Grinder's Grumblings

Yesterday was a day of quiet reflection. The world's greatest wife was home with a headache, so I spent most of the day tending to her and trying to keep the flood of worried callers pacified (she has quite a loyal fan base). I didn't really want to do too much work for fear of disturbing her, so it wound up being a day for some forward-thinking about where I'd like to go from here. And think I did. I'll spare you the fantasies - they were fun to indulge in, but ultimately well over the line into technically impossible. But once I got that out of my system I did manage to come to some fruitful conclusions: It's been a rough year. I can't stand it when other people blame the economy for their woes, and I don't feel right in saying the Great Depression of the 21st Century has been the cause of our malaise these past few months. Nonetheless, I am forced to admit that it has played a part, if only in people's mindsets. In 2010 though I don't thi...

Fall Line-up I’m pleased to introduce our fall line-up of shows here at Grinder Productions. While perhaps not as ambitious as some of our previous seasons, the three projects that we’ll be bringing to the stage between now and the New Year are key components in our economic survival and recovery plan. Philemon and Baucis By Audrey Haggard, based on a passage from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a part of Sensational Elora Directed by Eric Goudie One show only October 6 th at the Elora Centre for the Arts Marriage is Murder A murder-mystery comedy by Nick Hall Featuring Eric and Julie Goudie October 15 th , 16 th and 17 th at the Ennotville Library Grinder and Friends A Holiday Celebration December 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th at the Ennotville Library

I wrote this in a darkened Belwood Hall during Act 2 of Dress Code on Saturday night, the capping performance in our summer season: What a summer. I don't think I'll go into all the gory deatils - if you read this blog you're probably well enough aware of them. I keep looking for a fresh start here at Grinder, a new beginning, a Phoenix just waiting to rise from the ashes of this season. But it's on nights like this that I seem to understand that we're not on a simple yes/no track here - there are no fresh starts, just a single, multi-faceted, bifurcated world that is my life and the history of this comppany. A lot of old frineds came out of the woodwork to see Dress Code, but it wasn't like it was old-home week in Belwood. Things have changed. People have changed. I have changed, and as the run progressed I found myself filled with a pround sadness, an understanding that the shows that brought us all these old friends are now long gone, and with them the t...

The lights might shine a little brighter from now on at the Fergus Grand Theatre, thanks to a $41, 500 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The funding will be used over the next two years to address health and safety issues at the theatre through the delivery of workshops and volunteer training programs, as well as the replacement of aging stage draperies and hardware. Funds will also be awarded for marketing to support the development of a vibrant theatre community in Centre Wellington. This grant will be administered by a newly-formed collaborative, the User Groups of the Fergus Grand Theatre. The group, comprised of many of the Grand Theatre’s largest users, has come together in a spirit of cooperation, and seeks to improve not only the quality of the theatre itself but also the quality of the individual shows each group puts on stage. At this time, the members of the collaborative are the Elora Community Theatre, Wellington-Waterloo Playhouse, the Not So Grand Players, th...

...and I've got nothing. Enjoy your weekend everyone. I'll be back on Monday with more witty and important information, including: -news about what's happening at the Fergus Grand Theatre -more articles currently entered in the drama contest on Helium -all the information you'll need to enjoy Dress Code, our 3rd and final show in Belwood this year -and much, much more Hopefully I'll also be somewhat more conscious by next Monday too....

From time to time Helium runs writing contests. Much to my astonishment, Helium is currently running a contest in drama! In the past few days I have submitted portions of several of my plays for the various titles in this contest. This is an excellent opportunity to catch a glimpse of some of the best produced (and un-produced) drama that's ever been created here at Grinder. Please check out these aptly-named titles (the titles are Helium's creation, not mine): Drama: Despair (from Poverty Anonymous) Drama: A rainy day (from Muzzle Blast - toned down to make it family-friendly) Drama: A hope and a prayer (from Yes, Your Worship) Drama: Survival (from Living) Drama: Detective Stories (from All My Sins Remembered - again, the family-friendly version) Drama: Dancing (from Farmer's Daughters) Drama: Her Heart's Desire (from Home Farm) I hope you enjoy this sampling of some of the best of Grinder. The contest runs to August 18th, and with 20 titles to write to I...

Ten years from now the world's greatest wife and I will likely look back and laugh at ourselves during these days. We're both staggering out of bed at 5:30am, and she's out the door by 6:30. I get online to start my work, and take a quick peek at what's happening on Facebook. Do you know what's happening on Facebook at 6:39am? Absolutely nothing! Since I don't have a lot of friends in different time zones most of my world is still fast asleep by the time I get up, eat breakfast, check my e-mail, and get started work for the day. By the time I log off at around 9am to go and feed the chickens I've already almost put in an entire half-day's work. Sadly, this nearly three-hours of "bonus time" isn't exactly my most productive. After a lifetime of being a nightowl these un-godly hours are really taking a toll on me. I don't even try to schedule any important jobs for later in the week any more - I'm pretty much useless on Fridays...

It's finally here folks! The 3rd and final play this summer at the Belwood Hall is a Grinder Productions world premiere. Join us for this slightly spooky, very quirky look into a future where fashion truly is a crime. See how a plucky group of teenagers defy the odds and triumph over the totalitarian forces in their society. It's a lesson for us all in tolerance, and the need to celebrate what makes each of us unique.

It's been a lousy past seven days here at Grinder. 7am Monday morning and my head is aching, so the prospects of the next seven days being much better aren't looking all that promising. I'm so tired I can't think straight, see straight or even stay on my feet for very long. I'll try and get through today as best I can, but I don't know if I'll have the energy to say everything I want to say in the post today. So I had better cut to the chase - we're dumping the last two shows in Ennotville this summer - Vaudeville and Hitchin' at the Junction/Heart of Eden. After an entire summer of losing my shirt I just can't afford to keep doing shows if no one will come to them, and no one wants to be in them. Our marketing and casting problems this summer have left me broke, sick and frustrated, and I'm not going to put myself through any more agony. We'll be back in Ennotville in October with Marriage is Murder, a great myster-comedy by Nick H...

... and this time I actually have some info! (Inside joke for anyone who caught last week's post on the show) Dress Code is a play set in a totalitarian future, where all forms of personal expression through fashion have been banned, and everyone is forced to wear the same generic, government-approved clothing. A few teenagers form an underground resistance to the Draconian dress laws, staging fashion shows in secret, learning from each other about the clothing of days gone by, and guessing at what uses these strange garments might have had to the people of the early 21st century. Hanging over their every movement is the threat that The Fashion Police, the armed gangs of thugs who brutally enforce the Dress Code, will come barging through the door and arrest them at any minute. If George Orwell had a sense of humour, this is the play he would write. It's light-hearted and, at least by today's standards, incredibly innocent, but it carries some important messages about toler...

I'm casting again. After a reprieve of a few weeks while I had a staff member handling things, it seems as if my dream of a casting director for the company will have to be put on hold yet again. Oh well, the best-laid plans, I guess. Hopefully this round of casting won't leave me as depressed as the last. This time I'm casting for every show from Vaudeville until Christmas, so there are a lot of offers out there right now (check your e-mail!). So far I haven't gotten too many responses back, and my ratio of 3 "no's" for every "yes" still seems to be holding true. I haven't exhausted my lists of people just yet, though in some categories we're dangerously short on talent to start with (ie men of any age). I sincerely hope I can find casts for all of our upcoming shows in a timely fashion this time around, if only so that we can close out 2009 on the right note. Having a full cast, in place and ready to go, so that rehearsals can star...

Have we turned the corner on this recession? Definitely-maybe, according to the economists and politicians, both groups wary of actually making a concrete prediction for fear that yet again they will be proven wrong (I heard somewhere that none of the last ten or so recessions were actually predicted - they just happened without anyone seeing them coming). I'm no economist, but I too seem to find myself twinged with a note of cautious optimism myself. It's got nothing to do with the evidence on the ground, (audiences are still staying away in droves) but in the last few days and weeks I've noticed just a little less bitterness in the world around me, a little less looking inwards and backwards and just a little bit of looking outwards and into the future. People don't seem to have quite the look of despair about them now, no more feigned smiles and off-the-cuff remarks masking an all-too-real panic lying beneath. Something has changed. Though perhaps not for everyone...