What did the role of playwright involve for you? I wrote this play during the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s 2011 24 Hour Playwriting Competition. After putting it aside for awhile and then doing some tweaking to it over the summer, I submitted it for consideration to Walterdale’s “From Cradle to Stage” competition. The wonderful folks there decided it was worthy to be included in their festival. The amazing and talented Tracy Carroll must drawn the short straw because she got stuck working with me as my dramaturge (No, she didn't get stuck - she CHOSE you, Dion!). Tracy helped me push the development of the characters and the conflict of the play to new levels. This play has really become what it is thanks to her guidance and expertise. Which means, of course, if people don’t like it, then it was absolutely perfect before I met her. Really, you would have liked it way better before. Seriously though, Tracy guided the subsequent drafts that I wrote of this play from something raw into something worth producing. I want to sincerely thank Tracy for her patience and willingness to share her knowledge.
What is your background in theatre? training? shows? with Walterdale? I am a writer and a storyteller, although it is only with pushing from my super supportive wife that I have recently started to write again after not doing so since childhood. I love watching live theatre but have never been involved in it other than as an audience member. Apocalypse, Saskatchewan is the first play that I have written and I am extremely proud of it. I am looking forward to hearing the actors say the words that I have written and seeing them act out the things I have dreamt up. My hopes for this play are that someone out there laughs at the jokes and that the audience finds the story funny (not just absurd). If this happens, I will be the happiest person in the room. And hopefully this is the beginning of a long relationship between myself and the theatre.
What is the biggest challenge with working on a New Work? The most exciting thing? The biggest challenge for me has been overcoming the doubts I have had about whether the ideas I am putting down actually make any sense to anyone other than me. The most exciting thing has been finding out that not only do they make sense, but there are people who actually get my sense of humour and find it funny.
What was your inspiration/source material for the play you wrote? Has the work changed much through the process? This play is based on the true story of a time when zombies attacked a small town in Saskatchewan. Of course, I had to change the location and names of those involved and I added the part about zombies attacking a small town in Saskatchewan, but other than that, it is essentially a true story. By true, I mean there are retired guys like Clifford, Bill, and Charlie sitting in coffee shops in small towns all over Saskatchewan using their free time to solve all the world’s problems. And supporting them are the very patience rural women that wait on them at home and in town. These women do their best to smile and grit their teeth before going home to a glass of wine (or a shot of whiskey) and 3 hours of housekeeping.
I personally know all of the characters in this story. They are not anyone specific but an amalgamation of people I have been privileged enough to meet and interact with during my times in rural Saskatchewan. The zombies are pure imagination, in more ways than one.
I wanted to write a story about the tedium of doing the same thing day in and day out and what could possible happen to your mind with that kind of lack of stimulation. I also wanted to write a story that was distinctly about rural Saskatchewan and the things that occur in daily life, whether it is talking about the Riders, playing VLT’s, complaining about the government and the young people, or spending time at the bar, which is the only business in most small towns.
The play has changed a great deal, especially since I have had the privilege to begin working with Tracy. The characters have grown into their individual personalities and this has helped make their predicament that much more intense (and funny). That said, even through the growth of the characters and increase in the action and conflict, the basic story has remained the same. It is about the power of what three old guys sitting in a small town coffee shop can accomplish… even if it doesn’t need to be accomplished.
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