Waxwings

I never really believed in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, though the idea of them had a certain magic for me as a child. As a parent, I have enjoyed playing out these bits of theatre to mark the turning seasons, but even the magic by proxy of sharing them with my children has faded as they have grown older. And yet when the waxwings come, it feels like the arrival of some seasonal spirit: a visitation and a benediction. I never know when they will come, or even for sure if they will. The crabapple tree stands through the winter with its dark red fruit softening in the cold, untouched. Then one day, late in the winter, when other sources of food have grown scarce, the waxwings arrive. This year the first I knew of it was a shadow darting across the bathroom curtain, then another, and another. I pulled the cloth aside and saw them all over and around the tree, and my heart lifted. Some were perched here and there on the branches, pecking at the fruit. Some were down on the snow, eating the crabapples that others had knocked loose. Waxwings are lovely, sleek birds, delicately coloured. They fly gracefully, seeming to slide on the air. They are dignified rather than noisy for the most part, although I witnessed a brief dispute over a favoured perch on one of the times that day that I came to a window to watch them. I was grateful for their visit, and took the time to enjoy it, knowing that they would soon be gone, not to return until next year.

Playwriting Update

I posted in mid-February about the 28 Plays Later challenge that I was trying out. I think part of the reason I decided to write a post about it was that I felt I was losing enthusiasm a bit and hoped that putting my reasons for taking part into words might help. Well, the fact is that it didn't really. Although the challenges that followed did take me to some interesting places, on the whole I found that my interest level continued to drop, and in the end I only got through the first 24 of the 28 challenges. I would still highly recommend 28 Plays Later: it was wonderful in a lot of ways. I might even try it again myself another year.

So, what about results? I am still writing, but not as much as while I was doing the challenge. I think it has helped a bit to get me into writing mode, but it did not magically cure all my writer's block issues. (Darn!) I haven't done any more scriptwriting since finishing, having felt more inclined to get back to fiction and poetry, so I can't say yet whether it has helped with that.

One thing I found interesting was that I ended up writing several plays that involved clowns or physical comedy of some sort. I'm not sure if this is the influence of Deadmonton lingering on, since I spent quite a few hours there last fall as various creepy clown characters. I didn't write anything I would describe as horror, though: funny that the clowning would rub off more than the creepiness.

Mentioning Deadmonton sort of leads into the other thing I wanted to mention. Another idea I had for what might help me with scriptwriting was to get involved with some more theatre projects, preferably ones with people who knew what they were doing, as opposed to things I organized myself. So, when Emily Pole, one of the other Deadmonton actors, posted that she was holding auditions for a couple one act plays that she was going to direct for St. Albert Dinner Theatre, I decided to put my name in. The result is that I have got a part in a really fun little farce set in a 1930s boarding house, called 'A Mad Breakfast'. We're just starting to rehearse, and so far I'm enjoying being a part of this group very much.

Poetry Incoming. . .

My narrative poem, 'The King in Red' is going to be a part of the upcoming 'Alice Unbound' anthology from Exile Editions. Here is a link to the announcement from the editor, Collen Anderson, who truly went above and beyond the call of duty in working with me on my submission:

https://colleenanderson.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/release-of-alice-unbound-beyond-wonderland/

I also expect my poem, "Cleft" to appear soon on the waxpoetryart website, after it was selected in their Canada Poetry Contest.