Brighter Days
Now is truly the winter of our discontent. Shall we make it a "glorious summer," even without a "son of York" to lead the way? I certainly hope so.
I had hoped to be in a position by now to announce the third project in the Grinder Productions season, but alas I still need to keep it under wraps for just a little longer. Despite that, and despite all the doom and gloom of a plague that just won't quit, this is actually going to be an optimistic post, where I talk about the plays that we're planning to do this summer. It's hard to find much to smile about right now, but looking foward to directing these plays definitely lifts my spirits and puts me in a better frame of mind. Theatre is truly good for the soul.
This year I've rented the Ennotville Library for two weekends, and I plan to stage five thematically-linked 1-act plays each weekend, for a total of ten unique shows. I'd like to build a small acting ensemble for each week's production, with everyone playing multiple roles, having the chance to play both lead and supporting parts.
The first weekend is called "Finding Your Light Again," a homage to the theatre community shaking the dust off itself after more than two years of shutdowns, postponements, and online pivots. We'll begin with a play called "Shakedown in the Loose Moose Caboose, a "Gay 90's" melodrama. This is a highly conventionalized type of play that I've fallen in love with, and when I'm in the right frame of mind these kind of plays almost seem to write themselves. I'm planning to denote a future blog post to some of the specific conventions of this vanishing art form.
This will be followed by something completely different, a play simply entitled "Humans," about two strangers who meet in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and don't try to kill each other, for a change. I was fortunate enough to give this play an online reading back in 2020, and it seemed to strike a chord, so I'm looking forward to bringing it to life on stage.
The first act rounds out with a play called Checkmate, which is all about an older man, a younger woman, and a standing weekly appointment for a chess game. We staged this play in the fall of 2021 as part of the UnHinged Festival of Dark and Disturbing Theatre in Waterloo, but only had time to give it just slightly more than a workshop, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to dive deeper into it this time around.
Act two will begin with a very short play called "Border Dispute," another one of my coffee shop plays - if you saw "Blockhead" in the August show back in 2021 it was written around the same time as that, and has a similar (albeit slightly more meta-theatrical) vibe.
Finally, the evening will conclude with a play called "Cement Head," about a recently-retired working man and a desperate-for-any-gig aspiring actress. This one's going to be a bit heavier than the rest, but it's also the one I'm looking forward to the most. I haven't had a chance to give it a staged reading, but I have a hunch that if I can hit the tone just right it's could be one of my better works.
The week two production is called "Her Stories," and features five shows with all-female casts. I really enjoy writing plays for women, in fact I often prefer it. There are a lot more women who want to be actors in community theatre than men, so I figure it makes sense to push myself to write the best plays I can that can make the most of what are often under-used and under-appreciated performers.
This production also starts off with a light show, a comedy called Hen House Hotties. You'll learn more than you ever knew you wanted to know about raising backyard chickens, and I promise to leave our real hens safely back at home, so no authentic barnyard odours.
This will be followed by two linked plays, "Okay," and "Diagnosis: BDE." We produced Okay on its own in 2019 because we just didn't have the time and the bodies to add in Diagnosis: BDE. This time around I want to do it as it was intended, with both parts. "Diagnosis: BDE" is actually an adaptation of a pop song - I'm going to see if the audience can figure out what it is before I lead them into the intermission with it.
In the second act we're giong to start with a show called "Room 101," which is a reference to George Orwell's novel 1984, but isn't an adaptation of it. This one will likely go through some rewrites over the rehearsal process, because I really think I need to see it on its feet to figure out what works and what doesn't. It elicited a lot of feedback during the script reading contest and I've already incorporated some of those suggestions, but I'm also interested in finding out what the actors playing the roles actually think about it, and seeing if I can use some of their perspective as well.
Finally, the evening will close with a show that I'm not going to announce. I'm actually making a choice between three different scripts to close out the evening, but I'm not going to decide on which one until the ensemble is in place. Either way, you'll have to come to the show if you want to know more about it.
So that's the season, in a nutshell. What do you think? Any questions, comments, opinions? What's missing? Would you like to audition to be in one of these plays? Let me know in the comments below, on Facebook, or by email.
Here's to brighter days ahead!
I had hoped to be in a position by now to announce the third project in the Grinder Productions season, but alas I still need to keep it under wraps for just a little longer. Despite that, and despite all the doom and gloom of a plague that just won't quit, this is actually going to be an optimistic post, where I talk about the plays that we're planning to do this summer. It's hard to find much to smile about right now, but looking foward to directing these plays definitely lifts my spirits and puts me in a better frame of mind. Theatre is truly good for the soul.
This year I've rented the Ennotville Library for two weekends, and I plan to stage five thematically-linked 1-act plays each weekend, for a total of ten unique shows. I'd like to build a small acting ensemble for each week's production, with everyone playing multiple roles, having the chance to play both lead and supporting parts.
The first weekend is called "Finding Your Light Again," a homage to the theatre community shaking the dust off itself after more than two years of shutdowns, postponements, and online pivots. We'll begin with a play called "Shakedown in the Loose Moose Caboose, a "Gay 90's" melodrama. This is a highly conventionalized type of play that I've fallen in love with, and when I'm in the right frame of mind these kind of plays almost seem to write themselves. I'm planning to denote a future blog post to some of the specific conventions of this vanishing art form.
This will be followed by something completely different, a play simply entitled "Humans," about two strangers who meet in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and don't try to kill each other, for a change. I was fortunate enough to give this play an online reading back in 2020, and it seemed to strike a chord, so I'm looking forward to bringing it to life on stage.
The first act rounds out with a play called Checkmate, which is all about an older man, a younger woman, and a standing weekly appointment for a chess game. We staged this play in the fall of 2021 as part of the UnHinged Festival of Dark and Disturbing Theatre in Waterloo, but only had time to give it just slightly more than a workshop, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to dive deeper into it this time around.
Act two will begin with a very short play called "Border Dispute," another one of my coffee shop plays - if you saw "Blockhead" in the August show back in 2021 it was written around the same time as that, and has a similar (albeit slightly more meta-theatrical) vibe.
Finally, the evening will conclude with a play called "Cement Head," about a recently-retired working man and a desperate-for-any-gig aspiring actress. This one's going to be a bit heavier than the rest, but it's also the one I'm looking forward to the most. I haven't had a chance to give it a staged reading, but I have a hunch that if I can hit the tone just right it's could be one of my better works.
The week two production is called "Her Stories," and features five shows with all-female casts. I really enjoy writing plays for women, in fact I often prefer it. There are a lot more women who want to be actors in community theatre than men, so I figure it makes sense to push myself to write the best plays I can that can make the most of what are often under-used and under-appreciated performers.
This production also starts off with a light show, a comedy called Hen House Hotties. You'll learn more than you ever knew you wanted to know about raising backyard chickens, and I promise to leave our real hens safely back at home, so no authentic barnyard odours.
This will be followed by two linked plays, "Okay," and "Diagnosis: BDE." We produced Okay on its own in 2019 because we just didn't have the time and the bodies to add in Diagnosis: BDE. This time around I want to do it as it was intended, with both parts. "Diagnosis: BDE" is actually an adaptation of a pop song - I'm going to see if the audience can figure out what it is before I lead them into the intermission with it.
In the second act we're giong to start with a show called "Room 101," which is a reference to George Orwell's novel 1984, but isn't an adaptation of it. This one will likely go through some rewrites over the rehearsal process, because I really think I need to see it on its feet to figure out what works and what doesn't. It elicited a lot of feedback during the script reading contest and I've already incorporated some of those suggestions, but I'm also interested in finding out what the actors playing the roles actually think about it, and seeing if I can use some of their perspective as well.
Finally, the evening will close with a show that I'm not going to announce. I'm actually making a choice between three different scripts to close out the evening, but I'm not going to decide on which one until the ensemble is in place. Either way, you'll have to come to the show if you want to know more about it.
So that's the season, in a nutshell. What do you think? Any questions, comments, opinions? What's missing? Would you like to audition to be in one of these plays? Let me know in the comments below, on Facebook, or by email.
Here's to brighter days ahead!
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