February 2007 Archives

The countdown to the Friday presentation begins. I've heard from five artistic producers across Canada, and they're all making their way to Banff to see the workshop. Yikes. Talk about being nervous. I'm starting to have my usual "loss of control" nightmares. These are the ones where I'm dreaming that I'm watching a play of mine that goes horribly off the rails. I'm in the middle of the audience and I want to scream at the actors to get back on track, but I can only sit and watch the disaster play out.

Today was a tough day for the actors. We worked the last scene of the first act (we're only presenting the first act). This was a fight sequence and it will look awesome, but there's got to be some clean up work to make sure the intentions are clear.

The one thing that is dangerous about workshops with scheduled presentations is the whole MacGyver style of editing. For the sake of making a scene work right now, lines get cut and changed. Sure, they fixes work for the scene for the moment and for the actors involved. But they should never be the permanent changes. I have to remind myself to look at the trims and cuts and changes to make sure that the story is still clear and that I haven't made the scenes too on the nose. It's a delicate balancing act to make the presentation work. As long as I know that the presentation is not the final product of the script, I can at least maintain some perspective.

Tomorrow, we work through the top of the play to the end of the first act to clean up awkward moments. I might stay away in the morning so I can catch up on some work that has been piling up. Anyway, I'm thrilled, excited and absolutely terrified about Friday. I can feel myself curling into the fetal position already.

It's very late on Tuesday night. This is my first chance to blog about the project. Today was a bit tense as my director decided to add a brand new element to established choreography, and the cast had to muddle their way through new moves. I think the end result looked great, but it did put us a little behind schedule and it did make for some awkward moments. With 2 days to the presentation, I had to deliver the talk about how we have to simplify and not reinvent what we have, so that the actors can have enough confidence that they know what they're doing for the final run through. Sometimes, people can get a little too into the details of the scene. Thankfully, the director came to the same conclusion himself and will keep an eye on the big picture as well as the actors' need to run the first act a couple of times.

I had to do some line changes to scene 3, which is the one between Phoenix and Wukong. I'm not a fan of making revisions on the fly because the lines tend to be functional rather than elegant, but when you're under the wire you have to just deliver something. It's a real art to figure out how to cut lines without losing the intention of the scene. I had to put one line back to make sure the whole thing still had a transition.

Being in a workshop means being open-minded, flexible, but also faithful to the intention if not the exact words. There are many ways to get to the same place. I just have to remember that my way is just one option, and I have to open to the options which may be better.

The first day of the second week of the workshop started off a little shaky. The actors had a day off, but they were pretty tired from all the work the week before. However, once they shook off the cobwebs and dealt with some minor injuries, the cast really found their momentum and created some beautiful moments in the first two scenes of the first act.

I was in awe of the choreography of the introduction. Denise Clarke was our choreographer for the first week and she created a stunning piece of movement. I nearly cried at one point with the story she told with the movement. This was a moment between the Monkey King and his son just before they parted. The moment foreshadowed the good bye scene in the first act and was just an incredible moment. I'm sorry she couldn't stick with us for the second week, and I hope that I have a chance to work with her again.

Anyway, we only have four days to the presentation, so it's going to be a flurry of scenes from now to the end of the week. I think we'll have enough time to work the scenes and then do a few runs on Thursday, so that the cast is confident to deliver a dynamite performance.

This week was the hardest week of my year. I went to Banff to start my workshop, then had to present at a diversity forum in Calgary, followed by a flight to Lethbridge for a teacher convention session. Then I had to rent a car and drive to Medicine Hat for another convention, and I had to navigate the snow-covered streets (20 cm of the white stuff fell overnight) to get back to Lethbridge so I could fly to Edmonton to present 3 sessions at a young authors' conference, and this morning I flew to Calgary so I could pick up my car and drive up to Banff to finish the workshop.

On top of all this, I had to coordinate the travel for one of the participants and it became a comedy of errors. My Peking Opera consultant had to get back to Toronto today, so I thought I'd get off the plane, drive to Banff and then head back to the airport. Meanwhile, one of the kind and generous cast members offered to borrow another cast member's car so he could drive our consultant to Calgary and save me a trip. Murphy's Law was in full effect. The borrowed car broke down on the highway, and I had to make a mad dash to find the two stranded folk. I took the cast member to his parents' house in Calgary so he could sort out the business with the car, while I took my consultant to the airport. We got in with time to spare, but I was so frazzled and tired that I took him to the arrivals area instead of the departures.

Tonight, I think I'm just going to zone out for a while and get my head back together for the last week of the workshop.

Whew! I'm back from a day of writing workshops with some of the brilliant, hand-picked students of the Elk Island district. I have to say that working with students who are motivated to be writers sure makes my job easier. I was so impressed with the quality of thought and the depth of knowledge coming from these budding authors. I also think that the organizers have turned this annual event into one of the gems of the y/a author conference world. I wished every conference could be run this efficiently and this smoothly. This was also a great opportunity to visit with some great Alberta talent. My greatest memory of the event was meeting Gerry Rasmussen, the guy who draws Betty and who used to illustrate my Alberta Venture articles. He was so kind and so cool. I'm a big fan of his and I was tickled to meet him in person.

My other memories of the event had to be the girl who came up with the answer "internal monologue." Wow! She's going to be a serious writer one day.

Also, I was laughing pretty hard when one boy suggested toe fungus as a plot twist.

The last happy memory was seeing kids at the end of the day, waiting for their parents to pick them up and killing time by reading the books of the various authors who presented that day. I was so inspired to see their love of reading.

I'm a bit cranky right now. I'm presenting at the South East teachers convention tomorrow in Medicine Hat. When I checked into my room, I discovered that it was a smoking room. I could tell immediately because my throat and nose started burning. I tried to get another room, but the non-smoking rooms are full. The front desk clerk said she'd send someone to try to make the room more like a non-smoking room. So, what was the solution? A girl came in with a spray bottle and spritzed random bits of furniture. Now my room smells of cigarette butts and Pinesol. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get used to the stink. I think I'll go out tonight and watch a movie or three.

M

Sorry for the delay. I've had to travel away from the workshop to do some teacher convention presentations in southern Alberta. This is the first chance I had to get near a computer. Yesterday, the actors really accomplished a lot in a very short amount of time. The cast has an incredible work ethic and are very supportive each other. I'm truly impressed. I don't know if the fact that artistic directors are coming at the end of the 2 weeks has something to with it, but I'm willing to bank on fhe fact that we lucked out with a great mix of talented folks who also happen to love what they're doing. Their joy really shows through.

The lead actor playing the Monkey King was giddy as he was asked to do one thing after another. He's acting, singing, fighting, and tumbling. The only thing he hasn't done is complain. The chorus have been wild. Two guys are acrobats. The other two (one guy and one girl) are fighters. Because of their skills, the first fight sequence came together like a dream.

Speaking of dreams, our choreographer is working on a dream-like fight/flirt between the Phoenix and the Monkey King today. I'm sorry to miss seeing her work with the pair, but I can't wait to see the final result.

It almost feels like we're working on a real show. My biggest regret is not cancelling my speaking gigs. I wish I could be in Banff right now with the gang. Ah well, I have to pay for this residency somehow.

The director asked for a few line changes, and it was really amazing to see the ripple effect that one line can have. He wanted Laosan to complain about the horrible things about the west, but I couldn't just have him complain about the west because the next thing he says is that he wants to go to the west with his father. I had to massage the scene so that the lines would not contradict each other. Hopefully, I was able to pull it off.

Okay, now I have to get ready for tomorrow's presentation in Lethbridge. I can't wait to get back to Banff.

Whew. This was a hard math day. We read through the script this morning, and I was thrilled to hear the actors really give it their all. In fact, they were willing to work hard through the entire day to get up to speed on Peking Opera. Obviously, it would be impossible to learn anything, so this made for hard math as they tried to download as much of the movement vocabulary into their bodies and minds. I wished we had more time but there never seems to be enough.

The workshop director came up with an idea for the opening, which was intriguing. Because the play is told entirely in the style of Peking Opera, he wanted to ground it with a bookend device. He wanted to have the play be told from the perspective of a real Bachelor Man who was reading a letter from his son, and the Peking Opera world would be his imagination recounting his experiences in Canada.

While I love the idea of using sounds and visuals to sell the fact that this Monkey King tale is actually an allegory for a piece of Canadian history, I didn't agree with his interesting idea. This is the plight of a playwright. Every suggestion has to be weighed against the needs of a play. Is an idea coming from something that is missing from the script or is it an idea that just seems cool but is unsupported? I resisted the suggestion mainly because I felt like it would raise more questions (in a bad way). For example, why would the bachelor man go into the world of Chinese opera? Or how could he see what was happening to his son? How could this intimate memory work with the highly-presentational nature of Peking Opera? Most important of all, what is the dramatic thruline for the device? If it started with the man reading a letter and ended with him finishing the letter, then the bookend device has no relevance or conflict. It'd just be there for the sake of bookending the play, and I couldn't justify its existence. Also, I think a bookend puts an audience is a position of superior knowledge, and that takes away some of the magic of discovery. A bookend either makes the Peking Opera story ironic or bittersweet. I definitely don't want it to be ironic, and while I like the bittersweet ending, I think that the cost of the bookend would be higher than the rewards.

My director's argument was that the bookend would clarify that the story is an allegory for the Bachelor Men. This has been an issue that I've been wrestling with for some time. How much do you reveal in an allegory to link the real story to the metaphor? I wonder if there are direct allusions to McCarthyism in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I don't think so. The audience just knew the connection. For cultural reasons, obviously, fewer people are aware of the Bachelor Men. Does that mean I have to work harder to make connections for an audience, or shouldn't I write a play that challenges an audience? I've always believed that if I write down to an audience that I'm not respecting their intelligence. In the Forbidden Phoenix, I've made references to Terminal City (the nickname for Vancouver), Gold Mountain (the Chinese term for opportunity in Canada), and I even used the term "Bachelor Men." I suspect these are enough hints to the audience, and I think that the real Bachelor Men story can unfold visually to support the story.

As you probably can tell, this issue has me thinking pretty hard. The challenge of a workshop is that everyone will have a note. A playwright needs to be able to distinguish between the notes that help and those that don't contribute to the story that the playwright wants to tell.

Whew! That's enough for one day. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's discoveries are.

I'm in Banff enjoying the mountains and getting ready for the first day of rehearsal for The Forbidden Phoenix workshop. Last night, I met the cast and crew, and I'm pretty excited to work with everyone. The workshop is going to be fairly ambitious. We're looking at the first act, and we have to cover about 5 songs, the text, some choreography and acrobatics. I hope everyone starts slow so as not to hurt themselves. The last thing I need is to deal with someone with a broken ankle.

Today, we're going to read through the script and review the songs to get a sense of the whole play. Then we'll spend the day immersing the cast in the work of Peking Opera so they know the inspiration for this crazy story. I'm thrilled that our Peking Opera consultant is here to give everyone a primer. He's a generous spirit who has a vast amount of knowledge. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to absorb all he has to offer. Okay, I'm off to the first day of rehearsal.

Saturdays are usually my day off. I like to get up late, pick up the Saturday crossword puzzle from the Edmonton Journal and spend the morning jamming words into little boxes. If I don't do the crossword, I feel tense and less relaxed. Unfortunately, today, I have to get ready for a big road trip and the crossword puzzle must wait. Already, I'm feeling anxious. I'm starting to see how important rituals are. I won't do crosswords any other day of the week but Saturday, and only the big one that shows up in the Saturday paper. Does anyone else have a weekend ritual? And sleeping in does not count.

Yay! My latest article hit the Edmonton Journal today. My editor is a romantic and was quite perturbed with me about how lame my proposal was. My wife, on the other hand, thought the proposal was very romantic. I'm not sure if it's because my wife was biased (after waiting 9 years for a proposal) or if my editor has really high standards for romantic moment. Now I'm wondering if the proposal was romantic or not. Anyone want to give me their two cents. The article is here.

I'm back safe, but hardly sound from a trip to Calgary. I presented at the Calgary Teachers Convention, but I think the real show was on the highway getting from Edmonton to Calgary. There was so much snow blowing across the highway that twice I veered into the other lane without knowing it. Thankfully, I was going slow enough that I could swing back to my side before causing a major collision. Unfortunately, a poor driver a few kilometres ahead of me did not have the same good luck. I passed a rolled-over mini-van just before Red Deer, which was enough warning for me to take it easy the rest of the way. All told, I took 4 and a half hours to get to Calgary. Boy, was I stressed when I got there.

The sessions were fine, but doing presentations for teachers is tough. They are a hard audience to win over. I was so nervous that two of my sessions, which were supposed to run 75 minutes, came up short. I had done these sessions before and filled up the time easily, but for some reason, I was cranked and going at full tilt. I don't think I'll get a passing grade from the participants. Thankfully, my nerves settled for the final session and I was able to do my normal presentation. The audience was small, but appreciative. If there is a next time, I'll have to make sure to do some relaxation exercises before I talk to the teachers.

I have no idea why a group of teachers make me so nervous. I suspect it has to do with all that childhood phobia of presenting in front of authority figures. Anyway, I'm glad to have done the presentations, and I hope the teachers got something out of my sessions.

Thankfully, the drive back today was way more pleasant. No blowing snow! Whew.

Thanks to all the wonderful students for sharing your ideas, plays and stories. I was really charmed by everyone's imagination. I wished my residency could have been longer so that I could see the students finalize their plays, but I know that they'll come up with brilliant pieces of writing. In keeping with my tradition of trying to capture the memory, here are some moments that will stick with me:

- one budding writer wrote me a letter asking me to read his manuscript. The letter was respectful and professional. I wished some adult writers would have the same tact that this student did. And his story was pretty cool too.

- I heard a hilarious story about a girl who wanted to move out of a house because of a neighbourhood bully. The girl got into an argument with her dad, and at breakfast, when she was asked what she wanted, her reply was "A new house." I laughed.

- The grade six students were rehearsing for a presentation about the Chinese Zodiac. They were hilarious, from the narrators, to the god, to the animals. My favourite moment was when I saw everyone on stage trying to sing "We Are the Champions."

- The grade one kids helped write a mystery story about a missing pen, and they came up with some really cool ideas in our last session. They seemed so eager to write. I wished we could have had more time to work on their individual stories.

- I was most pleased at the progress of the grade 3/4 students. Their writing took a quantum leap from the week before, and I was so impressed at how many of the students caught on to the idea of objective and obstacle. I hope they continue working on their plays.

Anyway, Meadowlark was a fantastic experience, and I'm so glad to have been invited to work with the students. Gung Hay Fat Choi!

A week before the workshop, and I'm starting to feel the itch in my belly about the play. You'd call it nerves. I'd call it a panic attack. The two weeks are going to be intense as we explore the music, physical movement, stage combat and acrobatic elements. I wish we had more time, but we only have two weeks to put together a presentation for some artistic directors flying in to specifically watch our progress. Talk about pressure.

This is all a part of the business of getting a show off the ground. I've been developing this play since 2003, and now it's got a fighting chance and getting some interest. I'll probably have to do more development based on this workshop, but if I snare a few interested parties to fund the development, I'm all for it.

Okay, today is my last day of work for the week. As much as I hate to do this, I'm going to have to take this weekend off. I'm a burn out case. It's taken me all day to a do a polish on 6 pages of a chapter, and today I totally messed up two presentations. My mouth was saying stuff that my brain did not want to come out. Nothing alienates an audience faster than when I diss them. Literally, as the words were flying out of my mouth, I was screaming shut up inside my head, but this was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. What the heck was going through my brain today?

I feel like a used dish rag, mainly because the sessions were important ones for teachers. I was hoping this sessions would give me some more credibility as a presenter at schools. Ugh. I'm really not happy with myself right now. I've been going so hard for the last few weeks, and there's been so much stress in my life, that I feel like I need a break. I can't take too much time off, but if I don't relax for at least a night or a day, my work is going to suffer even more than it did this week. Ack! I really want to start today over again.

This is how a great day should always begin. I received this e-mail:

"We are very pleased to inform you that your book, The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul, has been nominated for SYRCA’s Diamond Willow Award.

The Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice Award (SYRCA), which promotes reading among Saskatchewan children and youth, has three awards. Ten books written by Canadian authors are nominated at each level. The Shining Willow Award is for books written for children from kindergarten to grade 3. The Diamond Willow Award is for books written for children in grades 4 to 6 and the Snow Willow Award is for books written for youth in grades 7 to 9.

Students throughout Saskatchewan may vote in any category in which they have read the minimum number of books required. Last year over 7000 children and young adults voted for their favourite book. The official Launch of this year’s nominees will be held in the fall of 2007 and the award winners are announced and awards presented at the Gala that will be held in May/June 2008. Both these events are hosted by schools and involve participation by large numbers students and their teachers.

On our web site you will find a variety of educational materials to accompany each book. Materials include photos and biographical information on authors, reviews, links, and activities to enhance the enjoyment of the books. A list of this year’s nominees will be posted in early March."

Yay!

Just came back from a photo shoot for two more Life articles. My marriage proposal article runs Feb. 16, while my lotto one runs in the first week of March. It's funny what clicks with some people and what doesn't. The features editor and the photographer were inspired to talk about their stories of near misses with lottery tickets, and they also mentioned people who had hit the jackpot. However, my marriage proposal got disdain and indifference. Well, the fact that my proposal was pretty lame might have something to do with the reactions. I'm curious to hear what readers will think. Anyway, I'm glad to get more articles in the newspaper. My master plan is to amass enough articles that I can approach a publisher. I'm at a age where I have to milk my ideas for all their worth. No more one-shot projects for me.

Payback is a snowy sidewalk. A couple of weeks ago, my snow shovel article ran in the Edmonton Journal. I complained about how the city workers don't clear streets very well. Many people have been telling me how funny the piece is, but the city workers have given their critique and it's two thumbs down. We had a few days of snow, and the workers hit the streets to clear the way. A sidewalk plow cleared the long stretch of sidewalk from the other end of my driveway all the way to the bridge. Even though a bus stop is right in front of my home, the worker opted not to continue an extra few hundred feet. I think he/she was sending a message. Don't mess with city workers. Okay, I'm off to clear my walks.

I was at Meadowlark School today working with the elementary students, and I learned something from one of the teachers. My last session of the day was particularly tough because the students kept coming up with zany chases and slapstick comedy, when I kept encouraging them to come up with scenes that could use dialogue. I had no idea why they were going down this road, until the teacher pointed out that I had done a demonstration of story ideas the week before that was exactly a zany, slapstick chase. Ahh, I was suddenly reminded that I have to be very careful in my demonstrations to illustrate the concepts that I'm trying to teach. The tough part is because I'm drawing ideas from the students themselves, I have to be ready to shoot down some of the ideas that might lead me astray. From now on, I'll be more selective and careful in my writing workshops, which means the first idea may not be the best idea (actually, that's also true when I write... the first solution to a problem is not aways the right one).

I was happy to do the Meadowlark residency before, but now I'm really thrilled because I learned something that will improve my future presentations. If any student is reading this, remember, you're never too old to learn something new.

Weird thing about this play is that I have the ending mapped out in my head. Usually, I don't have this clear a picture about the ending. Where I'm having trouble is the beginning. I'm going to have to make some hard choices about the ideas I have. The research has been great to give me fodder. Now I have to cruel and cut away the ideas that don't add up to my play. For me, there's a danger in reseaching too much. I fly off in so many directions at the beginning (which is great) that sometimes I lose focus. And sometimes, the ideas that come from the research become a little too precious and I have trouble distinguishing what is good for the play and what is going to show everyone that I did my research. I must remind myself that research is a tool and not a crutch.

Woohoo!!! I just noticed that my article about snow shovel politics ended up in the Winnipeg Free Press this morning. Thank you Google alerts for catching the article. It's pretty cool to know that people in other cities are picking up my articles. Whenever I get down about being a writer, I have to remind myself of times like this. Not that I'm down today. In fact, I'm bursting with creative energy. I want to get cracking on my Fringe play and I want to review my manuscript for the third book. Today is a great day!

I'm still researching the Fringe play. Lots of interesting stuff is coming out as I'm digging through the work of Thomas Aquinas right now. There's a very cool parallel between his arguments and some of the science stuff I've been checking out. The Fringe play is going to be wildly unpopular because it will have nothing to do with what people expect from a Fringe show. But this is a very cool way for me to go back to the roots of the Fringe, which is to experiment. Sadly, the only reason why I feel I can experiment with this show is because I have a cast of 1.5, and I received a grant to help offset some of the costs. In today's Fringe world, experiments are risky because of the cost of producing a show. I wonder what drives artists to take risks, when the safe route is to pursue something commercially viable. I guess the truth is new plays are never really going to be commercially viable, so what do playwrights have to lose.

Sigh. I'm at the mercy of others. My director and fight director are still looking for the final two cast members. I'm feeling completely helpless as I wait for them to wait for responses from the people they've asked. On the good news front, I'm meeting with my composer tomorrow to go over the notes on the songs, and I'm really happy with the latest draft of the script. I think it's really going to move now. Once we've talked in the morning, I'll make my final revisions to the lyrics and send the confirmed cast the copy of the script so they have a little idea of the madness that they can expect during the two-week workshop.