Blind Date

It's a show.
It was the first time that I'd been to a show at the Harbourfront Centre and I quite liked it.
The premise for Blind Date is simple. An actress (Rebecca Northam) is going on a blind date set in a cafe in Paris. The date doesn't show up, but she selects a man from the audience to fill in and then who knows what will happen next.
The actress mingled with the audience beforehand, meeting people and basically sizing up the crowd and figuring out potential participants. The seating was intimate with people seated at tables and wine/water/beer/popcorn being sold. I got a major wave of insecurity.
Given everything that I've done in life and experiences I've had, I can't believe how incredibly shy I really am. I entered the room expecting it to be row seating which is completely unintimidating (to me) for someone attending the theatre on their own. When I saw the tables of four with candles and such and pretty much all of the tables already occupied with pairs or triplets of people, I had to take a moment to figure out my next step. One of the ushers (in character) approached me to help me find a seat, and interestingly enough, I was absolutely comfortable talking to him about this and that, laughing as his fake French accent, attempts to compliment me and his apparently astonishment that I was alone (which didn't bother me, even as I said it outloud), but as soon as he suggested that I join another table, I practically started to shake. It's something about meeting new people. Imposing myself. I don't know. I felt like I needed to retreat to the back of the room, which I eventually did and found an empty table to sit at.
Eventually, two pairs of people joined me (which didn't bother me at all, and I was quite happy chatting with them once they'd sat down) and I felt like I was at a pretty special table. We had a blast that night. One pair were ladies who had taken improv classes with Rebecca (one's not a realtor "to make money" and the other one's still in the industry as an editor). The other pair consisted of Rebecca's agent and his friend who was also in the industry as a writer. She said that she's got some kind of animated adult something-or-other coming up on TV.
Anyway, the show was wonderful. It was what exactly how I expected it. Awkward moments where the audience member didn't really know what to do/say. Funny moments where Rebecca put him on the spot. Of course there was a plan of where Rebecca wanted the piece to go, but as we heard in the Q&A session afterwards, there's always room for the piece to go into uncharted territories, which it did that night as well. I was a little surprised at the amount of PDA that happened on stage. I guess the guy loosened up quite a bit!
Even though I had an awkward moment at the beginning of the night, I'm so glad that I went because I laughed and had a great time.
The show is playing until the end of the week and they've just added extra seats to the showings (which are already sold out).

-picture courtesy of www.harbourfrontcentre.com