"Coffee House Refiltered (the Sequel)"

Last night (May 30) in our church's basement. Summary:

Robin Harbron & moi: "We're Not Gonna Take It" (by Dee Snider of Twisted Sister)

Tim Lappala: Selections from his "A Fat White Man Sits on a Log and Cries"

Douglas Livingston Sr.: c. 10 of his poems

Peter Fergus-Moore: One of his poems and two of his short stories

Break for snacks

Moi: "Make You Feel My Love" (by Bob Dylan)
Sylvia Griffiths y yo: "Feed the Birds" (from "Mary Poppins")

George Armstrong (assisted by Angie & Becky): Extemporaneous talk on the dangers of eating pickles.

Michael Minor: The dagger scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH!! (featuring a real dagger)

Break for more snackies

Erica Bailey: Her entire catalogue (so far) of original songs

Brief break for more snackeroos.

Robin und ich: "Further On Up the Road" (by Joe Medwich Veasey & Don D. Robey)
"It Just Ain't Fair" (by RP 1987)
"Jesus" (by Lou Reed)
"Lord, Hear My Prayer" (Taize chant)

Roll credits (Thank you EVERYBODY -- everyone who participated,
everyone who attended. Thank you even to those who didn't attend --
it just wouldn't have been the same with you.)

Scored

I am one of the weakest players at Friday Night Hockey, but last night I managed to get one goal (assisted by Biggest Al Raman) and I assisted Al on one of his goals.

Woo hoo for me!

Two weeks ago I did get a hat trick -- but that was the night that Eric scored seven goals!

Gig

Oh yes I promised the entire WWW that I'd comment on last week's gig.

It was fine. The MC did a good job. Polite applause. Ate a muffin.

Road Trip!

Just got back last night from my trip with Cambrian Players to the annual Theatre Ontario Festival in Sault Ste. Marie. CP doesn't usually attend, because the location is typically too far away, but this year our Pres. Gabe wangled a special invitation for us, because the event was in the neighbourhood.

I went along to operate the huge sound board (using two out of 48 channels for our music and one more for the ajudicator's mike). Not much of a challenge actually, but it was fun to be there. Because the board is located at the back by the entrance, audience members spoke to me to give us tips in the intermission, to convey their great enjoyment of our play (Norm Foster's "Drinking Alone") and to compliment me on my hat (bought in Israel).

We won three prizes: Best Actress (Jesica Bouvier), an Ajudicator's Award to Don McMahon for his set painting and Best Overall Visual Performance, that is, a prize for everything except the sound! We were nominated in other categories as well, including Best Production. Bear in mind that all the other plays had won regional competitions in order to attend.

I realized that I really miss the days when Camp used to send us to Camping Conferences. Finances were tight in the most recent years and it wasn't always possible to send all of the fulltimers, if any. (To be fair, the E.D. did discuss this with us and ask us to find alternate less expensive professional development opportunities which the Camp would fund.)

I think God knows that I need this sort of thing from time to time and so has been providing by other means, such as a couple of years ago when I attended (sponsored by a local Christian couple) an IVCF Bible & Life Conference in Gimli MB and now this.

So this trip was a little like the crazy camping conferences I used to attend -- except that we didn't play camp games in the hotel lobby (pretending to be chimps etc.). But I can easily imagine theatre people doing that sort of thing anyway! It probably happens more after hours and I just went to bed too early.

As I told Gabe on the way back I enjoyed (and have been enjoying over the last 3 years with CP) being part of a functional team that actually meets its goal (producing plays well and staying in the black). Because my role is small and in the background, I can be fairly relaxed and simply do my bit -- observe from the others and learn, but not bear a lot of responsibility for the final outcome. The leaders of CP strike me as amazingly competent and committed and so I can just relax, trust them and fit in where I can.

.

Gig introduction

Oh okay the line formatting looks strange in preview but not necessarily in the actual post.

I got a phone call yesterday for a last minute brief gig today at a Health Workers conference. I'll tell you more after the weekend.

I was asked to write an introduction for myself for the MC to read. I am dreading a humourless MC. Actually that might work if s/he reads it verbatim deadpan. Worse would be a "funny" MC who decides to editorialize and ruin my masterpiece below over which I've just slaved for 10 or 12 minutes:

Richard Pepper was born approximately 30 years ago in 1959 in Winchester, England. Four years later he moved to Fort William in order to watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. His parents and siblings decided to accompany him, which was darned decent of them, I'd say.

After watching man land on the moon, he was understandably inspired to amalgamate Fort William with that other town north of here and name them "Pfort Arthuriam". Sadly, the name never did catch on.

However, his greatest claim to fame is that he single-handedly dissolved the Soviet Union. This is indeed a great claim. It is truly incredible.

Do you know that if you look at the word "claim" for a long time, it looks really weird?

Richard frequently sings songs into the CBC radio contest voice mail in a bid to exceed his quota of 15 minutes of fame &/or be discovered and eventually take over Rex Murphy's job.

So put your hands together and move them apart and then put them together again and then move them apart and then put them together again and move them apart and repeat according to taste for the song stylings of ... Richard Pepper.

Well, it looks as if I'm blogging

I just received a notice to change my password for the sgtpeppersarmy blog (to which Ive contributed nothing. Sorry, Shroom).

Then it appeared I could create my own. So I guess I will. I've been thinking about it anyway. So this will be all for now. Later.

Richard