Grinder's Grumblings

The Playwright’s Circle at Grinder Productions Grinder Productions is a live theatre company committed to producing theatre that dares to be different. What could be more different than a new piece of live theatre! As part of our commitment to advance both stagecraft and the Canadian canon of dramatic literature Grinder Productions is pleased to announce the creation of our playwright’s circle. Our Goals To give ordinary people a chance to tell their stories through theatre To workshop, review and discuss new plays, providing substantial, constructive, honest feedback to the writer To reward playwrights with the production of their plays Our Process There are three tiers of the playwright’s circle, each reflecting the increased levels of commitment to the writing process: Short Drama: Members will create short scenes, two-person dialogues, comedic sketches, monologues, songs, movement pieces and other dramatic materials generally...

Here's a bit of Lost and Found I was able to adapt for use on Helium - all the course language had to be edited out, hence some of the odd word choices. Once again, feedback welcomed. Drama: Resolve

Godiva’s Children A Comedy in Two Acts By Eric Goudie 1st Draft © March 2010 Time: The Present. Place: A holding cell in the local jail. The scene is simple. A prisoner’s cell takes up an 8’x8’ square of the stage, with bars across the front of a windowless room. There’s a bed in the corner and that’s about it. The stage extends in front of the cell a few feet, with a door on SR and a bench on SL Act 1 At lights up Jerome is discovered sitting on the bed in the cell. He wears normal clothes and looks like a typical teenage kid. He looks sad, and a little bit frightened. Offstage, we hear Leslie’s voice. LESLIE: (off) In there? He’s in there? Through this door? JEROME: Mom? The door opens and Leslie Godiva comes in. She’s a 40-something working single mom. She’s followed by her daughter, Lola, who closes the door behind her and stands there, stunned. JEROME: Mom! LESLIE: Jerome! Leslie goes over to the bars. Jerome reaches through to hug her, but instead she slaps him. LESLIE: You idiot...

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 city of Guelph. This position will have two areas of responsibility. Cast, direct, design, produce and assist with the promotion of our Children’s Series, 10 one-act Children’s plays, one each Saturday from June 26 th – August 28 th . Conduct two drama camps for kids ages 8-12, one in July and one in August. Each camp will be four weeks long, and cover the basics of theatre/performance. May conclude with a small show. The Ideal candidate for thi...

It's beginning to look a lot like summer around the homestead. The flowers are in bloom, the goats are clamouring for the pasture, the skunks and raccoons have gone mysteriously inconspicuous while they have their litters. I do enjoy this time of year, and not simply because the weather is getting warmer. After what always seems like a long and difficult winter I can't help finding optimism in the sunny days and spring chores. Apparently we're getting our own lawn mower this summer, which means we'll have to cut our own grass, which is will take up a lot of time, but at least it will be time spent outdoors making the most the good weather (I think after ten years of summer stock tech work my seratonin levels are still desperately low - bring on the Vitamin D). Of course, spring also means that the summer theatre season is just around the corner, and despite my best efforts to make Grinder a year-round operation I still find that the biggest uptick in activity are the su...

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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 19th century community hall located in the tiny Hamlet of Ennotville, Ontario, between the town of Fergus and the city of Guelph. This position will have two areas of responsibility. 1. Cast, direct, design, produce and assist with the promotion of our Children’s Series, 10 one-act Children’s plays, one each Saturday from June 26th – August 28th. 2. Conduct two drama camps for kids ages 8-12, one in July and one in August. Each camp will be four weeks long, and cover the basics of theatre/performance. May conclude with a small show. The Ideal candidate for this position will have: • An exceptionally positive ...

Muzzle Blast – The Redux A Play in One Act By Eric Goudie 4 th Draft © May 2009 Time: The present. Place: Montreal . A working-class Anglophone neighbourhood. The set represents two working-class apartments, crammed together in a dilapidated building. Julie and Katherine share the SR apartment. A kitchen runs along the rear wall, with a small table and two chairs just downstage. Down from that, the door to the apartment hallway. That’s about it, though the entire place should be strewn with overflowing ashtrays, trashy magazines and the most pathetic of feminine accoutrements. Harold’s apartment is SL. His is much the same as Julie and Katherine’s, but the kitchen fades off SL and the couch doubles as a bed when needed. Again, the place is strewn with beer cans, cigarette butts and porn, perhaps even dirtier than the other apartment. A very narrow hallway runs between the two apartments and another narrow hallway runs across the front of them...

I especially like the "How to get started in Acting" one. Check out the video - Sir Ian McKellan on Acting - it offers the best acting advice EVER! How to get started in acting How to make an acting resume

29-and-a-half never loooked so good...

Apparently this is an article that's appealing to a lot of people on Helium - Enjoy! How to save money on theatre tickets

Hitchin’ at the Junction A “Gay Nineties” Melodrama in One Act By Eric Goudie 1 st Draft © November 2009 Scene: The Train station in Ennotville (the name can be changed to a local reference) on a hot summer’s day. A small rectangular building with a ticket window and door forms the station-master’s office upstage left. A bench sits just centre of the office, and a large lever for switching the tracks likes SR. The lever has two positions – one marked “Into Town” and the other marked “Elora Gorge” (or other local reference to a deep gully, ravine or cliff). The lever is currently in the “Into Town” position. A single line of train tracks run across the front of the stage. Music Begins Offstage Voices: Oh we are the good folks of the drama Come here to brighten up your day With a story ‘bout your Grandpa and Grandma And life as it was in times of yesterday. Here at the (Ennotville) railroad junction Some trouble will happening today But ev...

It's an election year in Centre Wellington. The polls don't open until October (and even then I think we vote by mail-in ballot) but already it seems that the campaign is in full swing. The signs are going up, the letters to the editor in the Wellington Advertiser are getting filled with rhetoric and Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, Greens, Christians, NIMBY's, special interst groups, lobbyists, bureaucrats, wanabes, hot-heads, lunatics, businesspeople, and councillors are gearing up for what promises to be a long and ugly campaign. I have a sinking feeling that this election will bring out the "ugly" in a lot of people. We've got some polarising issues this time around, and as much as I'm saddened to say it, theatre may be one of them. I've been deeply hurt by some of what the misinformation already, and if it becomes one of the issues that catches fire in the campaign much of the work I and many others have been doing for the past ten years wi...

The Playwright’s Circle at Grinder Productions Grinder Productions is a live theatre company committed to producing theatre that dares to be different. What could be more different than a new piece of live theatre! As part of our commitment to advance both stagecraft and the Canadian canon of dramatic literature Grinder Productions is pleased to announce the creation of our playwright’s circle. Our Goals To give ordinary people a chance to tell their stories through theatre To workshop, review and discuss new plays, providing substantial, constructive, honest feedback to the writer To reward playwrights with the production of their plays Our Process There are three tiers of the playwright’s circle, each reflecting the increased levels of commitment to the writing process: Short Drama: Members will create short scenes, two-person dialogues, comedic sketches, monologues, songs, movement pieces and other dramatic materials generally...

It's actually Friday that I'm writing this, though it won't go up until Monday. The only reason I'm compiling my posts for the coming week now is because quite frankly that's all that I'm really capable of at the moment. Fridays are usually the worst day of the week for me, with the previous five days of sleep deprivation culminating in a dense fog that often doesn't lift until around 2pm on Sunday. This week has been compounded by a couple of relatively late nights and the horrifying reality that we can't sleep in either Saturday or Sunday of this week, so another seven (no, I lie - eight - we're busy next Saturday too) days stretch out before us, laughing like a madman at our misfortune. So with the choice of getting nothing done and falling even further behind I've decided to cross one thing off of next week's list, in the hopes that I can move one of my overdue items to Monday, when hopefully I will be more coherent... Until then, I'l...

Time: The Present Place: A run-down shack in the woods of Northern Ontario At first glance the cabin is exactly like the one pictured in the brochure from Shady Glen’s Summer Camping Getaways; rustic, cozy and decidedly inhabitable, nestled amongst the blue spruce on the shores of your very own private lake! But upon closer inspection the real picture becomes clear: about a quarter mile up from the shore, on the top of a ridge lies a rotting pile of lumber that was once, at its best, no more than an overnight cabin on a trapper’s line. The windows are broken, there’s a hole in the door and when it rains the water pours in from the many holes in the roof. The entire action of the play takes place in front of the cabin. There’s a porch, a couple of old lawn chairs, a rotting picnic table, a fire pit and an outhouse. The lake is off SR, and just off SL is a spring-fed stream. Just behind the cabin is a seemingly impenetrable wall of old-growth forest. At rise,...

Yesterday I featured my How-to Guides on Helium. Today, I'd like to direct you to a few regular articles of mine that you might find interesting: How to pick out the school bullies before the they start Suggestions for teaching Shakespeare to teenagers Best accounting techniques for small businesses Can someone be a feminist and pro-life at the same time? Benefits of becoming a Helium membe Feedback is always welcome, and Helium is always looking for new writers. Want to join? Just send me an email at grinder@grinderproductions.org and I'll send you an invite!

Helium's newest experiment are "How-to Guides." Thankfully there are some theatre-related titles, and the powers-that-be have deigned that I am a writer of sufficient vim and vigour to be a member of this exclusive community within the site. While I'm working shooting for a new guide every week here are the ones I've created so far: How to become an actor or actress How to learn lines How to prepare a monologue Each guide contains simple-yet-comprehensive steps to complete each of the tasks, as well a host of additional content: a "tools needed" list, tips and warnings, related articles, related YouTube videos and more. You can also rate the guide as helpful (or not!), leave comments, and even ask me a question. Please take a moment to check out one or more of these guides out, and let me know what you think of them. Thanks!

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Mackenzie arrived at the theatre at 7am for the second day of rehearsals. Now 7am is an ungodly hour for theatre night-owls used to 8pm curtains. For actors and directors making a 10am rehearsal call time is being incredibly punctual, and the fact that stage managers start their days bright and early at 9:30 a bit of a curiosity to say the least. But Mackenzie had work to do. Sure enough Big Cheese had been right – Steven and Juan had hit the bar after three hours of set building yesterday and had were nowhere to be found. Mackenzie had spent a few hours in hunting for items in the props shop, dumping items on stage as she found them. She had planned on getting there early this morning to set everything up and make sure she had “show-quality props” for everything that she possibly could. The door to the theatre was locked, but through the window Mackenzie spied an extension cord running across the floor, and heard the faint roar of the vacuum cleaner once again. She rapped loudly on ...

Happy April Fools!