JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Last night, I had the extraordinary experience of seeing my characters come to life in a stage reading. Now, as someone who studied and worked as an actress (about 800 years ago) I'm no stranger to stage readings, and I've seen my share of amateur ones in recent years as each of my children has participated in the Maine Young Playwrights Festival. But this one was a first for both the author participants and the Portland Stage Company, our city's professional (Equity) theater.
In conjunction with their latest production,
Arsenic and Old Lace, the PSC decided to have a readings-and-conversation night with five Maine mystery authors. The whole thing was kicked off and masterfully organized by our own Brenda Buchanan.
Amazingly, the crowd turned out. It was almost a full house! Now, the fact the theater put on a wine and beer reception with delicious Otto's pizza might have had something to do with it...
...But I think there were a lot of crime fiction lovers who would have come anyway.
The amazing cast of actors assembled on the stage to read from Brenda's
Quick Pivot,
Straw Man by Gerry Boyle,
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron,
One Was A Soldier (that's mine) and a suitably scary short story by Chris Holm.
I didn't get any pictures of the performances because I'm too darn polite to whip my phone out in the theater. But it was an impressive array of talent, both from the actors and from my fellow authors. It was interesting - none of the selections we chose (each author could submit up to three pieces for the director to review) were particularly...mysterious. All of them were character studies, with two or more people connecting - or not - for a moment. I swear, the excerpt from
The Poacher's Son could make an excellent one act play with very few changes.
Afterwards, we answered questions from the audience...
...on stage and off.
Fingers crossed, the PSC will be doing this event again. There are so many exceptional crime fiction writers in Maine, wouldn't it be great if all of us could get a turn in the limelight?
Many thanks to the wonderful actors who brought a part of
One Was A Soldier to life: Bess Welden as Anne Ellis,
Elizabeth Freeman as Clare Fergusson,
and Whip Hubley (who managed to convey a man wearing only a towel while still fully dressed) as Russ Van Alstyne.
Wow . . . congratulations! What a fantastic idea for a night at the theater. It’s an amazing concept, and it certainly sounds as if it was successful. The pictures are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt had to be exciting for the authors as well as for everyone in the audience. And that scene in Clare’s kitchen seems perfect for this sort of a presentation . . . with each of those actors looking perfect for their roles.
I’m curious about the scenes you chose: was this scene your first choice? What others did you suggest?
How lovely. I'm curious about who chose the scenes, too.
ReplyDeleteI had the honor of hearing my words similarly come to life last fall, with a staged reading of the scenes in my book between my 1888 midwife and John Greenleaf Whittier. The actors were in costume and the action was blocked out, with narration (written by someone else but read by me) to link the scenes. The event held in our historic Friends meetinghouse, which Whittier helped design, and the evening was a huge success.
That is exactly how I picture Ross! Amazing! Love this!
ReplyDeleteAnd what a completely brilliant idea. Wow.I I can't even imagine what that would feel like-- did it make you think about your book in a different way?
How long was each segment, Julia?
ReplyDeleteAnd talk a little bit about why things worked and what didn't… i'm so enchanted with this idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun Julia! Kudos to all of you, and to Brenda for the brainstorm! Hank, I think you meant Russ rather than Ross. Ross is the guy with the big red beard LOL
ReplyDeleteI heard about this event via Chris Holm and it just sounded like so much fun. I am so glad to hear that the final result was a success. I could easily see this idea having widespread potential - other states, Bouchercon, Malice.
ReplyDeleteKudos to Brenda, PSC, the performers, and the authors.
What a fabulous idea! I wish I could've been there to enjoy the reading of your book segement, Julia!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like it was SO MUCH FUN! Yes, much potential... Bouchercon!! (Reds??)
ReplyDeleteWish I'd been there. Kudoes, Brenda!
Actually, the good folks at Portland Stage Company hatched the idea. Last year they did a post-performance talk with Maine crime wrtiers during PSC's run of The Hound of The Baskervilles. This year they reached out with this idea of staged readings of our work during their run of Arsenic And Old Lace, and I was tasked merely with herding the cats.
ReplyDeleteWe are a tight bunch here in Maine, and everyone was excited for the opportunity to see our characters be brought to life on stage. I am hopeful this will become an annual event. There are so many terrific writers whose work should be showcased.
It was so cool! BTW, versatile actor Whip Hurley also read Joe Gale's part.
He did, yes! And he embodied Joe Gale perfectly too - in fact, I hadn't had a chance to read the playbill, and assumed one of the other men would have the part of Russ. Stage readings are a test of an actor's skill: can you become two very different characters with no makeup, costuming or props?
ReplyDeleteOne of the company, Ross Cowan, was both an annoyingly preppie artisinal goat cheese maker in Gerry Boyle's STRAW MAN, and an intense, melancholy young game warden in Paul Doiron's THE POACHER'S SON. His big change from one role to the next? Buttoning his flannel shirt.
Hank, the readings were around ten minutes each, and our brief for choosing scenes was pretty basic: two to three characters with mostly dialog. Mine was the only piece that needed a narrator, since everyone else writes in the first person.
ReplyDeleteBrenda was the person who suggested the scene from my book, where Clare's friend and parishioner discovers the chief of police wearing nothing but a towel in her kitchen on a Saturday morning. We sat down together and she helped me cut and shape my original writing into something more theater-friendly, getting rid of dialog tags, reactions, etc. Thanks, Brenda!!
Sounds delightful! Don't have the next one without me, please. I want to be in the audience and cheer loudly!
ReplyDeleteWow!!!! I'm going to be seeing Whip's face the next time I read (or re-read) Julia's or Brenda's books. What a fantastic evening that must have been! I am going to steal this idea and pass it on to our local writer's group. There are active theater groups in the area and wineries--the possibilities seem endless!
ReplyDeleteThe only downside to all this fun? Maine's just too darn far for an evening's drive!
What fun! And I agree with Hank. He totally looks like my vision of Russ!
ReplyDeleteWonderful idea, Julia. What a great experience to see your characters come to life.
ReplyDeleteI saved Mr. Hubley's pic to my file of potential characters, and noticed the file name is "WhipHubley_Rugged.jpg. Indeed.
How wonderful! I love live theater and this would have been an amazing event to attend.
ReplyDeleteJulia, what a fabulous experience. I would love to have been there. And I think it's amazing that Whip Hubley looks just like I imagine Russ:-)
ReplyDeleteJust chiming in to add that I, too reacted immediately to the photo of Whip Hubley. Like the rest, he is exactly how I have imagined Russ! (That must say something about how well Julia has painted him for us, right?)
ReplyDeleteI'm a lifelong theater lover and long ago actress, too, and I think this sounds delightful! Maybe the idea will catch on and I will get the chance to attend a similar night closer to home.
Julia, this is fantastic. What a treat to see your words come to life. At the same time, I have to ask if you were nervous to watch what would happen when you handed your characters over to other artists? Did it feel like an out of body experience to see the voices in your head become fully realized?
ReplyDeleteJulia, what a great experience!
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to see one of my children's books turned into a play in a big London theater last summer and it felt amazing! I kept thinking I write that!
Congrats! Sounds like a fun evening and an honor to be included. I would love to go to something like that.
ReplyDelete" Whip Hubley (who managed to convey a man wearing only a towel while still fully dressed) as Russ Van Alstyne."
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a testimonial!
Wasn't Whip Hubley in "Top Gun"?
ReplyDeleteDid you have difficulty choosing which scenes to submit to the director?
Julia, this event sounds like so much fun! I would love to attend something like it, and wouldn't it be great to do it for a category or two of nominated books at an event. I can imagine the best novel nominations being played out on stage at Bouchercon, too. Brenda, you must be quite the cat herder to get this all together. I love hearing about your part in this, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Whip, well he is a perfect Russ, and his name is just so cool.
I'm so bummed I couldn't go to this. We need a Reds get-together in Maine. I'd like be to share a glass of wine with you amazing people.
ReplyDeleteMarianne, maybe we can lure the rest of the Reds up here during the summemaybe we can lower the rest of the Reds up here during the summer.
ReplyDeleteIngrid, yes, Whip co-starred with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun. For me, making the selection was easy - I had run out of time (no surprise there) and Brenda and I sat down and hashed through some ideas together to come up with the one I finally submitted.
Evidently, I still have to work out the stutter my voice recognition software thinks I have when commenting from my phone...
ReplyDeleteI submitted two scenes for consideration. They chose one from my first Joe Gale book, Quick Pivot, a dialog-heavy meeting between crime beat newspaper reporter Joe Gale and a source. In the course of their interview Joe also hears poignant and personal facts about his hero/mentor/father figure, Paulie Finnegan.
ReplyDeleteThe key was to find a scene with strong dialog and a powerful theme, then trim out the words that are important for readers (descriptions of physical posture, facial expression, internal dialog) because that stuff slows down a stage reading. You have to trust the actors to supply it, and they sure did at Portland Stage last night.
The actors did a stellar job bringing our characters to life. Chris Holm's short story was the last of the five to be read. If you know Chris' work, you will not be surprised to hear it had very intense ending. Fabulous!
Having real actors was great, but I think this could be adapted with amateurs for events like Bouchercon, which I also will be attending this year. In that sort of venue, humorous scenes would be ideal (especially if the actors were able to play it straight, like professionals would.)
I'm sitting here thinking how fortunate Maine is to be the home of such talented writers and actors!
ReplyDeleteDeb Romano
Wow! How I wish I had been in the audience! You, Julia, and some of my other favorite Maine crime writers, Paul, Gerry, and Brenda, must have been thrilled to see your writing come to life. Kudos to PSC and Encore!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fabulous night! I am going to have to check out Whip. I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who did not see Top Gun.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julia, for the great write up. Now you've gotten my agent interested in the one-act play idea from THE POACHER'S SON. Portland Stage did a wonderful job, and it was such a treat to hear your excerpt, as well as Brenda's, Chris's and Gerry's.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny. At first I thought Bess Welden was Clare Ferguson! The actress playing Clare looks like Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the photos. I googled Whip Hubley and it looks like he did some movies too.