Stratford, Prince Edward Island
A real quick one, even this late. The last few weeks have pretty well been a whirlwind - and it's only just starting! Tonight I've been working on initial blocking plans, which all could go out the window once we start physically putting things onstage. It's a start, anyway. And while being sick, too! There's just no time to stop now, not even for a sore throat.
Spring has not sprung just yet - at least, not in the way I'd hoped, which means we're going to have to get most of the rest of the screen footage in May. A bit tight, considering rehearsals start 10 May and there's no telling how long it will take to have all the video processed. I'm just going on faith on a lot of this stuff. If I start thinking about how much time we don't have, it'll make me insane. So, using what little of the law of attraction I've been able to muster in the midst of all this craziness, I'm just assuming it will all come together and be ready in time. What else can I do?
Leo has to conduct Bugs Bunny on Broadway next week in Fort Wayne, Indiana - while he's gone, I'll be jetting off to Toronto. I have to look into adding to our kitty of costumes, but mostly I have to get more elements to display on our screen. I'm going to pop by The University of Guelph to see what I can get in terms of photos Maud took (especially interiors and exteriors of where she lived). But I'll be driving up to Lake Muskoka at Bala, Ontario where Maud and her family vacationed in 1922 to do some filming. You may recall we were up there in October. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I don't even mind if it's a little cloudy or foggy - when Maud used Bala as her locale for The Blue Castle, she did fictionalize it as "Lake Mistawis". To me that evokes mist! I guess we will, as they might say in Avonlea, leave it up to Providence.
It's been a really intense time and there are moments where it all seems very overwhelming. And stressful, particularly. It helps me to remember where we were a year ago, 6 months ago - even 2 months ago - and just how far we've come. That usually gives me the juice to keep going.
Well, there you go, April practically over. I don't know when I'll be able to get on here again, but who knows - I may be pleasantly surprised. Somewhere under all of this I am extremely grateful, and hey - I could be back doing data entry like I was this time last year! Hard to complain when I put it that way!
27 April 2008
07 April 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Just a little sense of déjà vu tonight. Tomorrow is our first day of auditions, and I'm spending the evening printing out "sides" - pages of dialogue for the actors to read. A little over 7 months ago, I was doing the same thing in preparation to audition the company of the Confederation Centre - you may recall their cast stepped in for the workshop. How much the same printing these sides up is, and how different!
Obviously, the main difference is that back then it was for the workshop and now it's for our own production. But the thing that strikes me the most is the libretto! I had to reference some of the older drafts over the weekend while I did a little cleaning up on the current version (I'd love to say "final version", but we still have to get a pesky 6 minutes out of this thing) and I about cringed! It's not that it didn't have its merits, but I've learned an awful lot about this the last several months and...well, it's not so much that it's painful looking over the old versions, but more awe-inspiring that there have been so many changes. And yet, it's essentially the same story, just reinvented.
There's a line in An Epoch In My Life, the duet where Maud and Anne marvel at the publication of Anne of Green Gables, where Anne says "To-day I go out and meet the world!" - and that's kind of how it feels. It's not just Leo and I discussing the script anymore. It's not even putting it in front of dramaturgs. Now we're really bringing other people into it. I'm not nervous, actually...it's just an interesting experience.
Well, back to work...and I don't dare count the number of days just now!
Just a little sense of déjà vu tonight. Tomorrow is our first day of auditions, and I'm spending the evening printing out "sides" - pages of dialogue for the actors to read. A little over 7 months ago, I was doing the same thing in preparation to audition the company of the Confederation Centre - you may recall their cast stepped in for the workshop. How much the same printing these sides up is, and how different!
Obviously, the main difference is that back then it was for the workshop and now it's for our own production. But the thing that strikes me the most is the libretto! I had to reference some of the older drafts over the weekend while I did a little cleaning up on the current version (I'd love to say "final version", but we still have to get a pesky 6 minutes out of this thing) and I about cringed! It's not that it didn't have its merits, but I've learned an awful lot about this the last several months and...well, it's not so much that it's painful looking over the old versions, but more awe-inspiring that there have been so many changes. And yet, it's essentially the same story, just reinvented.
There's a line in An Epoch In My Life, the duet where Maud and Anne marvel at the publication of Anne of Green Gables, where Anne says "To-day I go out and meet the world!" - and that's kind of how it feels. It's not just Leo and I discussing the script anymore. It's not even putting it in front of dramaturgs. Now we're really bringing other people into it. I'm not nervous, actually...it's just an interesting experience.
Well, back to work...and I don't dare count the number of days just now!
26 March 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
It's kind of weird how things come together. First off, I pretty well finished that new replacement song I was talking about before - all except for 2 lines I want to re-examine. Didn't have a title for it forever, and suddenly it came to me - Character Analysis. It's almost out of place among the other titles, but since in the song the characters are chatting about Maud it creates this trippy double meaning, and I love those. But it was a hard labour - I spent the whole weekend trying to write it!
Conversely, we changed the opening of Act II - more to the point, we pushed it forward by 2 years. Fine, except it made half of the lyrics in Mistress of the Manse obsolete. And, after a previous attempt at fixing it that didn't work, I was really dreading tackling it again. But today I decided to take a whack at it, and it didn't end up being nearly so hard! Of course, I didn't have to rewrite the whole thing - just certain sections. I think we now have something that works. I'll know tomorrow - I usually have to let lyrics sit overnight and come back to them to make sure. That, and Leo gets back from L.A. tomorrow, so they will also require approval by his eyes!
Mistress of the Manse, though, is kind of the set-up for how Maud felt she had to put her duties as a minister's wife above her writing. And here I am today, trying to write new lyrics in between finally getting to multiple chores that have sat undone for too long. Just sort of got into what I call my "Donna Reed Syndrome", and when that comes, I have to clean, because once it passes I don't feel like it anymore. So I'd work on a line, go do laundry, work on another line, clean the bathroom, have to come back to the song in the middle of it because I got an idea, and so on. But it was strangely fitting considering the subject matter!
Now I just have to bridge one gap that occurred when Leo shortened the 11 o'clock number, and I may have a workable libretto. Although I still have to get 6 minutes out of the thing! I did some consolidations and somehow only lost 17 seconds. Time for the dramaturg again, because Mikey's stuck. But I do intend to read it through again for continuity, and maybe something will come to me then.
85 days and counting.
It's kind of weird how things come together. First off, I pretty well finished that new replacement song I was talking about before - all except for 2 lines I want to re-examine. Didn't have a title for it forever, and suddenly it came to me - Character Analysis. It's almost out of place among the other titles, but since in the song the characters are chatting about Maud it creates this trippy double meaning, and I love those. But it was a hard labour - I spent the whole weekend trying to write it!
Conversely, we changed the opening of Act II - more to the point, we pushed it forward by 2 years. Fine, except it made half of the lyrics in Mistress of the Manse obsolete. And, after a previous attempt at fixing it that didn't work, I was really dreading tackling it again. But today I decided to take a whack at it, and it didn't end up being nearly so hard! Of course, I didn't have to rewrite the whole thing - just certain sections. I think we now have something that works. I'll know tomorrow - I usually have to let lyrics sit overnight and come back to them to make sure. That, and Leo gets back from L.A. tomorrow, so they will also require approval by his eyes!
Mistress of the Manse, though, is kind of the set-up for how Maud felt she had to put her duties as a minister's wife above her writing. And here I am today, trying to write new lyrics in between finally getting to multiple chores that have sat undone for too long. Just sort of got into what I call my "Donna Reed Syndrome", and when that comes, I have to clean, because once it passes I don't feel like it anymore. So I'd work on a line, go do laundry, work on another line, clean the bathroom, have to come back to the song in the middle of it because I got an idea, and so on. But it was strangely fitting considering the subject matter!
Now I just have to bridge one gap that occurred when Leo shortened the 11 o'clock number, and I may have a workable libretto. Although I still have to get 6 minutes out of the thing! I did some consolidations and somehow only lost 17 seconds. Time for the dramaturg again, because Mikey's stuck. But I do intend to read it through again for continuity, and maybe something will come to me then.
85 days and counting.
22 March 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Whew! Quite a flurry since my last post - and I don't just mean the fact there's been new snow the last couple of days. I think in normal circumstances I wouldn't mind the late appearance, but we have more footage to get for the screen and I need things to be green again before long so we're not cutting it too close to the opening! As we have to have video processed and synched up to music - which theoretically I could do myself but A) I'm not really hooked up to do that high-quality of HD video, and B) I'd really rather not have to do it - I don't want to be filming stuff into May if I can help it!
Anyway...lots of press releases to send out and lots of stuff to do to get auditions under way. I'm only in the last couple of days really able to put that aside and get back to work on finishing The Rewrite That Wouldn't Die. I'm reasonably certain this is the best one, though. If anything, I'm juiced by certain new things.
The irony of the whole thing is...well, you may recall in late '06 I wrote a reprise for Maud called Why Did I Say Farewell, which depicted Maud visiting her father's grave for the first time some 40 years after the last time she saw him. Months ago, I realized it just sort of sat there and didn't advance the story any. So we were going to pull it. Then we got the idea to bring her father into it as a ghost, using a shorter version of the song. And we were pretty settled on it. Then it was just a matter of setting up a shot in a graveyard while snow was gently drifting down to use as a backdrop. Easier said that done. Of course, as I write, the snow is doing almost exactly what I would have wanted it to do. Not so the few times I tried to film it while Leo was away in Toronto. Usually it was a matter of too much wind that was blowing really wispy snow right into the lens. You should have seen me stomping across this one graveyard, trying to get to the other side, accidentally bumping the tripod into headstones! Anyway, finally on a different day I got a halfway decent shot - not enough snow, but at least the wind wasn't howling. Then when Leo got back, we gave it another try - again in oppressive wind, but at least it wasn't right into the lens.
Then, as we went over the last version, we realized that the song still was kind of bringing things to a stop. So what ended up happening was, Leo suggested actually giving the fictional characters a song to help consolidate events of the period. Only some of the characters had sung so far, and usually duets with Maud. This would be just among themselves - or at least, the characters that were in existence at this point in time. We've had our struggles over certain ideas lately, but this wasn't one of them - and we said a final farewell to Farewell. Leo recorded this new song pretty well on the spot, and, as we speak, I am trying to put lyrics to it. Always harder to insert lyrics into a predetermined rhythm - the only song I did that for was An Epoch In My Life, and that was only because I was so in love with the tune. But, on this snowy day, it's formulating. Of course, I'm journaling now as sort of a stalling tactic! :)
And, oh, yes, the irony...all that fussing to try and get graveyard footage, and now we're not even going to use it! I did wonder through all that trouble if someone was trying to tell us something.
Double oh yes! I almost forgot to tell you...I'm really psyched, because today I heard Two-Timin' Timmy and Folly In Love in their proper form. Leo did his best on these Big Band numbers - which come up during the throes of Chester's affair - but, as he's in L.A. again, he took his scores to an actual Big Band band. I just got the MP3s of the mixes a few hours ago and WOW! Are you guys going to be surprised. In a good way!
Well, I'd best get back to it. In the meantime, here's a pic from our press conference on 10 March while we were at the podium, speaking to the press.
Also, a shout out to Tickled Orange, a resource site for all things Anne and Maud - they plugged us on their site, and one good deed deserves another! They have all kinds of great stuff I wish I had time to go through! :)
89 days and counting...
P.S. If you want to see the newspaper bits about us, check out our Press page on the 9LoLMM site...
Whew! Quite a flurry since my last post - and I don't just mean the fact there's been new snow the last couple of days. I think in normal circumstances I wouldn't mind the late appearance, but we have more footage to get for the screen and I need things to be green again before long so we're not cutting it too close to the opening! As we have to have video processed and synched up to music - which theoretically I could do myself but A) I'm not really hooked up to do that high-quality of HD video, and B) I'd really rather not have to do it - I don't want to be filming stuff into May if I can help it!
Anyway...lots of press releases to send out and lots of stuff to do to get auditions under way. I'm only in the last couple of days really able to put that aside and get back to work on finishing The Rewrite That Wouldn't Die. I'm reasonably certain this is the best one, though. If anything, I'm juiced by certain new things.
The irony of the whole thing is...well, you may recall in late '06 I wrote a reprise for Maud called Why Did I Say Farewell, which depicted Maud visiting her father's grave for the first time some 40 years after the last time she saw him. Months ago, I realized it just sort of sat there and didn't advance the story any. So we were going to pull it. Then we got the idea to bring her father into it as a ghost, using a shorter version of the song. And we were pretty settled on it. Then it was just a matter of setting up a shot in a graveyard while snow was gently drifting down to use as a backdrop. Easier said that done. Of course, as I write, the snow is doing almost exactly what I would have wanted it to do. Not so the few times I tried to film it while Leo was away in Toronto. Usually it was a matter of too much wind that was blowing really wispy snow right into the lens. You should have seen me stomping across this one graveyard, trying to get to the other side, accidentally bumping the tripod into headstones! Anyway, finally on a different day I got a halfway decent shot - not enough snow, but at least the wind wasn't howling. Then when Leo got back, we gave it another try - again in oppressive wind, but at least it wasn't right into the lens.
Then, as we went over the last version, we realized that the song still was kind of bringing things to a stop. So what ended up happening was, Leo suggested actually giving the fictional characters a song to help consolidate events of the period. Only some of the characters had sung so far, and usually duets with Maud. This would be just among themselves - or at least, the characters that were in existence at this point in time. We've had our struggles over certain ideas lately, but this wasn't one of them - and we said a final farewell to Farewell. Leo recorded this new song pretty well on the spot, and, as we speak, I am trying to put lyrics to it. Always harder to insert lyrics into a predetermined rhythm - the only song I did that for was An Epoch In My Life, and that was only because I was so in love with the tune. But, on this snowy day, it's formulating. Of course, I'm journaling now as sort of a stalling tactic! :)
And, oh, yes, the irony...all that fussing to try and get graveyard footage, and now we're not even going to use it! I did wonder through all that trouble if someone was trying to tell us something.
Double oh yes! I almost forgot to tell you...I'm really psyched, because today I heard Two-Timin' Timmy and Folly In Love in their proper form. Leo did his best on these Big Band numbers - which come up during the throes of Chester's affair - but, as he's in L.A. again, he took his scores to an actual Big Band band. I just got the MP3s of the mixes a few hours ago and WOW! Are you guys going to be surprised. In a good way!
Well, I'd best get back to it. In the meantime, here's a pic from our press conference on 10 March while we were at the podium, speaking to the press.
Also, a shout out to Tickled Orange, a resource site for all things Anne and Maud - they plugged us on their site, and one good deed deserves another! They have all kinds of great stuff I wish I had time to go through! :)
89 days and counting...
P.S. If you want to see the newspaper bits about us, check out our Press page on the 9LoLMM site...
12 March 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Oy! I stay up way too late on this computer. But I wanted to update the web site, and that always seems to take way longer than it should. Mostly, our artwork for the show is starting to crystallize, in the form of Maud's signature - which I'm proud to say the Heirs have authorized us to use.
But better than that, peep THIS!
I told you it was going to be huge. :) There's so much else I'd like to say right now, but it's so late...suffice it to say this was mostly the reason I've been so quiet and cryptic on here in recent weeks. Lots of meetings, lots of figuring out, lots of stuff I couldn't really talk about. But this is what it's led to. And now the fun begins!
And the work, too - but it's not like I'm not already used to that!
Stay tuned...so much more coming...we have main engine start!!
Oy! I stay up way too late on this computer. But I wanted to update the web site, and that always seems to take way longer than it should. Mostly, our artwork for the show is starting to crystallize, in the form of Maud's signature - which I'm proud to say the Heirs have authorized us to use.
But better than that, peep THIS!
I told you it was going to be huge. :) There's so much else I'd like to say right now, but it's so late...suffice it to say this was mostly the reason I've been so quiet and cryptic on here in recent weeks. Lots of meetings, lots of figuring out, lots of stuff I couldn't really talk about. But this is what it's led to. And now the fun begins!
And the work, too - but it's not like I'm not already used to that!
Stay tuned...so much more coming...we have main engine start!!
09 March 2008
19 February 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
It's waaaaaaay too late - but I wanted to announce that the web site has been officially updated. New look, new pix, new...well, I won't tell you here. I'll tell you with a new video! Peep it below.
I really need to get to bed!
It's waaaaaaay too late - but I wanted to announce that the web site has been officially updated. New look, new pix, new...well, I won't tell you here. I'll tell you with a new video! Peep it below.
I really need to get to bed!
18 February 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, after a long and difficult labour, I seem to have given birth to the new version of the rewrite. I'm timing it as we speak. Pray to whatever you believe in that it finally comes in at the proper length!
I've also been working on something else like crazy. And that is the web site. There's been a change to the show, one that needed to be reflected on-line. At least it was an excuse to reinvent the look and add some more pix and other goodies. There will be some audio coming - excerpts from the demo recordings. Now how can you resist that? ;) Anyway, I'm going live with it tomorrow, so check 'er out and let us know what you think.
I feel confident the libretto will at least be closer. I did some major stuff! That, and I just cleaned up a lot of things, made it less expositional - apparently I am Exposition King of the Universe! But now I've seen the error of my ways.
Well, back to timing. Not much else to do on a rainy day, is there?
Rain in February? Thanks a lot, global warming! :p
Well, after a long and difficult labour, I seem to have given birth to the new version of the rewrite. I'm timing it as we speak. Pray to whatever you believe in that it finally comes in at the proper length!
I've also been working on something else like crazy. And that is the web site. There's been a change to the show, one that needed to be reflected on-line. At least it was an excuse to reinvent the look and add some more pix and other goodies. There will be some audio coming - excerpts from the demo recordings. Now how can you resist that? ;) Anyway, I'm going live with it tomorrow, so check 'er out and let us know what you think.
I feel confident the libretto will at least be closer. I did some major stuff! That, and I just cleaned up a lot of things, made it less expositional - apparently I am Exposition King of the Universe! But now I've seen the error of my ways.
Well, back to timing. Not much else to do on a rainy day, is there?
Rain in February? Thanks a lot, global warming! :p
02 February 2008
24 January 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
"Rip and tear! Rip and tear!"
That's a quote from SCTV's "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses" skit - but it's terribly apt considering what's being done to the libretto! :)
I'm attempting to continue this rewrite - in between the increasing administrative stuff, that is. In some ways, grateful as I am for the progress, I'm reminded of how frustrated Maud would get trying to write in between all her minister's wife duties. I'm kind of only able to do this in drips and drabs. So, working on a scene that should've only taken a day at most has so far taken four.
You may or may not recall I had written two songs, The Correspondence of Edwin and The Further Correspondence of Edwin, all by way of describing the pseudo-triangle between Maud, Edwin Simpson, and Herman Leard. Well, the one thing that struck me during the workshop in September is that the whole sequence had a way of dragging, and now that we're trying to "stick to the through-line", I've had to reimagine things to make it tighter and more relevant. So, I've had to combine the tracks into one, and rewrite all but a few lines to make it reflect the new direction of the scene. It was much fluffier before, only leading up to the engagement. Now, the song is the engagement. I'd been used to the old version for well over a year, so when I started putting new lyrics to it, it seemed really odd. Fortunately, Leo likes the direction I'm going, and I think it actually makes the song more substantial while retaining its sense of fun. Obviously these are not changes I can implement in a 5-minute session! I'm having to go back through the journals, and even initial drafts of the libretto to try and make things make sense. Exhausting by itself! Let alone the three jillion other things that keep coming up to be taken care of.
That being said, I'm certainly grateful there's stuff to come up, considering not that long ago all was way too quiet on the Western front. And it's all leading to...well, something I hope to announce in the not-too-distant future; alas, I must remain quiet about it yet. :) I can tell you that we're not just trying to do this by ourselves anymore - more and more, we're getting help, and if that's not something to be grateful for, I don't know what is!
Speaking of reinventions, I hope to do one to the web site before long...if I can ever get the time, that is! (Wow - I really channeled Maud in that statement! LOL)
"Rip and tear! Rip and tear!"
That's a quote from SCTV's "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses" skit - but it's terribly apt considering what's being done to the libretto! :)
I'm attempting to continue this rewrite - in between the increasing administrative stuff, that is. In some ways, grateful as I am for the progress, I'm reminded of how frustrated Maud would get trying to write in between all her minister's wife duties. I'm kind of only able to do this in drips and drabs. So, working on a scene that should've only taken a day at most has so far taken four.
You may or may not recall I had written two songs, The Correspondence of Edwin and The Further Correspondence of Edwin, all by way of describing the pseudo-triangle between Maud, Edwin Simpson, and Herman Leard. Well, the one thing that struck me during the workshop in September is that the whole sequence had a way of dragging, and now that we're trying to "stick to the through-line", I've had to reimagine things to make it tighter and more relevant. So, I've had to combine the tracks into one, and rewrite all but a few lines to make it reflect the new direction of the scene. It was much fluffier before, only leading up to the engagement. Now, the song is the engagement. I'd been used to the old version for well over a year, so when I started putting new lyrics to it, it seemed really odd. Fortunately, Leo likes the direction I'm going, and I think it actually makes the song more substantial while retaining its sense of fun. Obviously these are not changes I can implement in a 5-minute session! I'm having to go back through the journals, and even initial drafts of the libretto to try and make things make sense. Exhausting by itself! Let alone the three jillion other things that keep coming up to be taken care of.
That being said, I'm certainly grateful there's stuff to come up, considering not that long ago all was way too quiet on the Western front. And it's all leading to...well, something I hope to announce in the not-too-distant future; alas, I must remain quiet about it yet. :) I can tell you that we're not just trying to do this by ourselves anymore - more and more, we're getting help, and if that's not something to be grateful for, I don't know what is!
Speaking of reinventions, I hope to do one to the web site before long...if I can ever get the time, that is! (Wow - I really channeled Maud in that statement! LOL)
16 January 2008
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, there's a whole lot going on - but I can't tell you about most of it! Not yet. But there are some really exciting things in the works, and, as soon as I can make any kind of announcement, you better believe I will right here.
All the craziness in trying to get a show on its feet aside, my world recently has been about rewrites. Yes, it's certainly not the first time, as you know. But this time, it's kind of more about learning. And study. I got detailed notes from a theatre staffer and one dramaturg, plus Leo's had me reading this book called Naked Playwriting. So there's a lot of stuff that's been percolating in my head. In some ways, I can see where I made some tactical and structural errors, which I'm planning to fix. But the one thing I've learned about dramaturgy in the past few weeks is that, while they can give you suggestions, you don't have to take 'em! Things were suggested to us that I wouldn't do in a million years. Of course, it's all made me look at our show in a different way. Some answers I have - I just haven't implemented them, because I wanted to wait until I finished the book (which I did this afternoon). Others...well, they haven't made themselves known yet.
One thing I'd like to say here and now is...I hope you'll all forgive me! There are certain things I'm going to have to cut and certain characters that I'm going to have to cut, all of which is going to dilute the accuracy somewhat. Or at least the amount of it. I know some of you will be sitting there going "Where's such-and-so?" But something else I've become more acutely aware of is the through-line - and the necessity of sticking near it. For me, that through-line is and remains the power of the imagination - whether that's Maud's creative process and books, or the way she "imagined" positive or negative things into her experience. If you know anything about The Law of Attraction, or have read or seen The Secret, you know what I'm talking about. The school of thought that suggests the inner creates the outer, or that our thoughts create our experiences. I'm a rather stringent student of that particular school, even though I'm nowhere near mastering it. So, whatever doesn't contribute to that through-line - with a few exceptions - has to go. There are two characters in particular that I hate cutting, and never imagined cutting, but the story drags when they're there. It isn't just about getting the thing down to 2hrs 40mins or less anymore. Now I've got to make it make more sense structurally. In the beginning I was just determined to do a straightforward biography. And I'd still like to, but I see now that the only way to make this stageable is to have a theme and follow through on it. People have been telling me that right along, but...well, my skull is a bit on the thick side. :)
Anyway, it is still my aim to put something out there that accurately reflects Maud (I may have to leave some things out, but I'm not about to start making things up!) and that you'll all still enjoy. But don't hate me, OK, guys? :)
Well, there's a whole lot going on - but I can't tell you about most of it! Not yet. But there are some really exciting things in the works, and, as soon as I can make any kind of announcement, you better believe I will right here.
All the craziness in trying to get a show on its feet aside, my world recently has been about rewrites. Yes, it's certainly not the first time, as you know. But this time, it's kind of more about learning. And study. I got detailed notes from a theatre staffer and one dramaturg, plus Leo's had me reading this book called Naked Playwriting. So there's a lot of stuff that's been percolating in my head. In some ways, I can see where I made some tactical and structural errors, which I'm planning to fix. But the one thing I've learned about dramaturgy in the past few weeks is that, while they can give you suggestions, you don't have to take 'em! Things were suggested to us that I wouldn't do in a million years. Of course, it's all made me look at our show in a different way. Some answers I have - I just haven't implemented them, because I wanted to wait until I finished the book (which I did this afternoon). Others...well, they haven't made themselves known yet.
One thing I'd like to say here and now is...I hope you'll all forgive me! There are certain things I'm going to have to cut and certain characters that I'm going to have to cut, all of which is going to dilute the accuracy somewhat. Or at least the amount of it. I know some of you will be sitting there going "Where's such-and-so?" But something else I've become more acutely aware of is the through-line - and the necessity of sticking near it. For me, that through-line is and remains the power of the imagination - whether that's Maud's creative process and books, or the way she "imagined" positive or negative things into her experience. If you know anything about The Law of Attraction, or have read or seen The Secret, you know what I'm talking about. The school of thought that suggests the inner creates the outer, or that our thoughts create our experiences. I'm a rather stringent student of that particular school, even though I'm nowhere near mastering it. So, whatever doesn't contribute to that through-line - with a few exceptions - has to go. There are two characters in particular that I hate cutting, and never imagined cutting, but the story drags when they're there. It isn't just about getting the thing down to 2hrs 40mins or less anymore. Now I've got to make it make more sense structurally. In the beginning I was just determined to do a straightforward biography. And I'd still like to, but I see now that the only way to make this stageable is to have a theme and follow through on it. People have been telling me that right along, but...well, my skull is a bit on the thick side. :)
Anyway, it is still my aim to put something out there that accurately reflects Maud (I may have to leave some things out, but I'm not about to start making things up!) and that you'll all still enjoy. But don't hate me, OK, guys? :)
01 January 2008
North York, Ontario
2008 is here! Funny how when we first started up with this show and decided to get it ready in time for a 2008 début, it seemed like this far-away, mystical number. And now it's here! And I have a feeling it's going to be the busiest year yet. Hopefully with the biggest payoff yet!
Anyway, Happy New Year to all Lucy Maud Montgomery fans and to everyone who's followed and supported us on our Nine Lives journey. May whatever you wanted that eluded you in '07 show its face in abundance in '08!
And happy official 100 years of Anne of Green Gables!
2008 is here! Funny how when we first started up with this show and decided to get it ready in time for a 2008 début, it seemed like this far-away, mystical number. And now it's here! And I have a feeling it's going to be the busiest year yet. Hopefully with the biggest payoff yet!
Anyway, Happy New Year to all Lucy Maud Montgomery fans and to everyone who's followed and supported us on our Nine Lives journey. May whatever you wanted that eluded you in '07 show its face in abundance in '08!
And happy official 100 years of Anne of Green Gables!
24 December 2007
20 December 2007
17 December 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Much as I'm liking the we-haven't-had-a-winter-like-this-in-10-years snowy weather, 9LoLMM seems to be in the "uphill battle" stage. I think we knew this part of it was going to be a challenge, and it's not like we're anywhere near giving up, but everything is up in the air - we're not sure where it's going to be, we're not sure where the funding is going to come from. And we're playing the waiting game on pretty much all levels - can't do much of the way of rewriting until I get dramaturgical notes, Leo's left phone and e-mail messages all over the place and they're not getting returned. And now, of course, you throw Christmas into the mix. So, with just over 6 months left, things are getting a little tight.
Leo's been in L.A. the past three weeks - that's slowed things down to a point, although he's certainly done plenty from there. It just suddenly feels like we're in this kind of vacuum where we've ceased to exist. I've been pretty much relegated to doing administrative stuff - writing out all the character names on cards for the purpose of figuring out who's going to play which characters and reducing the cast (currently we have 18 adults and 7 children - still considered a bit large, but I don't see how it's going to go lower than that at this point), as well as making lists of costumes and props so we can start amassing some sort of budget. Everyone wants to know "How much?" Well, I can make lists from now until Doomsday, but I have no way of knowing what things cost. We have some feelers out on that one, too, but...we're in the vacuum!
To add to my frustration, I finish what I considered (and still consider) to be a kick-ass rewrite after 4 weeks of agonizing over it in 3 locales in 2 countries - but when I sat down to time it out, it wasn't nearly as much shorter as I anticipated it would be. Needless to say, I was very much not happy about that. It means having to do yet another rewrite and cut even more out of this thing. It's almost there, damn it! I'd personally like some outside, professional feedback before I make another attempt. But, The Waiting Game persists. I don't wait well. So, in the spirit of remaining proactive, I'm printing out this latest version and I'm going to make some notes of my own in terms of what else could be cut or changed. If I get some feedback by the time I'm done with my notes, great. If not, I'm just going to do it myself.
Next week, it's back to Toronto until the second week in January. Barring any more family emergencies (saints preserve us), we'll turn over some more rocks while there. And we're talking about going to see some more theatre. We went to see The Elephant Man last time out and it actually was very helpful in terms of seeing how things are physicalized on stage and it gave me some ideas, which I implemented in this last version.
Give up? Oh, no. Aside from the fact that I didn't come this far - figuratively and literally - to pack up my marbles and go home, one thing keeps coming to mind. Maud. Anne of Green Gables got dissed by four publishers. Did Maud give up? Yes, at first - by putting the manuscript in a hatbox. But eventually she made up her mind to put it back out there - and look what happened. If she had given up, Prince Edward Island would be a much different place and everybody whose lives have been affected by Anne - fans, scholars, writers, the works - would have had much different experiences! There would certainly be no reason to celebrate anything next summer! So I'm not going to give up just because it's gotten hard - even if only so we can tell the story next year of how things got difficult but we didn't give up and look where we are now! If ever there was a time to work the power of the imagination...it's now.
But you guys may have to remind me once in a while.
Much as I'm liking the we-haven't-had-a-winter-like-this-in-10-years snowy weather, 9LoLMM seems to be in the "uphill battle" stage. I think we knew this part of it was going to be a challenge, and it's not like we're anywhere near giving up, but everything is up in the air - we're not sure where it's going to be, we're not sure where the funding is going to come from. And we're playing the waiting game on pretty much all levels - can't do much of the way of rewriting until I get dramaturgical notes, Leo's left phone and e-mail messages all over the place and they're not getting returned. And now, of course, you throw Christmas into the mix. So, with just over 6 months left, things are getting a little tight.
Leo's been in L.A. the past three weeks - that's slowed things down to a point, although he's certainly done plenty from there. It just suddenly feels like we're in this kind of vacuum where we've ceased to exist. I've been pretty much relegated to doing administrative stuff - writing out all the character names on cards for the purpose of figuring out who's going to play which characters and reducing the cast (currently we have 18 adults and 7 children - still considered a bit large, but I don't see how it's going to go lower than that at this point), as well as making lists of costumes and props so we can start amassing some sort of budget. Everyone wants to know "How much?" Well, I can make lists from now until Doomsday, but I have no way of knowing what things cost. We have some feelers out on that one, too, but...we're in the vacuum!
To add to my frustration, I finish what I considered (and still consider) to be a kick-ass rewrite after 4 weeks of agonizing over it in 3 locales in 2 countries - but when I sat down to time it out, it wasn't nearly as much shorter as I anticipated it would be. Needless to say, I was very much not happy about that. It means having to do yet another rewrite and cut even more out of this thing. It's almost there, damn it! I'd personally like some outside, professional feedback before I make another attempt. But, The Waiting Game persists. I don't wait well. So, in the spirit of remaining proactive, I'm printing out this latest version and I'm going to make some notes of my own in terms of what else could be cut or changed. If I get some feedback by the time I'm done with my notes, great. If not, I'm just going to do it myself.
Next week, it's back to Toronto until the second week in January. Barring any more family emergencies (saints preserve us), we'll turn over some more rocks while there. And we're talking about going to see some more theatre. We went to see The Elephant Man last time out and it actually was very helpful in terms of seeing how things are physicalized on stage and it gave me some ideas, which I implemented in this last version.
Give up? Oh, no. Aside from the fact that I didn't come this far - figuratively and literally - to pack up my marbles and go home, one thing keeps coming to mind. Maud. Anne of Green Gables got dissed by four publishers. Did Maud give up? Yes, at first - by putting the manuscript in a hatbox. But eventually she made up her mind to put it back out there - and look what happened. If she had given up, Prince Edward Island would be a much different place and everybody whose lives have been affected by Anne - fans, scholars, writers, the works - would have had much different experiences! There would certainly be no reason to celebrate anything next summer! So I'm not going to give up just because it's gotten hard - even if only so we can tell the story next year of how things got difficult but we didn't give up and look where we are now! If ever there was a time to work the power of the imagination...it's now.
But you guys may have to remind me once in a while.
30 November 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, today is Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthday! She was born on this day in 1874 in Clifton (now New London) - maybe about a half an hour's drive from here. Knowing how particular she was, it's not surprising she was a Sagittarius! She must have had a funky rising sign or something, though, because most Sags I know are much more on the pragmatic side than the roiling cesspool of emotion side. Sometimes I think Maud must have been a Cancer - a sign I have lifelong experience with!
But anyway, enough of all that. It being Maud's birthday, I thought it a good time to give this journal a little face lift. So it is now being hosted by Blogspot! Quite honestly, doing it through AMJ On-Line was becoming a bit of a chore - every month I'd have to create a new page, and then go back through the increasing amount of them to add links to the other months. And, I could only ever post anything here at this computer. Blogspot does all the archiving automatically, and now I can post from anywhere - extremely helpful as there's another trip to Toronto coming up, and who knows where the show will ultimately take us? So, it's as much a present to myself as it is to Maud. :) And now you guys can make comments. Hopefully that's a good thing!
There's one more bit of newness that I've been saving to commemorate Maud's birthday - and that comes in the form of the video you're going to see below. Here, all along, I've been telling you what's going on and throwing information at you. Now, I'm going to ask you what you think. If you want to know about what, check out the vid - and it's an important enough question that I've decided to go interactive about it!
By the way, it's a serious faux pas to ask a lady her age - but Maud would be 133 today. I kind of wanted to go back to 1907 and see if there was a journal entry there, but she didn't make one - she didn't tend to journal on her birthdays. I always tend to as a way of looking over the previous year and looking forward to the looming one; I usually do that on New Year's, too. But I guess Maud wasn't given to that particular sentimentality. I guess she's more Sagittarius than Cancer after all!
And now...my question. Looking forward to your answers - and hope you like this Blogspot set-up!
Well, today is Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthday! She was born on this day in 1874 in Clifton (now New London) - maybe about a half an hour's drive from here. Knowing how particular she was, it's not surprising she was a Sagittarius! She must have had a funky rising sign or something, though, because most Sags I know are much more on the pragmatic side than the roiling cesspool of emotion side. Sometimes I think Maud must have been a Cancer - a sign I have lifelong experience with!
But anyway, enough of all that. It being Maud's birthday, I thought it a good time to give this journal a little face lift. So it is now being hosted by Blogspot! Quite honestly, doing it through AMJ On-Line was becoming a bit of a chore - every month I'd have to create a new page, and then go back through the increasing amount of them to add links to the other months. And, I could only ever post anything here at this computer. Blogspot does all the archiving automatically, and now I can post from anywhere - extremely helpful as there's another trip to Toronto coming up, and who knows where the show will ultimately take us? So, it's as much a present to myself as it is to Maud. :) And now you guys can make comments. Hopefully that's a good thing!
There's one more bit of newness that I've been saving to commemorate Maud's birthday - and that comes in the form of the video you're going to see below. Here, all along, I've been telling you what's going on and throwing information at you. Now, I'm going to ask you what you think. If you want to know about what, check out the vid - and it's an important enough question that I've decided to go interactive about it!
By the way, it's a serious faux pas to ask a lady her age - but Maud would be 133 today. I kind of wanted to go back to 1907 and see if there was a journal entry there, but she didn't make one - she didn't tend to journal on her birthdays. I always tend to as a way of looking over the previous year and looking forward to the looming one; I usually do that on New Year's, too. But I guess Maud wasn't given to that particular sentimentality. I guess she's more Sagittarius than Cancer after all!
And now...my question. Looking forward to your answers - and hope you like this Blogspot set-up!
19 November 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
It's done! It's DONE! It's DONE! Oh - did I mention it was done?
I'm talking about the libretto, of course. I essentially finished it Saturday night and then Leo read through it and made a few suggestions, and the finished version of this incarnation has just gone out to the dramaturges. And now we shall see!
It's a bit what I imagine sending a child out on his first day of kindergarten is like. Will the other kids like him? Will they tease him and beat up on him? Something like that. At any rate, it's a relief to finally have this version done - I'd essentially been on it for 4 weeks. I started it in Florida and continued in Toronto and finished it here. It almost feels weird not having it to do now!
Anyway, over the weekend we went up to Silver Bush at Park Corner - for those that don't know, it was the home of Maud's cousins, and she used to hang out there with them. She immortalized it in her books Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat. So, we decided we needed to film it for our screen, and George Campbell - a descendant of the original Campbells! - kindly gave us permission to do it. It actually ended up being a very gray day and the trees are more bare than we envisioned, but we might end up using the shot because of where those books come in in our story. Below are a couple of interesting shots of that process.
20 June 2008 is seven months from tomorrow. Can we do it?
It was an easy shot - just point and shoot. But it was cold!
An interesting perspective of Silver Bush.
It's done! It's DONE! It's DONE! Oh - did I mention it was done?
I'm talking about the libretto, of course. I essentially finished it Saturday night and then Leo read through it and made a few suggestions, and the finished version of this incarnation has just gone out to the dramaturges. And now we shall see!
It's a bit what I imagine sending a child out on his first day of kindergarten is like. Will the other kids like him? Will they tease him and beat up on him? Something like that. At any rate, it's a relief to finally have this version done - I'd essentially been on it for 4 weeks. I started it in Florida and continued in Toronto and finished it here. It almost feels weird not having it to do now!
Anyway, over the weekend we went up to Silver Bush at Park Corner - for those that don't know, it was the home of Maud's cousins, and she used to hang out there with them. She immortalized it in her books Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat. So, we decided we needed to film it for our screen, and George Campbell - a descendant of the original Campbells! - kindly gave us permission to do it. It actually ended up being a very gray day and the trees are more bare than we envisioned, but we might end up using the shot because of where those books come in in our story. Below are a couple of interesting shots of that process.
20 June 2008 is seven months from tomorrow. Can we do it?
It was an easy shot - just point and shoot. But it was cold!
An interesting perspective of Silver Bush.
13 November 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, we're back on the Island after a month's absence. And it seems to have turned into winter over here. The plan was to film some fall colours for the screen, but the Fates seem to be consipring against us in that regard. Between the drop in temperature and the remnants of Hurricane Noel blowing through here, and then the wind and rain (and snow!) since we've been back, I haven't seen much in the way of yellow, orange and red!
Word is The Confederation Centre of the Arts has to make their decision about next season by the end of this month. Of course, you can imagine there's a certain amount of suspense there...
There's so much going on, I barely know where to start. I won't bore you with details about our attempts to get funding, which are continuing. The main thing - and I know I keep going on about it - is the rewrite. I thought I was mercenary back in August - this time I've really had to take a weed-whacker to the thing. But you know what? I've been able to make cuts in places I had thought was impossible before. I guess I'm just seeing things a bit clearer. We met a couple of dramaturges in Toronto (a "dramaturge" being a theatre professional that helps to shape a libretto into a more theatrical form and helps you get the kinks out of it), and, although I wasn't necessarily crazy about certain suggestions, others really seemed to make sense once I had a chance to process them. It looks like I'll be done with this latest version by the end of the week, at which point it will be sent to said dramaturges, and we'll see what they have to say.
Remember before I said I knew the answer to shortening down the libretto was in the back of my head, and it was just a matter of setting it free? Well, it happened - and without outside assistance! The one comment that kept coming through during and after September's workshop was how much people enjoyed Maud's fictional characters coming to life. People enjoyed acting it, people enjoyed watching it. And so it became apparent to us that the answer lies with them - with Kilmeny, Anne, Sara, Emily, Valancy, Marigold, Pat and Jane. We'd had an unwritten rule before about the characters only being seen when they were interacting with Maud. Even in one scene where three of them show up, they reference each other, but never interact with anyone but Maud. So we broke that rule. Or, rather, changed it. Does it work? I'd like to think it does - but I haven't yet had a chance to read through the new version as a whole, and I won't be able to do that or show it to Leo until I clean a few things up, check for continuity flaws, etc. But it's definitely a start!
The other thing is that I've tried to cut some of the extraneous characters out - characters that either only show up a time or two and don't drive the story forward in a major way. More of them may end up on the cutting room floor yet. But it's making for some new challenges. For example, we decided to take out Grandfather Montgomery - while he was a Senator, and essentially responsible for bring Maud out to live with her father in Prince Albert, he died shortly after, and he'd had only one line in one scene and maybe two in the next before we don't hear from him again. But we'd put him in the "train" in the An Orphan No More sequence. Extracting him physically isn't that big a deal, and he still gets mentioned. But, with him not there, I have to rewrite a few lines in An Orphan No More. Most of the other missing characters don't leave that big a hole. But, the way this was structured, if you change one little thing it can reverberate in unexpected places. Fortunately, I'm a bit of a continuity hound - it's no fun watching movies with me because I'm always catching these kinds of mistakes! But I'm an even worse critic with my own work. Call it quality assurance!
So, I don't know how it's going to play out. All I can do right now is finish up this version of the libretto, and hope it meets with that much more approval. I have no way of knowing yet how long the thing is - but I think the changes are significant enough that we're almost within range, if not actually there. It's definitely a difficult process - especially knowing that a lot of this is riding on the length of the script that I'm responsible for! No pressure there! :)
And so, we shall carry on. We'll probably have an interview, or at least a feature, up soon on the web site for The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society. I'll let you know when that happens!
Back to the libretto...of course, getting you guys up to date is also very important to me, especially after such a long gap!
Well, we're back on the Island after a month's absence. And it seems to have turned into winter over here. The plan was to film some fall colours for the screen, but the Fates seem to be consipring against us in that regard. Between the drop in temperature and the remnants of Hurricane Noel blowing through here, and then the wind and rain (and snow!) since we've been back, I haven't seen much in the way of yellow, orange and red!
Word is The Confederation Centre of the Arts has to make their decision about next season by the end of this month. Of course, you can imagine there's a certain amount of suspense there...
There's so much going on, I barely know where to start. I won't bore you with details about our attempts to get funding, which are continuing. The main thing - and I know I keep going on about it - is the rewrite. I thought I was mercenary back in August - this time I've really had to take a weed-whacker to the thing. But you know what? I've been able to make cuts in places I had thought was impossible before. I guess I'm just seeing things a bit clearer. We met a couple of dramaturges in Toronto (a "dramaturge" being a theatre professional that helps to shape a libretto into a more theatrical form and helps you get the kinks out of it), and, although I wasn't necessarily crazy about certain suggestions, others really seemed to make sense once I had a chance to process them. It looks like I'll be done with this latest version by the end of the week, at which point it will be sent to said dramaturges, and we'll see what they have to say.
Remember before I said I knew the answer to shortening down the libretto was in the back of my head, and it was just a matter of setting it free? Well, it happened - and without outside assistance! The one comment that kept coming through during and after September's workshop was how much people enjoyed Maud's fictional characters coming to life. People enjoyed acting it, people enjoyed watching it. And so it became apparent to us that the answer lies with them - with Kilmeny, Anne, Sara, Emily, Valancy, Marigold, Pat and Jane. We'd had an unwritten rule before about the characters only being seen when they were interacting with Maud. Even in one scene where three of them show up, they reference each other, but never interact with anyone but Maud. So we broke that rule. Or, rather, changed it. Does it work? I'd like to think it does - but I haven't yet had a chance to read through the new version as a whole, and I won't be able to do that or show it to Leo until I clean a few things up, check for continuity flaws, etc. But it's definitely a start!
The other thing is that I've tried to cut some of the extraneous characters out - characters that either only show up a time or two and don't drive the story forward in a major way. More of them may end up on the cutting room floor yet. But it's making for some new challenges. For example, we decided to take out Grandfather Montgomery - while he was a Senator, and essentially responsible for bring Maud out to live with her father in Prince Albert, he died shortly after, and he'd had only one line in one scene and maybe two in the next before we don't hear from him again. But we'd put him in the "train" in the An Orphan No More sequence. Extracting him physically isn't that big a deal, and he still gets mentioned. But, with him not there, I have to rewrite a few lines in An Orphan No More. Most of the other missing characters don't leave that big a hole. But, the way this was structured, if you change one little thing it can reverberate in unexpected places. Fortunately, I'm a bit of a continuity hound - it's no fun watching movies with me because I'm always catching these kinds of mistakes! But I'm an even worse critic with my own work. Call it quality assurance!
So, I don't know how it's going to play out. All I can do right now is finish up this version of the libretto, and hope it meets with that much more approval. I have no way of knowing yet how long the thing is - but I think the changes are significant enough that we're almost within range, if not actually there. It's definitely a difficult process - especially knowing that a lot of this is riding on the length of the script that I'm responsible for! No pressure there! :)
And so, we shall carry on. We'll probably have an interview, or at least a feature, up soon on the web site for The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society. I'll let you know when that happens!
Back to the libretto...of course, getting you guys up to date is also very important to me, especially after such a long gap!
31 October 2007
17 October 2007
North York, Ontario
I probably won't even get a chance to post this for another 2 weeks since I'm away from my home computer, but I thought I'd at least get one in while we're here. It's a strange time in the life of 9LoLMM. In the space of five days, my father was operated on for cancer and Leo's mother ended up in the hospital and is still there as we speak. Needless to say, while we're trying to get going on amassing funding for the show, our hearts really aren't into it. We're not giving up, mind you - but this isn't at all how we envisioned this trip to Toronto would be.
What's also contributing to things is that, on Saturday, I have to go down to Florida and take care of my Dad for a week. I don't mind; he's my father, after all. But it will mean Leo has to fly solo in terms of trying to get investors. The only thing for me is, it may give me a chance to work on this next rewrite. The big thing everyone goes on about is that the show's too long. I don't disagree. I suppose, for a two-part movie event, it isn't too long - look at Anne of Green Gables! But, for a stage show, well...anyway, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to shorten things down without losing too much in the way of information and layers. And I think I finally have it, but it's got to be done just right - and I haven't had a chance to work that out yet. Plus, I'm really not in a creative space, either. Just too much going on, too much on my mind, and I'm feeling too down. Strangely, I understand how it was difficult for Maud to create during her various troubles - I understood it before, but it's especially relevant for me now.
I hope you don't mind my getting a bit more personal in this entry. But, I decided that if I was going to show you the good stuff, I had to show you the bad stuff, too. It's not all running around getting pictures taken and doing interviews and living la vida loca. I didn't anticipate our family emergencies entering into the picture, but it's what's happening and it is having an impact on us. But rest assured - we still love 9LoLMM as much as ever and we're going to get this on next June come hell or high water.
Actually, I should mention that we briefly met with Kate Macdonald Butler and her associate Sally Cohen today; we hadn't seen them since our January trip. There may be something afoot in terms of a neat tie-in with the show, but I can't talk about it yet. I don't know if it'll happen, but we all seemed intrigued by the idea, so, if it develops any further, you'll hear about it right here.
I want to do a YouTube video from here, but...well, we'll have to see. Talking about this stuff over the computer is one thing; turning a camera on ourselves in the middle of this is another thing entirely!
Well, we shall forage on...I need to pull myself up somehow...it's just hard right now.
I probably won't even get a chance to post this for another 2 weeks since I'm away from my home computer, but I thought I'd at least get one in while we're here. It's a strange time in the life of 9LoLMM. In the space of five days, my father was operated on for cancer and Leo's mother ended up in the hospital and is still there as we speak. Needless to say, while we're trying to get going on amassing funding for the show, our hearts really aren't into it. We're not giving up, mind you - but this isn't at all how we envisioned this trip to Toronto would be.
What's also contributing to things is that, on Saturday, I have to go down to Florida and take care of my Dad for a week. I don't mind; he's my father, after all. But it will mean Leo has to fly solo in terms of trying to get investors. The only thing for me is, it may give me a chance to work on this next rewrite. The big thing everyone goes on about is that the show's too long. I don't disagree. I suppose, for a two-part movie event, it isn't too long - look at Anne of Green Gables! But, for a stage show, well...anyway, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to shorten things down without losing too much in the way of information and layers. And I think I finally have it, but it's got to be done just right - and I haven't had a chance to work that out yet. Plus, I'm really not in a creative space, either. Just too much going on, too much on my mind, and I'm feeling too down. Strangely, I understand how it was difficult for Maud to create during her various troubles - I understood it before, but it's especially relevant for me now.
I hope you don't mind my getting a bit more personal in this entry. But, I decided that if I was going to show you the good stuff, I had to show you the bad stuff, too. It's not all running around getting pictures taken and doing interviews and living la vida loca. I didn't anticipate our family emergencies entering into the picture, but it's what's happening and it is having an impact on us. But rest assured - we still love 9LoLMM as much as ever and we're going to get this on next June come hell or high water.
Actually, I should mention that we briefly met with Kate Macdonald Butler and her associate Sally Cohen today; we hadn't seen them since our January trip. There may be something afoot in terms of a neat tie-in with the show, but I can't talk about it yet. I don't know if it'll happen, but we all seemed intrigued by the idea, so, if it develops any further, you'll hear about it right here.
I want to do a YouTube video from here, but...well, we'll have to see. Talking about this stuff over the computer is one thing; turning a camera on ourselves in the middle of this is another thing entirely!
Well, we shall forage on...I need to pull myself up somehow...it's just hard right now.
01 October 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, I guess it's time to get back to it. The show, I mean! Not that we haven't been working on it in other areas - we spent much of last week writing e-mails and making phone calls and thanking people and just generally trying to direct our attention to getting a production funded for next summer. We're also looking into hooking up with a professional dramaturge to help us over the hurdle of consolidating the libretto. I'm still convinced the answer lies in the back of my head, but perhaps an outside source might help jiggle it loose!
As for now, I'm about to go back into the libretto and make the changes we made in the workshop - which for now have only been on paper. I was going to do it yesterday, but I got slammed with some funky flu something where I "only" had chills and fever and not the usual coughy/sniffly/sneezy stuff, but it was enough to pretty well render me useless the whole day. I feel a tad feverish even now, but at least somewhat conscious! Don't know how long it'll last, so I'd better go with it.
Next week we are heading to Toronto to, among other things, look into getting funding for the show. Not to mention reconnect with some people and meet others. Which also means I have to get a recut version of the demo ready before we go. It never ends! :)
Well, I guess it's time to get back to it. The show, I mean! Not that we haven't been working on it in other areas - we spent much of last week writing e-mails and making phone calls and thanking people and just generally trying to direct our attention to getting a production funded for next summer. We're also looking into hooking up with a professional dramaturge to help us over the hurdle of consolidating the libretto. I'm still convinced the answer lies in the back of my head, but perhaps an outside source might help jiggle it loose!
As for now, I'm about to go back into the libretto and make the changes we made in the workshop - which for now have only been on paper. I was going to do it yesterday, but I got slammed with some funky flu something where I "only" had chills and fever and not the usual coughy/sniffly/sneezy stuff, but it was enough to pretty well render me useless the whole day. I feel a tad feverish even now, but at least somewhat conscious! Don't know how long it'll last, so I'd better go with it.
Next week we are heading to Toronto to, among other things, look into getting funding for the show. Not to mention reconnect with some people and meet others. Which also means I have to get a recut version of the demo ready before we go. It never ends! :)
23 September 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Forgive me for not journaling sooner, but frankly, I needed to decompress! What a day Friday was! And I mean that in a very good way - I think it's safe to define the 9LoLMM workshop as a success!
The day started off with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for those who don't know) coming out to interview us for their evening newscast! Was I nervous? Sure - but how many times do you get to be on TV? As for the workshop itself, with so many details, there was a lot of places where things could have gone wrong. But very few did, and it looked and sounded great! The cast did a great job considering how little time they had to pull things together, and considering the many changes that took place as the rehearsals continued on. Let me just publicly thank The Confederation Centre of the Arts and everyone in our cast and everyone on the technical side of it for making all this happen!
I would have to say it was a full house. Only as the workshop started did it occur to me - sure, we find things funny or sad or whatever, but would the audience feel the same way? Especially with the dialogue? But it didn't really feel like anything fell flat - people laughed at things that were intended to be funny and seemed to get a lot of the Maud in-references. As for me, hearing words that I wrote up there, hearing an audience react to it...well, during An Epoch In My Life when Maud and Anne talk about "the realization of dreams pursued" and how "the power of imagination has changed our lives"...well, it felt like they were talking about me. It was quite the emotional moment!
We had a Q&A afterwards...that could easily have been the hardest part. There was no guarantee people were going to like it, understand it, approve of it - and here we had to go up on stage ourselves and field questions and comments in front of a room full of people. But the reaction was really very good. People really seemed to like it, and praised us for how accurate it is, and told us how important a piece it is and how much value it has. And of course, they loved Leo's music! So that was really a high as well. It was pretty surreal - made even more so by the fact that we hadn't gotten much of a chance to eat the whole day!
Then, thanks to our neighbours here in Stratford, we were able to see the CBC interview, which you will find below. Now, you may ask - what's next for 9LoLMM? Well, it's all going to come down to financing. I think we have a really good shot toward getting this on stage in time for the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables next summer. So, if you saw the workshop - or didn't but still believe in what we're trying to do - contact The Confederation Centre of the Arts and tell them you want to see The Nine Lives of Lucy Maud Montgomery playing there in 2008! After all, money might talk, but an audience shouts! And that makes you guys the most important part of the equation. Believe it!
We also were featured in Prince Edward Island's leading newspapers - The Guardian and The Journal-Pioneer - check out the new Press section for scans! 9LoLMM is on its way!
Oh - did I mention we were on TV? ;)
Forgive me for not journaling sooner, but frankly, I needed to decompress! What a day Friday was! And I mean that in a very good way - I think it's safe to define the 9LoLMM workshop as a success!
The day started off with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for those who don't know) coming out to interview us for their evening newscast! Was I nervous? Sure - but how many times do you get to be on TV? As for the workshop itself, with so many details, there was a lot of places where things could have gone wrong. But very few did, and it looked and sounded great! The cast did a great job considering how little time they had to pull things together, and considering the many changes that took place as the rehearsals continued on. Let me just publicly thank The Confederation Centre of the Arts and everyone in our cast and everyone on the technical side of it for making all this happen!
I would have to say it was a full house. Only as the workshop started did it occur to me - sure, we find things funny or sad or whatever, but would the audience feel the same way? Especially with the dialogue? But it didn't really feel like anything fell flat - people laughed at things that were intended to be funny and seemed to get a lot of the Maud in-references. As for me, hearing words that I wrote up there, hearing an audience react to it...well, during An Epoch In My Life when Maud and Anne talk about "the realization of dreams pursued" and how "the power of imagination has changed our lives"...well, it felt like they were talking about me. It was quite the emotional moment!
We had a Q&A afterwards...that could easily have been the hardest part. There was no guarantee people were going to like it, understand it, approve of it - and here we had to go up on stage ourselves and field questions and comments in front of a room full of people. But the reaction was really very good. People really seemed to like it, and praised us for how accurate it is, and told us how important a piece it is and how much value it has. And of course, they loved Leo's music! So that was really a high as well. It was pretty surreal - made even more so by the fact that we hadn't gotten much of a chance to eat the whole day!
Then, thanks to our neighbours here in Stratford, we were able to see the CBC interview, which you will find below. Now, you may ask - what's next for 9LoLMM? Well, it's all going to come down to financing. I think we have a really good shot toward getting this on stage in time for the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables next summer. So, if you saw the workshop - or didn't but still believe in what we're trying to do - contact The Confederation Centre of the Arts and tell them you want to see The Nine Lives of Lucy Maud Montgomery playing there in 2008! After all, money might talk, but an audience shouts! And that makes you guys the most important part of the equation. Believe it!
We also were featured in Prince Edward Island's leading newspapers - The Guardian and The Journal-Pioneer - check out the new Press section for scans! 9LoLMM is on its way!
Oh - did I mention we were on TV? ;)
14 September 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
The rehearsals go on, with much adventure. It's become necessary to do a much more scaled down version of the show for the workshop. Plus, it's all confirmed that the show is still way too long. Not that I didn't realize that even after the last rewrite. It's just that getting the show to a length that's acceptable for everybody is now going to require structural changes. Up until now Leo and I have retained the structure, completely cutting out only a few scenes and just making lots of edits to the dialogue. I guess that was a good start. One thing I've realized in the past couple of days is that I do have a tendency to write a lot of exposition and state the obvious - God knows I did that in Undo the Deed. So, now armed with this knowledge, certain dialogue cuts are now presenting themselves quite easily, which of course is a good thing. How I'm going to ultimately fix some of the other problems, I don't know yet, and it's been a bit of a stressful time. I was always warned that the day would come where I'd have to "kill" my "baby", and that it would be painful. I'm going to look at it as growing pains!
Anyway, the workshop is next Friday and it's all been 24-7 for me this week. When we haven't been at the theatre, I've been here creating visuals for the rear projection screen we're going to have - captions, stills, video. It took a while to edit the footage Christopher got from the train in Saskatchewan last month into a useable 3-minute piece. Christopher documented his progress and I'm proud to feature him in this latest installment, which is a bit of a departure from our usual fare but no less interesting and important!
Leo had to go back to L.A. for a few days so I'm flying solo over here. I ran up to Cavendish again to film the sunset, and tomorrow I have to go back and get the sand dunes and other locales. The next video will have to do with...well...getting video! For now you'll just have to get on the train where Maud herself travelled in 1890 - it might even be the same track! Hey, we go for authenticity here!
The rehearsals go on, with much adventure. It's become necessary to do a much more scaled down version of the show for the workshop. Plus, it's all confirmed that the show is still way too long. Not that I didn't realize that even after the last rewrite. It's just that getting the show to a length that's acceptable for everybody is now going to require structural changes. Up until now Leo and I have retained the structure, completely cutting out only a few scenes and just making lots of edits to the dialogue. I guess that was a good start. One thing I've realized in the past couple of days is that I do have a tendency to write a lot of exposition and state the obvious - God knows I did that in Undo the Deed. So, now armed with this knowledge, certain dialogue cuts are now presenting themselves quite easily, which of course is a good thing. How I'm going to ultimately fix some of the other problems, I don't know yet, and it's been a bit of a stressful time. I was always warned that the day would come where I'd have to "kill" my "baby", and that it would be painful. I'm going to look at it as growing pains!
Anyway, the workshop is next Friday and it's all been 24-7 for me this week. When we haven't been at the theatre, I've been here creating visuals for the rear projection screen we're going to have - captions, stills, video. It took a while to edit the footage Christopher got from the train in Saskatchewan last month into a useable 3-minute piece. Christopher documented his progress and I'm proud to feature him in this latest installment, which is a bit of a departure from our usual fare but no less interesting and important!
Leo had to go back to L.A. for a few days so I'm flying solo over here. I ran up to Cavendish again to film the sunset, and tomorrow I have to go back and get the sand dunes and other locales. The next video will have to do with...well...getting video! For now you'll just have to get on the train where Maud herself travelled in 1890 - it might even be the same track! Hey, we go for authenticity here!
04 September 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
OK, so I'm supposed to be shooting videos catching you up on all the latest. I've shot a little bit here and there, but it didn't really work out - and frankly, I've been too busy gearing up for the workshop! I've been kind of stuck in a bunch of administrative stuff, such as making song lists and prop lists and lists and lists and lists. Also, it took me almost three full days to cast the show using the Confederation Centre's theatre company. It was tricky because A) we've got so many bloomin' characters, and B) there's a split in the age groups of the performers, and many of our characters fall into that missing age group, so I had to get creative. Then, because each actor is playing more than one role (sometimes six!), I had to make sure I didn't double them over too close, else they not have time to switch from one character to another. Boring stuff like that. :)
Leo bought a HD video camera last month for the purpose of starting to shoot the video that will be up on the screen. In fact, getting back to documentary videos, my friend Christopher was the first one to actually use the camera when he got some very special footage that I'll let him tell you about when I get a moment to dub and edit that particular video. :) Anyway, it looks like we will actually have some sort of video up for the workshop, so on Sunday we went around and did some test shots in Cavendish and on the way to it. I don't know exactly how it's going to work out...but things are definitely moving forward.
"Tomorrow" (in quotes because it's after midnight as I write) we have a big day ahead of us - our first full day working with the cast. Leo will work with some of them on the music in one room, and the artistic director and I will start running lines with the actors in another room. I hope to start getting some video of that!
If I sound a little on the incoherent side, it's because I'm tired...I guess I should start getting ready for bed and rest up for this big day! I have to say, every once in a while it hits me - usually at the theatre - that "Wow, we're actually doing this!" I see the name of our show on their paperwork and it really sinks in. 9LoLMM is really starting to take on a life of its own now - and it will, even more so, after this week!
OK, so I'm supposed to be shooting videos catching you up on all the latest. I've shot a little bit here and there, but it didn't really work out - and frankly, I've been too busy gearing up for the workshop! I've been kind of stuck in a bunch of administrative stuff, such as making song lists and prop lists and lists and lists and lists. Also, it took me almost three full days to cast the show using the Confederation Centre's theatre company. It was tricky because A) we've got so many bloomin' characters, and B) there's a split in the age groups of the performers, and many of our characters fall into that missing age group, so I had to get creative. Then, because each actor is playing more than one role (sometimes six!), I had to make sure I didn't double them over too close, else they not have time to switch from one character to another. Boring stuff like that. :)
Leo bought a HD video camera last month for the purpose of starting to shoot the video that will be up on the screen. In fact, getting back to documentary videos, my friend Christopher was the first one to actually use the camera when he got some very special footage that I'll let him tell you about when I get a moment to dub and edit that particular video. :) Anyway, it looks like we will actually have some sort of video up for the workshop, so on Sunday we went around and did some test shots in Cavendish and on the way to it. I don't know exactly how it's going to work out...but things are definitely moving forward.
"Tomorrow" (in quotes because it's after midnight as I write) we have a big day ahead of us - our first full day working with the cast. Leo will work with some of them on the music in one room, and the artistic director and I will start running lines with the actors in another room. I hope to start getting some video of that!
If I sound a little on the incoherent side, it's because I'm tired...I guess I should start getting ready for bed and rest up for this big day! I have to say, every once in a while it hits me - usually at the theatre - that "Wow, we're actually doing this!" I see the name of our show on their paperwork and it really sinks in. 9LoLMM is really starting to take on a life of its own now - and it will, even more so, after this week!
28 August 2007
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Well, I got a little morose after the last entry because I timed out the libretto after those extensive 10 days' worth of revisions and only got 26 minutes out of the thing. I was really feeling pretty fatalistic about it all. But...I got over it. :) Last week I took another whack at it, going over it with Leo, and I made another significant round of cuts. I haven't timed it, but I'm going to guess we lopped off another 15 minutes. At this point, I guess I'm leaving it alone, at least until after the workshop, unless something really inspiring comes along. We're told the date for the workshop will be 21 September. Stay tuned!
Leo and I are starting to spend more time at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. Yesterday we auditioned some of the kids and younger folks (it sounds weird to say that, since, at 38, I still feel like one of the younger folks!). Today we met with the cast of Anne of Green Gables en masse and individually in an effort to better determine who is right for which role. I've never been on that side of an audition table before, so it was definitely a different perspective for me. Fortunately, everyone was great, and we sort of have an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent, so getting all the roles cast shouldn't be too difficult. And, due to the scaled-down nature of the workshop, each person will be playing even more roles than they normally might. I find myself wanting to put off the casting task 'til tomorrow, since I haven't gotten enough sleep the last 3 nights and I'm totally dragging! But I'll at least start on it - after today, we definitely have a better idea, so it shouldn't be too hard from there.
Leo's preparation - in this case categorizing all the characters' music - knows no bounds.
The dream's first inkling of becoming a reality - 9LoLMM's casting session on the Confederation Centre's roster.
There is one more bit of news I want to mention, in the form of yet another announcement. Again, I didn't say anything about this before because I couldn't...but it's official: I will be presenting a paper at the Lucy Maud Montgomery Conference in 2008! As did all the other entrants, I submitted an abstract in June and then waited to find out who made the cut. I was a little worried because I chose what I thought might be considered a bit of an out-of-left-field slant (of course I'm not going to tell you what it is...not until the conference gets closer, anyway!). But it's been approved, and I guess I'll be writing the actual paper in the next few months. I really am starting to get the feeling that Maud herself is guiding things over here...call me crazy!
Well, on to casting...if I can stay awake, that is!
Well, I got a little morose after the last entry because I timed out the libretto after those extensive 10 days' worth of revisions and only got 26 minutes out of the thing. I was really feeling pretty fatalistic about it all. But...I got over it. :) Last week I took another whack at it, going over it with Leo, and I made another significant round of cuts. I haven't timed it, but I'm going to guess we lopped off another 15 minutes. At this point, I guess I'm leaving it alone, at least until after the workshop, unless something really inspiring comes along. We're told the date for the workshop will be 21 September. Stay tuned!
Leo and I are starting to spend more time at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. Yesterday we auditioned some of the kids and younger folks (it sounds weird to say that, since, at 38, I still feel like one of the younger folks!). Today we met with the cast of Anne of Green Gables en masse and individually in an effort to better determine who is right for which role. I've never been on that side of an audition table before, so it was definitely a different perspective for me. Fortunately, everyone was great, and we sort of have an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent, so getting all the roles cast shouldn't be too difficult. And, due to the scaled-down nature of the workshop, each person will be playing even more roles than they normally might. I find myself wanting to put off the casting task 'til tomorrow, since I haven't gotten enough sleep the last 3 nights and I'm totally dragging! But I'll at least start on it - after today, we definitely have a better idea, so it shouldn't be too hard from there.
Leo's preparation - in this case categorizing all the characters' music - knows no bounds.
The dream's first inkling of becoming a reality - 9LoLMM's casting session on the Confederation Centre's roster.
There is one more bit of news I want to mention, in the form of yet another announcement. Again, I didn't say anything about this before because I couldn't...but it's official: I will be presenting a paper at the Lucy Maud Montgomery Conference in 2008! As did all the other entrants, I submitted an abstract in June and then waited to find out who made the cut. I was a little worried because I chose what I thought might be considered a bit of an out-of-left-field slant (of course I'm not going to tell you what it is...not until the conference gets closer, anyway!). But it's been approved, and I guess I'll be writing the actual paper in the next few months. I really am starting to get the feeling that Maud herself is guiding things over here...call me crazy!
Well, on to casting...if I can stay awake, that is!
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