Meet Kent and Cecilia Williams.  They’ve been friends for years.  Last November they came to my production of ANIMAL at the Alumnae Theatre.  I recently had a talk with them regarding the play and the re-write I was undertaking.   Kent and Cecilia are not in the creative arts field (although Kent is a great singer), but they have been supportive of my work.   Kent’s exact words to me after seeing ANIMAL:  “I’m exhausted”.   That didn’t mean he didn’t like the show, but that there was so much information to absorb (and very few laughs in-between) that the tone of the play became too heavy and unrelenting.  Others have told me they were reverted, but they shared similar type feelings that the play overwhelmed them.  That was kind of the point, but perhaps I took it too far.  It’s a tricky balance.

I want people to be dramatically affected, but I don’t want them to feel exhausted (or even triggered).  My sense is the main character of Raina Shepherd (who suffers from mental illness) starts too manic, too oppressive from the very start and as a result, in terms of her dramatic arc, there is no where for her to go.   Most felt sorry for Raina and what she was experiencing, but if I want more empathy for her (and a broader audience for this play) there needs to be less mania and more levity in this family’s complicated journey.  Audiences like the funny and they will listen more attentively when something dramatic/tragic occurs.

It has indeed been a “long day’s journey into animal” (which is a play on words from the great Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey Into Night).  I have begun another re-write….and up to this point, it has been an arduous, slow process as I contemplate how this new version will write itself.  It will retain some of the same scenes, but some plot points will be cut, the tone will be softened and the story will shift throughout.

My one-act play AFTER ALEX premiered at the Guelph Little Theatre’s Ward One Acts at the beginning of July.  Here’s a photo of three of the four cast members, along with director Rosalind Slater.

From Left to Right: Sarah Robertson, Rosalind Slater (director), Cameron Baldwin, Susan Cudahy

I went to see the play opening night and it was a treat watching my words come to life.  I did not know what to expect as I was not involved with any aspect of putting the play together.  I want to compliment the cast/crew and thank Ward One Acts for including me in their festival.  AFTER ALEX is about Gloria Luca who is forced to reflect upon the life she’s lived and the life she imagined after a confrontation with her daughter Alex whom she accuses of being selfish and irresponsible because of her plans to drop out of school and sail around the world.

Let me end with a quote by the writer William Faulkner, about the fears of writing: