6/4/07 2:08pm

Yesterday was the FringeNYC Town Meeting, which upon retrospect was absolutely worth the trip up to New York to attend.

The meeting is generally to introduce everyone -- staff, artists, so on -- to one another, as well as to go over administrivia, the bulk of which I will spare you here.

The meeting was held at The Player's Theater, which has a very nice "Age of Opulence" feel to it, while still being rather intimate. We then all headed over to Washington Square Park (where bocci is played with the same intensity as baseball in other parts of the country), where the Village Voice people kindly provided us with lunch. (note to self: in the Village, "lunch outdoors" apparently involves some kind of French bread sliced hors d'oerves style with various strange toppings applied to it. It's always interesting to visit different cultures.)

Got to walk over to the park with Martin and Rochelle Denton from NYTheatre.com, who are wonderful people and amazingly supportive of the Festival. They're also some of the few people I've met other than myself who use the "re" rather than the "er" spelling of the word. As it turns out, Martin was a student at GW at the same time as Alan Wade, who I worked with on Enigma Variations at Washington Stage Guild. World shrinks every day.

This year they're starting up a podcast, which they recorded things for yesterday..so sometime in the next week or so you'll be able to hear my voice on their website -- I was the first one interviewed, for what it's worth.

During the meeting, a running joke became "JesusFringe," used to describe any of what turned out to be a decent amount of shows dealing with Jesus, Faith, or Biblical themes. I had a chance to talk to some of the reps for these shows at the picnic, and we're going to try to do some cross-marketing and generally supporting one another. I spent a good deal of time talking with H.R. Britton about Jesus Rant, which I'm looking forward to seeing; he'll be delving into the topics of the historical Jesus, and his own personal understanding of faith, which he says is more universalist, he's come to realize. Action Jesus is coming from Boston, Hillary Agonistes should be a fun take on Greek tragedy (and Hillary Clinton), and Animals includes gay unicorns. Which is awesome.

I've probably rambled on for far too long, but a lot happened yesterday. Before I close, a few notes:

* Never use the bathrooms in the LIRR wing of Penn Station, no matter what that pre-packaged turkey sandwich you bought on the train did to you. It's just not worth it.
* Waterfront Ale House is not near the waterfront, but their beer selection is passable, and their menu is intriguing. (Buffalo and Kangaroo on the same menu?)
* If you decide to walk from the Village, to a restaurant, then to Times Square, to Port Authority, and finally back to Penn Station, your feet will no longer fit in your shoes. Plan accordingly.

I'm done now. I've rambled on long enough. Look for Myspace/Facebook groups/events this week. Also, if you're reading this, I'm assuming you've seen, but just in case, the website's up.

Peace!
Jarrod