Grinder's Grumblings

Well, maybe not... The promise of spring on the farm has yet to materialize - this little one is actually a very late arrival from the winter season. The air is still cold and wet, as is the ground. The cattle are in mud up halfway up their legs if they dare to step outside (which they do). We didn't tap the maple trees this year, so aside from some buds on the willows down by the pond you'd be forgiven for thinking we're still in the middle of last winter. But despite the weather the calendar marches on, and I know that spring will be here eventually. If past years are anything to go by I think our spring will be very short, and the heat of the summer will soon be upon us.  Despite it still being too cold for me to get much done in the shop Grinder Productions prep work for the summer season is coming along well. Casting is underway, and while I'm not there yet I'm a lot further ahead than I was this time last year. As always, I'm on the lookout for new talent,...

Blocking notes are coming along nicely this year It was a cold and blustery day at the Ennotville Library, but we still managed to pull off both our workshop reading and our open auditions - thank you to everyone who came out to both events! I'm really glad that I put the time and energy into organizing this "preseason" event. I haven't done either an in-person staged reading and workshop or held in-person open auditions for several years now, and I forgot how much I missed them. I spend a lot of time alone with my theatre company this time of year, huddled in the cold of my basement under blankets pouring over the scripts. It's so refreshing to actually hear other people reading my work, or the work of others that I'm directing, out loud. As much as I value all the written feedback that I get, nothing beats hearing a play brought to life by actors who are right there in front of you, theatre as theatre is meant to be.  Now it's time to get back to work, i...

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...