TESTAMENT TO LIVE THEATRE

I am a quiet man by nature — have been since I was a boy. Oh … I had friends for sure, played on many athletic teams … but I also loved music and was a closeted lover of poetry and Shakespeare! I was more a listener and watcher … reticent to speak much; embarrassed to perform [although I did, under duress, sing Elvis’ “All Shook Up” acapella to my Grade 6 class!]

As an undergraduate I wrote poetry and discovered I had some capacity for playwriting. I stuffed all that when I steered into a career in business … although I did have significant opportunity to create and perform in company related videos.

Several decades later, moving to Collingwood, I rediscovered my penchant for writing dialogue through the generous programs of Gaslight Theatre. Ultimately, I have had 3 short plays produced. When I attended a rehearsal of the first one, I broke into sobs watching people bring to life characters I had created on paper! Then, I dared take on a small role on stage … and then some more … and then I was hooked as an actor! I discovered the joy of exploring context, the intrigue of developing a backstory, the discipline of rehearsing the lines and relationships of a character and the thrill of bringing that character to life on stage!

And that’s the point really, as I see it — life — LIVE THEATRE. Putting a story of life and a set of characters on stage in front of a live audience — unshielded by cameras and multiple takes a la video — performing on a knife-edge in the moment — no safety net — authenticity trumping perfection! For myself as a performer there’s a system of complicated and delicious tensions — internally with myself; between myself and other actors on stage and between the company of performers and the audience.

I have had increasing opportunities to experience those tensions as I performed with the currently dormant Quarter Century Theatre in Palace of the End and Collected Stories for a Better World. Subsequently, I have performed with Theatre Collingwood in Love Letters and in A Christmas Carol and created and performed Opening to the Mystery, from my book of the same name, both for the Theatre Collingwood Porchside Festival and on my own. As I write, I am currently in the final stages of preparing for Thornbury Community Theatre’s production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound running the first 2 weekends in May in Clarksburg.

We are all so blessed to live in a community that offers a world of opportunities for participating in and attending a broad range of arts-related activities from live theatre to visual arts to music to dance … I feel beyond blessed to have found my small place in that world!