to welcome her to our little group of goddesses, and hope you'll come listen to her beautiful and haunting melodies as a part of the show in September!

Learn more about Abi Grace HERE. Learn more about MythFest HERE.

     We had our photo shoot this past Thursday, and the weather somewhat cooperated by at least being dry and dropping by a couple degrees, but it was still pretty hot out, and some of us were in a *mood* for various and totally legitimate reasons that had nothing to do with MythFest and everything to do with things like traffic, technology and transportation issues!

     Location photo shoots, especially in public places, are always interesting, though I felt I'd done a pretty good job of finding a place with less foot & auto traffic, than, say, the column park on the corner of Pike and Boren. However, as we were getting ready to start up, a fitness group came by to do a workout in the space! They were really nice and neither group got in each other's way, but it was definitely an interesting element to work with, i.e. trying to artfully angle the shots so we didn't end up with spandex-clad aerobicizers in the background.

     It took us a little over an hour, but we managed to get most of what we were interested in, especially some fun, stylized shots of us with red scarves over our faces...I feel like a bit of a broken record with this image (having used it now, several times) but I can't help it - it's a striking image. Judge for yourself - I've included a couple of Stephanie's shots below, amid a couple of my *far less superior* phone shots.

by Carolynne Wilcox

AH! The inaugural post of what I *hope* becomes many more, especially as we get cooking here in the countdown to Seattle Fringe Festival - we are eagerly awaiting to hear our times and venue, and will post it and probably scream it all over town once we do know, because that's just the kind of excited we are to remount MythFest!

Towards that end, we have a shoot today for publicity photos, up at...I'm not really sure if it's a park, exactly, or a public area connected with the building next to it (which MAY be a church of some kind - will have to investigate further this evening) - but it's at the corner of 15th and Union up on Capitol Hill and - has four lovely, Greek-looking columns as well as some nice archways. And the weather has cooperated by becoming cloudy and much cooler, which bodes well for us delicate Seattle flowers who positively *wilt* when the temperature climbs above 80 (it has been in the mid-80's/90's for the past two weeks)! Especially since we will be wearing black.

I love "art directing" (if that's what you call it...) photo shoots for theatre - publicity photos aren't meant to be actual show photos, so you can have some fun with them. I'll also be designing the poster from what we get at this photo shoot so have to make sure we've got some great, evocative action shots!

Will elaborate more tomorrow on the shoot itself...

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Carolynne Wilcox is a co-founder of Mythodical Ensemble.