Comments on: shilling for josh

By: SkylarKD

SkylarKD — Tue, 09 May 2006 13:21:17 +0000

lol - glad you had some good muses

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 05 May 2006 15:41:21 +0000

For sure, SkylarKD! Though it was never performed in NF, the original cast was made up of 3/5ths Newfoundlanders and they made the play so much their own! They were SO great, and they definitely kept me honest during the rehearsal process. And they had so many amazing true-life stories from their parents and their parents’ parents that I kinda wondered why I bothered writing fiction about this in the first place… and then I completely ripped them off and stuffed all those stories into the show.

By: SkylarKD

SkylarKD — Fri, 05 May 2006 13:14:59 +0000

Well Josh, I hope a NL theatre company decides to perform it! I haven’t lived there in a while, so I don’t know the theatre folks anymore, but it definitely sounds like something that would draw in a good crowd. I have to think that ‘Whereverville’, as a portrait of the resettlement era in Newfoundland, would be performed with a lot of heart by people whose parents and grandparents had some of the same experiences.

By: sween

sween — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:12:40 +0000

God bless you, Josh. No one else I know would leave a comment expansive enough to qualify as a blog post in its own right.

Now if you would just leave the 19th Century and actually get a real internet connection.

Back to blarging….

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 03 May 2006 23:06:10 +0000

Uhhhh… I don’t know what I’m doing.

I have a 56k dialup and own a computer so ancient that you have to shovel coal into the back of it to make it run. These newfangled “bloogs” are a mystery to me (seriously, I had to rewrite this entire thing for a second time after my first, cataclysmic attempt at posting).

But Sweens (so nicknamed because when we met there were, oh, a good baker’s-dozen worth of Jasons in our class and they all received these military-style last-name assignations) thought that I might respond to a word or two re: my plays.

First off: thanks SWEENS for the gratuitous shout-out. I owe you a tasty Fresca.

Secondly: neither HALO or (“nor”? “Knorr”?) WHEREVERVILLE have been produced in NF. The Newfoundland gov’t, in recent years, has closed its doors to outside theatre companies in an effort to bolster indigenous works with their money instead. It’s too bad they’re so hermetically sealed, though—Two Planks and a Passion tried (and failed) touring both plays to the province. HALO has played in every other province EXCEPT Newfoundland, and WHEREVERVILLE is set in a Newfoundland outport, so that’s ironic.

I do hope that an on-island theatre company might produce the shows some day… I know that the AD for Theatre Newfoundland-Labrador, Jeff Pitcher, has both of the scripts on his desk (because I mailed them there). So we’ll see.

I love Newfoundland! I met my wife, Francine, working in summer stock in Stephenville, NF, and have had many scraps and adventures in the rugged province ever since! I’d love to go back someday to see either HALO or (yeah– this time definitely “or”) WHEREVERVILLE in a new production.

Well, folks, thanks for your interest & comments… and godspeed with all of your “blorging”!

Now back to some monkeys and their pants out in space.

JOSH

By: sween

sween — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:32:43 +0000

Jenny: I do apologise. The sentence in question has been fixed.

SassyK: What kills me, and that people reading this might not know, is that the whole “face of Jesus on the side of Tim Horton’s”, is based on actual events. Sheesh.

SkylarKD: I “think” it’s been performed in NF, but I’ll have to check with the man himself. It’s likely though, as the company that first produced it (Two Planks and a Passion) often tours their shows in NF.

By: SkylarKD

SkylarKD — Wed, 03 May 2006 13:04:34 +0000

Whereverville sounds quite interesting. Do you know if it has ever been performed in Newfoundland? Sounds like something you’d see at the LSPU Hall.

By: SassyK

SassyK — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:46:44 +0000

Hailing from the land of NS (for a bit anyway) I am familiar with Mr MacDonald’s work. Indeed, I remember when HALO came out and read great reviews (perhaps I can be of assistance in recommending said works) but of course Timmy’s isn’t known to all. I must admit HALO certainly captures an element of rural Nova Scotian mentality markedly well.

That and I will never forget that Neptune has been compared to a Tim Horton’s.

funny.
And there you have it…

By: jenny

jenny — Tue, 02 May 2006 21:35:08 +0000

Wow - what a talented friend you have! Those are always good to have. Both plays sound great, although I’m quite intrigued by Halo. And since he let(s) you read his comic books, I just can’t say no!

BTW… my drunken haze is almost never vodka-induced. Gin, maybe. Wine, probably. Scotch, definitely. But vodka, rarely.