“I don’t like crooks, and even if I did, I wouldn’t like crooks that are stool-pigeons, and if I liked crooks that are stool-pigeons, I still wouldn’t like you.”

I hope you have all had a very festive start to your holidays.  Now that all the Christmas socializing is over, I get can to the real reason we have holidays -- watching old movies, reading, and working on the script I'm writing.  I've got everything set up, I think.  I've got Shakespeare's family introduced and his mother and father's unhappy marriage, and Shakespeare's relationship with the Lucy family, especially Lady Anne Lucy (a bit of romance there) and I've introduced Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's future wife, not the present day actress) to Will on the bridge late at night, and I've also had the travelling players arrive at town, with a young Christopher Marlowe in tow.  He plays the ladies' characters, which I think is a stroke of genius on my part!  (An old writing teacher once told me that when you think something is written really well, you should consider cutting it, because it's a sign you're showing off, but this bit with Christopher Marlowe is really good, I think.)

I read a little Anne Perry mystery, called A Christmas Homecoming, about a troupe of actors who go to an English country estate to put on a play written by the daughter of the rich guy who owns the house.  The play is a mess, but the actors and director figure out how to save it, because they know how theatre works.  I hope some of you will perform the same magic with "For My Name is Will"!  (Anne Perry is an interesting person herself.  She grew up in Australia and when she was a teenager, she had a very intense friendship with a girl her age.  When the girl's mother announced that she and her daughter were moving to South Africa, Anne Perry and her friend decided to kill the mother.  According to the evidence at the trial, they hit her 20 times with a stone they had placed along a path on which the three were walking, and both girls were convicted of murder, but they were children so I believe Anne Perry only served five years for the crime.  They made a movie of the event with Kate Winslet playing Anne Perry's character.)

Last night, after we got back from our third turkey dinner (!), I put on the movie, "The Thin Man", starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as the detective couple, Nick and Nora Charles.  I have never seen these movies, although they are classics -- based on the novels by Dashiell Hammett (who also wrote The Maltese Falcon).  I really enjoyed it -- Powell and Loy are great, wise-cracking, witty and playful and I loved the style and all the characters.  I think an actress named Ruth Channing plays the character who says the great line I started this thing with, and she says it with great gusto.  I wonder if Dashiell Hammett thought that was a really good line. . .

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We've been treated to another "snow day" and I've actually posted a picture from my walk in the park! (it's a Festivus miracle! {Seinfeld reference}).

 I met a man in the park this morning who said he'd moved here from Alberta in September and one of the reasons was to avoid the snow!  But he was quite positive about it and said that being in the park was like being in church, because it is so quiet and peaceful and you feel very closely connected to the beauty and power of the glorious world in which we live.  Daisy and I saw lots of beautiful things on our walk.  Flocks of gorgeous black and white Goldeneye ducks scooted along the smooth grey water and the trees are all laden with big gobs of thick white snow and all the people are bundled up and rosy cheeked and smiling.  Even people in their cars seemed friendlier, waving and shaking their heads in sympathy with us trudging along on the unshovelled sidewalks.  It is snowing heavily now and you can barely see across the water to the north shore.

I just wanted to send out my warmest wishes to the kids in the Drama Club for inviting me to the wrap party for Macbeth.  It was lots of fun and it was great to see so many of you and enjoy all the food and share some laughs and wipe the floor with all of you playing charades!  (Although I clearly need lessons in keeping up with popular music!  I listened to the original "Riders on the Storm" when I got home!)  If I can get "For My Name is Will" done over the holidays, we will have a little read through in January, so I can make edits and changes.

And to all of you, drama club or not, I wish you a very happy, safe holiday with all the things you like crammed into it and very few of the things you don't like (into every life, a little rain must fall, of course -- for example, I don't like vacuuming, but I have to do it and once it's done, it feels good to see no dog hair on the floor!)  Think of how lucky you are and be grateful for your good fortune.  Smile at people.  Give someone a compliment.  Help somebody out.  Have a laugh or two.  Be patient.  Get outside.  Happy holidays!

Spirit Week!

Have some fun this week for Spirit Week!

Monday -- Ugly Sweater
Tuesday -- Winterwear
Wednesday -- Whiteout
Thursday -- Dress your best (for New Year's Eve)
Friday -- Pyjamas

Bonus points for dressing up!  Bring cans for B Block -- that's the best spirit -- helping others!

Winter Wonderland

I hope you all had a chance to get out in the snow before it turns to slush!  If you don't want to play and frolic, you could always go next door or across the street and ask if the people need their walks shovelled.  Especially if it's an older person, or someone who's not physically capable of it.  Daisy and I did our walk this morning and even for us (we're a bit "long in the tooth {that means "older"} but still pretty fit, as is evidenced by my amazing performance on Friday in "Duck, duck, goose") it was rough going.  The roads and sidewalks were icy and slushy and really slippery and we actually cut our walk short, because it was so unpleasant.  Daisy doesn't like to get her feet cold (she's a very elegant lady) and her paws were widely splayed to get traction and after a while, she starts to lift one up to save it the sensation, and then sometimes, she just sits down and says (with her eyes), "I don't want to do this anymore".

I guess we will have to put up our tree today.  My youngest son is "champing at the bit for Christmas to arrive" (that's a line from "A Christmas Carol" which is a lovely story by the great Charles Dickens, who is credited with creating our modern Christmas traditions) and has been mentioning how many of our neighbours have their decorations up.  I like the decorations, but I wish someone else would put them up.  It's an enormous chore.

A friend of mine and I went to see "The Lady in the Van" on Friday night at the Port Moody Film Society.  It stars Maggie Smith (a great actor, who you probably know as Professor McGonagall, but who has created many great characters in her long career on stage, screen and television) as a homeless woman who convinces a playwright to let her move her van into his driveway and then lives there for fifteen years.  She is not a pleasant person and isn't grateful and they don't end up with one of these warm relationships, but he does care for her as she becomes more and more unable to care for herself.  I didn't love it, but I thought it was interesting and I liked that they didn't make her cute or wise or really appealing in any way.  She never said "thank you" even though the writer and his neighbours tried to help her in various ways.  I think that when you help someone, you can't expect to be thanked.  I feel like if I have the wherewithal to help, then it's because I'm lucky and the other person isn't and if I can give them something to make things easier, I should, and not with the expectation that they will give me something in return.

I mailed my packages to the people I send gifts to and that gives me a sense of accomplishment.  They will arrive before Christmas Day.  One of the people is my oldest friend in Calgary.  We have been friends for over fifty years!  We have had our ups and downs, of course, but it is an amazing relationship and I credit her with keeping it going.  She has the gift of friendship, I think, and has always been there for me -- through childhood and school and marriage and child birth and deaths of loved ones and heartache and happiness. It is a gift in itself to think that we have shared so much together (that's a cliche, but true!) and I always feel comforted to think that she remembers my two dear little parents -- one of the few people who do, anymore.

Well, I didn't mean for this to get sad, and I'm not sad, but I might be moving in that direction so I will sign off, and get the salt out for the driveway and haul out the Christmas decorations and see what I can accomplish.  Keep warm and see you all tomorrow!

The labour we delight in physics pain.

Oh, Shakespeare said it all, didn't he?

If you're thinking, "aw, come on, Ms. Kosar, I don't get this 'Shakespeare stuff' (it isn't "old English" -- it is considered modern English, although some of the words have changed their meanings in 500 years and some of it is so dense metaphorically that it challenges our intellect to understand {and challenging our intellects is good for us}), I'll explain that the line (from Macbeth, of course) means that if we love doing something, then all the challenges and difficulties we face when doing it are lessened.  I said to one of you last night that the play (and all the plays we do) was a "labour of love" and he said, "then maybe it isn't 'labour'."  It IS labour, because we all worked so hard and for quite a long time, but it is worth it when you do good work.

George Bernard Shaw (another great playwright, but no Shakespeare, of course) said, "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."  I know that performing Shakespeare is a mighty purpose and that lots of us feel thoroughly worn out this morning, and I hope all of you feel as proud as I do of what we did.

I feel a bit sad this morning, because the show is over, but it is a lovely day and the water in the inlet is as smooth as glass and the little buffleheads (what a pretty little bird they are!) are popping up after diving for tasty morsels.  We accomplished great things and I know all of you gave your best to the play and that is wonderful.  Thank you so much for the flowers and the sparkly card with all your kind thoughts.

Enjoy your long weekend, especially Monday, which is a great day for a Professional Day.  Someday soon, we will have a little get together in the theatre for lunch and pat ourselves on the back for all our achievements.  Stay tuned.

Journal for December 2

All classes:

Write about the play.  What did you think of it?  Choose one aspect of the production and write about it in detail.  You can select a performance, the set, the music, the costumes,  a particular scene or anything else that you remember.  Provide details.  Don't just say "I liked it" or "I hated it".  If you didn't see the play, there is still one performance left this evening at 7.  It is a wonderful opportunity to see a great production of a classic play for a very low price!

I am so proud of everyone involved in the show.  It was a difficult task to put it all together, as it always is, but it has turned out beautifully and everyone has exceeded my expectations.