Archives for November 2015

The joys of editing—and getting thanked for it

editing

When I write private projects, I have editing colleagues check it over. It’s amazing how much they find. It’s true: everybody needs a good editor. Even editors do.

Full disclosure: this post is essentially an ad for my substantive editing services. You’ve been warned. 🙂 But, you know, read it anyway; you never know when you’re going to need a good editor.

Okay, here goes.

I’m not one of those guys who gets all self-effacing when I’m praised. You will never hear me say, “I’m so humbled to be included in this list of nominees”

I love being nominated for and winning prizes.

And, when the authors whose work I edit thank me, I feel both relieved and celebratory. After all, editing somebody’s book is a very intimate thing to do. And it’s a big deal. [Read more…]

Being reborn the Radix way

These aren't the babies I met on the last night of Radix Theatre's TBD, but I am happy to meet these babies—or any babies—any time.

These aren’t the babies I met on the last night of Radix Theatre’s TBD, but I am happy to meet these babies—or any babies—any time.

This is another note about my experience of Radix Theatre’s TBD, which was inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

It’s over now, but it was an immersive theatrical experience in which participants were guided through an imaginary process of dying, negotiating the afterlife, and being reborn.

I was reborn in the back of a rented van that was parked near my gym. That’s a story in itself. [Read more…]

I was dead for 17 days and I have been reborn for 2

TBD, Radix Theatre, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Stanley Park

This isn’t the stretch of seawall that I walked during TBD, but it captures the feeling.

I really like this dying thing.

I’ve been participating in TBD, Radix Theatre’s immersive theatrical experience. It’s based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is all about guiding the soul through death to rebirth.  [Read more…]

Get yourself a writing mentor through Vancouver Manuscript Initiative

Vancouver Manuscript Initiative, Karen Tulchinsky

Karen Tulchinsky is one of the accomplished mentors who could help you to hone your craft.

Hey writers.

Through a program called Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, you can get yourself a personal mentor.

And the mentors are pretty great. They include: Karen X. Tulchinsky (screenplays), Claudia Casper (novels), and Shaena Lambert (novels and short stories).

The deadline for applications is November 17. Here’s the URL: http://vancouvermanuscriptintensive.com. Get on it!

Heather Redfern: yay!

Heather Redfern, the Cultch

Vancouverites are lucky that Heather Redfern is at the Cultch

I want to give a shout-out to Heather Redfern, the executive director at the Cultch.

Already, this fall, I’ve seen three remarkable shows in Cultch venues.

The Australian acrobats who performed A Simple Space at the York reminded me of the wild joy of being in a body. Their work was like a deep, fresh kiss.  [Read more…]

Cock and Nirbhaya provide vastly different experiences

Cock, Rumble Theatre, Performance Works

In Cock, W (Donna Soares, L), and M (Shawn Macdonald, R) fight over John (Nadeem Phillip)

I’ve got two very different shows to recommend this week.

Mike Bartlett’s Cock is a comedy about an existential crisis of sexual identity. John has been living with M, an older man, but falls in love—much to his surprise—with W, a woman. John can’t choose, so he keeps saying “yes” to everybody.

To make M feel better, John says that W is “manly”, which leads to a running gag in which which M refers to W’s Yeti-like masculinity.

Duncan Fraser’s slyly understated take on F, M’s father, is a highlight of this Rumble Theatre production. (Sorry. When I first posted this, I got my Ws and Fs mixed up.)

Cock runs until November 8.

Nirbhaya, the Cultch, York Theatre

Rusher Kabir and Sneha Jawale share their stories of gender-based violence in Nirbhaya. Ankur Vikal helps to tell the stories.

At the York Theatre, until November 14,  you can have a completely different experience with Nirbhaya, which was inspired by the 2012 gang rape and torture of Jyoti Singh Pandey in South Delhi. Two weeks after the attack, Pandey died of her injuries.

Nirbhaya tells her story. Four of the women in the cast also tell the true stories of how they themselves were victims of gender-based violence.

The material is horrific and the telling is artful. Nirbhaya is a milestone, a show that people will refer to for years.

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