Grinder's Grumblings

I'm in some pretty intensive prep for the summer season right now. My workload could be a lot lighter if I just focused on finding talent and getting jobs crossed off my list, but as important as those things are I'm also forcing myself to spend more time in the creative state. The creative state is the time when I'm not worring about the minutiae of production challenges (and there are always a lot of those). In the creative state I stop worrying and I start thinking not of what I still need but rather what can I do with what I have. I read plays, I think about them, and I see them coming to life in my mind's eye. I hear their soundtracks, I see the set, the props, the costumes. I light the stage, and I put actors upon it and see what they do. I ask questions, to myself, to the world's greatest wife, to the cats, to the chickens, to anyone who will listen, and then I ask questions to myself once again. Sometimes I need an answer, sometimes I get a different a...

On Saturday, March 27th Grinder Productions will be holding its annual Open Auditions at the Ennotville Library. Saturday, March 27th is also World Theatre Day! Come on out to audition, to learn more about theatre around the world and how theatre can change minds, change communities, and change you for the better forever. More details to follow. Call 519-780-7593 or e-mail grinder@grinderproductions.org to book your audition!

I'm planning on hiring a post-secondary student this summer, after being contacted by the folks at Brock University. On the off-chance I don't get any takers I thought I'd post the job here as well, in case anyone's interested. There's not a lot of money to be made, but if you're interested in getting a TON of experience in Children's Theatre and Education this summer this could be an ideal position for you (or someone you know - please pass this on). Summer Job Posting: Director of Children’s Programming Grinder Productions is Centre Wellington’s most diverse live theatre company. We are seeking an energetic, positive, out-going person to assist us with our Children and Youth programs this summer. Most of the work involved in this position will be conducted at our signature summer venue, the Ennotville Historical Library, a 19 th century community hall located in the tiny Hamlet of Ennotville, Ontario, between the town of Fergus and the...

I read this great post by Deb Ng over at the Freelance Writing Jobs blog this morning entitled "What is your Dream Writing Job?" I've been reading Deb's blog for a few months now, so I'm starting to understand how her Dream Writing Job is coming true, but it was interesting to read the responses from commenters about their dream writing jobs. Oddly enough, not everyone sees writing a best-seller as the fulfillment of their "writing dreams," though you'd be hard-pressed to find any writer who'd turn such recognition down. In fact, not everyone who's a writer actually wants to be one: some aspire to be editors, publishers or webmasters and writing is only a means to an end. The responses were both diverse and inspiring - a great many people had already reached their writing dreams and were living the life they had always wanted. I was tempted to leave a response of my own. I tried, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't fit my "dre...

In case you've missed it...

I'm feeling a lot like the turtle these days. Winter on the farm, a never-ending bathroom renovation and no shows in rehearsal have really served to slow the speed of life down, if not the pace - I feel like I'm doing a lot of lugging around of stuff but when I look behind me it doesn't seem as if I've covered all that much ground. These days it's crucial that I keep on the lookout for pit-falls that could knock me off by slow and determined course. Just because I can't see the finish line ahead of me doesn't mean that it's not there, it just means that I can't see it right now. Maybe it's because I'm spending so much time looking behind me, or maybe it's because I'm getting to the point in my life where I don't want it to be a race anymore, I want it to be a journey, one without a start/finish line, or a lot of markers along the way. Maybe I just want to enjoy the trip. But we're not there yet. There's a season to br...

Check out some of these great new works! Writers are Entrepreneurs Ways to Generate Income from Festivals How to get the board of directors to play a hands-on role in your non profit How to recruit more volunteers for nonprofit organizations An Overview of Ontario Culture Fauna of the Boreal Forest Acting Outside of Hollywood: Working the Markets and Sectors Adults Living with Parents: Steps to Making it Work College Papers: How to Choose a topic your Professor will Like Why do people become Entrepreneurs? Effects of technology in Today's Business World How to use a woodstove for heating your home These are all new articles of mine. Read, share, discuss, enjoy!

If you've read the newsletter (available here if you have been living under a rock for the past week) you'll know that we've got quite a bevy of plays coming up this summer. Now I won't lie to you - 32 events over 10 weeks will represent a considerable new personal best for Grinder if we can pull it off. And while I'm optimistic about our prospects this year I hope no one mistakes this rather sizeable playbill for rash enthusiasm and foolish hope. Our current season is built on the successes and failures of our past ones. We have had some great shows, and we have had miserable shows, and we have learnt things from all of them. This summer we aren't doing any royalties-based projects - a lesson learned from coughing up our profit to Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service two summers ago. We will likely do royalty work again, but it's unlikely we'll commit to a dozen or more shows unless the costs come back down to a more reasonable level (which I h...

This story will be published in 12 installments in the Grinder Productions newsletter in 2010, as well as here on the blog: “Pipe comin’ in!” Mackenzie was in the dressing room finishing her costume preset when LLG’s trademark innuendo reverberated through the theatre. By now the joke had gotten so old that she barely rolled her eyes – in fact she thought it a bit odd that LLG still even thought it was funny. Just then a loud crash and the sound of shattering glassware rang out on stage. Mackenzie ran down the dressing room stairs and out on deck. “Pipe’s in.” Juan stood before her with a piece of aircraft cable in his hand. A large metal pipe lay across the heavy oak table that Mackenzie had just finished pre-setting, with the broken remnants of a 6-plate dinner setting scattered about the set. Little Cheese burst through the auditorium doors, with Marlene and Trudy following close behind. “What the – oh $*&@!” cried Steven. “Is everyone okay?” asked Marlene. “What the *%^*! w...

If you're a regular reader here you may have noticed that over the last little while the postings have had more and more to do with my writing life and less and less to do with my theatre life at Grinder Productions. I'd like to assure you all today that this imbalance is only a temporary one, partially brought on by the season, and partially brought on by my continued attempts to make this year the year I finally break free of the financial chains that are holding me back. Theatre is hard work - anyone in the business will tell you that. It's even harder if you're trying to make money at it, as I am unabashed-ly doing. So far, I have been utterly unsuccessful in that attempt, so to make up the difference I must write as much and as often as I can, both to earn my keep and to drive down the costs of future productions. I believe that 2010 is the year where we'll finally see a "flip" of sorts: the money, however small that comes in, will be enough to pa...

Want to own a copy of your favourite Grinder Play? Check out our online storefront at Lulu.com, and purchase download-able or print copies of Home Farm, Muzzle Blast, All My Sins Remembered and many other classic Grinder plays. Also available is Tech Theatre 101, an indespensable resource for anyone in charge of getting a play from the page to the stage.

Check out this zone I built a while back on Helium - lots of good advice and information!

Hello fellow bloggers! I'm trying to put together a list of the Grinder members who blog, as well as other bloggers who aren't members who find this blog interesting and informative. My goal is to put together a "Grinder Blogs" list and include it in the newsletter, as well as help me keep up-to-date about what all of you are up do. Please leave me a URL in the comments section, or shoot me an e-mail at grinder@grinderproductions.org. Thanks!

A few months ago I mentioned that I've created a portion of the Grinder website dedicated to resources for helping actors called "The Actor's Toolbox." I'm currently working on expanding that to include resources for all aspects of theatre, from directing to designing to tech to theatre management, etc. Is there anyone out there who knows of some good resources they think I should include? Links in the comment section, or e-mail grinder@grinderproductions.org. Thanks! PS - Visit www.grinderproductions.org to see the toolbox in its current state!

Before I sat down to write my New Year's greeting for 2010 I went back into the archives and read through the previous posts that kicked off 2008 and 2009. It was both illuminating and humbling to read those posts that seem so long ago yet really weren't, and a little bit embarrassing, I must confess, to read some of the silly things that I wrote. Okay, so not all of it was silly. In fact, I think my post in the beginning of 2009 made a lot more sense than my post in the beginning of 2008. 2009 was the first year I entered at least partially filled with hope. So what about 2010? Now that we're through the "naughts" and into the "teens" I really feel like we've arrived in a distant and exotic future time, one that seemed unreal when I was a child. Time magazine has put out a special edition on they 20th anniversary of 1989, the year of such monumental change that it has in many ways created the world we live in today. In case you missed it (as I...