As requested by keyframe
So I just got back from a nice, if financially ill-advised, visit to Edmonton, where I visited morgoid (sadly still not back from a LENGTHY lj hiatus), and many others during the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Morgan was performing in, and dramaturg of, Tudor Queens: A Burlesque, which was written by our friend Ellen, who also performed. I believe there was the occasional script punch-up by Morgan; there is a particular kind of surgical bitchiness to her writing I can spot from 20 yds. At any rate, it was pretty neat, a kind of hybrid of burlesque and theatre, detailing the stories of the unlucky wives of Henry VIII. Sexy AND educational. And it went over well at the festival! It had just the right mix of smut and smarts and polish that got the word of mouth rolling, and by about 3 or 4 days in, you couldn't get a ticket to this thing. It just finished a couple of holdover performances this weekend. They're already planning a similar show for next Fringe in the historical theatre/burlesque vein, but I'm not sure what is public knowledge and what isn't so I'll stop there.
One of the OTHER things I did in Edmonton was to meet with Morgan and Ellen regarding a play I want to write for the two of them. I made friends with Ellen a couple of years ago when I was still in Edmonton, and I believe it was through me that she and Morgan started chatting and collaborating and Morgan got involved with that show, and the burlesque troupe. At any rate, I'd known the two of them independently but it wasn't until I saw them carrying on together that I realized what a neat duo they'd make on stage. I sort of tarted idly mentioning this to them in chat, and we're all writers and producers, so the idle chatter quickly turned into me cranking out ideas, and meeting with them and being handed 3 deadlines for progressive drafts, with an idea to do this at next August's Edmonton Fringe.
So I don't know every little thing about this play yet, still cranking things out, and changing my mind daily, and also I don't want to talk about it at any length while it's still only so much talk. The working title (for now) is Ship Wreck although I feel there is another word in there somewhere; I keep bouncing around between Ship Wreck Wine and Ship Wreck Sisters and, one giggly but regrettable 3am, Ship Wreck Bitches. So for now, I'm just sticking with Ship Wreck; it's a nice powerful turn of phrase, like "cellar door". It makes things happen when you hear it. The solid bits run thus: it's a story about a woman getting out of rehab for the third (and last, one way or the other) time, who is immediately accosted by her best friend and fellow drunk and enabler who drags her on a quest across the Canada/US border. It's kind of a bizarro story, but it's more about the friendship, as it was and as it is, and about how things that used to sustain you can become bad for you. Kind of a strange, funny-sad tone, inspired in equal parts by Twin Peaks and the songs of Neko Case. Should be fun.
Deadline for the 1st draft is early Jan, 2012, although I'm aiming to have a really rough draft barfed out by early november that nobody gets to see, just so I can put some polish on the January one. And then Drafts 2 and 3 for the end of March and the end of June, respectively, around which time rehearsals for the theoretical production would be starting.
So yeah, that's kind of a big project for the year. Obviously not the only one, other stuff always comes along and you have to juggle priorities, etc. but I'll be kicking at this pretty consistently for the next year or so.
One of the OTHER things I did in Edmonton was to meet with Morgan and Ellen regarding a play I want to write for the two of them. I made friends with Ellen a couple of years ago when I was still in Edmonton, and I believe it was through me that she and Morgan started chatting and collaborating and Morgan got involved with that show, and the burlesque troupe. At any rate, I'd known the two of them independently but it wasn't until I saw them carrying on together that I realized what a neat duo they'd make on stage. I sort of tarted idly mentioning this to them in chat, and we're all writers and producers, so the idle chatter quickly turned into me cranking out ideas, and meeting with them and being handed 3 deadlines for progressive drafts, with an idea to do this at next August's Edmonton Fringe.
So I don't know every little thing about this play yet, still cranking things out, and changing my mind daily, and also I don't want to talk about it at any length while it's still only so much talk. The working title (for now) is Ship Wreck although I feel there is another word in there somewhere; I keep bouncing around between Ship Wreck Wine and Ship Wreck Sisters and, one giggly but regrettable 3am, Ship Wreck Bitches. So for now, I'm just sticking with Ship Wreck; it's a nice powerful turn of phrase, like "cellar door". It makes things happen when you hear it. The solid bits run thus: it's a story about a woman getting out of rehab for the third (and last, one way or the other) time, who is immediately accosted by her best friend and fellow drunk and enabler who drags her on a quest across the Canada/US border. It's kind of a bizarro story, but it's more about the friendship, as it was and as it is, and about how things that used to sustain you can become bad for you. Kind of a strange, funny-sad tone, inspired in equal parts by Twin Peaks and the songs of Neko Case. Should be fun.
Deadline for the 1st draft is early Jan, 2012, although I'm aiming to have a really rough draft barfed out by early november that nobody gets to see, just so I can put some polish on the January one. And then Drafts 2 and 3 for the end of March and the end of June, respectively, around which time rehearsals for the theoretical production would be starting.
So yeah, that's kind of a big project for the year. Obviously not the only one, other stuff always comes along and you have to juggle priorities, etc. but I'll be kicking at this pretty consistently for the next year or so.