One Actor - Another Show

Despite stating that "Fiddelity" is a fictional story, I have been asked many times how much of this story is true.  Real life can and often does trigger a fictional story. There may be hints of real people in this story of mine, but they are a mosaic of different people, some known, some imagined, some merely observed.  My parents had a very loving relationship and were great friends to one another; so this was not about them. My dad never spoke of the War or his career. But the “mom” in the story was in a small way my mother. She loved nursing, she often spoke of the War years fondly, had wanted to be a doctor and probably never wanted to be a mother of five boys. She did get pregnant and she did have  to come back to Canada from the field in North Africa in 1944 before the War had ended. And she didn't get a promotion she was up for. But she didn't lose the baby. It was my eldest brother.  My mom, who had been something of a "Tom Boy" in her teens, did t...

I am always nervous about putting myself "out there", whether it be on stage or simply in writing. Will the performance come off? How will it be received by an audience? This is especially so when one has written the work. And when one is the sole actor on stage for an hour or more, this is only accentuated.  When one sends out a script, one has similar worries.  It is like standing naked before a crowd of onlookers, not that I have ever done that. I was no less worried about my audio presentation of the play Fiddelity . I had not written it as an audio play. The intention had always been to perform it live, as a monologue.  I only sent the link to the Podcast of the play to sixty or seventy friends or acquaintances, people who had previously shown an interest in my theatrical dalliances. Although my partner did post a note about it on his Facebook page, his is not a widely read piece of social media. Nor is this blog of mine.  However, I have been deeply touched by ...

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: M y 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...

I have done some major re-writing of the "Fiddelity" script: ( Scripts )  Some of this I did while we were residing in Cuba this winter. Some of it I have done more recently as I have been working on learning the lines to this monologue at home here in Nova Scotia.  But plans to perform the play are now on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions placed on all of us. Theatres and public spaces are closed. Gatherings of people are prohibited. However, this will not last. At least one hopes it will not.  In the meantime, I am thinking of doing a more polished video performance than the one I had hastily put together in my livingroom in December. But r ight now, learning the script is proving challenging enough. I will take it a step at a time and a day at a time. I do think this storyline would make a wonderful short film. But that is beyond my capability at present. My hope is to perform Fiddelity one way or another. And my aim is to ...

"Fiddelity" is a new monologue in eleven scenes (2019). It takes place over the character's seven decades and deals with the thwarted desire of a young child to play the fiddle, and the impact of the fiddle in question on the generations of this family. The script has received a favourable review from a literary critic; but another review found that although it was a "great story" it would not be a good play. Personally I believe that a monologue is a form of storytelling. A great story should be enough; but it has to be told well. This particular review was not based on a review of the script; but of an early and hastily put together video rehearsal of the play. Perhaps it was the performance they found lacking. Anyway, the review did encourage me to take a fresh look at the script and do some rewriting while away for the winter. The  early video rehearsal of scene 1 of this 11 scene monologue can be viewed on YouTube at  Fiddelity Sc. 1 . The play has yet ...

The play was very well received in Annapolis Royal. A snowy, wintery night might have dampened the audience attendance, but it didn't. A good house and an enthusiastic and attentive one was a delight to perform for.  As a playwright and as an actor one is always relieved that a new work is appreciated and enjoyed. And it is always good, and somewhat frightening, to put a work that has been long in gestation to the test. And now, for a while at least, it is put to bed.  Where the play goes from here is anybody's guess. I will submit it for the 2020 Liverpool (NS) International Theatre Festival; but there are no plans to produce it elsewhere right now. In the meantime, a new work is in its infancy. We shall see what becomes of it next. 

M y first Nova Scotia performance of this monologue in Bridgetown was very poorly attended. That was unfortunate, more so for the Dawn Oman Gallery, where the show was to be a benefit for the restoration of their magnificent 1902 Casavant organ, than it was for myself.  A lthough it is always invigorating, and sometimes terrifying, to perform before a large audience, a small gathering of people provides a chance to perform and perfect one's theatrical offering. And the second show in Liverpool was a resounding success. A sold out show with an attentive and appreciative audience was all an actor could wish for.  O f course, I am not a known entity in Bridgetown; but I have now performed three times in Liverpool. And, of course, Liverpool is a larger and much more culturally active community than Bridgetown, with its wonderful, historic Astor Theatre.  I now look forward to a third performance in Annapolis Royal, where I anticipate there will also be a good cro...