Category: Theatre

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Play lab begins

What is Playlab, you ask. Playlab is a one-week intensive session with a dramaturge working on an existing play to bring a draft to a final production version. Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse hosts this yearly, picking five playwrights’ works that will be the most likely produced by nakai in the near future. My play, And, on the Second Day was picked this year.

When I was asked if I’d submit it, I was quite happy. I did some changes from my list of edit notes, and sent the newest along with what I was hoping to do to the dramaturge who was coming up for this. Then, I decided to check out a bit on the guy coming up in the Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre  online. Yowsers. This guy’s CV is… long and distinguished to say the least. Now, to say I’m a little intimidated is an understatement. Look for yourself here.

Scary issues aside, I’m looking forward to our first meeting tomorrow morning. I’m not sure how scheduling, etc., will go; however, I have the camper partly ready and may go to a lake nearby and spend a day or two of writing somewhere else for a change. I did my final edits at the campground a few weeks ago, and was far more productive than I would have been sitting around the house. Of course, productivity will be greatly aided since I’m not taking the boat or the fishing gear…

 

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I think it was a success

Another Homegrown Festival comes to an end and the reading of my new play seemed to go over well. We had reasonably sized audiences, about 20 the first night and then about 50 the next two evenings. The cast and I have heard feedback and no ones seems to have had anything negative.

Cast picture

The cast. Front row, L-R: Tracy Erman, Mary Sloan, Sophia Marnik, Tim Green, Doug Rutherford. Back row, L-R: Winluck Wong, Dave Paquet, Loughran Thorson-Looysen, Daniel Dunphy, Santana Berryman, Kieran Poile, Colin Milne.

 

There were a few interesting issues that showed up. I did learn early that, due to a rescheduling of a course he needed for certification, one cast member wouldn’t be available for opening night. That was simple to deal with, since I would read his part that night. However, with the show starting at 7 PM, I had a cast member pull out because he was booked to dance in another performance. Since the performance schedule was set in lots of time, I wasn’t happy.

I was still wondering what to do, other than read the two parts (it is amazing what you can get aways with in a stage reading), when I went to the theatre and saw a friend sitting in the lobby. I dragooned him into doing on the spot, and he did it perfectly, and almost cold since he had less than an hour with the script.

The final night took a bit of juggling when one of the cast was lowered by the flu. This involved a slight shift, with another cast member reading the part of the main protagonist and I read his part. For some reason, no one thought I would be a good teenager…

Thanks to the cast, and the Homegrown Festival people who all contributed to make this a lot of fun and let me get this in front of an audience…

 

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Dress down, opening night left to come

Rehearsal is over. Tonight, we teched the play and had dress rehearsal. Now, we are set for opening night on Wednesday.

We are doing it as a staged reading. There are a number of reasons for doing this. The cast is large. There are 10 speaking parts and one person to read stage instructions. If we actually produced the play, we would need to cast an additional five non-speaking roles. Further, a fight director is needed for four scenes. The festival calls for three performances, which would call for a substantial amount of time, effort, and it would be difficult to do, given that the play is still in development. Also, several of the cast members are high school students, close to the end of their studies.

So, now I get to wait. There’s something nerve-wracking about debuting a play. I presume I will survive it…

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Editing, editing, editing

I’ve received some comments from friends on the play I am currently writing. This is more than helpful.

When you work in a bubble of self, there are things you will invariably miss, particularly true when, like me, you mentally image what you write. While something may be rather obvious to me in that mental picture, it may not make itself to the script. Sadly, I’m the only one that can see those mental images (or, hopefully, I’m the only one who can see those mental images). It is nice to have someone point out things that don’t add up, errors in continuity, or omissions.

By the way, this is not an easy job. You have to look at someone else’s work dispassionately, often working word to word, to find the problems that have not occurred to the author. It takes a lot of time as well… time people have often donated of their free will.

So, let me take this chance to say, “Thank you” to all who have given their time and effort to make someone else’s work better. Your suggestions may not all be used; however, your work is deeply appreciated, nonetheless…

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Homegrown Theatre Festival

My application form and fee are in for the 2014 Nakai Theatre Homegrown Theatre Festival. This runs from May 6-11 in Whitehorse and looks to promote local theatre developers. Most productions get three runs through the festival.

This year, I am entering the play I started writing last January. It’s presently called And on the second day, although this is its second and fourth title. I started writing it after the Newtown shootings and it deals with school shootings, from the perspective of the shooter.

I’m going to do it as a reading, as things stand now. The play has a large cast, a total of 15 with 10 speaking parts. I’m not sure, given how popular the festival is and how hard it is to get people, if I will get all 10, but I can have some people read more than one part. I looked to try and “cull the herd”  bit, but there is no way to tell the story without this many characters.

So, I’m still doing final edits. I’ll probably be looking for readers sometime in March and will put out a call for people then.

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Meeting with the dramaturg

I spent about 1½ hours yesterday meeting with David Skelton, Artistic Director at Nakai Theatre, for some dramaturgy work on the draft of my new play. This is a free service provided by the company, which is largely concerned with local theatre development and one which I heartily endorse… and exploit.

The whole idea behind the 24 hour challenge, although actually called the playwriting challenge, is really to come up with a draft. Mine was started earlier, but still is really in its very early stages (despite the fact that I’m on the fourth title for it). I was a little stuck on a few parts. There were things that really needed strengthening and clarifying.

That being said, I came away with more questions than I had earlier. That, however, is a good thing, since these are ones that, when answered, will help bring this beast to its knees.

All in all, I don’t often walk away thinking, “That was a great meeting…”

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Another Nakai Playwriting Challenge comes to a happy end

I entered the Nakai 24 Hour Playwriting Challenge (it used to be Festival but that seems to have changed) again this year. I wanted to work on a play I had started in January, planning to enter the category for play already in development.

That part is called the Nakai Next 24 Hour Challenge. I thought, with a prize for best new play, shouldn’t there be one called Best Used Play? This suggestion has been frowned upon by the hosting organization, by the way.

After the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, I wanted to look at the question of school shootings and why someone would actually do it? What would make a person take one or more firearms to school and use them?

After a little preliminary research, I found that this a far more frequent occurrence than most of us believe, and in most cases, does not reflect the ones we see displayed on the national news organizations as a whole. In fact, my underlying question has changed now to, “Why doesn’t this happen more often.”

The short version is I won (second time in three years, he gloated). Now, it’s time to shift gears and look at putting the play in the upcoming Homegrown Theatre Festival in May. Right now, I looking at doing a reading of the full play. This, however, means I will be looking for 10 readers (it has a rather large cast). A call for readers will go out later…

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Fracture Zone update

A quick update on what’s happening with a play I’m producing…

I’ve been asked what’s the future for Fracture Zone. The answer is that I’m looking at doing two more rewrites. The first is before booking a theatre and doing a two-week short run to workshop it out in March of next year. I’m also looking at submitting it for a theatre festival in Vancouver for next May.

If you are a local actor, note that a call for auditions will be going out in a few months. I’ll post it in the usual place (round up the usual suspects?) and so you should keep your eyes open. There are 3 characters, a male in his 40s or 50s, a male in his 30s and and female in her 30s to 40s.

At the moment, I’m still working on timeline and budget things, so I’m not ready to do the call yet…

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The things we learn

I have been on the high and low hunt for my mother’s birth certificate for about a day and a half. Eventually, I found it. However, I found a few other things in my search.

I found a few pictures, including one of me when I was much younger, wearing nothing but a strategically placed guitar. I also found the two letters of reference my father used when he joined the Navy in 1947.

The one I found most enlightening… and surprising, was the one written by his high school principal. It listed that he had passed all of his subjects, except the optional French and Latin. Then it listed the two subjects in which he excelled. Mathematics was not a surprise, given that he worked in marine engineering. The second, however, threw me for a loop, as it would be one of the last subjects I expected.

My father excelled in Drama…

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Ambition level: zilch

I have a number of things I really would like to get around to doing. The camper repairs need finishing, the boat needs seasonal setup, the mosquito vac needs fixing and so on.

I also have the last showing of the play tonight, but plenty of time to get to most of these things. However, I seem to have no ambition today whatsoever. I’ve run through my lines twice. All seems well, so I probably could go out and work.

After a little thinking, I’ve decided I’m going to take things easy and enjoy today. After all, it’s the last day of a run and I think I’m due for a little laziness.

Maybe, if I call it efficiency, since it looks exactly the same as laziness, it will sound a bit better…