One Actor - Another Show

The first live performance of my recent monologue, " One's Company ", took place in August at the Dickinson Island Summer Theatre to a small but appreciative audience.  I was feeling hesitant about this show after the success of my previous work, " Fiddelity ". But it takes an audience to bring a play alive. I feed off an audience. They are either with you or against you.  The play has been tweaked this summer while we have been at our rustic summer cabin on Blackwater Lake in Ontario. I would describe the play as being a "whimsical drama set in the time of Covid". The play runs about 55 minutes.

The Municipality of Trent Hills is a rural municipality in the Northumberland County hills in Ontario. It includes the Village of Warkworth, outside of which we lived for twenty-five wonderful years.  It was there that I returned to theatre after a long hiatus. This article appeared in the May 2021 edition of the Trent Hills Tribune. 

They say there is no bad press for someone who depends on publicity. But Oscar Wilde wrote more than a Century ago that "In the old days we had the rack, today we have the press." So, when one is contacted by a journalist to do an interview, one is always a little nervous. This is even more so when the interview is conducted over the telephone. How will one's words be interpreted? What might be written that is out of context? What will the editor do with the draft article submitted by the journalist? But, I confess, this article is very flattering.

I have created a seven episode podcast of my most recent stage script, One's Company. I have done this to test it out.  The play is about relationships, ageing, and assumptions based on poor communication. One critic, after listening to Scene One, said "I think it is going to be depressing". It is not intended to be. But it is not a "Polly Anna" play.  The Podcast channel, " A Granville Ferry Theatrical Podcast ", is intended to house some of my scripts, given the fluctuating and uncertain Covid restrictions on live performances. To date there are only two plays: the  original stage script for Fiddelity and One's Company . See  https://podcasts.google.com/search/Paul%20Rapsey

Since the recent screening of "Fiddelity", people have been asking me about the equipment I used. So this brief blog entry will show the camera I used. The editing program I used was also very basic. It is a Microsoft program built in to my laptop. It is called "Movie Maker".  One of the few things that did not arrive at our home in Granville Ferry in our move here from Ontario in 2018 was my tripod. So, much of the filming was by hand-held camera. In some scenes, the camera was perched on whatever reasonably flat surface I could find or concoct. This was a very humble production.

The Nova Scotia Premiere of the film "Fiddelity" was a successful benefit for the Lower Granville Hall in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. The two sold out performances resulted in more than $1,100 going to the operating expenses of the Hall, which like many such performance venues has been hard hit by the global pandemic. The Hall volunteers provided a warm and safe space for the community this past weekend. One of my chief purposes in writing and producing plays is to raise money for worthwhile causes. Once the pandemic subsides and restrictions are lifted, this Community Hall hopes to provide a space for and promote local film, theatre, music and dance on a regular basis. I am pleased to have been able to help in this way.

I have been struggling with the new script that I have been working on for several months. I have called it "One's Company".  My problem: I do not love it as I did the script of "Fiddelity". I realized that one of the issues was that I had decided to write this new play as a screen play. This was the first such undertaking of mine. Although "Fiddelity" became a film, it was written, rehearsed and intended to be performed as a stage play. It was only the circumstances around Covid-19 restrictions that saw it gradually transformed into film. I am not a filmmaker by nature. Nor do I have the resources to become a good one. I undertook learning and performing monologues for several reasons, which I have discussed on this Blog previously. The principle one, perhaps, is keeping an ageing mind active and well exercised. For me at least, learning a film script did not satisfy this need. So, I have rewritten this new script for the stage. It is not entirely the...