Restrictions and Lockdown have represented all sorts of challenges to various people. One of them has certainly been the fact that, for a while, we could no longer gather in large numbers at an indoor location. Which meant, of course, that all forms of live entertainment had to shut down for the duration. A live audience represented too large of a social gathering.
Inevitably, this affected a lot of people. There were those who love attending live shows who were suddenly cut off from enjoying their favorite form of entertainment. Just as significantly, however, there were folks out there who make their livelihood on live performance who have taken a serious kick to their savings account.
One of those folks is local actor/writer Rob Tymec.
“People don’t realize just how tough it’s been on us.” Tymec explained in a recent interview (on Zoom, of course), “Everyone else at this stage is, pretty much, back to work and has been for a bit. People working in my industry have barely dipped their toe back into the workpool.”
Fortunately, now that we’ve moved into Stage Three, Rob Tymec can start working again. There are still a lot of tricky restrictions in place, however. Fortunately for Rob, he puts on a style of entertainment that works quite easily around most of them.
Rob loves to do one-man shows.
“The biggest problem with putting on a play, right now,” Rob elaborates, “is that actors have to maintain social distance and wear protective gear while they perform together. This will impede with the effectiveness of the scenes they’re playing out. Everything will look a whole lot more unnatural in order for the actors to protect themselves and each other. I don’t have to worry about that. As long as I am appropriately distanced from my audience, I run no risk of infecting anyone.”
And so, Rob has started booking in his one-man shows with various local venues that are looking to start having activity in them. His first show will be on Saturday, September 12th, at the super-trendy downtown bar: Meteor.
“Meteor is the perfect place to do this sort of thing.” the writer/actor enthuses, “It’s operated by very cool and progressive owners who want to be more than just a run-of-the-mill downtown bar. They want to offer something different.”
Tymec begins his run with one of his favorite plays: A Hero’s Journey Through Plot Inconsistencies. A script he wrote himself that deals with Geek Culture and one of its favorite pastimes: nitpicking.
“Sci-fi tends to attract pedants.” Rob admits, “I know this because I’m one of them. I stay up late at night with other nerdy friends and we talk about all the mistakes that were made in the crafting of the things we love most. Like the way Luke and Leia never seem to freak out over the fact that they are siblings but that they kissed before they knew this. Or how the Klingons in the original Star Trek look nothing like the Klingons we see in any other Star Trek franchise. Those are a couple of the bigger inconsistencies. There are tonnes of them, of course. Because creating sci-fi realities is a very tricky thing and you’re bound to slip up a bit here and there.”
The main thrust of Hero’s Journey takes advantage of this character trait. It concerns a man that has been sent on a mission by a superior alien civilization to travel through various popular sci fi realities and point out the mistakes that were made in their plotting. In a silly, over contrived way, his nitpicking will save the Universe.
Because Rob is a pretty hardcore geek, himself, he is most passionate about this one-man show. But, at this point, he has a fairly comprehensive catalog of plays like this that he is circulating among the various owners and operators of suitable venues. Several of them are in the process of booking him in.
“If all goes well, people will be seeing me in quite a few places over the next little while.” Tymec hopes, “Acting out tales of all kinds with no one else but myself. It’s a very fun way to perform, actually. And a lot of people tend to enjoy watching these, too. So it’s a win-win situation for everyone – especially since it’s a safe way to do live theatre, right now.”
The whole tour begins, however, at Meteor Bar. All restrictions will be respected to maintain public safety. Which means, of course, that capacity will be limited. So, if you missed being able to attend live theatre, you might want to get there early.
This is the first time since lock-down that a live play is being performed in Windsor. It may fill up fast!
Meteor Bar
138 University Ave (Upstairs)
Windsor, ON
Saturday, September 12, 8PM
Ticket Price Special: Pass the Hat!!!
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