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Sweet Dreams Are Made of Short Rehearsals, Peanut Galleries, and Six Weirdos We All Can’t Stand
Coleen/Reality: Hi, I’m Reality, but I’m sometimes called Coleen.
Kealin/Possibility: And I’m Kealin, also known as Possibility.
Coleen/Reality: And we’re in a play, a delicate balance where we all know the true reality,
Kealin/Possibility: But are also here to explore the possibilities. The play is titled, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and it revolves around a seventeen year-old girl named Sam who encounters and befriends her future mentor, Tara, a bartender at the Beaver Pub. Tara in her own essence teaches Sam about getting what you want but also facing the consequences that come along with it.
Coleen/Reality: Then there’s Amala, who is a prime example of settling and knowing how to make herself content. Through the relationships between these three women, we discover the consequences of risking possibility and facing reality.
Kealin/Possibility: And that’s our play, pretty much. Reality and I are always at odds.
Coleen/Reality: No, we aren’t.
Kealin/Possibility: Mhm, sure.
Coleen/Reality: We’re supposed to talk about how we’re doing, and our process!
Kealin/Possibility: No, it’s a blog post. We can talk about anything, the possibilities are endless!
Coleen/Reality: Really now? I’m pretty sure they want something with actual information.
Kealin/Possibility: Yes, because our title was so self-explanatory. Do they know that ‘peanut galleries’ means chatting? Not very clear.
Coleen/Reality: Well fine then! Dear reader, if you’re wondering how our process is going, here’s the facts: we rehearse for less than two hours every Monday and Wednesday in a stairwell at Ryerson University, we talk non-stop, watch youtube videos, bicker, and somehow manage to block a scene.
Kealin/Possibility: Ha! You can hardly call our rehearsal space a stairwell, it’s HUGE. We call it the ‘room’. And we get work done, just WHILE talking and watching youtube. Broaden your horizon there buddy, the reader is going to think we’re slackers.
Coleen/Reality: Well, we finally are posting on the blog-after over a month.
Kealin/Possibility: It’s not homework. Calm yourself. Dear reader, ignore our bickering, it’s pretty much our play. Coleen and I have been watching our cast help create this show, and wanted to let you know what has been going on. So what has been going on…
Coleen/Reality: We’re focusing on transitions, last minute additions, and cleaning up some scenes.
Kealin/Possibility: That and also the fact that we’ve all come to the understanding that this story, what it says for us and for so many out there, is a story we feel more than privileged to share at the Paprika Festival.
Coleen/Reality: Yes, despite the very cheesy way you’ve worded it, I do agree.
Kealin/Possibility: Really, you do?
Coleen/Reality: Yes. I think the love we have for this show is something we can both agree to agree on.
Kealin/Possiblity: We hope to see you there!
Coleen/Reality: We will see you there.
Instructions for Use: A Blog Post
Hi there, this is the blogger checking in from the Instructions for Use team. Hopefully this blog will give you an inside look on the Paprika process.
Instructions for Use, written by Aviva Philipp-Muller, is built around the character Emmanuel, who makes his living writing instruction. He, the family next door, and a door-to-door blender salesman are the cast of characters for this balanced, character-driven piece.
Here’s a snapshot of a couple of our rehearsals. In one, we focused on improv. Now, the only kind of improv I had ever done was Second City-style, so I had no idea what this was going to be like. In the character improv we did, all you have to do is try to be as natural as possible. Being funny isn’t the goal; nothing even needs to happen in your scene. It’s all about trying to get a more natural, realistic feel for your character.
Another rehearsal was our first with our mentor, Weyni. We worked on the first few scenes, and she made some simple suggestions which helped clarify those scenes. For instance, in the first scene, she suggested playing with the idea of having more distance between the two characters. With that suggestion, the relationship between the characters and the dynamic of the scene were suddenly much clearer. I’m really excited to be working with someone so experienced and knowledgeable.
Anyways, that’s all from me now. Keep checking back to this blog for more blog posts from Instructions for Use and other shows!
Sincerely,
Instructions blogger
Exploring the Creative Process: Drafts
Hey there fellow Paprikans, just thought I’d check in with you guys and keep you guys in the loop as to the sort of things we’re trying to do here at Drafts. As it’s a very movement oriented piece, we’ve done numerous exercises trying to explore just that, movement. What you’re seeing below is an activity we’ve used a few times which we refer to as “Filling the Space”. An actor goes up, and makes a pose of some sort. Then, one or two other actors go in, and fill the empty space left by the first volunteer. One drops out at a time and is replaced by a new one, and in this rotation we are left with interesting poses that would never have been thought of on their own. These sort of exercises have proved invaluable to our creative process along with… Well you know, rehearsal. So feel free to comment on whatever is making your rehearsal process more… Productive!
Cheers from all of us at Drafts,
Elias Wilson
The Playwrights’ Progress
Hello Internet,
I’m Wesley Colford, one of the four playwrights-in-residence that Paprika is supporting this year. This is a great program because it allows playwrights to create new work in a supported environment without having the pressure of a production impeding on the work. Like all Paprika programs, each Playwright is given a mentor (usually an established Playwright or Dramaturg) to support them in the creation and revision of a new play. The goal is to choose a project that can be developed through the year in anticipation of a reading in the Festival in March. Throughout the year, the four Playwrights meet (along with our co-ordinator, the brilliantly talented Elise Newman) to compare notes, debate writing strategies, and rehash Doctor Who episodes (slash, 90210 if you’re Britta…).
In addition to the public reading, the Paprika staff organize a preliminary private reading for the Playwrights, so that they can hear where they are aprox. a month before the festival, and so that the first time they hear their play isn’t in front of a paying audience in the Tarragon Extra Space. For us, that reading took place yesterday!
I can’t rave enough about how inspiring it was to hear the work of my fellow Playwrights at last after months of snippits and Stew-fueled discussions. The four plays are incredibly distinct (it’s almost like they planned it…), spanning subjects as diverse as the Toronto Occupy Movement, a Schyzophrenic philosopher, the pangs and joys of First Love, and a Musical about coping with Death. It was great to hear them read by an incredibly talented team of actors, and I know for me at least it was an incredibly educational (and necessary) part of the process. Writing can be a very isolated exercise, and for me one of the joys of writing for the stage is the community that comes together to breathe life into your words. After months of 2am writing in my bedroom, it was fantastic to come into a room with other humans to begin the next stage of exploration and discovery – now let the rewrites again!
It’s also worth noting how incredibly exciting it was to be in the actual Theatre Passe Muraille rehearsal space with actual Theatre Passe Muraille staff at the table. Paprika is an amazing resource for young artists and a true stepping stone into the professional world. Opportunities like this really drive that point home and I can’t say enough how grateful I am to be associated with this terrific team.
Please check out the final readings of these great plays in the Festival – I promise you won’t be disappointed! The official schedule should be up very soon, so be sure to keep an eye out for:
A Gorgeous Decline of the Mind, by Sabrina White
Life After, by Britta Johnson
Mature Young Adults, by Wesley Colford
and the Paprika Benefit fundraiser performance of Performing Occupy, by Rosamund Small
I’ll check in again closer to the Festival to give you more information on all the plays. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Official Paprika schedule and information about booking tickets (for the first time ever in the Tarragon Extra Space!).
For all the Playwrights-in-Residence,
Wesley J. Colford
We’ve got Deities, Magic, and Plenty of Time to Spare…
Of all the weeks working on Shackles, this is the one most likely to be blog-worthy.
The festival is fast approaching, and that means that Rob (the closest thing we have to a deity here) will be coming around to view each one of the shows involved, which we’ve all been working on so diligently and so wonderfully-independently these past few months. Our particular time of glory was about a week ago.
It’s a fascinatingly stressful experience. On the one hand, you have a perfectly harmless looking young man watching your show and smiling throughout, however, on the other hand, you’re aware you’re giving the performance that could potentially result in your termination from the festival, and by extension your love of life and sense of self worth.
Now, that didn’t happen, of course.
No, it actually went surprisingly well. Our show is coming along nicely, we’re almost off book, and have our blocking set, which all means the show is really taking shape. Rob gave some great advice, and we’re looking forward to some more from our mentor and additional deity Philip Akin, who we’ll meet up with tomorrow. (Instead of watching the Super Bowl, may I add. Oh the sacrifices we make for theatre…)
The real remaining question is what to do with the month we have left; because now comes the best part, the part with the polishing and the perfecting. The part where we experiment and explore. The part where, assuming we can get past the leisure-ness and the technicalities and the remembering-of-lines, where the real, shamelessly clichéd “magic” happens.
Here’s hoping our respected mentors/Gods can help with that process and what’s to come, and here’s to sharing that particular type of magic with you, Dearest-Paprika-Blog-Followers.
Until next time,
Shackles team.
