Grinder's Grumblings

Grinder Productions is kicking off our "Anchors and Sails" season with two events on Saturday, March 1st: a staged reading of a short play, Shackled to a Corpse , and a round of open auditions. This month I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk a little more about them both. First, the reading. This is a chance to provide some feedback on a play in progress. W e will begin with a staged reading of the text, and then follow it with a guided discussion. We will be using a process called "Critical Response Protocol" to help  structure the feedback. It doesn't require people to make quick "I liked it/I didn't like it" responses, which are of little value on their own. Instead, the facilitator (ideally not me) provides everyone with a series of open-ended questions, inviting them to respond authentically to the work, and at a measured pace. This allows the participants to easily think about the work in a deeper, more satisfying way, and for the ...

Dear friends and fans of Grinder Productions, Happy New Year! For the past several years now I've chosen January 1st to announce the upcoming "season" at Grinder Productions. We don't have the same formality as a lot of other theatres (and we don't follow the usual Fall-Winter-Spring pattern that many other companies do) but I still like to have some way of organizing the work that I do, and this seems as good a way as any other. I don't always choose a theme for the season, but this year I have - "Anchors and Sails." No, we're not doing plays on a nautical theme, but we are doing two distinct types of plays: "anchors," work that I'm fairly certain about, and "sails," work that may happen, or may not, depending on various things. The anchors provide the season with a stable foundation to build upon, the sails provide a little creative "turbulence," forcing me to think on my feet, get out of my comfort zone, and g...