Something I’ve been mulling over, in regards to a play I’ve been researching.  The play is a historical drama, and in addition to the research and the many books I’ve been reading, I’ve really been struggling with the issue of historical accuracy over dramatic expediency.

The particular setting that I am working on is the Upper Canada Rebellion.  This is one of my favourite “episodes” from Canadian history, and its one that so few people know the facts about.  And that’s where I am finding myself torn.  Part of me simply wants to write a historically accurate account of the events leading up to and surrounding the rebellion.  But the writer in me understands that history is not drama. Although it might be dramatic, it is not, on its own drama.  The Author is required to add the drama, which requires providing an order and a spine to the jumble of events, which they do not possess on their own.

And so, I find myself walking a fine line between honouring the history, while trying to embellish enough to make the play into a drama.

And I don’t yet know how to that. I’m mulling it around in my head.

Eventually, though, I need to stop mulling, and start writing.

Soon.  Soon.

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A while back, D.J. From Monkeyman Productions asked me to direct a one-act play as a part of a double-bill of his plays entitled MONKEY SCI-FI HORROR THEATRE (which is appropriately typed in all caps.  Only all caps. Ever).  I said yes, and so I am directing Dead Man’s Party, a play about Dungeons & Dragons and the Zombie Apocalypse.  Which, you have to admit is pretty awesome.  If a play about Dungeons & Dragons would be pretty cool, and a play about the Zombie apocalypse would be awesome cool, then a play combining both would be super awesome cool (what can I say, I gotta let my geek flag fly).

This last Wednesday, we had our first reading of the play and next week we will begin rehearsals in earnest.  I quite like this play, and so I’m very much looking forward to having it as the first entry on my directing resume.

For those interested, MONKEY SCI-FI HORROR THEATRE runs May 22-23 and 29-30 at the Imperial Pub (54 Dundas Street East, not far from Yonge Street) with special LATE-NIGHT second performances on Saturday nights at 11pm!

In other news, on hoping to be appearing in a BYOV in the Fringe Fest this July.  Details on that when they become available.

On the writing front, I’m working on a one-man play right now.  This is going to be a long-haul kind of project, but I’m liking the process so far.

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Well, now that’s over.

Out of Character closed on Sunday night, to an enthusiastic crowd.  There were very few backstage (or onstage) shenannigans, and the show was probably one of the best: it clipped along, the entire cast was “on”, and there was a great energy from start to finish.

The show, overall, was a good experience.  We had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot (which is always good).

I have done a bit of thinking on the Fringe BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) experience, however.  I love the concept of the BYOV.  I love the idea of creating site specific theatrical productions.  The downside, however, is whether the BYOV is really a part of Fringe.  In most of the “regular” venues, shows rotate on the schedule, never performing at the same time, and often with a day or two in between performances.   Since the shows all spend time in the same theatre, when one show is letting out, another show is getting ready to go in.  The audiences mingle and word of mouth happens.   Also, if a show happens to be sold out, people may hang around and buy tickets for the next show. Actors mingle before and after shows, connections get made, and ideas get shared.

With the BYOV, however, the show exists in a bit of a vacuum. People come to the location specifically for the show that’s performing. Its usually not in a “traditional” theatre space, so people might have trouble finding it.  Audiences don’t mingle with the show letting out or coming in, its rare to meet actors from other shows (unless they come specifically to see the BYOV show).  Being away from the other venues, means that you lose out on some buzz generating things, such as the audiences mingling, vying for the Patron’s Pick, or the Best of the Fringe.

I’m certainly not complaining though.  BYOV shows are always exciting, often experimental, and never quite what you expect.  And this was an incredible experience.  I just think that to get the full Fringe experience, its best to be in one of the “main venues”.

Another great thing that happened over Fringe, was that I got a much needed kick in the pants on the writing front, and gave myself a goal to have two shows written and ready, so that I can submit one of them for next year’s Fringe Lottery.  I’m also starting to wonder about trying to do a Fringe tour, but that’s on the back burner.  Right now, the concentration is on the writing.

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This week I finished the first (quite rough) draft of the one-man play I’ve been writing. The next step for me is to put it aside, complete the first draft of the other play I’m working on (The Commandment), and then I can come back to this one and start the revision process.  Though I want to start sending the play out to people and soliciting feedback right away, I think that I need to resist this urge.  I would rather get some distance from it, then come back to it and try to read it freshly, and see what my opinion is of it.  Sending it out right away seems more like an exercise in attempting to get positive “good for you, Phil” vibes from people rather than an exercise in getting actual feedback.  I know the play isn’t ready yet for someone else to see it.  So, those of you who have expressed an interest in seeing it will have to wait a little bit longer.

In other news, this period of not rehearsing anything has been very good for me. Prior to this I’ve gone from one project to another and between acting and work, the constant “go-go-go” has been taking its toll. The last couple of weeks have given me time to write, and do a little video gaming (moderately, though that is because I don’t have any new ones. The “moderate” gaming will likely end in a couple of weeks, as some new games will be coming out), and just generally relax. This is my “recharge” period since once we get to the fall, work starts with Keystone Theatre as we begin working on our Production of the Belle of Winnipeg, a production based on the silent film genre. This project has been in the works for about 3 years, and it will be good to finally be able to present it to an audience, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Posted in Keystone Theatre, The Commandment, Theatre, Writing | 1 Comment »

A few years back, I wrote a short story (actually, its a little long for a short story. Its more of a novella), based on a story I told Gwen on Christmas Eve when she was three.  Being three, and it being Christmas eve, she wasn’t much for listening (she was literally vibrating at the time).  A couple of years later, I still had the outline of the story and I decided to put it on paper.  Then I revised it again.  And then I put it away.

Last night, I found the last version while doing some tidying up around the house, and flipped through a couple of pages.  It dawned on me, as I was reading, that the story might make a decent comic book or graphic novel.  I think it could work.  I’m going to start looking at converting the story to a comic script.  Sadly, though, since I can’t draw, that’s the extent of where I can go with it. Maybe I’ll just write it, and then see if I can find an artist later.

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Now is the time of year, where everywhere you turn, you’ll find some yahoo with a blog providing a year-in-review post, or a top ten list, or something like that.  And who am I to buck tradition?  So, let’s get to it:

This past year has been pretty performance focused.  I did the New Ideas Festival, Made my directing debut, performed in a BYOV at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and finally turned a four year project into a theatrical reality with The Belle of Winnipeg.  That’s more theatre than I’ve done in the last few years combined.  This is good. I loved every second of it.  After all, its what I trained to do.  What I love to do.

I’m trying to negotiate the waters with my day job, to see what I will be able to do next year, theatre-wise.  I’m taking on a bit more responsibility, but I need to make sure that I’ll still be able to pursue some theatre.  We’ll see how that goes.

I’m also starting to concentrate more on writing.  Progress on the next draft of the one-man play continues.  I’m getting some feedback from some trusted sources, and then I’ll see where to take it next.  I’m researching a historical drama, which I should be able to start writing within the next month to two months, and I’m going to be writing some short stories in the next little while.

I guess that’s the goal for this year.  I want to keep acting going, but writing seems to be where the focus is write now, so that’s what I’m planning to be doing for the next little while.  I’m talking to D.J. Sylvis about starting up a playwriting group, because (quite frankly) I tend to need the encouragement of others to keep the writing going.  When its all over, I’d like to have at least 2 plays completed, and a few short stories.

Let’s review this next year at this time, shall we?

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One of the plays I’m working on at the moment is a historical drama.  I’ve been toying with this in one form or another for many years.  One of the problems I’ve had with this particular story is that I wanted it to be accurate.  Its a story that has been misunderstood for many years, and for a long time, I thought that the only way to tell the story was to do it right, and be as historically accurate as possible.

This posed a great problem, however, because while history may be full of drama, presenting a historical events in a factual and yet theatrical fashion does not inherently create drama.  There’s far too much information that needs to be understood by the audience, and likely far too many people for them to keep track of.  And, although certain events or episodes were certainly dramatic, for the whole thing to work as a single piece, there has to be a story arc, and things have to resolve in some way.  History can’t really work as a verbatim piece of theatre.  There’s no main character in history, and the story is not clear; there’s no narrative.  Good storytelling needs these things.

So I’ve been thinking about how to represent history, and be true to the facts, while creating a unified piece of theatre.  To do this, I’ll have to make a compromise.  I’ll have to understand the facts of the historical events that happened, but give myself the freedom to deviate in order to tell the story, and keep the narrative clear.  I have to be true to history, without being a slave to it.

Right now, I’m concentrating on identifying the story arc, and once I’ve done that I’ll start writing the play proper.

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I have a pet peeve when reading or working on plays: I hate reading a play that consists entirely of male characters.  Now, granted, there are plenty of great plays that are entirely made up of male characters (Glengarry Glen Ross comes to mind), but when I read these plays, I end up thinking about all the women actors I know (far more than of them  than male actors) who aren’t getting into the play.  When I write, I always like to ensure that there is at least one female presence in the script I create.

So, imagine my distress as I begin to work on my history play, and find that I cannot find a way to work a woman into the play.  The action of the  historic event in question (the Upper Canada Rebellion for those keeping track at home) was orchestrated and perpetrated by men.  Yes, most of those men had wives, but the wives themselves were not involved in the Rebellion at all. Additionally, there are no references in any of the historical documents I’ve looked at of any direct female involvement.

Of course, this is unsurprising.  The Victorian sensibilities of the time would not have allowed any of the men to permit a woman near this dangerous affair, but I’d love to be able to find some evidence of some direct female involvement.  Otherwise, adding something in feels both like an obvious fabrication and a betrayal of the actual events (which, I have previously indicated, I want to be careful with).

I think I have to accept the fact that the rebellion was a man’s affair, and that the woman, though loved by their husbands didn’t directly participate.  This does pain me somewhat, but there doesn’t seem to be anyway around it, that doesn’t involve adding participants that were simply not present.

Posted in Lyon and the Banshee, Writing | 5 Comments »

I got a lot of feedback from yesterday’s post, in various locations, from Facebook, to LJ, and right here.  A lot of great feedback.  Some people had suggestions, some people named names of women I should look at.  There are a lot of possibilities, and my head is spinning with ideas.  On the weekend, I’m going to one of the city historical museums to do some research on women in the Upper Canada Rebellion.

The response and the wealth of information and help I received was overwhelming.  So thank you to everyone who commented.  You’ve all been a big help.

When I first conceived of the this play about the Upper Canada Rebellion, I thought of it as a grand historical play in the style of one of Shakespeare’s History plays.  I even thought of writing it in Iambic Pentameter – and then I came to my senses.  Writing the play in iambic pentameter was a good way to make sure I wouldn’t finish the play.  And I wondered about the size of the cast for a “Shakespearean style” history: would a large cast make the play unproduceable?  And should I worry about such a thing? [I probably shouldn't worry about such a thing, but I can't help it].

So, as I considered the story, I found what I thought was a way to tell the story.  This take on the story was exciting to me, and offered a few wonderful possibilities.  And, I thought, it made the play more “producible” because it had a small-ish cast and only two locations.  I thought: write the play, introduce all your characters at the beginning, and follow them through the play.  Limiting the locations and the cast size would keep production costs low, and would give all the actors some meaty parts (and lots of stage time).

With all the new information I am learning, and the research I will be doing in the coming weeks, I need to let go of this confined vision of the play.  The story I want to tell won’t change, but the scope will.  I’ll stop limiting the number of characters, and start telling the story as I need to, introducing characters as they are needed.  Just tell the story, and then worry about how “producible” it is later.

So again: thanks to all the people whose feedback helped me get to this point.

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Now that I am no longer rehearsing/performing a show at the New Ideas Festival, I can turn my attention back to writing, something I haven’t really been able to do since I needed to stay concentrated on the play for the festival.

I had wanted to turn my attention back to the one-man play I was working on, but I find myself a bit stuck there.  I don’t know that the thing is working theatrically.  I like how it works on the page, but it is lacking the necessary theatricality that would make it  stage-worthy.  I’m not sure where to take it just yet, but I know that its not “ready” the way it is.  I need to mull this over for a while, and try to figure out where to take the play.

Next, turning my attention to the historical play, I need to make a start on that.  This one, I think I have distilled into its necessary parts, I know where I’m deviating from true history and why (which I need to do for the sake of the story I’m telling), and its about time to start putting the pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as it were).

I admit to being slightly disappointed with myself, since I had originally wanted to finish the one-man play before moving on to the historical drama.  I really need to sit down with a couple of people and figure out what’s missing before I can get back to it.  So…on to history.

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