Grinder's Grumblings

Don't cry, Beulah Belle! We’re in a much better place than we were a year ago. That’s cold comfort on this January night, but it is comforting nonetheless. We are not in a lockdown, we are not under a bevy of public health restrictions, we are not in the same miserable place that we were a year ago.  That’s not to say everything is rosier now than it was 365 days ago - remember that little war that’s going on and on and on? Last year at this time it hadn’t even started yet. And I know full well that the pandemic nightmare still rages in a lot of places, mostly where, to quote Thorton Wilder “they don’t speak English, and don’t even want to.” I know all that, and more. I know about all the bad that exists in the world, all the sadness, all the hate, all the bitterness and division that has engulfed humanity in the past few years. Don’t you ever just wish you could go back in time and change things so that none of it ever happened? It was in such a spirit of despair that I first penn...

Happy New Year! It is with great pleasure that I announce today the threee projects that will make up the Grinder Productions season this year. Each project is outlined below, along with how it makes use of "my 25" - the name I've given to the group of people who will make up the Grinder ensemble in 2023.  Project #1: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets Okay, so this one isn't  technically  a Grinder show, but I'm including it here anyways, since it's going to take up a large chunk of my time, and I'll be bringing in company members to work on this project with me. The play, written by George Bernard Shaw, is an imagined conversation between William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth, one night in 1599, about the pressing need to establish a National Theatre in England. We will be presenting it at the Fergus Grand on Monday, March 27th, as part of a larger event to mark World Theatre Day.   This project will require the first 9 of "my 25," four actors and ...