This Is A Play (2010)
This Is A Henry poster
BY DANIEL MACIVOR
Staged in April 2010 @ Memorial Hall, UNB, Fredericton, NB
Staged in May 2010 @ SJHS Mini-Theatre, Saint John, NB
CAST/CREW
Older Female Actor – Julie MacDonald
Female Actor – Jen McVicar
Male Actor – Matthew Spinney
Composer (Voice) – Robert Moore
Director – Scott Shannon
Technical Director – Michael Holmes-Lauder
Light Tech – Dave MacDonald (Fredericton)
Light Tech – SJHS Tech Crew (Saint John)
Poster and Logo design – Alberto White
This show was staged as part of an evening of two one-act plays by MacIvor; it was preceded by Here Lies Henry.
Originally staged in April 2007 with
a slightly different cast/crew.
Read our rehearsal notes taken during Feb-May 2010 >>>
The Daily Gleaner – Live It section article >>>
Photos by Michael Holmes-Lauder
(CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)
PHOTOS FROM MEMORIAL HALL, UNB
Substitution
Male Actor: I speak as if entranced because that’s what the script says I should do. I talk about my dead brother and his death-bed message about a woman named Auntie.
I'd rather substitute Mister Whiskers ...
Now I’m supposed to cry about my brother. Of course I myself never had a brother and so I use the Uta Hagen Substitution Method which I heard those two talking about last week.
... my cat who died.
I’m trying to substitute my dead cousin but I never liked my cousin and I’d rather substitute Misther Whiskers my cat who died, but it seems kind of dumb to substitute a cat for a person (growing emotional) …
I miss you Mister Whiskers
… but I guess the point of it is not if it’s a cat or an armadillo or whatever just that it’s somebody you wish never went away … (weeping) … I miss you Mister Whiskers.
She won't cry
Hint of a secret
And more exposition
Each of us alone
Yet a group
Here we stand
PHOTOS FROM SJHS MINI-THEATRE
Middle of an argument
Older Female Actor: Fascinatingly, the scene begins in the middle of an argument.
Male Actor: I say something I don’t understand.
Female Actor: I say something he doesn’t understand.
Older Female Actor: I say something that makes sense of what they said and I manage to make the line funny even though it is not.
I take all the focus now ...
Female Actor: I take all the focus now, you drink me in, I tentatively at first, begin to try not to cry, holding it back, holding it back, holding it back, I don’t want to cry, I don’t want to cry, holding back, holding back, (weeping theatrically) but the tears rush forward and words roll out which explain the argument we were just having and …
Each of us alone
Older Female Actor: Here we stand.
Male Actor: Each of us alone.
Female Actor: Yet a group.
Male Actor: I find my light.
A lettuce
Female Actor: I fix my hair.
Male Actor: We do our best to muster meaning in this pause.
Female Actor: I make a statement which seems somewhat out of character thus indicating a change.
Older Female Actor: So do I.
Male Actor: So do I.
