I’m a terrible procrastinator. Which means that I’m a really good one. Anyone who knows me, knows that I put things off. Especially writing projects. Since January, I’ve been meaning to write the next draft of my play Out to the Folks, do a quick update and polish of The Lost Years because we’re thinking…
It was the first day of classes in Grade Four and Mrs. Korb asked John Hazel and me to stand up. She wanted us to be “buddies” with the new kid, George Snider. I turned and looked over to the red-faced kid with the bowl hair cut and big teeth. To be fair, he looked…
Sometimes we set a goal for ourselves and we don’t quite make it. Maybe we don’t come anywhere near reaching it. Do we give up? If it’s a worthy goal, you carry on. Or start over. Fall down three times and get up four times. It’s the getting up and retrying or starting over that…
Just do it. Such simple advice, yet so easy to ignore. I’ve only written 5 blog posts in almost two years. It’s not because of a lack of things to write about. Like most writers, I have tons of ideas. But getting the ideas onto the page (or screen) is the challenge. It’s frustrating because…
What is the time frame to get over the loss of someone you love? Is there a point where you say it doesn’t hurt anymore? My brother passed away 27 years ago; he was only 22 years old. I often think of the life he missed out living; so many things he never got to…
This was the first month that I was able to stay on track for the Genius Project in a long time. The key to doing it was taking baby steps and focusing on the process instead of the product. In terms of overall time, this was my best month so far with 43.75 hours on…
I remember the first time I tasted jalapeno peppers. My father and I were making tacos and I had bought some canned jalapenos. The hottest thing I had eaten before this was banana peppers. I opened the can and stared at the murky brine dotted with circles of orange oil. I picked out a pepper…
The currency of a Fringe Festival is word of mouth. And reviews of shows are what get carried by word of mouth. Tom Mackan is a familiar presence in the Hamilton area theatre scene being a well known director, actor, reviewer and general encourager of Theatre. He won the Theatre Ontario Maggie Basset Award in…
When you rehearse a play, you spend weeks with the same people going over the script, learning lines and testing out blocking. It is an insular experience and after a while, it is easy to feel that you don’t have an objective view about the piece that you are working on. Something is missing… You…
The 2014 Hamilton Fringe Festival is almost upon us! It opens a week from today on July 17, 2014. There will be some great theatre to be seen and some not-so-great theatre to be seen… or not-seen. But the Fringe is an important part of the theatrical environment in any city and Hamilton is lucky…
peter gruner 