It’s been a busy few months, for which I’m very thankful!
This week I finished directing 38 emerging musical theatre people @StClairCollege in Oklahoma! It was the first musical to add an exclamation mark to its title and I’m adding an exclamation mark to the whole experience of working with these students! It was a delight to direct them at the Broadway-sized Chrysler Theatre, with a 16-piece orchestra. It was also super to work with Musical Director John Karr, Choregrapher Kristyn Wiklanski and the chair of the Theatre Arts program, Katherine Kaszas. Thank you for the opportunity to direct this great group of students in this epic musical theatre extravaganza.
In other news- I am doing a lot of writing and adapting of late.
While directing Oklahoma! I’ve also been writing, directing and consulting for the science charity Let’s Talk Science http://www.explorecuriocity.org/ on an exciting program to promote entrepreneurial skills and STEM subjects. It’s been a wide-ranging collaboration with teams in Ottawa, Toronto, London, ON and Stratford. We met for the first event in Thunder Bay, which was a tremendous experience. The program includes a youth facilitator to run the event, local STEM entrepreneurs sharing their stories with teens, a cool video to set up the ‘big questions’ for the session and great break out sessions created by MaRs in Toronto. It’s a ‘step outside’ of traditional theatre- and very challenging to create an event that both informs and inspires the audience.
And at the same time I’m also writing two adaptations…
I’m writing my first draft of an adaptation of a George Ryga novel. This will get its first public reading at SpringWorks Indie Arts Festival (Stratford ON) this May. I’ll blog about that more very soon. We’ve got a fantastic cast, publicity is starting to happen and now I just need to finish finessing the script!
Also waiting in the wings is a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol that I’m writing and directing at Theatre Northwest, BC later this year. I’m delighted that Dana Osborn is designing set and costumes and that Itai Erdal is on board as lighting designer. Jack Grinhaus surprised me when he asked me to write a new adaptation- I’m thrilled to dive into this project. The first draft is due shortly… whee!
And I’ve just started on a third adaptation… I’ll write about this very soon… It’s an historical Canadian story, with great emotional scale and is going to be a fantastic challenge to adapt for live theatre! I’m looking forward to diving into this asap.
So… a quick update!
More to follow regarding Night Desk, original novel by George Ryga, stage adaptation by Heather Davies. In the meantime- here are the posters for Oklahoma and Night Desk- and some link for further info. If you can join us in Stratford ON on May 12th or May 16th, please do.
http://www.springworksfestival.ca/