Tag Archives: Playwright

Writer, actor: Bob Martin

Bob Martin interview, performers podcast

For over three decades, Tony Award-winner Bob Martin has worked as an actor and writer. Early in his career, Martin was directing for Second City in Toronto. He’s also written for TV, with the Chicago Tribune calling “Slings and Arrows” “one of the most loving satires to have ever graced television.” He ‘s best known for writing and starring in the hilarious “The Drowsy Chaperone,” for which Martin won the 2006 Tony Award for “Best Book of a Musical.”

His most recent Broadway show, “The Prom,” received 7 Tony Award nominations.
In this episode we talk about:

How the revision process is crucial to a great script.
Working with Broadway’s best comic actors on “The Prom.

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Adapting “The Princess Bride” and “Night at the Museum” for Broadway.
The feelings that Martin experiences when he watches a performance of “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

SHOW NOTES
Bob Martin’s website
Bob Martin on Twitter
The Prom website
The Prom on Instagram

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Mark Crawford: Playwright, Actor

Mark Crawford is a playwright and actor.

His play “The Birds and the Bees,” which premiered in 2016 at the Blyth Festival and quickly became one of the most-produced Canadian plays of the decade, is now on stage at the Huron Country Playhouse II, running until Sept. 1, 2018.

In our interview we discuss the inspiration for writing the play and how working with actors in the rehearsals helped him “find the funny.”

Crawford, who grew up on a farm in Glencoe, ON. says that he didn’t watch much television in his youth, but has many fond memories of attending theatre at the Huron Country Playhouse.

As well as sharing the secrets behind his writing process, Crawford acknowledges the impact of production budgets on his artistic process.

He shares one of the best ever audition stories that changed his life but not in the way you’d think.

We discuss how he created his first play and the very first time he did a table read with actors.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markjdcrawford

SHOWNOTES
Mark’s literary agent: Marquis Literary:
Ontraio Arts Council – Grants
Podcast with Nora McLellan
Mark’s other plays currently on stage:
“Bed and Breakfast” at Soulpepper until September 2.
“The New Canadian Curling Club” has been extended at the Blyth Festival, Sept. 18 – 21

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Gil Garratt, director, actor, artistic director

Gil Garratt is the artistic director of the Blyth Festival.

In the podcast we discuss the first time Garratt auditioned for the Blyth Festival. The director Paul Thompson invited Garratt to meet a a coffee shop, but the audition took place at a surprising location miles away. It was an audition unlike any other, one that Garratt will never forget.

Garratt shares his progressive thoughts on the Canadian dramaturgical and development process, adding that working on comedies can be the most divisive of all genres. “I have witnessed, in the rehearsal of comedy, more relationships destroyed, friendships obliterated over the course of the comedy, than I have working in tragedy.”

We also delve into Garrat’s development work, examining the process behind bringing Mark Crawford’s hit comedy “The Birds and The Bees” to the stage.

Since debuting at The Blyth Festival “The Birds and the Bees” has gone on to be performed at several theatres across Canada.

Garratt graduated from the National Theatre School’s Playwriting Program and holds an Honours BA from the University of Waterloo, and an MA from the University of Guelph.

Show Notes
The Blyth Festival
“The Birds and the Bees” at Victoria Plahouse Petrolia.
New York Times – The Pigeon King and the Ponzi Scheme That Shook Canada

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