BACK TO THE BLOG

I know it’s been a long, long while since I last posted anything on my 2wp blog site. This is not because nothing has been going on but rather the opposite.  In fact, all too much.

At the end of July we tootled merrily off to the Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada (SC-CC) Conference – a grand and glorious celebration of twenty years of dreaming and scheming, building and achieving, held in Montreal.  We came back to the news that I had a cancer diagnosis that required immediate attention.  Dealing with treatment has consumed most of my time and energy since.  Now we are in a period of respite. We don’t know what the future holds but we do know we have a chance to get back to our normal life again.  That means putting 2wp high on the list of things to do once more.

The first show of the season – The Wind and the Moon: Tales of Power and Passion by Stéphanie Bénéteau -- has been and gone, delighting audiences with its elegance and wit.  Also over is 2wp’s exciting contribution to Naked Narrative – the Ottawa Storytelling Festival, 2012 .  To my regret, I missed all of that.

I am thrilled to bits to think I won’t be missing any more.  Next up is Jan Gregory’s show, Ask No Questions: Family Secrets . This past weekend she was with us, here at the lake, working on the script. Jennifer and I knew this was a story we wanted to help grow when we heard part of it at the SC-CC Conference.  We approached Jan very soon after that.

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies,” is something I heard often, growing up in England.  England is also where Jan comes from and as we sat around our kitchen table talking our way through much of Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday I recognized a great deal in the quirks of human behaviour that shaped her youth.

But what a tale hers is – wider and deeper than I could ever have imagined, stretching through generations, bringing with it histories that could not be mentioned; silences that held the family entrapped. Layers upon layers were uncovered there, under our roof.  Births, marriages, deaths – the big, big moments came welling up  to find their place in the story’s artistic arc.

Crucial to it all is the fact that Jan is a fine, fine writer.  Even from what she has set down so far, I feel I have lived in her family’s home with her.  I have sat with her at the top of the stairs listening to the conversations of anguished adults – conversations she wasn’t supposed to hear.  I too have been held captive by the caution, “We won’t talk about this, now will we?” “We won’t tell about what happened today.”

Jan will return for further work with us in December but already we are aware that Ask No Questions is truly going to offer 2wp audiences something special; something they absolutely will not want to miss.

Dates for Ask No Questions are : Perth -- February 7; Burnstown -- February 8 ; Peterborough --February 9 ; Wakefield -- February 10.  Details at: http:// http://2wp.ca/12-13-season-venues/ Mark your calendars now.

And what of our lakeside world?  Wonder of wonders, we woke up this morning to find it had snowed overnight.  Not much but enough to change the world.  Now the sky is blue and everything sparkles.  I am reminded how beautiful winter is and how much I love it.  Indeed and indeed, I am glad to be writing.   I send forth good wishes to all.

Jan Gregory. Coming to 2wp in the New Year