Grinder's Grumblings

Greetings one and all! As I sit down to write this it's about 11am on Monday, March 31st. We closed The Hollow last weekend, and I'm still very tired, both physically and emotionally. I usually don't crash quite this hard, but this show has been something different for me. It's been a very long, often challenging journey, bringing The Hollow from an idea tossed about in a meeting to a massive undertaking involving scores of people. All in all though, this has been a very good rehearsal process for me. When I started, I was feeling pretty low, and now, though I'm quite exhausted, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm proud of this show. I'm proud of the efforts of the cast, crew and everyone involved. Thank-you, everyone, for your time, efforts, patience and excellent work. Too bad there's no time for resting on laurels... As I'm sure you're all aware, the next big project for the company is the summer season, and today is the day I start workin...

Well here we are. Tech week for The Hollow. In my book "Tech Theatre 101" ( for sale right now on lulu.com! ) I refer to tech week as "move-in, load-in, get-in, lift-in, production, production week or hell week" and those are all pretty good monikers to describe this part of the production. For everyone involved, this is by far the most stressful time in the production (except maybe for the actors - they seem to worry more about opening night). On the surface, tech week doesn't seem like much: we just move from the rehearsal hall into the theatre, put up the set, do any finishing touches, and add in the lighting, sound and other elements, and run the show a few times. It sounds disarmingly benign, doesn't it? But tech weeks are so much more. This is where the screaming happens. This is where the tears most often flow (and sometimes the blood, too), where marriages and friendships are destroyed, careers ruined, reputations smeared. It's where those...

I found this on an American Theater blog (notice the change of spelling - that's how they do it in the USA). This is EXACTLY the same problem that has completely destroyed the viability of live theatre in Canada too. And it gives me hope for the success of Grinder - we have never fallen into this trap. We are about "the language, not the stuff." Read on... Theatre Ideas: On William J. Baumol and the "Cost Disease"

The Fergus Grand Theatre passed a bit of a milestone last week, and although now one was around to witness it, the significance of this event will be felt by every group that uses the theatre from here on in. On Wednesday, March 12th, at 5:30 pm, I walked into the theatre with the final new lighting fixture that was required to complete our "front-of-house" lighting plot. This means that from here on in most if not all of the face light, ie, the brightest, most important fixtures used to illuminate the performers, will be coming from new, powerful, energy efficient fixtures. For those of you who want the technical terms, there are now 15 zoom ellipsoidal reflector spotlights, 10 SL 23/50's and 5 SL 15/32's providing state-of-the-art lighting capabilities, and dramatically enhancing the buildings' value to its users. There are two reasons why this event was so monumental. First, it solves the "lighting crisis" that has plagued the Grand for the last te...

We've just finished our 3rd time through The Hollow. From here on in we'll be running the entire play all in one evening, so the rehearsal process is almost over. Once we move into the Fergus Grand next week it's a whole new ball game, so this week will be the last chance we have to perfect the show before we add the lighting, sound and other technical elements. I, for one, am very happy with where everyone is at this point. Most of the lines are down, blocking is being remembered with about 90% accuracy, and we're nit-picking on the details, which means the major difficulties of script analysis and character development have been largely taken care of. It's a credit to this cast: they have really worked hard and pulled together to make this happen. Things are also finally starting to look promising on the technical side of things as well. After getting off to a great start the tech side of things flagged a little over the middle period of this show, but now w...

There's an old Syvia Tyson song, "Travelling Light Down a Long Rocky Road." I think I've already used that particular metaphor to describe this winter at Grinder. It has been quite a struggle, to say the least, and while we all eagerly await the coming of spring I for one will be more excited than usual to see the snow melt, and put this cold, terrible season behind me. Grinder Productions has survived the winter, I'm happy to say, but just barely. With few productions and no audiences it's been very difficult to keep motivated. I would like to thank the few dedicated people (I won't mention any names, but you know who you are) who have helped me get through this difficult time, keeping my spirits up through long nights in empty theatres. Now for the bad news... I'm not going to be able to produce "Laughing Out Loud" this weekend at the Elora Centre for the Arts. There is simply no way that I can justify the expense of renting the ECA ...

It was Hamlet who said it, but if you want to "catch" someone's conscience, or anything they don't normally show you, then certainly a play is the perfect place to do it. We've just finished our second "go-round" with The Hollow, and have finished working out most of the kinks in the blocking. I'm breathing a huge, huge sigh of relief now that it is becoming clear that everyone has survived the "books down" fairly intact - the lines aren't perfect yet, but they are coming along very nicely, and no one is floundering hopelessly. Learning lines is one of my few strong suits as an actor, so I have to work extra hard to find sympathy for people who are having difficulty, even if I don't understand why it's such a big chore. Now we move into the "polishing" phase of rehearsals. We will start to run bigger chunks of the play, and I won't be stopping and starting, we'll just bust on through and do a notes session a...

I have been called out. While I was at the Fergus Grand yesterday I somehow got into a conversation with one of the theatre's regulars about Grinder Productions and my plans for the summer. This person (who shall remain nameless, but for the purposes of this blog we'll call her "The Cat Whisperer") wanted to ascertain how I was going to be able to pay for my shows this summer, as much of the expenses involved will have to be paid well in advance of opening night. I informed her of the three goals: 100 season subscriptions by opening night, a group for each matinee, 20 patrons for every performance. "Fair enough," she said. "Care to make a wager on that?" Well I'm not usually a gambling man, but The Cat Whisperer is not usually a gambling woman, so I asked her what she had in mind. "You get 100 season subscriptions by opening night of the summer season, or you look for a part-time alternative source of income." Leave it to The Cat W...

My apologies to the Beatles, but a I really do need somebody! But not for any romantic interludes (I have the world's greatest girlfriend for that). No, what I need is for someone who's a member of the Linked In community to give me recommendation and bring my profile up to 100% completeness! For those of you scratching your heads right now, Linked in is a social network for managers, professionals and other business leaders - a high-class version of Facebook. Basically, the way it works is that you are "referred" to people through the network by other people on there that you know or know someone you know. It's a great way to get connected with fellow people in a given industry and find people you went to school with. I've been told it's an essential place to be for someone in my type of position, so I'm investigating all the possibilities it has to offer. When you first register they search your address book for anyone who's already a membe...

It's a snow day in Centre Wellington. I was scheduled to go into the Grand today to run tech support for one of the Wellington County Museum's "Theatre for the Schools" shows but, alas, the busses were canceled, and with them a day's work. So instead I'm here, blogging about theatre for children. Every year the Wellington County Museum brings in four professional touring children's shows. These shows feature professional adult actors and are produced by various companies, brought together under the auspices of Prologue , a performing arts organization that promotes the groups and gets their promotional material into the hands of teachers and others, who then book the actual shows. Most often these shows are performed in schools throughout Ontario, and sometimes individual companies embark on national or even internation tours. These companies may be the closest thing remaining to the "travelling players" of Shakespeare's Childhood. In Cen...

Hello again everyone, If you'll look to the right of this posting you'll notice that I've added a links list to this blog, the Information Centre. This is where I'll be putting links, documents and other important sources of information that you may wish to look at from time to time. I have started off by posting here some of the essential marketing materials for this summer. First off, there's the season brochure. This is something that you can print off, send to everyone on your Facebook, e-mail list, whatever, and generally use as a reference point for what's going on this summer at Grinder, including how you can get tickets. Got a program to stuff? Then try the season flyer - it's got three copies of the season arranged on a single page, so it can be printed off, copied, and cut into thirds if you need a lot of paper copies of the information. Are you looking for information about booking a large group or bus tour? Then take a look at our Groups an...

Hey everyone! Sorry for the silence! I've been covering at the Fergus Grand in the box office for a few days, so I haven't had a chance to get online and make any postings! One day, I'm told, the Fergus Grand Theatre will get an internet connection, but I've been hearing that for years now, so I'm not about to wait with bated breath on that one... Anyways, there's been a lot of stuff that has been going on over the past few days. This past weekend we got the bulk of the painting finished for The Hollow, with all flats and risers basecoated, and now all we have to do is to apply the texture coats. Rehearsals are also coming along well, and we've been getting a lot of good publicity things lined up, so tickets are starting to move quite well. Over at Grinder proper I've got a rough script assembled for "Laughing Out Loud" our show March 15th at the Elora Centre for the Arts. I'll have more to say about that show as the week goes on, but th...