This Fall I’m working on three scripts, all three at various stages.
Ed & Ed’s B & B is the third play in my Ed & Ed series. These characters just won’t quit! When I started the Ed & Ed idea in 1995 it was simply a 1 act play called the The Fisherman’s Trap written for Lunch Box Theatre in Calgary. The following year I wrote a second one act for Lunch Box called Ed & Ed – Trapped which eventually became the second act of the first full-length Ed & Ed play now titled, Ed & Ed – Trapped.
With the success of the production at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival I decided to write a second play, Ed & Ed Do Florida. It’s an exploration of the Ed’s needing to get away from Newfoundland the politics and misery of Newfoundland by visiting a place – in their mind – that is the anti-thesis of Newfoundland. Where the winds are warm, the beaches are soft and opportunities for an entrepreneurial spirit many. Of course through many trials and tribulations they come to realize that there’s no place like home!
My new Ed & Ed is set in the home TNL’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival, Cow Head. The boys return to Newfoundland and decide “cultural tourism” is what it’s all about there days so they decide to settle into Cow Head and open a Bed & Breakfast Inn. In this particular play I’m trying to get to a place where the boys have to say good-bye. After three plays – I think it’s time!
The Death of Sir Arthur Currie is about the life and ultimately the death of Canada’s foremost military leader who led the Canadian Expeditionary Force through most of World War I.
I’ve visited the battle fields of France and Belgium twice mainly in pursuit of research about the Newfoundland Regiment and their battles – my play The Known Soldier is based on that story. On my last visit – funded by the Canada Council – I was incredibly moved by the Vimy Ridge Memorial to the fallen Canadian soldiers. Through the research I became angrier and angrier over the treatment of Arthur Currie upon his return to Canada after the war.
The idea of recording his demise rather than a glorification of his life was somewhat inspired by Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. We don’t need a play that glorifies war or the men of war – we need a play to understand who Arthur Currie was and why his demise was so tragic.
It’s been a difficult play to write because I’ve been at pains to keep the piece as historically accurate as possible – that means many drafts! I feel I’m getting closer to the truth and decided that I needed fresh eyes to read it – not Artistic Directors or friends so I decided last year to send the play to 2008 BC Playwriting Competition and much to my delight it won!
In April the play received a reading in Kamloops and in October the play will receive a two day workshop at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, thanks to Jeremy Toew and Lise-Ann Johnson.
Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor is I suppose a play that I’ve been working on for twenty years! But this year – I will finish it! I originally wrote this text when working with Berni Stapleton and Amy House when we had Moonlight Productions back in St. John’s in the late 80s.
The play is based on the Newfoundland folk song by the same name which is based on the Book of Jonah from the Bible. Over the years the play has come to be very much a personal story – as Jack left Newfoundland to fish in India Harbour – I left Newfoundland to work in the theatre. Add to that, I have a son Jack who always has to deal with a Dad who is leaving home for periods of time to work. Where is dad can I get him back asks Jack.
I want to finish this play for him by the end of the year!
