Revisiting Fiddelity

Given our uncertain times when live performances are not allowed, or encouraged, I decided to proceed with "Fiddelity" as an audio production. After all, we are living in war-like conditions to some degree and audio was the way of the world. But this proved challenging: My limited laptop voice recorder is not exactly state of the art. Nor are my own recording skills. And this was my first venture into the world of Podcasts.

I decided, to make it more interesting, to have different people do the voice of some of the characters the actor in a monologue would only tell you about. Three people have done four of these characters. So technically it is no longer a monologue. And of course, the different voices have all been recorded at different locations and on different devices.

Juggling these different audio clips, attempting to insert them into the main recording, while trying to do my own lines with some feeling has been, to say the least, daunting. I had hoped to add in some sound bytes too: the sea and sea gulls, birds in a park, bar noises with music in the background, and so forth. But I quickly decided against it for this production. This not only required a third screen on my small laptop monitor, but the reproduction left a great deal to be desired: The waves sounded more like a toilet being flushed repeatedly. The birds sounded like a steam kettle boiling. The bar sounded like a 1950 Morris Oxford trying to start up on a frosty morning at -10 Celsius. And a clip of a poorly played fiddle, intended to be so, sounded like a distant, whining chainsaw! I left that last one in though.

The Podcast can be accessed at The Granville Ferry Podcast. There is no charge for listening to the Podcast, but it is hoped that some listeners may donate something to a performing artist or performing arts organization negatively affected by Covid-19.

Comments

One's Company Now a Film

I am not a filmmaker. But Covid has forced me to become one, to a degree. I decided to turn this stage play into a one-hour film in the "talking head" genre. I have not decided what if anything I will do with this film other than make it available to my few fans on YouTube. I am not sure exactly how to categorize this film. At 61 minutes, it seems too long to classify as a "short", and too short to classify as a "feature". As was Fiddelity , the film is made with no budget and very basic equipment. I am, essentially a story teller in the old sense. It is the words and the way I use and express them that are intended to ignite the imagination of the audience, rather than reliance on pyro-technics and the like. I was particularly touched by this comment by one viewer: " I watched One’s Company last night and loved it. A graceful insight into alone-ness. Am I not being understood….or is it I who misunderstands? Small worries looming large. The growth...

The Play is the Thing

I was cast as King Berenger in Ionesco's "Exit the King". When I first read this script through, I thought immediately that it was about the end of all things. The end of the world. My character was an everyman: the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity. And in a sense, I think, that is a correct assessment. But, even more, it is about our fear of death. And our unwillingness to accept its eventuality. Because we don’t come to terms with it, we often waste our lives. I think it was Mark Twain who wrote that “Youth is wasted on the young”. Sometimes I think life is wasted because we fail to recognize how short it will be. As my character says when informed early on in the play about his impending death, “But I know that. Of course I do. We all know it. Remind me when the time comes.” Yes. We do all know it somewhere in the recesses of our mind. But it stays there as our life unfolds. However later on, Berenger exclaims: “I fear that what is to end one day, is end...

The Hand of God

Now that I am finally settled in Nova Scotia, I have managed to find the time to work on learning another script. But this time I am learning it for myself as Samuel French has refused me, without giving a reason, a licence to perform it. I did not like this script at first, but the more I read it, the more I came to like it. As with many Alan Bennett works, the play has a dark undertone. It might be described as a black comedy. Most of Mr. Bennett's monologues have been written for women and have been performed by the grand dames of British theatre. This one is also written for a woman; but unlike some of the other monologues, the character could easily be a man. I have modified it very slightly so that I do it as a male character. The play was to be performed as a benefit for a local foodbank before Christmas. However, I did perform it for a few members of my family and a few friends at our home, which actually provided a perfect venue for this work. And people we...

One Actor - Another Show

Search This Blog