On The Writing Front

I want to say how grateful I am to have been given the opportunity to be a part of the Festival Players' Sounding Ground (a series of five short audio plays) production and getting to work with (however indirectly) fellow playwrights: Krista Dalby, Andrew Binks, Martha Ross and Ned Dickens. For more information on the Festival Players of Prince Edward County, and the production, go to: http://festivalplayers.ca/performances/2011-season/sounding-ground or click on the title of this entry.

There will be more on this in the coming weeks as my blog is going to be taking on a more writing, and creative ventures, focus.

Also, I completed another year with Now Hear This' SWAT (Students, Writers, and Teachers) program. Each year I'm increasingly amazed at the quality of work and, perhaps more importantly, the bravery of the students I work with and their willingness to share; as well as the teachers I've worked with (Christopher Stidham, Laryssa Chmil, Oscar Lopes, Katarina Gulej) their open-mindedness, patience and encouragement—with both me and the students. Their willingness to try new things and to teach me how to improve my lesson plans and communication with the students.

I would also like to give a very special thanks to the team (past and present) at Now Hear This (www.nowhearthis.ca); for their tireless work, organization and promotion of this extremely important and brilliant program: Mark Laliberte, Rachel Hopwood, Jennifer de Visser, Katie Mercer, Katie Franklin, Laura Mendes, Ceri Evans, Pasha Malla and others that I know I'm forgetting and I apologize greatly for that. And to Nadia Young and the Toronto Distract Catholic School Board for their support of the program and for allowing the writers to come into the schools.

I've also had the privilege to have been doing more work with multi-award winning writer/director/producer Ed Gass-Donnelly (Small Town Murders) on a screenplay, Lavender, which I've been working on for a decade now. Ed has optioned the script and we've been working on it together. His ideas, knowledge, attention to detail, faith in the project (and life) and work ethic are inspiring.

Writing, and bringing things to life, is a long, difficult and tiring process. Love is the only thing that can give you the energy to keep going through it. But, the occasional bit of caffeine and alcohol does help, too.