Gordon,
In answer to your question on having to get gigs fast....
First, I'd contact everyone I did a show for and ask for referrals, giving them a FREE show for every referral that turned into a show. This isn't a risk for me because I know that every show I perform turns into at LEAST 4 other shows throughout the year.
Second, if I have to use social media, I would use copy that sold my shows and see if I could book some shows that way.
Thirdly, still using social media, I would offer a FREE show, with directions to contact me for information. I would make sure that the school getting the FREE show would allow me to mail a snail mail letter to all their friends at other schools AFTER I gave them a great show.
I may have mentioned this before, I did the exact thing with a pre-school director and booked an ENTIRE summer of shows this way.
No reason that a variation of this couldn't work today.
Perhaps someone could offer to do a FREE analysis of a business and then ask for 3 referrals. I seem to remember Paddi Lund, the highly successful Australian dentist, asked for 3 referrals BEFORE he actually started work on a patient.