Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking for Suggestions

Back to the blogosphere. It's been a while.

The plan this year was to post at least once a month, and when I had a show in production, at least once a week. Needless to say that reality got in the way, as it always does, and as the Bard once said,

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment, 
With this regard their Currents turn awry, 
And lose the name of Action 

In other words, a lot of things didn't go according to plan this year, as usual. But out of that darkness, there came a lot of light. There was Maid of Stone, finally brought to life by these three fine actresses. This show was the rock upon which I was able to build a season.   

And if the cast of Maid of Stone was my rock, then it was the next four ladies who were my life raft. I had planned to do a Greek Tragedy this year, but when that fell through and I put out a call for someone, anyone, to do something, anything, to help me fill out my season, these are the people who stepped out. Rehearsing through sweltering heat, erratic schedules, a veterinary emergency, and many other moments of chaos, we managed to put together a charming, raucous production of Alice Gerstenberg's classic "Overtones" (with a staged reading of one of my own plays to boot). It turned out to be the perfect balance to the much heavier Maid of Stone. 

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The season ended with a trip back to the Brantford's Grand River Arts Festival and "Shackled to a Corpse," a play about the potential pitfalls of finding success in electoral politics. We didn't win, but we made a new fan - the sound guy. He thought our play was hilarious. Perhaps our show was at least a bit of a break from some of the more serious plays.  

So what does the future hold? 

Plans are already underway for Grinder 2026. Dirty Deeds at Handlebar Dan's House of Old Wives may finally get to see the light of day. Another trip to Brantford seems worth a try, though as time goes on the competition is getting stiffer, and there's no guarantee that we'll get in. I will, however, keep my eye out for other short production opportunities. I have no shortage of material for things like that. 

That is, of course, the easy stuff. The accessible stuff. The stuff that people like. Doing it is pretty straightforward, as long as I can find the actors. But it's only part of what a Grinder Productions season must be. I need balance. I need to mix the easy and accessible with the awkward and disquieting. 

I don't know what that piece of my season will be yet, but I know that it needs to be there. I'm open to suggestions.