Grinder's Grumblings

On May 15th and 16th we'll be presenting a double-bill of two very special shows at the Ennotville Library. The first show is called "The Heart of Eden." It's a romantic musical comedy about a delightful young girl who meets a charismatic young boy one morning in Central Park. After a very awkward introduction they slowly, shyly, begin to talk to one another, and each find's out very quickly that there's more to the other than meets the eye. The also both learn that the other person is perhaps just a little bit too perceptive when it comes to understanding their inner souls... This play is meant to cheer you up and put a smile on your face. It's the first show from our "Hopeless Romantics" division of touring shows, and we'll be re-mounting this show for performances at weddings and other special events througout the summer and beyond. If you or someone you know is getting married this might just be the perfect thing to entertain your gu...

[I posted these two positions in the newsletter and on Craigslist, but I'll post them here again, just in case anyone is interested. Please feel free to forward this info along to anyone you can think of who's currently looking for work in either of these areas!] Ticket Sellers Grinder Productions is Centre Wellington's largest live theatre company, and our summer season is coming up fast! We are looking for one or more people to sell tickets for our shows. This is strictly a contract position, and you will earn a $1 commission on every ticket you sell, (based on final house counts). We are seeking individuals who enjoy a challenge, have excellent people skills, and are willing and able to think outside the box to sell tickets to a wide variety of audiences with little or no advertising budget. A positive attitude and “can-do” spirit is a must! Please check out www.grinderproductions.org for more information about our company and the shows we're doing this summer. Plea...

One of the shows that's been flying a bit under the radar at Grinder Productions is the one that hits the stage at the Elora Centre for the Arts this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. School Shooting is an original play, one that's been waiting to come to the stage for years. I have to admit, it took a long time for this show to come to life for me - the story kept slipping out of my grasp every time I would sit down to tackle another rewrite. It wasn't until just before rehearsals began that the story finally crystalized in my mind. Once we hit the ground in rehearsals, though, my insecurities were quickly left behind, as right from the first read-through the cast of six plucky actors all dove head-first into the story and through five weeks of rehearsals they haven't looked back. I'm blessed to be truly working with a great group of young people on this show. Now granted, this show isn't for everyone. It's title is quite literally what it's about, and...

[Well after three years of being nominated my number finally came up. Last night I was humbled to accept the "Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award" at the annual Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce Awards of Excellence ceremony. Here's the extended version of my acceptance speech - I had to cut a bit to stay under the time limit, and I really hate when people make long speeches anyways. While I don't often like to toot my own horn, I do like to toot Grinder's, and last evening was no exception:] Thank-you. Grinder Productions produces over 20 shows every year, in four venues throughout Centre Wellington: The Fergus Grand Theatre, The Ennotville Library, The Belwood Hall and the Elora Centre for the Arts, so obviously, we’re still a very small company. I've been doing some research on the economic impact of live theatre in communities such as ours. The numbers vary, but on average the conservative consensus seems to be that for every ...

I have to admit, things have been a bit foggy around here lately - the Impressario just wasn't engineered to begin each day at 5:30am. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up - the world's greatest fiancee may have to eat her porridge alone. I miss things now that I wasn't missing before. I don't always make the mental connections as quickly as I should, and after rising so early in the morning I find that by the time rehearsal rolls around at 7pm I'm functioning on autopilot, rather than at my absolute peak, which is where I usually am at that time of the day (and rehearsing usually gets me even more fired up and ready to go - effectively I'm wide awake by the time rehearsal ends and I have to get straight to sleep). I don't have a lot of faith or confidence in my abilities at the moment. I know that I've still got the skills to get done what needs to get done, and I'm even getting it done in a more timely fashion than I...

It was very nice having three days off, nicer still having three days off without anything huge hanging over my head on the to do list. I got to spend the time getting so much-needed outside work done, some non-production work tasks that kept getting pushed to the bottom of my list, and had a chance for some badly-needed catching-up time with the world's greatest fiancee. But now it's back to the grind (or back to the Grinder, as people say to me when they think they're being clever) and with just under two months to go now until the opening of the summer season there's much, much, much to be done. First and foremost, this week I'd like to talk to you about our 5th and final show this season at the Elora Centre for the Arts, School Shooting. Watchin in the coming days for the press release here on the blog, but the show is going up April 30th, May 1st and May 2nd, with 8pm shows and a 2pm Saturday matinee. Since this show features a cast of teenagers we're go...

I'm not feeling very well this morning. Two days of getting up at an ungodly hour has brought about the usual Wednesday morning headache and inability to function. As much as I want to keep getting up at 5:30am for the sake of the world's greatest fiancee she may have find herself heading out the door alone one or two days a week in the near future, because I can't afford too many more days like this. Everything is blur, save for the dull pain in my forehead, like a slow drill working its way along just above my left eye. My ability to concentrate is severely compromised, and the only solace I can take is that with an 11 hour workday sooner or later I'll be able to come up with something more productive. Fortunately, the company is still chugging along. We still need more actors for Yes, Your Worship, people are learning lines and looking over scripts for the summer as we speak, and I'll have some publicity stuff up tomorrow for School Shooting. Hopefully by the...

Last week I sent out my directing offers for the summer season, to a group of people that I would like to eventually become my circle of "artistic associates," an ever-growing pool of experienced, dependable directors that I can call on to take over the bulk of the directing work from me. As the company grows the quality time I have to devote to preparing to direct is decreasing, and the more shows we do the more hours of marketing and production they demand, so it is imperative that I delegate more and more of the directing projects as time goes by. While I could never abandon directing completely I could certainly get by doing just one or two projects a year, and even that would likely take away all the promotion and production time I could spare. The people I have chosen to be in this circle have not been drawn out of a hat. They are people I trust, whom I have worked with enough to know that they at least deserve the chance to direct a show with Grinder Productions, if...

I think I'm getting older. I know, I know, being in the "under 30" set doesn't make me old in the minds of all but the most naive tweens out there, but all the same, the signs are beginning to mount. I'm sitting in the internet cafe, looking out at the rain through the eyeglasses I now can't live without. I'm suddenly concerned enough about my physical well-being to be thankful for the cheap, tacky umbrella that I wouldn't have been caught dead with ten years ago, and more than a little worried that I forget my Gaviscon when I left the house this morning. I'm thinking about getting the rest of the house painted this weekend, and working some more on cleaning up the property, maybe even getting in the garden, rather than getting ready for the 3-shows-in-36-hours marathon that used to be my usual weekend plans. I'm listening to internet radio (the joys of high-speed), so I thought I'd do a little research on an upcoming show by listening to...

I've said it before but I'll say it again - these are heady days at Grinder Productions. So much is going on, there's so much to do, and so many people are coming together to produce plays. Certainly our pace is going faster than it's ever gone before in the winter season, and we've managed to make it through our "slow-dowm" period with only the briefest of pauses, with every indication that next year we'll continue to thrive throughout the fall, winter and spring, with almost no drop in our activities. Our membership is growing nicely too. The people who joined us at our open auditions in January have made many excellent contributions to our shows so far, and their continued enthusiasm for new and exciting projects has done a lot to keep us going. But we're also garnering more attention from our veteran members as well, who are finding the acting bug biting them once again. And all this in the midst of the greatest economic slump since the Depr...

Over the past two days I've announced our summer line-ups for the Ennotville and Belwood Summer Seasons. Now I'd like to tell you about our best "subscription" packadge ever - The Grinder Card. I've talked about The Grinder Card before, but in case you missed it this the easiest and most economical way for you to experience our shows this summer and beyond. Each card is worth $100, and it is good for ten admissions to a show (plus an 11th one on us!). You can come to as few or as many shows as you like in our summer season, and you can either come alone, with your partner, or bring your friends. Your card will simply be punched for each person admitted into the show. You can come to the same show twice, or only come to the shows you want to see. Best of all, it's good for any public performance in the season, so you don't have to pick your dates in advance. The Grinder Card doesn't expire, either - if you haven't used all your admissions by t...

It's finally here too! While the 2009 season at the Ennotville Library is all about history, the 2009 season at the Belwood Hall is all about, well, dresses. Yes, dresses. The first play of the season is entitled 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress . This comedy by Alan Ball runs July 16th, 17th and 18th, and features five young women at the only time and place in their adult lives where they would ever be caught dead wearing exactly the same outfits. Any guesses as to when and where that might be? Next up is a plays called Our Girls , a cross-dressing Farce by Conrad Seiler, running July 30th, 31st, August 1st. This play concerns is all about family ties, family fortunes and "keeping up appearances," even to the extent of dressing up daughters as sons to fool wealthy relatives, only to have things go hilariously awry. The final play in our season it this year's world premiere, and it is called Dress Code , and it runs August 20th, 21st and 22nd. This is a light-hea...