Benefit for Champlain Elementary School Breakfast Program

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 well and inexpensively. He has no budget. Moreover, it does not rely on other people’s busy schedules. His performances have raised money for various arts organizations, charities and non-profit organizations in both Ontario and Nova Scotia.

There will be one local performance at the Granville Ferry Community Hall, 5352 Granville Road, at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 22. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 and will be available at Bainton’s (Mad Hatter Bookstore), 213 St. George Street in Annapolis Royal from September 7.

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Samuel Benefit a Success

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...

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...

Playwright Turned Author

BOOK LAUNCH There is murder in the air in a sleepy, unsuspecting village on the banks of a tidal river in Nova Scotia. “ Murder on the Pony Express Way ” by Paul Rapsey, a resident of Granville Ferry, will be released in paperback format at a book launch at Bainton’s Mad Hatter Bookstore in Annapolis Royal on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Stay on for Happy Hour at the Mad Hatter Wine Bar. The book is a whimsical murder mystery that takes place in the early 2020s. The historic village is located on the roadway travelled briefly by the mid-19 th century Pony Express riders carrying mail between Halifax and Victoria Beach in Nova Scotia. The characters may be flawed, but they are loveable. Although Paul has published other works, this is his first fictional novel. Josh Anderson at Amazon Books, which will be releasing the book for online purchases and e-readers in the late spring or early summer, wrote that the book is “ …a delightful read… W...

One Actor - Another Show

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