One Actor - Another Show

Two aspiring actors, who attended a production of my most recent play, obviously enjoyed the performance. Shortly after they had left, they walked back in and confronted me. “How did I memorize a 90 minute script? What method did I have? How long did it take me?” “Was it easier because I’d written the script?” I was taken aback. I’d never really thought about this. After stumbling through an inadequate response, one of them said: “Oh, you just have a good memory.” Well, yes and no. Memory is a muscle of sorts. One has to exercise it regularly. In some respects, a person of my vintage is very fortunate. At public school and into high school, we had to memorize lengthy poems such as “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, the mathematical times-tables, scientific formulae, and numerous class presentations. But when one is presented with a lengthy script, there are some useful tools, even if one has not had this early experience. One has to break the script down into segments. One has to get ...

The sold out performance of Desperately Seeking Samuel was a success. The production raised $800 for the Champlain Elementary School breakfast and lunch programme. The cheque will be presented to the school at the end of month at the school assembly by request of the principal, Jan Ross.  Paul Rapsey performed both the role of Samuel in the main play and of Marianna in the Epilogue. The powerful Epilogue was not in the film version. Audience members who had already seen the film, repeatedly said how different the play was from the film version. It had more energy and less darkness. Paul says that is because an actor feeds off an audience. An actor cannot do that in a film. In his brief introduction, Paul said the play was not a linear one. He described it as like a slow paced road trip of discovery. It starts off in the early morning darkness. Sometimes the road is smooth and straight. Sometimes one is dodging potholes. There are curves and bends. Sometimes the scenery is stunning...

News Release:  Paul Rapsey, a resident of Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia, will be performing his latest play, “ Desperately Seeking Samuel ” as a Benefit for the Champlain Elementary School Breakfast and Lunch Program.  The play is a 90 minute dramatic monologue. Rapsey plays an eighty year old man who, having lost the memory of his life while hospitalized, slowly pieces it together while trapped in a small closet. In this production, he will also play another character who speaks the closing Epilogue. The play might be considered an allegory about the loss and recovery of self-esteem and self-awareness. It is not a light comedy or bedroom farce. It has been described as a play “struggling in darkness and bathing in the light of discovery”. Rapsey, who was professionally trained as an actor, has been performing monologues since his retirement in 2015 as a legal aid lawyer. He says he has undertaken this form of theatre because a monologue is something that can travel we...