It's Finally August... You know what that means... FRINGE!!!!

Summer is interesting when you are producing a Fringe show.  July becomes all about prep and then when August hits it feels like an hour glass has been tipped over and started and away you go!  This is exaggerated even more when you are producing and directing TWO Fringe shows (one of which you are also Playwright for).  It's a Fringe show, so I am also set designer, props mistress, costume designer (well, of a sort - they are both pull-shows, as is pull from your closets, but this is what I want...), marketer and media rep. I'm so lucky to have a fabulous Sound Designer in Erin Foster-O'Riordan (who is also acting in one of the shows) because she always takes sound design as a challenge and gives me more than I can even imagine. I'm also blessed with fabulous Casts and wonderful Stage Management teams who work hard and bring their own special talents to the projects.  AND I am not only getting to see another one of my scripts realized onstage, but also a lovely, layered piece by first-time playwright, Anne Marie Szucs - how blessed am I to be trusted with directing and producing someone's first play?!

But August is now upon us and we are, or will be, ready when the audiences come. Both shows are blocked and off-book (for the most part), all the set pieces are acquired and painted if need be, almost all the props are done (there are a few consumables that will be purchased day-of-show), and we head into this last week before tech ready to run and clean!

Here are my two shows.  I hope you can make it out to one of both of them.

Up to My Waist in Theatre!

I was lucky enough to catch three shows last weekend.  This week is proving to be equally theatre-steeped, but in a different way.  I started rehearsals for both of my FinallySauces Fringe shows on Monday and Tuesday night. CRACK by Anne Marie Szucs lifted off on Monday and I started my own script, LITTLE MONSTERS, tonight.  Both rehearsals felt good and it was great to stretch those directing muscles.  Just like riding a bike!

The rest of the week is quite saturated with arts - just the way I like it.  Wednesday I will be experiencing Oliver's Grade 7 Band Concert.  I am very excited to see and hear this. It has been very fun for me to watch him apply himself to the Trombone.  He likes it! He really likes it!  All the arts-brainwashing I have done over his life has paid off! Woo hoo!  Thursday is the Opening Night of Make Mine Love at the Citadel.  I feel so much anticipation about finally seeing this show.  I couldn't go to the dress rehearsal because I had the Yeggies that same night, so I find myself quite anxious to see it!  When I read the script I was blown away by the requirements and I am so curious to see how our amazing production team has achieved the special effects.  I got a peek of a little bit of the show today at the Media Call and it has only whetted my appetite for more.

Friday will see me at Shadow Theatre for Mistakes Were Made.  I have heard great things, but I will admit I am most thrilled to see Erika Conway onstage!  She's a Walterdale alumnus and proof that there are very talented people coming from that pool!  Speaking of Walterdale, Saturday will see me at Closing Night of Starless, a new work by Eric Rice developed as part of the From Cradle to Stage program.  I painted the set so I am looking forward to finally seeing the show!  Better late than never!

All in all and tremendously arts-packed week! Good thing it's a long weekend... I will need the rest!

Dramaworks - Working on a New Play with Vern Thiessen... sort of...

Dramaworks is upon us!  Hooray!  I am taking the One Weekend, One Play course with Vern Thiessen.  I had to wrangle some creative childcare to make it happen, but happening it is.  We started last night and continued today and we still have two more days to work on our plays.  The first evening was a refresher, but a welcome one.  Too often we only think of the abstract artistic part of writing - the ideas and themes and poetry of it all - and we forget the crafting and the nuts and bolts of it.  Thursday evening we reviewed and learned some techniques for that aspect.  This was very good for me.  I often have 'things I want to write about' but I have a hard time figuring out the best structure to tell the story, so a mechanics lesson was well received!

Today we applied those techniques to the plays we had percolating in our brains.  We had to pitch three of them and then choose one to go with.  I finally started working on Pitchfork, which I first thought about while driving over a year ago.  Sometime tonight I need to do a little more writing on it as we are to assemble 10 pages or so by lunch tomorrow! I have 2 done after today, that's a good start, I think... I am glad to actually be writing as it always feels so good to get something done, and this idea has not left me since I had it last summer so I think it is one of those ones I need to write.

There were some added benefits.  I know that I can apply some of the work from the past two days to Little Monsters and The Water Beneath Her Feet and Girls in White Dresses (the latter will require a total reworking after I get on it!). I am excited because I can see the techniques helping with all three of these.  I would like to finish some of these works on the shelf. A fresh start and new eyes and all that will help!

Tomorrow I will probably miss the afternoon of the session as I have good hopes of being elected to the Theatre Alberta Board.  Cross your fingers and vote for me! I am excited at the idea of joining this Board.  I have been a member of Theatre Alberta for many years and I love their mandate and the work they do. It will be cool to be on the other side of the equation!

I Made This! Or Rather, I am Making This!

The past 8-9 weeks I have been involved in APN's Edmonton Playwright's Circle working on a piece called Little Monsters.  The Circle experience has been great. Led by facilitator Conni Massing and filled with 8 playwrights of various stages in their writing career, we supported each other and helped everyone to write the best play they could. The most important thing for me is that it gave me deadlines and those are so much easier to write towards than a blank future.  Accountability is so important for a writer.  It would be wonderful to think that we could motivate ourselves, but for me, it is the deadline.  Anyhow, I started this piece at Playworks Ink in November during a workshop with Daniel MacIvor.  Prior to the workshop I did not even know it was a play.  I was about halfway done a first draft by mid-December, but I stalled until I joined the circle.  I stuck it in my life in a time I thought was pretty free (that was thrown off by Gibson being in Titanic) but I made it work - hammering out a rough first draft that I was very happy with and a second draft that I was even more happy with.  It still has a way to go, but in the 9 weeks of the circle I have done so much more writing than I have in the last 2-3 years. 

Anyhow, TONIGHT the Circle is sharing excerpts from our plays with the public for FREE! We got to select the excerpt and work with professional actors and a director today and tonight they will be presented.  It is at 7:30 p.m. in the EC Board Room at the Transalta Bus Barns. One of the actors asked me if I had slept last night in anticipation and to be honest, I slept very well.  When I saw the list of actors that would be reading my script (Nadien Chu, Annette Loiselle and Mat Busby) I was really relaxed about it.  They are all very good and actually well suited to the roles they read. Having Tracy Carroll shepherd them as Director didn't hurt either. I love my Circle Playwrights, but it is a different thing to hear your words read by real actors who try different things and go for it. Tonight will be extra exciting to hear it read with an audience in the house. I hope you can come!

In Which I Pull a Mama Rose on Titanic...

My youngest, Gibson, is a very talented little dude but quite shy, however, that shyness obviously did not stop me from getting him to participate in Two One Way Tickets to Broadway's upcoming production of Titanic at the Winspear (April 4th and 5th). I received an email from Barb Mah, the Director, asking if he might be interested as they needed a child to play Jack Thayer. I wasn't sure what Gibson would say. He's shy. Anyhow, first he said no, then he thought about the fact that he would miss school and then he changed it to a yes (what motivates children...). We get a bit of a break on rehearsals which is nice. Barb is excellent in working with him early on school nights so that he can leave before it gets too, too late. He is also happy to get a 'treat' on the way home. I sit in and help wrangle him, but I am happy to say he seems to be doing quite well. Luckily every boy from 5-50 seems to understand the language of video games so he was bonding quite nicely with some of the other cast members last night. This allowed me to visit with friends from past shows.

I have enjoyed sitting in on the rehearsals playing the role of stage mom (I think I have been a fairly innocuous one at that). I am amazed at the sound of this cast. It is big - I think there are 44 of them - and I keep marvelling at how many strong men they have. I have been casting musicals in Edmonton for a few years now and I have been blessed with getting who I needed for my shows, but men are always difficult to come by. You usually have 2-3 times as many women - this show is almost the opposite. It makes for a lovely sound. I know too, that the sound will be even bigger when they add in the choir that will be singing behind them. Hopefully, Gibson will continue to fit in well and I will be able to sit in the house in a proper seat and watch the show. He does not want his brother to come, but we might take him anyhow and not tell Gibson until afterwards. I think Oliver would want to see it. I know Grandma is coming.

On another note - I started the APN Edmonton Playwright's Circle this week. It has it's own blog where you can follow our journeys in writing. I was excited to hear all the other Play Pitches and to get recharged with the 'questions' you need to ask yourself. Hopefully I will be able to get a little work done tomorrow (it's Teacher's Convention so the kids are home). I have a few weeks, but time seems to fly! I will be working on Little Monsters and am excited to plug away at it and then share it with the group.