Grinder's Grumblings

That's right folks! It may be winter now, but we're getting ready for the biggest and busiest time at Grinder Productions, the summer seasons at the Ennotville Library and The Belwood Hall. I hope you'll be able to come out and join us for a sneak peak - read all about it in the letter we've sent to our tourism partners below! Greetings! We would like to invite you to come out to a special "sneak preview" of the shows that Grinder Productions will be producing this summer at the Ennotville Library and the Belwood Hall. This evening will allow everyone the opportunity to learn more about Grinder Productions and to see a preview of the wonderful shows that will be coming up this summer. We hope you will be able to attend on Saturday February 2nd at 8pm at the Ennotville Library. We will present short dramatic readings of each of the scripts, along with descriptions of the shows, with refreshments to follow, and a chance to mingle with the movers and shakers o...

Monday morning.... Most people don't like Mondays - it's back to work, to school, to the dreary routines of life. But they've had all weekend to rest up! In theatre, you're at work until 9 or 10 or 11pm on later Saturday night (worse if there's the dreaded Sunday matinee), so the weekend should just be starting on Monday morning. Unfortunately, since the rest of the world doesn't have its weekend on Monday and Tuesday, if you don't get back to work right away they call you a slacker. So here I am, staring through a caffeine-boosted fog, back to work after a weekend of performances. I'll admit, it wasn't as good of a weekend as I wanted. We had an audience for two of the three shows, and we never broke into the double digits. Still, it's a start. Something to build upon. And the chance to build is coming right up. This Saturday we'll be producing "Summer's Coming" at the Ennotville Library. This will be a preview of all th...

Sorry I missed you yesterday! I've been very busy getting these shows ready. I'll maybe talk to you on Thursday quickly again, but if I don't manage to get a minute I'll make my plug now - please come to one of the shows this weekend! I am trying to get as many people out as I can - help me bring this company back to life! Eric

Good Monday morning, everyone (hey it's a stretch for me too). Well here we are, production week for Resurrection, and just under two weeks away from Summer's Coming, on the cusp of starting rehearsals for The Hollow, and I'm starting to get the ball rolling on our February events as well. Whatever am I going to do with all the free time on my hands? Here's the information for Resurrection - just in case you missed it the first time around. I've been hearing some nice things about this show (Thank you Wellington Advertiser!) so we might actually get a few people out to see these shows. I certainly hope so. If you're sitting on the fence right now, what are you waiting for! As the week progresses I'll keep letting you know how these shows are going, but I'll also talk a lot more about our other upcoming events as well. Resurrection is the first programming of the "re-start" here at Grinder Productions, the first of many more to come. I hope ...

Yesterday was a slow day on the preparation front. Got a bit more material pulled together for Bad Words, but I was unable to get much done on the Come Play With Us front. This is only mildly distressing (children's theatre isn't my strong suit) but fortunately I have the weekend to sort it all out. Got lots accomplished on The Hollow, though, which is a good thing seeing as we're going to be going into rehearsals in just 9 more days. What I did get done yesterday was thinking. I used to worry that all the time I spent thinking about things was mere procrastination, and back in the day sometimes it was, but not any more. I am older and wiser now, and more intellectual in the ways I approach things. Now, rather than just wasting time when I am thinking over a problem, I am dissecting it, understanding it, finding its weakness and, ultimately, the most effective way to turn it from a problem into an opportunity and, eventually, a success. Of course, I still have a ways...

Going to take a bit of a departure today from my musings on the trials and tribulations of preparing for Resurrection at the Elora Centre for the Arts next weekend and let you know a bit about what I'm doing with all my free time, getting ready to direct Agatha Christie's The Hollow, going up this March 27th - 29th at the Fergus Grand Theatre. You may remember me talking about the audition process last week in preparations for this past Saturday's "Cattle Call," as those in the business facetiously refer to mass auditions as. It was, contrary to the stereotype, a very pleasant (though oddly draining) experience, and I'm pleased to report that we have been able to cast the show with much less and pain and suffering than is always entirely possible when working with such a large cast (6 men and 6 women). We have a nice mix of people too, from experienced veterans of many shows (with Grinder and others), to newcomers who are trying this theatre thing for the ver...

It's been a while since I created shows like this. When I started out with Grinder Productions it was my intention to produce exclusively my own work, and to entertain any outside scripts only if others brought them to me, and I would conisder those projects on a case-by-case basis. Then reality hit me like a ton of bricks and I realised that no one cared about a writer they'd never heard of telling them stories they didn't really want to acknowledge even existed. So I started buying scripts and paying royalties and doing shows that were well known and loved. Sometimes this had the desired effect, and the shows were successful, and sometimes they weren't, but at least we had a basis to work from that had at least once worked well enough for someone else to get a production out of it, so theoretically it made life easier. Now dealing with the companies that grant amateur royalties isn't much fun, especially when you haven't really got enough money to afford w...

Well I've changed my mind... again... about the 4th show this summer. Programming is tough! It's the one thing that most "Artistic Directors" (I use that word to describe myself with more than a little trepidation) are very eager NOT to talk about, the process that goes into the selection of material for their seasons. It is among the greatest responsibilities they have, and for many the source of their greatest power and influence. For those who are in the business for power and influence then, (and that's a lot of AD's) it is antithetical that they would ever divulge their "secrets" for picking shows. Well I've learned that power and influence in the live theatre business is fleeting at best, a mirage at worst, and nearly impossible to attain. It is even undesireable, in most cases, as when you're "Herr Director" everyone expects you to be able to snap your fingers and instantly make their problems go away, problems which may o...

It's here. Grinder Productions is pleased to present Resurrection, a weekend of three unique shows at the Elora Centre for the Arts January 25th and 26th. As you can see, this is going to be quite a weekend. And I'm trying something that to the best of my knowledge no one has done before in this business of theatre. I'm making a one-time offer to anyone and everyone who comes to any of these shows: I will offer you a part onstage in a future Grinder Productions event, regardless of age, experience, or any other factor. Undoubtedly, there are those who will say I've finally gone crazy. They may be right. But I think that theatre is something that everyone can do, no matter who they are or what their background is. It doesn't take any special skills, just enthusiasm and a willingness to take a chance now and then. I've seen so many people "come out of their shells" over the years, as they discover a passion they never knew they had. We've only...

Every month I make a "to do" list of the shows, events, appointments and other activities I need to accomplish. For the month of January I decided to entitle that list "The Road Back" because this month is all about the road back at Grinder Productions. The Road Back is not an easy one. Already this month I have started this blog, as well as made extensive changes in how the company operates and promotes itself. The business and marketing plans have undergone massive changes, and while it's still too early to accurately gauge the results of these changes on our bottom line it has produced, at least within me, a new-found optimism - I'm feeling better about the company now than I have in many months. Along with these highs there have also been lows, to be sure - trying to run a company with no staff and no budget isn't easy, even if it's only for the short term. I've thought and re-thought through a lot of my ideas, abadoning others and embra...

I've been trolling around the net the past few days looking for other like-minded theatre bloggers, and I can't seem to find very many. Sure, there are a few blogs that have existed about specific shows and are long out of date, and there are many actors/artists who proclaim a passing interest in theatre, but no dedicated theatre blogs. When I went to list my blog with this blog catalog thingy they didn't even have a theatre category! I even read a blog by someone (presumably an actor) lamenting that there weren't any really good theatre blogs out there. One thing that specifically tripped with me is that he was looking for insights not from the actor's point of view, but rather of the director, the producer, the people who run the business, not just work in it. He wanted to know the inner workings of a director's brain as he or she goes through a script, or how directors survive a casting call. So, in the knowledget that there's at least one person out...

Yesterday was a long day. Lots of stuff to do, lots of stuff done, but at the end of the day I was still left with this great nagging feeling of unfulfillment, like I hadn't been able to get as much done as I should. Today isn't shaping up to be much better, but I'm going to try and change that. I feel like I am finally starting to gain some understanding about life, the universe and the direction of this company. For the first time in a long time I can see once again a future in which Grinder Productions is not a mere punch line, but the main event for a lot of people, bringing them experiences that will last a lifetime. I can see a great many events in a great many venues put on by a great many people. I know that this will take a lot of work, but we'll be up to the task because, rather than a being a chore, putting on plays will be the joy it has always been meant to be. In the coming days I'll be laying out a lot of the "nuts and bolts" of our prom...

So here we are, Monday morning, back at the grinder. It's been a very busy weekend, but a lot of stuff has gotten accomplished. First off, the Agatha Christie still has a few audition spaces left. Please e-mail me very soon if you would like to book a time. Bad Words is coming along very well too. I'm starting to wonder if anyone might be interested in an exclusive performance for their group or organization. It's going to be a very simple little show to do, and we'll have the Elora Centre for the Arts from Thursday, January 24th all the way to Sunday the 27th, so we could do it anywhere in there during the day (except Saturday), and Thursday or Sunday evening. I'm also thinking of offering the content for Love Notes, (our single's party) as a matinee as well during the day. It might be a great "Moms and Tots" type of show, like they do with the movies. Thoughts and suggestions welcome on either of those crazy ideas. While last week was all abou...

Well it's the end of the first real week back at work (New Year's and other holidays aren't much of a distraction when you're self-employed) and I'm happy to report that the ideas are continuing to come, and the process of getting this company back on its feet is well underway. The biggest news from today is that I'm pretty sure I have a fourth and final show in the Ennotville Season. I have, reluctantly, dropped the one I was going to do, and I am replacing it with... well, that's going to remain a bit of a surprise. If you want to find out what it is (and I guarantee you it's like nothing we've ever brought to the Ennotville Stage before) then you'll just have to come on out to the library on February 2nd and see Summer's Coming, where we'll have a sneak peak at all the shows we're doing this summer in both Ennotville and Belwood. And that's not a disparagement to Summer's Coming - it isn't JUST a sneak peak at the sum...

At the end of day 1 I'm feeling pretty good overall about how the re-start is progressing. I admit I haven't gotten as much accomplished as I had hoped to by this point, but at least things aren't piling up to overwhelming levels right off the bat, and with a few quiet nights in I'm hoping that we can get things completely caught up. I dropped into the Elora Centre for the Arts to say hi to Karen Peters, the administrator, who promptly reminded me of the one thing that I left off of my last posting! On Saturday, February 9th I will be teaching a one-day workshop at the ECA on Improv. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this type of theatre it's where the stories, characters dialogue and sometimes even language are made up on the spot, often in response to some randomly drawn words or ideas, sometimes chosen by the audience, once in a while even set to music! It's a fun, simple, creative form of theatre that anyone with an open mind and a pulse can enjoy...

Happy New Year from Grinder Productions! I'd like to talk to you today about the many activities we have going on this month. While January is traditionally the slowest time of the year for theatre we still have a lot going on. I would like to list those activities so you're informed about what's going on, but this is also a way for me to stay on track, and remind me of my promise to you, so I'll work hard to sheperd all these projects through to their completion. This is very important to me. As some of you may recall, we were unsuccessful this past fall in our attempt to produce The Gifts of the Magi, our planned Christmas Show. The intended replacement for that show, Holiday Cheer, was also unsuccessful. That's two strikes in a row for the company, so you can understand why I would really like to have some success this month. So without further adieu... January Events 1. Auditions for Agatha Christie's The Hollow: On Saturday, January 12th at the Gra...