Guest blogger Kathy Storring
(First in a series)
Funny how the brain works.
Funny how the brain works.
For Lea Daniel and Gary Kirkham, there is no question that their play Pocket Rocket originated with Lea.
But things get fuzzy
when they try to remember how Gary came onboard.
Was it when they were on a long walk with their spouses, Chea and Alan, while visiting the Daniels’ cottage? Or was it during a far-reaching conversation sitting together on a sofa? Hmmm…
 |
| Lea Daniel |
“We just started to
talk about it, back and forth,” Lea recalls. “And by the end, we were already
writing it together.”
Gary adds: “Originally,
I was thinking: this is Lea’s play, so I was sort of talking as my dramaturgy
person. But by the end, there were too many stories. … And it was a scary
moment because you think: I really like this play, but I don’t want to take it
away from Lea!”
No worries. Lea
welcomed the collaboration. Let the writing begin.
So, what did they create?
You could say Pocket Rocket, which premieres April 20 at Kitchener’s
Registry Theatre, is about road hockey. It has three “periods,” just like a
hockey game. The title reflects the nickname of hockey legend Henri Richard.
And the characters do bond over hockey sticks.
But that’s just the
springboard. At its heart, Pocket Rocket is a funny, poignant exploration of
friendship, life’s transitions — and Canadian identity.
In the beginning…
 |
| Gary Kirkham |
The pair had developed
a friendship through Writers’ Bloc, a playwriting initiative launched in 1998
by Theatre & Company, a professional theatre troupe that had taken
Kitchener-Waterloo by storm. (Lost & Found Theatre developed out of that
troupe.)
Before joining Writers’
Bloc, run by dramaturge Henry Bakker, Lea had written books for children and
Gary had written sketch comedy, but neither had tackled a play.
Gary is only partly
joking when he intones with a laugh: “Henry Bakker changed our lives.…”
Indeed he did.
In those early days,
who could have guessed that in 2001 Gary would be commissioned to write a play,
Queen Milli of Galt, to open Theatre & Company’s new home,
now the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts? And that was just the beginning.
Since then, more than 50 theatres, including Lost & Found, have produced
Gary’s plays. Falling: A Wake,
which Lost & Found premiered in 2007, is currently enjoying a two-month run
in Belgium, using its French translation.
Meanwhile, Lea’s drama/comedy Naked was produced by Lost & Found in 2013.
Her play Heretic has had four workshops/readings,
including a 2010 juried selection by Foundry Theatre in Toronto. An excerpt of Colour Me Fuchsia was presented at an International Women’s
Day fundraiser in 2007.
So Writers’ Bloc was
quite the launching pad.
Lea credits Bakker’s
insightful coaching as well as artistic director Stuart Scadron-Wattles’
commitment to the program. The novice scripts were turned over to the troupe’s
actors for a reading — and an
eye-opening education.
“All of a sudden all of
the nuances that you didn’t even know about would come out,” Gary says. “That
was the biggest learning curve for all of us — the words on the page were
transformed by actors.”
Pocket’s progress
It was a lesson well
learned. Even with experience under their belts, Lea and Gary welcome the
insights that workshops and public readings bring to a script.
So they were delighted
in 2014 when Pocket Rocket was chosen for a
one-week workshop / reading with Theatre Calgary, a company renowned for its
development of new works.
“(The actors) are in
the room to bring these characters alive,” Gary says. “Not to explore the
internal character like an actor, but to explore the external actions of their
characters like a director would.”
But surely it must be
an ego-bruising experience as a director and actors expose your play’s flaws,
setting the stage for more rewrites and reshaping?
Not for Lea, who
describes it as an “amazing experience” and praises the intelligence of the
Calgary professionals.
“I don’t have any
problems taking things out or changing things, even when I’m in the heat of the
writing — if it makes it better,” she says.
Rewriting during a
workshop is even easier, she says: “You’ll see (the problem) right there in
front of you.”
Their commitment to
quality has paid off. In 2014 Pocket Rocket was short-listed for
the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry award for new comedy.
Meanwhile, in
Kitchener…
At the time of our
interview, casting was still in progress for Lost & Found’s production of Pocket Rocket.
But director Kim
Blackwell, artistic director of 4th Line Theatre in the Peterborough area, was
more than familiar with the script, having led a Kitchener workshop/public
reading last year. Audience reaction was positive.
Still, Lea and Gary
were anticipating more tweaks ahead as rehearsals began.
“The second week (of
rehearsals) is when line cuts happen pretty extensively,” Gary says. “All of a
sudden the actors are emotionally there, and all of a sudden they drop a line
and the scene just goes from here to here. And you go, “Wow that was great,”
and the stage manager says, “Well they just dropped two lines.” He laughs. “Those lines are gone.…”
No wonder Lea and Gary
talk about playwriting as an organic process. Each step adds revelations, and
each revelation brings changes and polishing.
Until the big reveal.
Next blog April 7: Lea and Gary divulge the deep, dark
secrets of collaborative playwriting.
(Special thanks to photographers Alan Daniel and Tom Vogel)
No comments:
Post a Comment