Grinder's Grumblings

The Grinder Store is now open! Click on the titleof this post and check it out on the website. Just another way you can support your friendly neighbourhood theatre company.

There's a new document in the sidebar today marked "Tip Cards." This is a handy sheet of several small slips of paper you can use. The front of these cards contain the Grinder logo and information about how to find out about our shows and what's going on at the company. But on the back you'll find a chart that will tell you the appropriate amount to tip your server when you're out at a restaurant. No more trying to figure out what's expected, no more tricky math, it's all there for you. Don't want to print it off? Look for hard copies at the shows this summer. Just one more way to make your life a bit easier, courtesy of Grinder Productions.

We've almost finished our rehearsal process for Farmer's Daughters. In just over two weeks this wonderful little show will make its debut. We've made quite a few changes and additions over the course of rehearsals, and I thought that I would put the updated script online for your perusal, feedback and enjoyment. I'm still open to any thoughts and suggestions, and once the show is over I will sit down and write a final draft that will be for sale through the Grinder Store and other outlets. Enjoy! What? You haven't heard of the Grinder Store? Tune in on Friday and find out all about it.

Just thought I'd let you know that the website now has an extensive photo gallery, containing all the images I can find from our past shows. If there's anyone out there who has pictures from shows that aren't represented, I'd love to get copies of them and post them in a future update. To find the photo gallery, just go to the "Past Shows" page and click on the link.

Here's your exclusive sneak preview on the 2008 - 2009 Fall - Winter - Spring season at Grinder - there's going to be one! If you want to know what shows we're doing, you'll have to come and see one of our shows this summer. The Fall line-up will be listed on the back. ...come on, you didn't think I was going to give it up that easily, were you? Grinder

I've updated and revised the website again. We now have a comprehensive links page, and the photo gallery has been completed. Click here to check it all out! Grinder

Just in case you were wondering, I still haven't reached my bet with The Cat Whisperer. And you know what will happen if I don't make it. No more Grinder, at least not the way it is these days. We have made so much progress over the past few months, bringing this company back from the dead, I don't want to see it go all for naught. I will continue to work tirelessly to promote Grinder, and I am urging all of you to do the same. Your support and encouragement over the winter has been wonderful, and for it I am truly grateful, but you don't need to tell me how great Grinder Productions is, it's the people who don't know that you and I need to tell, in the coming days and weeks and months. We have seven great shows, priced well below anyone else this summer, and getting tickets has never been easier, so there's nothing standing in the way of our success except our own reluctance to toot our own horn. So let's sound the charge!

I've been talking quite a bit about Farmer's Daughters recently, the first show in our summer season. But I thought today I'd mention our second show at Ennotville which is now on the cusp of starting rehearsals, William Luce's The Belle of Amherst. As some of you may already be aware, The Belle of Amherst is a biographical portrait of the great American poetess Emily Dickinson. Reclusive, eccentric, some would even say crazy, very few of her poems were published during her lifetime, and it was only after she died and the bulk of her poems were discovered that her true genius came to light. The action of the play is set when Emily is 53 years old. We have only one photograph of Emily, and that is from age 17, so it is merely conjecture as to what she looked like at that time in her life. Indeed, by age 53 it had been many, many years since she had even ventured outside her father's house. This play was first made famous by Julia Harris, who performed the role on...

Would you like to see some theatre for free this summer, and help out Grinder Productions at the same time? I am looking for people to act as "Hosts" for each of the performances in Ennotville and Belwood this season. The duties would be similar to that of a house manager or usher: taking tickets, handing out programs, seating patrons, selling refreshements at intermission and generally co-ordinating the smooth, safe, efficient operation of the show in conjunction with the stage manager. With 60 performances scheduled, there's no shortage of opportunities. I'll try and fill things on a show-by-show basis, but I'm putting this call out first so that anyone who wants to get on board now has the chance. Please email me at grinder@grinderproductions.org or cal 519-780-7593 if you are interested. Grinder

After several months of playing e-mail tag, it has finally happened. Grinder Productions is now a member of Eyego to the Arts, a very cool program to encourage secondary school students to experience the magic of live theatre. Please check out the Eyego website at www.eyego.org for all the details, but here's it in a nutshell - if you are in high school and you come to any play put on by any theatre that supports Eyego and present a valid student card you will get your ticket for that show for just $5. It's that simple. And with Grinder Productions, Eyego tickets are even available online. Live theatre, cheaper than a movie. Does it get any better to be a teenager these days?

I have begun sharing the following list with all the new casts this summer. I've also put it in the newsletter. It's a list of all the people we can ask to come and see a Grinder Productions show. Some are funny, some are serious, all are potential sources of audience members that shouldn't be ignored. If you're in a show this summer, please help us by using your presence in that show to get people to come. You are the best promotional tool we have, and every ticket we sell brings Grinder Productions that much closer to becoming a strong, vibrant, self-sustaining theatre company. Just in case you were stuck for people to ask to come and see our play... who on this list haven't you asked yet? What can you say to them? How about this: I'm in a play! It's amazing! It's called ______________(name of show), and it runs _________________ (dates) at the ____________ (name of theatre). Here, have a flyer! Your family members? Your extended family member...

I thought today I'd post a few pics from Farmer's Daughters. If you're on Facebook we have the show listed as an event there, so you can see even more pics, but here are some of the best! Featuring Ashley Goldsmith as Lee, Zoe Dunbar as Kat and Joanne Hader as Tabitha.

Audition Notice: Elora Community Theatre will be holding auditions for the return of Dr. Norman Craig's 1933 play "You're Lucky if You're Killed". Auditions will take place at St. Janmes Anglican Church in Fergus on Sunday June 22nd at 2PM and Tues June 24th at 7PM The directors, Bronwyn Hill and Gary Bryant are looking for a number of young men ages 17 to 25, as well as several young women of similar ages. The ability to sing is an asset, but not essential. This play was performed in Fergus at the Grand Theatre for three performances in the summer of 1933, and it was a milestone in Canadian theatre history as well as in the history of Fergus. The play will be presented in November ‘08. For more information call Bronwyn Allen Hill at 519 846-9612

I'm pleased to report that after much hand-wringing and fiddling around I've managed to get the entire season's shows listed for sale at our online box office. These are the single tickets - specific tickets for a specific performance, but we are also still selling the season passes. The season passes, in case you haven't heard, are those handy pieces of paper that will get you into all seven shows for one low price. I would ask those of you who want to come to a number of shows this summer to seriously consider purchasing one for you and one for your significant other - you'll save some money, and I'll be one step closer to making my bet with the cat whisperer. But if you are looking to come to a specific performance those tickets are now available too, either for individuals or groups (get 10 or more people together and take advantage of the $12 group rate tickets!). Purchasing has never been easier. Simply click on the "Buy Tickets" icon in the s...

Click on the title of this post to get the May newsletter if I missed you in the e-mail. Thanks!

As long as theatre artists maintain a disdain for normal human beings, theatre will remain an irrelevant, unsupported coterie art form that is unable to "hold the mirror up to nature," but instead will "hold the mirror up to the mirror" and thus reflect infinite emptiness. -Scott Walters I couldn't have said it better myself. Words of wisdom to live by for all who partake in this silliness known as theatre.

I'd like to try something today that I don't know if anyone has ever tried before. As some of you surely already know, this summer we're kicking off the Ennotville Season with a world premiere, a new play written by yours truly, entitled Farmer's Daughters. It's a comedy about a mother and two teenaged girls, growing up on a modern-day family farm, through all the trials and tribulations of raising crops, livestock and families. Well, I'm happy to report that the play is finally finished, and we have just started rehearsals this week. This is where I need your help. I'm inviting each and every one of you to become my editors for this play. It's sitting on the sidebar, and you can download it as a PDF file. Please take a look at it, and tell me what you think of it. Did you like it? Did you hate it? What worked? What didn't? Not funny? Too funny? Post your responses here, on the blog, or e-mail them to me at grinder@grinderproductions.org. ...

Well I wasn't going to get a chance to post today, but here I am - a little late but on the web and ready to post! I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, but I think that the topic of choice today will be family. The theatre family, that is. For those of you who have been involved with Grinder over the past little while, you'll know that the company has undergone some monumental changes in the past 12 months. Some have been good (a few even wonderful) and some have been bad (a few even disastrous), but all have come about because the bonds that are formed when you do a play create a unit that mimic, in almost every way, the dynamics of a family unit. And as you know, there are strong, stable, thriving families, and there are dysfunctional families, and there are families that rest somewhere in between. So too with doing a play - some shows have been so special that I would happily do them all over again just to work with the same people. Others I wake up at nig...

This will be in the newsletter as well, but I thought I'd post it here as well. Congratulations to all of this year's nominees! It's that time of year again... Even though there weren’t as many shows (hence the reason we only have 3 nominees) there is still a lot of talent to honour this year. The following productions were considered for this seasons’ awards: Dirty Work at the Crossroads (DW), I Ought To Be In Pictures (IOTBIP), Talley’s Folly (TF), Soccer Moms (SM), The Melville Boys (MB), Noises Off (NO), Future Stars 2 (FS2), Frankenstein (FR), The Stage 4 Sampler (S4), Eleemosynary (Elee), and The Hollow (so it’s not totally a Grinder show, but there’s too much talent to ignore!) Best Actor in a Leading Role David Lamble – Matt Friedman – TF Shane Monaghan – Owen Melville – MB Eric Regimbald – Victor Frankenstein - FR Best Actor in a Supporting Role Mike Sutherland – Henry Clerval – FR Dean Dunbar – DeLacey – FR Kenton Kruger – Lionel Mueller – ...