Mapping the Making 2

Poet and Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz says that poetry "takes you from silence to silence […]. It is what happens between the words that matters." In theatre, the artists work so that the silence after the curtain closes is more alive than the silence when the lights went down. But what of the silence of a writer and a blank page? How do we get from the seed of a new idea to dynamic performance? Tim Carlson and Jeremy Waller have shared some insights on what leads them forward in their writing.

Jeremy Waller

Jeremy Waller is a writer and director, and Artistic Director of Craning Neck Theatre. He also freelances as a Sound and Set Designer, Technical Director and Production Manager. Recent directing credits include, Biographies Of The Dead And Dying (Craning Neck/Machine Fair) and the Secret Love Life Of Ophelia (ABC Productions, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton), The Dark Between (Craning Neck Theatre), and The Absurdessy (Green Leaf Circus). Most recently, he directed Trunk at Club PuSh, co-produced by Craning Neck Theatre and Theate Conspiracy, where he is artist-in-residence. He is working on a new play Jo Speechly's Lost Decade with the support of PTC.

Jo Speechly's Lost Decade focuses on the collision between Jo Speechly, a reclusive artist; her dying mother, Elen; Jo's old friend Gwydion, who has a hidden agenda to publicize her work; and Jo's lover, Stephen, whose physical and spiritual presence permeates Jo's un-exhibited but prolific photographic oeuvre.

PTC: What music inspires you in the writing of this piece?

Jeremy: I Have to say that no particular music is currently inspiring this piece, other than the imagined sound of the play of minerals in different bodies of water. And the sound of voices on a reel to reel tape recorder.

PTC: Tell us about your main character.

Jeremy: Jo Speechly is a learned recluse in her mid-forties. She is seeking the end of an hypnotic artistic process using the documents/material of previous generations of her family. Creating in a vacuum, having turned away from the art world which once brought her relative fame, her privacy is about to be invaded by the conflicting desires of her want-to-be biographer, her over-protective mother, and a former lover.

Tim Carlson

Tim Carlson is the artistic producer of Theatre Conspiracy in Vancouver, BC. His plays include: Omniscience (Vancouver, Berlin, Magdeberg, Lisbon, Chicago; published by Talonbooks 2007); Diplomacy (Vancouver, Talonbooks 2009), Live from a Bush of Ghosts (PuSh Festival, 2009), the one-act newsroom comedies Night Desk (2001) and The Chronicle has Hart (2000) — and a full-length comedy A Liar’s Guide to Non-fiction (Vancouver Playhouse reading, 2010). As a dramaturg he is collaborating with Berlin-based Rimini Protokol1 on Best Before (PuSh Festival / Cultch 2010, touring to 15 Canadian, U.S. and European cities 2010). As co-curator and co-producer he collaborated with the PuSh Festival in creating the inaugural Club PuSh series in 2009. He is creating a new work, Extraction, with Theatre Conspiracy, while continuing development of Nine Tenths with the support of PTC.

Tim Carlson's Nine Tenths has received two PTC workshops to date. Tim is engaged in rewrites over the winter and will return to the workshop table in May. Nine Tenths follows the development of a play, also titled Nine Tenths. Early drafts followed the interpersonal relationships of the playwrights, director and two actors over 3 months. How and why we stay in relationships - should we settle for the nine-tenths that work, or keep searching for the missing one-tenth? - formed the core question both inside and outside the rehearsal hall. Tim has developed the piece further while not on duty at Club PuSh, and it has now become a two-hander.

PTC: What music inspires you in the writing of this piece?

Tim: I turned up the volume on my recent playlist this morning and thought about the songs that might be working on me indirectly. Imagine a mashup of:

Luna's Tiger Lily Girl ("sweet obscenity / bring her back to me / lost in her perfume / think I'm going to sue") Here's Luna playing it at Zulu Records in Vancouver in 2009

Bob Dylan's Love Sick (I see lovers in the meadow / I see silhouettes in the window / I watch them til they're gone and they leave me hanging on / to a shadow" )

Tom Waits' Kiss Me ("I won't believe that our love's a mystery / I won't believe our love's a sin / I want you to kiss me like a stranger once again)

PTC: Tell us briefly about your main character.

Tim: There are two. Nine Tenths is an even-handed two-hander. We follow an Actor and an Actress from the first day of rehearsal through to opening night, developing their roles in a relationship play titled Nine Tenths. We see only one scene from the play, a breakup scene, as it morphs through the rehearsal process, influenced by the past of the Actor and Actress as well as the personal and professional chemistry that builds between them. One of them is desperate for solitude and disconnection; the other hungry for intimacy and sexual connection.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more updates from our Associates as they delve deeper into their creative process.

Emily Kedar, Dramaturgical Intern