Update #2

The Giant’s Garden

A Great Big Musical For The Whole Family

Behind The Scenes Report #2

PREPARE YOURSELF!

THE GIANT IS GETTING CLOSER!

In just 67 days, audiences will get their first glimpse at the Giant. In this newsletter is a little information about Giants, and a sample of script and lyrics from the show so you can get a sense of our Giant and his familial issues! Also get your first glimpse at the authors of the show and find out about the process of going into studio to record the demo CD for future producers.

GIANTS IN GENERAL

According to the dictionary a GIANT is defined as a man (or woman) of very great height and size. They are known to have superhuman strength and physical proportions, a long lifespan, and thus a great deal of knowledge. Our modern perception of giants often see them as stupid and violent monsters, frequently said to eat humans, and especially children. However not all giants are alike! Indeed some are merely misunderstood creatures who if treated kindly can be helpful and friendly.

The Giant in our tale is indeed a man of large size, but his problems with his relatives (particularly his cousin the Cornish Ogre) could certainly be found in even normal sized families.

The following excerpt from the script has Giant singing his tale of woe. For those of you who have ever had company that overstayed their welcome, you may recognize some of their traits in our loveable, but highly confused giant.

SUMMER

Well then - tell me. How was your vacation?

GIANT

Wonderful. It was wonder … No; wait a minute. Wonderful? Is that the word? No, not wonderful. TERRIBLE. That's it. It was terrible. I went all that way and what do I have to show for it? Hurt feelin's and a BROKEN TEACUP!

GIANT SINGS IN A ROBUST VOICE

You think he'd be happy

That I'd come to see

The damp little cave

Where he'd come to be

After all these years

He'd never come to me.

So …

I wents

To visit

The Ogre.

(While GIANT sings, the children begin to sneak out of the garden behind his back.)

My dear-est cousin

So I thought of he

As I traveled miles

Over hill to sea

Stubbing toe on stone

Scraping shin on tree

I suffered

To gets to

The Ogre.

And what did I find

When I got to he?

A grateful beast

Who was pleased to see

That I'd put me out

Just to visit he?

No!

I found

An Ogre.

He sits in his cave

All littered with bone

With a body gone to rubble

And a heart of stone

So I says to the Ogre

"You sure have grown!"

"Go Away!"

Says

That Ogre.

(Spoken) Go Away! Says that Ogre?

We're flesh and blood

The Ogre and me

So I sats me down

On a stump of tree

And I says to him

"You're family."

"You'll put me up

You Ogre!"

So I stayed for a year

Or maybe it was four

I used his bed

He got to sleep on the floor

But the thing about the Ogre

He's a terrible bore

I started

To hates

The Ogre

He didn't want to take me

To where I'd like to be

High upon the mountain

Or down beside the sea

With my pail and shovel

And my cuppa tea

No, he didn't want to come along with me.

No he didn't want to come along with me.

Because he was my cousin

I stayed a few more years

True I ate up all his jellies

And I drank up all his beers

But it seemed he needed cheering

Cause he was constantly in tears

"Go Back Home!"

Says

The Ogre

Well I ain't no fool

I could see right thru

What the Ogre meant

He wanted me to do

Was to stick around

Another year or two

So I says

"I'll stays with ya

Ogre"

(GIANT now gets up and moves in front of the gate blocking any possible escape by OSCAR and CONSTANCE who are still hidden in the bushes.)

(Spoken) His reverse psycho-whatsits wasn't foolin' me. He was lonely!

Another year went by

And suddenly one day

The Ogre he got angry

Slammed his fist upon my tray

And my tea cup it got busted

Nothin' left but bits o' clay

Well, I'd had it

With

That Ogre.

So I packed up my bags

And my shovel and my pail

And I turned my back

And I headed down the trail

Oh I heard him cry

But to no avail

I won'ts

Go back

To see that Ogre.

My finest years

Did I give to he

Then he broke the only teacup

My granny gave to me

So back to my garden

I does flee

Nevermore

To see

The Ogre.

SUMMER

Did it ever occur to you that maybe he didn't want a visitor? And for seven years - don't you think you were being a bit … selfish?

GIANT

Me? Selfish? Ya've missed the whole point, Summer. It's the Ogre who was bein' selfish. I'm certain of it, just as I'm certain that my red bag's sittin' right there. (pause) Wait a minute, I don't have a red bag. That's not my bag. Summer: what's "not-my-bag" doin' in my garden where only "my-bag" - if I had one, which I don't - should be? And where "not-my-bag" is means "not-me" has been here; and by the looks of this pretty red bag, I'd have to say this "not-me" IS A CHILD! SUMMER … has children been in my garden?

About The Authors

Peter Fenton (book and lyrics) is a scientist by day and an artist by night. He has written poetry his entire life. He has always been interested in theatre and wrote his first play Relatively Speaking in 2000. It was produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Peter's full time profession is as a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (where he has worked for the past 25 years). He completes his work on artistic projects on weekends, evenings and days off. This is Peter's first collaboration on a musical.

Scott White (book, lyrics, music) has been involved in the arts since he was a small child. He began taking popular organ at the age of 10, moved on to piano studies with the Royal Conservatory of Music in high school and continued on to The University Of Calgary where he completed a Bachelor Of Music Degree. Scott moved to Toronto in 1991 and has been working full time in the arts since that time. He has worked as an actor, a musical director and a writer. His work has allowed him to travel all over the world. For full information, check out his website at www.geocities.com/scottwhite40

Recording A Demo CD

A critical part of allowing potential producers to get a sense of the show prior to seeing it live is a developed script, a piano score, vocal charts and a demo CD. Producing a quality CD can take time. Just last week, all of the bed tracks for the demo CD were recorded at Studio '92 in Toronto with head technician Norm Barker at the control panel.

The show is comprised of 16 songs, and some of them have as many as 16 different instrumental tracks.

A good demo CD clearly demonstrates the potential of the music to grow into full orchestrations. Due to time and budget constraints, all of the arrangements were done in a Korg Workstation keyboard which uses recorded samples of live instruments and reproduces their sound through an 88 key keyboard.

Scott spent 6 weeks shopping through the thousands of instrumental banks to create a sound for the demo that matched the tone of the show. Then each track was hand played in to the sequencer in the keyboard. When the tracks are layered over top of one another and mixed in studio it sounds like a full group of musicians playing. It is our secret that in truth, it was all a one man band! Instrumentation includes string sections, piano, xylophones, harps, flute lines, french horns, trumpets and a wide range of percussion instruments.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, vocalists will go in and layer all of the vocal tracks over top of the bed tracks. We look forward to sharing small samples of that work on the website in the near future. but more about that in the next newsletter.

Next week

Next week watch for updates as we launch the first segment of The Giant's Garden website. There will be a section on the first three days of auditions in Orangeville held to find our child leads in the show, and also some further information about the show.

Is there something YOU would like to know about the show? Send us an email by pressing the “contact us” button on this website and your questions will be answered personally.

Ticket sales are going well, so if you plan to attend (particularly on weekends) call sooner than later. It is a terrific opportunity to be the very first to see a new musical in its first production. Tell all your friends. Forward this email on and encourage them to join this behind the scenes newsletter, and remember, if you are attending and want to visit with us after the show, drop us a note, and we will come into the lobby and say hello!

BE A PART OF OUR GIANT ADVENTURE!!!!

Want more information?

If you have questions, feel free to contact us.

If you want to book tickets for the production contact Theatre Orangeville at

1-800-424-1295

www.theatreorangeville.ca

If you want to make an afternoon or an evening out of your trip to Orangeville, take

advantage of the many fine restaurants, bed and breakfasts and hotels.

For more information try:

1-800-332-9744

www.thehillsofheadwaters.com

Warmest Regards,

Scott White and Peter Fenton

from the website:

The Giant's Garden

A Great Big Musical For The Whole Family

Behind The Scenes Report #1

Something BIG is going on at Theatre Orangeville. In a mere 75 days, The Giant's
Garden will play its first student matinee. Aside from the fact that Artistic Director David
Nairn and the staff and board of Theatre Orangeville will be putting up a brand new
Canadian musical, it is the sheer size of this world premiere that makes it so unusual
and exciting.
The Giant's Garden will feature a cast of 7 leads (including 2 professional child actors)
and a vocal chorus of 26 children each performance. This full length musical is filled
with laughter, music and a set that will transform from Summer to Winter in front of your
very eyes! This limited engagement begins on November 29th and will run through until
December 23rd.

Do You Love Ice Cream?

If you haven't already secured tickets and you prefer an afternoon performance to an
evening performance, then come on an "Ice cream Sunday". One of the many sponsors
of the show happens to be Dairy Queen, and they will be providing patrons who attend
Sunday matinees with a serving of free icecream as they leave after the production.
Perfect for families out for the day.

Children's Chorus

The children's chorus have begun rehearsals. On Tuesday September 11th, the
Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers (TOYS) had their first rehearsal. This 105 voice
auditioned choir meets weekly. For The Giant's Garden they will be split into four
choruses of 26 children that will rotate through the production's 29 show schedule. The
children range in age from 8-14. Under the direction of Joy Lynn Bell and Joan Borden,
they will be fully costumed and in about 20% of the show. The script for this production
was adapted to include this large size chorus to allow greater community involvement.

Upcoming Auditions

During the final week of September and the first week of October, final auditions will take
place for the two child leads (the characters Constance and Oscar). These auditions will
take place in Orangeville and we are hoping to profile two young stars of the future from
the local community. The audition candidates will be preparing a memorized monologue
of 1 to 2 minutes and singing a song for the first round of auditions. Those that receive a
call-back the following week will be asked to read a scene from the show and work with
the musical director on one of the numbers from the show. We expect to see between
50 and 60 auditionees looking to land the two roles.

Student Specific Matinees

Of the 29 performances, 9 have been designated school-specific performances. Since
The Giant's Garden is aimed at a wide-ranging audience, it will be viewed by both
primary and secondary schools. Feedback from students who attended the workshops
in July indicated that the show will entertain children of all ages. After each matinee,
there will be Question and Answer periods.

On top of that, writers Scott White and Peter Fenton will be visiting schools to discuss
the show. Scott will talk about the music and composition elements to music classes
and drama classes. Peter will talk to language arts and writing classes about how a
paleaontologist who works at the Royal Ontario Museum wrote a musical. I suspect he
may also be asked a few questions about dinosaurs.

Website

A website for the show will be coming on line in the upcoming weeks with information on
the story, downloadable MP3s of some of the music, as well as links to the Theatre
Orangeville website.

Demo CD

The bed tracks for a fully orchestrated CD are completed and in the upcoming weeks,
we will be taking a talented bunch of singers into the studio to record the vocals. This
promotional piece will allow future producers to hear the full score.

History of development

The Giant's Garden has gone through several stages of development, but by musical
standards is still quite young. An early draft went through some music and lyric
development through Script Lab's Master Class with Leslie Arden in the fall of 2006.
The resulting work was showcased at its first public reading at the Canadian Musical
Theatre Festival in Toronto in November of that same year, where it was greeted with a
standing ovation.
Theatre Orangeville secured the rights for the world premiere and through their play
development fund, did an additional week of workshop activity with a stellar cast. The
reading at the end of this process resulted in another standing ovation and a lot of
interest in the community.
A final one day workshop will occur in late October to get the creative team together for
the reading of the script. Then it is onto rehearsals for the first production beginning in
November.
In between each step have been hundreds of hours of rewrites, tweaks and twiddles to
try and make this the best possible show, but it will be you ... our audience ... that adds
the final ingredient to the production. Being the VERY FIRST to see a brand new
musical is something special.

Want more information?
If you have questions, press the “contact us” button on this website.
If you want to book tickets for the production contact Theatre Orangeville at
1-800-424-1295
www.theatreorangeville.ca

If you want to make an afternoon or an evening out of your trip to Orangeville, take
advantage of the many fine restaurants, bed and breakfasts and hotels.

For more information try:
1-800-332-9744
www.thehillsofheadwaters.com

Next week's update
Look in your email box for a small sample of the script, information on some of the
members of the creative team and updates on the pre-production period of the show.
And remember, if you plan on attending, let us know when you are coming and one of
us will come out and say hi at the end of the show and find out what you thought. The
audience is a critical component of developing a brand new musical from first
production, through to future productions. Send us an email to this address and let us
know what performance you are coming to, and we will look for you after the show!
If you have friends who love musical theatre, comedy, music or are looking for the
perfect holiday family outing, please feel free to pass this email along, put it on your
facebook listing, or share the information with your loved ones. Spread the word that a
GIANT musical is coming to Theatre Orangeville.

Warmest Regards,
Scott White and Peter Fenton

Coming soon!

see:The Giant's Garden

Sexy Laundry

The Orangeville Banner says:

Laundry aired on Theatre Orangeville stage
Thursday October 18 2007

Rehearsals for Theatre Orangeville's production of Sexy Laundry are well underway, but married lead actors Sandy Crawley and Mary Long are still on speaking terms. The play concerns a couple that's been married for 25 years who go away to a posh hotel to reignite their relationship. Grievances are aired and the two characters frequently talk at cross-purposes.
Director David Nairn says theatre-goers may see some of their own relationships in the lead characters' marriage. But while the play has its poignant moments, it is a comedy; the characters don't always see the humor in their situation, but the audience often will.
"I thought it would be really fun" to have a married couple play the married characters, says director David Nairn, calling his two actors "the perfect combination."
Crawley and Long are both seasoned performers, having acted professionally for decades. The couple has been together for 29 years in real life, and married for 19. Crawley, Long and Nairn are unanimous in their praise for playwright Michele Riml's script.
"Audiences are going to respond to this," says Nairn, and all three cite the play's ability to ask important, and sometimes uncomfortable, questions about the status quo in long-term relationships
"It pushes a lot of emotional buttons."
With a name like Sexy Laundry you'd be right to think that the show is aimed at an adult audience. The company is discouraging children under 16 from attending. The play includes adult conversations, frank talk about sex, and explores "elements of fantasy."
The show opens Oct. 25, and tickets are available from Theatre Orangeville's box office at 519-942-3423. Nairn expects it to be the "blockbuster" of the season and says that ticket sales have been brisk.

"Turn on the Gas

I’m coming home to Jesus!”

(A line from Norm Foster’s One Moment.)
Yes, slit my throat, I’m in the theatre! The gods alone know why. I had my chance. I got out. I got a job in the real world.
In fact, I had a job in the real world that looked a lot like the jobs in One Moment! Except their offices are tidier….

Actually, truth be told, I like it. And I like Norm Foster’s plays. And I like Norm Foster. It does just seem that quite apart from the stress of the theatre, especially with production periods of the non-duration that seem to be the norm for Theatre Orangeville, there often seems to be a ‘special’ albatross involved with each show. And probably for each department.

This time I have this stunning actress. Tall, gorgeous, reasonably talented, and just the teeniest bit fussy. (Well, heck, they’re all fussy to some degree, all actors. Remind me some day to tell you my opinion of actors who try to think. Should be outlawed. I’m the designer, don’t tell me what your character would wear. PARTICULARLY don’t tell me what your character would wear in any period piece, when the sum of your experience seems to be your own clothes! But I digress…..)
Anyway, my lovely actress said she wore size X, so I got that size. She liked the look and pounced on it. It took a few days before we determined that no, she was really a size Z. Oops. By then the only game in town was small and smaller.

So we adapted and adjusted and made compromises. It was an endless series of notes. But in the end, we achieved some form of balance.
Until today’s note, where she’s developed a small hole in the fabric. And when I had a look, it looks like she’s been rolling in the bramble patch! There are tiny holes all over the fabric! (Where I’d meticulously picked it apart to adjust and insert some lace, filled with paranoia that I might damage the fabric? Nope. That part is just fine. ) All the fabric that simply skims over her body looks like she’s been wrestling kittens. A million little claw marks all bound and determined to grow into a hole!

So, I fixed it as best I could. Tiny little delicate darns. (Verbally, too!)(Though maybe not so delicately…)
And have offered up the repair job, as well as something I found and tweaked that is very vaguely similar in nature. Hopefully one will suffice.

Also discovered the other day, that in the process of perfecting a new work, they’ve cut a number. One where we’d added a costume piece late in the rehearsal period. Sigh. Oh well. Better I’d spent the time and few dollars to make what we needed that spend the much larger amount it would have cost to buy something that also probably would have proved to be an albatross along the way…

Still, I do have to keep reminding myself that I love the theatre, because sometimes…. I forget!

Live, or Memorex?

Does it matter? He seems happy.

Colours

The things that grow in spite of me...