L'Oiseau d'O

or the story that never gives up.

Back in 2004 I wrote my first play. Well, sort of, if you don't count what I wrote as a child and adolescent. So let me rephrase that, back in 2004, I wrote my first "serious" play. It was written in the context of a university course on Franco-Ontarian theatre (part theoretical, part practical - the best type of class there is!)

The play was called Oeorpata ou L'Oiseau d'espérance qui chante en silence. A play that mixed amazon myth with the current issue of child soldiers, in a very Danis-like style. I was especially proud of this short play and managed to get it briefly workshopped while living in Vancouver.

However, the workshop was so inspiring that it lead me to create a second text, in 2008-2009. This one closer to the style of the "conte." Though many of L'Oiseau d'O's theme are similar to those explored in Oeorpata, it is in itself it's own piece. While I now see Oeorpata to be a naive attempt at playwriting, I'm still rather attached to both texts and I still hope to present both to a wider audience, be it on stage or printed.

I've submitted both to countless competitions and while never getting the prize, the both received praise from the adjudicators.

Next week is a big week for L'Oiseau d'O as I am meeting with Annick Léger, dramaturg working with Théâtre Action, to talk about the script and I'll be presenting a short exert of it Friday night, at Les Petites trouvailles (at L'Espace René-Provost).

Rêvé pour...

être subventionnée.

This past year I've been taking baby steps towards being able to call myself a playwright. Baby steps that started back in December 2010 when I was first invited to take part in a round table on franco-ontarian dramaturgy. Playwright. It still doesn't seem natural.

Seeing as I work professionally in a collective art form, peer recognition is extremely important. Although I have no objection to volunteering my time, either with steering committees or doing pro bono translations (one offs), the notion of being paid to create theatre is important to me. It's a question of respect, of craft, of trying to make an actual contribution to my community.

I have no problem dreaming up projects, but there is a part of me that resists actualizing these projects unless I have the proper means to do so. Mostly because A) I don't view my art as a hobby, B) I need to live off of something, and C) my day jobs (in the arts) do not give me the time to create freely.

So like many of my peers, I apply for funding and competitions and what have you in the hopes of being chosen. Funding for artistic projects is at a ridiculous low as we have governments who do not view the arts as being essential to our society. In the past, I have received countless letters of refusal, each time I shed a tear or two, took a moment to recover shook it off and started the next application.

In today's mail, I received one of the most amazing letters. It couldn't have come at a better time especially since I've decided to give up my position as resident production manager for a local theatre company. It was a letter confirming that I had funding for a project that I've been dreaming about since last May, a project that haunts me and that I can't wait to continue developing. Today is by far one of the most amazing days in a long time. And so when my work contract ends with the theatre company this summer, I'll be diving into full time playwriting!

Buzzz

My name is seldomly in the newspaper or mentioned on air. In fact, the last time I was referred to on the radio was last year in April for my art exhibit. Anne Michaud, who came to see the live performances (Implosion and Gatineau by Night) also seemed to like my art installation in the lobby. However, she called me Lina. But still, I appreciated the nod! And the time before that, I was credited in the newspaper two years ago for a set design that wasn't mine (though I had worked on the production - as stage manager, props maker and production manager).

So you can imagine how excited I was to see that my name (and in one occasion face) appears twice in the same newspaper in one week, for two different things.

One mention was for the Prix Rideau Awards as this year I've been nominated in two categories (artiste en émergence and Derrière le Rideau - both for production management) and the other for the upcoming production of my translation of Michele Riml's Sexy Laundry, La Séduction pour les nuls. 

Coming up for air

Last year I wrote a post called À bout de souffle where I spoke about exhaustion in the arts, more particularly on the production and arts administration side . Although not all production staff and arts administrators are also artists, some of us are, and I have found myself in the past year wanting more and more to create. Wanting... No, needing. Needing to create.

My job as a production manager demands that I spend my days making lists, analyzing situations, making schedules, predicting outcomes, managing people, managing problems, solving problems, creating budgets, making calculations and so on. The left side of my brain tends to take over sometimes to the point of affecting my sleep and stress levels. However, as a person, I am neither of left or right tendency, but rather quite equal (perhaps slightly more right brained, but that's only if we're pulling hairs). And in order to be fully happy (i.e. no more eye twitching and insomnia), I need to seek out a balance between my two brains.

In recent days, I resined from my position as production manager at theatre company for which I work. This was a very difficult decision to make, and here is not the place to go into all the details around the decision making nor the conversations had. But needless to say, as much as it was a very difficult decision to make (because I have come to love and respect all of the people I work with) and I've decided to stay with the company until the end of the summer, once this decision was spoken aloud and committed to, it felt as if I was coming up for air.

At this point in my life, what I want most is to be writing. And in an ideal world, I would have enough energy to fulfill my role as PM and write on the side. But the kind of responsibility and attention that PMing requires (and doing a half assed job is not an option for me) gives me very little room and energy for writing. Since September, I've only managed to put three days aside for writing, three glorious days, but that clearly is not enough time to allow me carry out all the artistic projects that have imagining and storing away in my right brain.

And so in coming up for air, I'll be diving back into the abyss... I'm very much looking forward to this new adventure, though in the meanwhile, I will make sure to fully appreciate my last months in familiar water.

A year in review, the 2011 edition

Looking back at 2011, the first thing that comes to mind is ouf. By late December, I hit my fortieth mark, that is I worked on 40 professional productions since 2004 (though from 2004-2008 I was working only very part-time as I was still a student). 2011 has been a year of change as I've continued to learn to cut back and better manage my time (e.i. learn to take time off) which can be tricky when working on fifteen shows a year. This past year, I went from being resident stage manager/props master/production manager to simply doing a better job as production manager. This single title suits me much better and it's allowed me to do other things, like go to Montreal for a festival, start writing again (and applying for grants), start singing and performing again (one wedding, one fundraiser and one audition), garden and get back to having a somewhat normal life (in my new home!).


In keeping with my old tradition, here's my year in theatre and books:


2011: A year of plays:
The Year of Magical Thinking
Feu la mère de Madame et Un bain de ménage
Le Sortilège
Laboratoire Gestes
Strawberries in January
Bifurcate Me
This is a Recording
Little Martyrs
St-Carmen of the Main
Les Étoiles d’Angus
The Shadow Cutter
Les Fridolinades
Gatineau by Night / Implosion
The Middle Place
Autopsie de Biscuits Chinois
Rearview
La Femme du boulanger
Lavender Railroad
Live From the Belly of a Whale
Les papillons de nuit
Adieu Beauté
The Fourposter
521 847 984
Mademoiselle de Paris
Écume
Frères d’hiver
39 Steps
Les z’aventures de Zozotte
Salt Water Moon
Sauce Brune
Les Outardes
Dreams of Whales
Taram
Whispering Pines
...And Slowly Beauty
The Father of the Daughter of Time Motion Study
Sauce Brune
Déverbération et SlamOutaouais
Le Cubicule
Oliver
Three Sisters
Dragon Glouton
Ti-Jean de partout


2011: a year of paper (mostly plays):
La Femme du Boulanger - Marcel Pagnol
Another Home Invasion - Joan MacLeod
Ce qui meurt en dernier - Normand Chaurette
The Sentamentalist - Johanna Skibsrub
The Drowning Girls - Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, Daniela Vlaskalic
Comrades - Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, Daniela Vlaskalic
The Pochsy Plays (Pochsy’s Lips, Citizen Pochsy, Oh, baby) - Karen Hines
Mom’s the Word - Linda A. Carson, Jill Daum, Alison Kelly, Robin Nichol, Barbara Pollard, Deborah Williams
Possible Worlds - John Mighton
The Russian Play (USSR + Mexico City + Essay) - Hannah Moscovitch
Poèmes épars - Gaston Miron
Age of Arousal - Linda Griffiths
Félicité - Olivier Choinière
Player One: What is to Become of Us - Douglas Coupland
Porc Épic - David Paquet
Afterimage - Robert Chafe
Le plan américain - Evelyne de la Chenelière et Daniel Brière
MacBeth - Michel Garneau
Hotel Pacifique - Fanny Britt
Generous - Michael Healey
Les pieds des anges - Evelyne de la Chenelière
Half Life - John Mighton
Tarmac - Nicolas Dickson
Rimbaud - Jean-Bapitiste Baronian
Mademoiselle de Paris - Michel Normandeau
Don Quichotte, vol. 1 - Miguel Cervantes
The Darling Family - Linda Griffiths
Place Vendôme août 1944 - Alain Houpillart
10 Days on Earth - Ronnie Burkett
My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
Where the Blood Mixes - Kevin Loring
The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest - Stieg Larsson
Snow - Organ Pamuk
The Aspidistra Code, From Both Hips, Howie the Rookie, Made in China, Crestfall - Mark O’Rowe
Debris, Osama the Hero, After the End, Love and Money - Dennis Kelly
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
Scotstown - Fabien Cloutier
Enquête sur le pire - Fanny Britt
Cinémassacre - Boris Vian
Titanica - Sébastien Harrisson
La Petite poule d’eau - Irène Mahé et Claude Dorge
Chaque jour - Fanny Britt
The Weir, St. Nicholas, This Lime Tree Bower, The Good Thief, Rum and Vodka - Conor McPherson
“Pig” - Simon Boulerice
Low in the Dark, The Mai and Portia Coughlan - Marina Carr