Wish me luck, guys.

     July 6th is the World Premiere of my second full-length play.  I'm directing as well as being the playwright.

     Heard a rough cut of the original song written for the play last night.  All the final tracks, drums, background music, vocals will be done today.  I wrote the lyrics.  Lot's of awesome guitar music (somewhat in the style of the lighter Pink Floyd pieces- yes, Pink Floyd)  The song is sad but there's something about the musicality that gives it an edge of hope.  Song is about a father mourning the death of his 15 year old son. 

    Got an early morning live radio interview with my leading man tomorrow morning and another TV appearance to promote my play.  The last peson that the entertainment guy interviewed was Maritn Short.

    Sondra

Thanks for the good wishes. 

70 of 90 seats for Opening Night are sold.  This totally blows me away.  This is  a brand new play and opening night is selling the best????

What an exciting time for you. Let us know it goes. The best of everything.

Linda

     Had a good dress rehearsal tonight.  A few technical glitches and some missed lines, and an early entrance but nothing too 'off base'.  We had a small audience of seniors from a continuing care facility who ablsoutely loved the play.  After the show, all the cast and I sat on the stairs at the front of the stage and signed all their programmes.  I was sitting next to my leading man and one sweet old lady asked- 'Is he your husband?'  I guess the close bond we've developed doing this play  shows.

Hey Guys!

    My opening night was awesome. Sold out like I said.  Received lots of praise and the dignitaries who were there were raving about the play and the performances.  It was the best night of my life, bar none!  Got two bouquets of flowers.  One from my husband and one from the cast.  Had to go up on stage and take the flowers from my leading man.  He made the most eloquent speech about the play and my directing.

   Got a touching card from my leading man that was very nice.  I gave a flower to all my cast-pink for my ladies- yellow for the men but a red rose to my leading man. Gave flowers to the crew as well.

    I'm still flying high and I doubt I will sleep at all tonight.

   Oh boy. 

Sondra

My first review from the executive board of the theatre company donating the theatre space for my use.

If you haven't already booked your tickets, do so, because this could be the sleeper that everyone will talk about.

My first high school drama teacher came to the show tonight.  He loved the play and commented on my ability to write brilliant natural dialogue. He especially loved how there is a pay off for stuff that happens in Act One. He's a professional actor now so who knows- he might just open some doors for me.  He's worked with a lot of pro comopanies in Toronto.

  Tonight I sold 6 copies of the CD of the original song that I wrote the lyrics for. The song is so awesome.  Lots of cool guitar, bass and drums very reminicesent of lighter 'Pink Floyd'. So if anybody wants to order a copy of the CD, let me know.  I have a Pay Pal account.

Hey,

     I sold out Saturday's performance as well.

Sondra

Hi Chris,

     I'm too rooted in CT ever get too big for you guys in the Green Room.  I'm getting complimetns of being so centred and humble. I don't know where that's coming from.

   I have to admit to you all that I'm having a hard time believing that this happening to me and that it's all real!  I honestly don't know how to handle all the compliments that I'm getting on my script and on my directing. I'm just not use to being the centre of attention and having people say good things about me.  Ithink that's why I make so many posts in here. I'm thinking, if I see it in print, it will be more real????

     I don't know how long, if at all, my play will be picked up by an Equity company.  There might be an independent production company interested in turning my script into a movie.  And I've had a chap volunteer to help jazz up my website so it will hit the right markets.  He mentioned having some Equity contats that might help

    We had a dress rehearsal tonight which I taped.  I got some awesome footage of the play.  Are any of you interested in a DVD of my play.  I'd be glad to send one to you.

     Let me know.

Sondra

Hi Tom,

     Thanks for your lovely words.  I think I will be on Cloud Nine for a bit.  I'm dreading the days ahead without my cast in my life.  I formed a very close bond with all of the cast and the crew. But one person in particualr and I have formed a close friendship and I will have extreme difficulty saying good-bye.  I will miss the cast and crew but this person will leave a void.   

 Any advice from you guys to get over the post-play-blues???

   Three of my cast members (the three leads)  have agreed to come back and help me with the development of play number three which I will be working on on my two week vacation up on a quiet, peaceful lake on Manitoulin Island.

Sondra

Congratulations!!!!

The traditional method:

Hey,

  There's no Vodka coolers there. And my leading man only drinks Corona.  None of that there either.

Sondra

My mistake; here you go:

POB,

    Awsome!  You are a witty and mischievious one, aren't you? Just like my leading man and the character  he plays.

    A footnote-  in the scene in my play in which the lead actor has been on a bender- he's drinking Corona on stage.  Actually apple juice.  He made a comment at our 'drinking place' last night that the real stuff is much better than the apple juice he's driniking on stage.  Cool thing is that the apple juice looks just like Corona on stage.

 Two more shows to go.

And the CD of the original song is starting to sell. My next step is to figure out how to get the local radio stations to play the CD. Going to be checking into that.

Hey POB,

      How do you get the photos on your post reply the way you did.  I got some pics I want to share with you guys?

Further update.  Going to be making a music video now of the original song for my play. I don't think this is ever going to end!  Yeah!!!

Wow!  Congratulations again!

When you post your message, up at the top is a button to "Add Image" - I think it's supposed to be a picture of a tree; it's the third button from the last in the bottom row.  Hit that, and paste in the URL of the picture you're linking to.  (If it's your own pics, you'll need to put them on Photobucket or Webshots or something first, so it's already on the Net.)  We'd love to see the pictures!

Just doin' a bit 'o braggin'

Here's some thoughts I received on the premiere of my play last month.

Sondra

PS- If anybody should be interested in reading the play, let me know.

Memory Shadows' Review

Sondra sees the goodness in people, that may be blocked by pain, or fear or anger.  Her subject matter is The Family and common things.
    She tackles large scenes with several people (not easy), builds the dramatic structures carefully, but with apparent ease, no
awkwardness.
    There is a real-ness to her dialogue. Sondra's characters speak
only when they have to, and what they say is unforced. While Sondra achieves a strong sense of the ominous that seems to come from
within the family, there is no doubt that she holds great love for all
her characters.
    As director, Sondra works with her cast to arrive at remarkable
performances from all, young, inexperienced children to very
experienced adults.

Brava!
David Fox

David's film & stage credits (just some of them- list is too long to include them all)

Theatre Passe Muraille: The Farm Show, 1837:The Farmer's Revolt, As Far as the Eye Can See, Studhorse Man, Les Maudits Anglais, Them Donnellys.

Blyth Festival: Quiet in the Land , Garrison's Garage

More recent theatre credits include the part of Angus in The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey , in the Theatre Passe Muraille production (1999), and in the national tour (2001/02); and of Ezra Pound in the 2001 Stratford Festival production of The Trials of Ezra Pound by Timothy Findley .

He is the recipient of a Sterling Award for his role in Paul Quarrington's The Invention of Poetry,

and of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for his role in the
1999 production of The Drawer Boy at Theatre Passe Muraille.

Film & TV-

"GreyOwl"

"The Saddest Music In The World"

"Road To Avonlea" TV series- recurring role

Hey,     

     The final tally is in and I made $5,000. to donate to my three charities.

     Needless to say, a lot of people-me included- were surprised at the amount of money I made. My original goal was to hopefully make $1,500 to $2,000. 

     My expenses were in the area of $750.00.  Everybody involved in the show did it on a strictly volunteer basis.