Tadoussac.

Bill Glassco used to host what I’m told were amazing weekends at out his place in Quebec. It’s a big beautiful old house with loads of bedrooms and nooks and crannies and all kinds of walls of books. It feels lived in and loved in.

Playwrights Workshop Montreal now using the home for a couple of weeks a year to host residencies with a focus on translation and adaptation. At Bill’s request the family gives this time in this lovely home and it’s a very special thing.

I was working on an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. I thought a lot about Moscow. I talked with other playwrights and dramaturges. We had lovely dinners.

Dame Judi Dench.

On why she dislikes directing: “the actors never tell you which pub they are going to”.

TAPE. Heldover.

Daniel and Matthew rehearsing on a bed

Tape had a successful run at the Vancouver Fringe and is now being held over for this coming weekend. The three actors, Daniel, Matthew and Marisa, has asked me to work with them on this project that they wanted to do in a hotel room, as I’ve done stuff in weird places. Funnily enough one of the draws for me was the script. I’ve been really wanting to work on an established play. Don’t get me wrong, new work is my passion, but I’ve been wanting to mix it up a bit.

Stephen Belber’s script is a real actor’s piece and has all kinds of twists and turns, which were real fun to navigate. Putting it into an actual hotel room also was a challenge. The play was written for theatres but has been produced in actual hotel rooms before. In fact, Liesl Lafferty directed a production at the Vancouver Fringe 6 years ago. I’m curious to see how our 2 productions related. The challenge of the venue also informed aesthetic. We all wanted it to appear that we were just using the room as it was, the only thing being added were chairs for the audience. In fact we completely re-configured the room and had to come up with ways to turn off the lights and make the phone ring on cue without the help of a stage manager or technician.

More info on the show and hold over tix here.

Theater of War documentary by John Walters.

Went to see the film Theater of War last night.

It’s a documentary that uses the New York City Central Park Public Theatre production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children as a centrepiece to explore theatre, Brecht, and Marxism among other things. The adaptation was written by Tony Kushner, and he is featured prominently in the film, talking about adaptation and protest and why he wanted to do this play.

Meryl Streep is in the titular role and has some great insights into process and the role of an actor and it’s a rare chance to see her at work in a rehearsal room. The film also features Kevin Kline, novelist Jay Cantor (who gives a great overview of Marxism) director George C. Wolfe, artistic director Oskar Eustis among others. They all give really interesting perspectives on theatre and it’s possibilities today. Carl Weber, who actually worked with Brecht, is also very very illuminating.

It’s playing here in Vancouver until Wednesday this week.

Arguments for Theatre 1.

The past weekend was full of surprises.

Travelled to Victoria with the Neworld Theatre gang to do a reading of Kelly Metzger’s in progress solo show. Neworld was there to do a reading of Rachel Corrie. Brian Fidler was in town for Cam & Legs. We even met up with some of the SKAM crew for drinks after the opening of Bike Ride.

Then Marcus Youssef and I performed a new piece called Recipes for an Economic Downturn, or the My Dinner with Marcus and Ami Film Club as part of BC Buds. We served a Swine Flu menu of beer and hot dogs with bacon and discussed My Dinner with Andre with an audience of eight seated around a table.

In her solo show, Kelly explains why she’d quit the theatre. It’s horrible pay, and it’s rarely as good as we’d like. It becomes very difficult to argue any of this. But this weekend – full of comraderie and fun and provocative performance – made it all make sense.

Uno Duo

I’m involved with 2 shows coming up in the Uno Fest in Victoria this week. Check ‘em out if you can.

I’ve been working with actress Kelly Metzger on a new solo show. I am doing what I like to call “drama-urging”. She will be performing a work-in-progress reading.

This development work is generously sponsored by Accent Inns.

Brian Fidler is bringing Cam and Legs to the festival too. I went up to Whitehorse last year to work with Brian and help shape his charming piece about a headless Legs who dreams of being a world famous DJ.

Lucas Myers in his spare time.

Sean Dixon wrote a play. For various reasons, this play was never produced. Sean decided to re-write his play. As a novel. Coach House Books published it. Harper Collins UK published it. The Other Press published it.

The Other Press is now holding a YouTube contest: cover a song that Sean wrote for the play. Lucas Myers has entered. He’s the only entry thus far so they have extended the deadline.

When he’s not making YouTube videos Lucas is starring in Ends of the Earth at the Belfry Theatre.

Here is Lucas’ song entry:

Here is Lucas (and James Long and Camille Stubel) in a clip from the Belfry show.

3 Shows.

As I fear for our future as artists, I take solace in the immediate present that I have three different productions running concurrently around the world, which, not to to toot my own horn too much, I think is some kind of personal record. If you happen to be in Victoria, Ottawa, or Bucharest…

Ends of the Earth by Morris Panych.

Jack Pine, the children’s opera with music by Veda Hille, based on Christopher Patton’s book.

Hippies and Bolsheviks in Romanian, directed by Felix Crainicu.

David Ross

February 10, 1945  - March 29, 2009

David was an inspiration for me and so many. Early on in my theatre career he took the time to talk with me and provide guidance and support. He brought Theatre SKAM to his theatre, the Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops, and gave us a two week run. He was interested in what I was doing and was one of the first people who gave me any money to write, when he sent some support my way for a draft of my first play.

He was always kind to a fault but upfront and honest too. You knew David was giving you the straight goods. I always loved the family feel of being in Kamloops, his gentle way and his knowing laugh. 

David was a leader, a true gentleman of the theatre, a good family man, and a mentor and model for many of us. I’m glad I was able to say goodbye and tell him how much he meant to me.

Distance.

 

The Romanian production of Hippies and Bolsheviks  “Hipioti si Bolsevici”  is doing well. Raves all over the place. Here’s one.

The show is going so well and it makes me want to be there again and soak more of it in. It’s one of the things about theatre creation, the successes can be so fleeting, and so when they happen you really want to enjoy them as much you can.  I feel like I have the most beautiful perfect lover in Bucharest, but that’s as far as it goes. I can’t go visit, I can’t do anything about it. They’re just there and I have to be content with the knowledge that they’re there, but nothing beyond that, just memories.

The superlative response in Bucharest has got me thinking about distance. The worst received production was at home in Vancouver. But was it the “worst” production? I don’t think so, not in the least.

I had people who had lived through the time tell me where I had gone wrong. Where I was totally wrong.  For example the references to Led Zeppelin off the top of the show. And yet, all that is absolutely true. It seems that their awareness that I was only a baby during that time and didn’t actually live it, meant that I must have gotten some of it wrong. When in actual fact that stuff is very true, and just because I didn’t live it, doesn’t mean I can’t write it.

A similar thing would happen when we would tour SKAM shows. The nearer we were to home in Victoria, the worse the reviews were. Another way to look at it: Reviews in Toronto were almost universally stellar.

So what is this about?

In the case of the Bucharest production they are responding to the universal themes of the show – and obviously Felix’s translation must be very good – and because they are so removed from the actual realities of the show, so the audience and critics aren’t getting caught up in what is “true” or not.  There’s less concern about historical accuracy  and more concern with emotional accuracy. The Romanian audience doesn’t have a control group of their own memories to compare their experience with. They just get caught up in the story. The Vancouver audience who was alive in 1972 has their own experience to compare with and if it doesn’t jive with their own experience – real or not – they call foul.

There’s something else at play here too. The idea that if it’s from Away, far away, that perhaps it has more merit. This is what plays into SKAM’s better reviews in Toronto, New York and Philadelphia – for the same piece – than at home.