Don't worry, FringeNYC is fine...

I just received the following e-mail:

Hey, Ludlow Lad,

I'm writing to introduce myself, and to put your mind at ease. My name is Elena K. Holy, and I'm the Producing Artistic Director of The Present Company (producers of FringeNYC). I've been alerted to your blogging about the 2007 festival, and I wanted to let you know that firstly, I SO appreciate your kind words about the festival, and secondly, we're on track, don't worry! Your concern is so appreciated.

The applications should be up in a matter of days. As you probably know, there are two of us who work at the Present Company. All of the rest of the staff members are volunteers. Four or five years ago, we converted to an "online" application process. This saved us a few weeks of data entry time, which we converted into a few additional weeks of adjudication time. It's working beautifully. This year, our sql database guru volunteer (who converts the word documents that I make into fill-out-able pdf's and sql databases) moved to London. This is fine, since she is one of the many volunteers who contribute to the festival from all over the world - I haven't seen her in person for a few years anyway! However, she has had a bit of a time getting stable internet service in her new "flat". British Telecom issues. But all is well now. That is one of the reasons we were delayed a bit.

The other reason is that Shelley Burch, our beloved Board President (and the Administrative Director of the festival for years) gave birth to a beautiful little girl on October 30th. In November, after we've closed the books (so to speak) on the prior festival, we have a great deal of analysis to do in order to make any changes to the festival. Every change effects the applications -

So it (understandably!) took a while for these changes to get approval from our very busy Board President. I also take my "big" vacation at Thanksgiving - to be with the entire extended family at the farm in Georgia. It's my one big break during the entire year - and is very restorative. And fattening. And wonderful. This year I took a whole week off.

Oh! And sorry - I hadn't noticed presentcompany.org was down. I'm looking for a new hosting service. . . I'll remove the link from FringeNYC (I learned Dreamweaver!).

Anyway. That's MUCH more than you wanted to know, but since I can't seem to get an approval to be a member of All That Chat, you should feel free to post this reply (or your version of this reply) to let everyone know that FringeNYC '07 is going to be great ("it's eleven - it's like ten, but it's one more") and the apps should be up within a few days.

Tell everyone thanks for their concern. It really means the world to me and everyone at FringeNYC that you give a hoot whether FringeNYC happens. So cool...

Warm regards,
Elena