Alas Shakespeare

Theatre has always been a part of my life. I love plays – the magic, the mystery, the drama! I studied theatre years ago and worked as a professional actor. But, I’m no expert. I think to be a full fledged actor you must live and breathe it. The lifestyle is all encompassing. It’s not just sitting in trendy cafes drinking lattes and smoking herbal cigarettes – although I’ve been there. It’s my friend Blair, a nomad, travelling from theatre to theatre, wearing many hats. He is an actor, and he is very good at his craft. You wouldn’t even know his name. Real actors, real artists, do it because it is in their blood, and because they have something to give. It is their calling. Blair has been an actor for many years at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake. When he’s not there, he is somewhere else, doing commercials or voice-overs. His telephone number changes frequently but somehow I always know where he is. Recently Blair thought he might like to audition for the Stratford Festival – Shakespeare. He loves the Bard and he knows him well. But, I guess something else came up. There are always conflicts when you are an actor. You can’t do it all. To my point; we study Shakespeare because it is an art form we can learn from. And it’s not easy, but nothing so intricate and meaningful is ever easy. Shakespeare is a language unto itself. It is a way of seeing the world by way of  captivating entertainment. Never a dull moment when there are swords and ghosts involved. Hamlet is read and studied by so many because it has it all. Young love, old mystery, suspicion, intrigue, a ghost, madness and murder. Some action films today don’t have all that. So a play like Hamlet must be read carefully and with fervour, carefully tasting each line. It takes work to savour brilliance. Eat up and enjoy! 

Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles is the perfect play. Well ok, maybe that’s too much, nothing is perfect. But it is terribly neat and tidy. There is a major twist, manipulation, and a surprise element. The women (Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters) are “used to worrying over trifles.” But throughout the entire plot it is the women who do the detective work. It is women’s intuition that solves the case. But it is the men who miss the mark. They underestimate the women. Fantastic! And then, like a bloody sisterhood, the women protect their own, a fallen woman. They understand her and wish they had of done more to protect her from Mr. Wright who was “a hard man” as Mrs Hale says. This plot is all accomplished in one act! I love the fact that in the intro to the play it talks about how Glaspell got her inspiration – she sat in the theatre and it all came to her. I can feel this. I can see her there, sort of. Let’s remember this is 1916! What was she wearing? And what about the women in the play, did they look like her? I think so. It inspires me to think that women in 1916 were women that I might know today – courageous, spirited, and ready to do what is right for a downtrodden sister. You might counter this by saying “but she killed her husband, killing is wrong, it’s a sin.” I don’t know about that because he killed her spirit and her dreams, long before she took his life.

Gil Adamson review

I saw Gil Adamson speak Feb. 6. This is the review

Gil Adamson, “Woman… running like hell” by Sheri Astorino  

The University Partnership Centre’s THINK series at Georgian College’s Barrie Campus includes free films, art gallery openings, author readings and performances. One such author reading was given recently by Gil Adamson from her new novel The Outlander. Gil (short for Gillian) has a refreshing presence at the podium. She is someone you might like to sit down with and have a cup of tea, she seems that friendly, and has a real comedic flare. She starts off her talk by introducing the theme of the novel as “a young woman, dressed in black, running like hell.” She goes on to emphasize that of course she is running because she killed a man, her husband. Adamson’s novel started out as poetry and eventually some ten years later evolved, and was picked up by Anansi Press as her first novel.

 

The Outlander is set at the beginning of the 20^th century and follows Mary Boulton, mostly referred to as “The Widow.” Mary is chased deep into the wilderness of British Columbia by two large red headed men on a mission – to seek revenge. She eventually lands in a mining town called Frank that actually exists. In the novel Frank is riddled with an assortment of eccentric characters and Mary arrives just in time for the Turtle Mountain landslide, an actual historical event.

 

  Astorino 2

 

Adamson has a penchant for Canadian history and pioneer life. She and her husband, poet Kevin Connolly, enjoy hiking around various areas and visiting towns that are relatively untouched by modern civilization. On one such trip she gathered source material for The Outlander, and also uses the name of one of her relatives for the character Angus Lorne Bonnycastle, who was a circuit court judge from Manitoba’s Red River.

 

After her reading of The Outlander, Adamson entertained questions from the audience and was very open to our queries and thoughts. In her honest and almost folksy kind of way she said that it is difficult to be a disciplined writer, but sometimes it is essential to get the work done. She said is was tough to finish the last line of her novel but that was often the case with authors. Consequently to send it to the publisher can be even more difficult, “it’s like putting your child on the bus for the first time” she said.  Adamson may seem tentative and even shy at times, but after experiencing her reading it is clear she is a “woman… running like hell” into a successful and long literary career.

poetic thoughts

You Are Poet

 

I am here aren’t I?

Be still and know that “I am”

When the pain hits

the sorrow

confusion

be still

be still

breathe.

See, the darkness parts

hand outstretched

word on paper like poetry

it says

be

still 

Thoughts on Wheat Kings as poetry

“Wheat Kings” Sundown in the Paris of the prairiesWheat Kings have all their treasures buriedAll you hear are the rusty breezesPushing around the weather vane Jesus In a Zippo lighter you see the killer’s faceMaybe it’s someone standing in the killers placeTwenty Years for nothing well that’s nothing newBesides no one is interested in something you didn’t doWheat Kings and pretty things,Lets just see what the morning brings There’s a dream he dreams where the high school is dead and starkIt’s a museum and we’re all locked up and after dark up in it and after darkWhere the walls are lined all yellow gray and sinisterHung with pictures of our parents prime ministersWheat Kings and pretty things,Lets just see what the tomorrow brings Late breaking story on the CBC,A nation whispers “we always know he’d go free”They add “you can’t be fond of living in the past,Cause if you are then there is no way you are going to last”Wheat Kings and pretty things,Lets just see what the morning bringsWheat Kings and pretty things,

Thats what tomorrow brings

If you read this out loud as a poem (that’s what I like to do) – believe it or not. It sounds like a poem. Does that sound weird? What I mean is – read it as a poem and feel the rhythm. It is a beautiful song but it is also a poem. And it’s a tragic beautiful poem. Most likely because we know its history – the authentic story behind the poem. Man I love this stuff! I really do. Artistic expression, creative energy, poetry. I believe we need it to survive. And I think there are many ways of realizing your needs. Maybe you can even find poetry in Tv commercials or music videos – I don’t know. That’s not my scene, but maybe it’s yours. Anita said to me “there is value in everything” when we we talking about different film genres. Well there must be value in all types of poetry as well. What’s your scene? What inspires you? What makes you laugh, or cry? Do you dare open up? Find your inner poet man!

Saturday Night

I have been working and playing on this computer for most of the day, but it’s been kind of fun. My husband thinks I’m obsessed but whatever. I have an English group presentation due in a couple weeks so I have been compiling info and designing power points and stuff and it’s really fun! I just did Atwood’s bio, pretty boring and straight forward. But I put some colour into the slides so it’s funky. Right now I am drinking heady Australian red , rich and pure. It makes me a little high and a lot happy.  I hear my girl over the monitor, my husband is reading her a bed time story. She is now screeching like she has lost her best friend and we try our best not to run in and console. We’re getting better. Funny, she’s good as gold with the baby sitter. Humm… Ok, now my husband is worried I have a problem so I have to post and join him for the hockey game. Go Leafs.