… SHADOW SHOWS IN DEVELOPMENT

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Read about the creation and development of Nasty new original work by the Shadows.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions — discussion is welcome.

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK by Scott Shannon

CAST/CREW

• Ducky – Becky Forbes | Crystal Chettiar | Amanda Thorne
• Murdock – Scott Shannon | Michael Holmes-Lauder | Simon Peterson | Jason McIntyre | Carter Scott

Writer / Director – Scott Shannon

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – Mar/2023
After some further developments, I’m once again on the hunt for an actor … I have some ideas, just not sure if folks are interested in the play/work I’m offering … not a lot of $$ or big crowds in avant garde theatrical adventures, alas …

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – Nov/2022
Some plans are once again in the works … time will tell but hoping so much that we can finally bring this story to a “stage” of sorts … Ducky & Murdock need to play for an audience*.

* This play is also exploring that unknown future as the world where my plays occur – everything I’ve completed or am currently working on ties into “The Great Seclusion” … but this story veers away in a different direction than the Shadows-saga I’ve recently carved out.

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – May/2022
I’m at a stage of development now where I really need to work with some actors … original plans fell through this year due to life, prior commitments of others, etc. … so, instead of staging this at the 2022 Fundy Fringe Fest I’m altering summer plans back to a solo performance/creative experience* and will revisit an old friend to see what else may transpire in his world …

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – July/2021
Work has continued on the writing side with hopes, once again, to bring this play to a stage in the NEAR future. Stay tuned …

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – Nov 8/2020

Amanda Thorne & Jason McIntyre – rehearsal for DUCKY & MURDOCK

Yesterday was a good day. And 2 weeks ago, I had a good day. I’m speaking of good theatrical days, where it felt right to be making something with others – thank you Amanda and Jason! Amanda jumped into the Shadow world last year and Jason has recently joined our Nasty creative process to become the latest Shadow working with me on this piece, and I am very grateful to have his talents involved. We are now (finally?!) in the closing stages of this project as we work towards a performance of the show in the spring of 2021 with these 2 incredible performers embodying the spirit of my grandparents’ lives within the fictional world of the plays I’ve been creating.*

Amanda Thorne & Jason McIntyre – rehearsal for DUCKY & MURDOCK

We haven’t done too much, just read through the scenes I had in a form I was willing to share and played a bit with the very first scene I wrote for the play way back in 2012 – Scene M has developed and refined since that first version, but it is in essence a play in itself having been created for sharing and performing at a Remembrance Day event hosted by TNB that year. This scene has kept me pushing towards more from these two characters, hearing and wanting to share further their stories. Likewise, having Amanda and Jason willing to play with these words and others I share with them is truly a gift of an opportunity that I am taking full advantage of to bring this play and these characters before some sort of audience in some way in the coming spring. Just the little work we’ve done together thus far has charged me up with some renewed focus on this text and shown me that working with these two actors is going to be a wonderful experience.

I also had Amanda and Jason read an old play I have about experimenting on tables, which I’m now looking toward re-mounting in the coming year … if life permits such adventures …

scott

* I seem most interested in exploring this unknown future as the world where my plays occur – everything I’ve completed or am currently working on ties into “The Great Seclusion”.

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – Nov/2019A staged reading of this work-in-progress was part of the ACTION/PLAY run of 2019 — you can read about that experience in the overall project rehearsal notes taken during Sept-Nov 2019.

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – October 9/2019(PM)
Very excited to share an old and a new scene from this play I can’t seem to finish — playing with Simon and Amanda during rehearsals for This Is A Play has inspired me to revisit what I have for this “play”, this never-finished story … but at this moment, I feel good about what’s happening with the text .. and so we’re going to read a couple of scenes from this to get the evenings rolling during our Shadows in ACTION/PLAY run.

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – June/2015(PM)

Crystal Chettiar & Michael Holmes-Lauder rehearsing Standing At Opposite Ends Are Ducky & Murdock

So not much happened with the writing of this project since my last note, but I have since workshopped the text I have with a couple of other kind actors, Michael and Crystal — thanks for your time! After stepping away from our developmental work on THE FIRST/LAST PLAY, but still having a couple of actors willing to play, I figured we may as well revisit my Ducky & Murdock story.

Ducky was my paternal grandmother’s nickname, and Murdock was my grandfather’s name, otherwise known as Nanny and Grampy to me. The play is inspired by their memory and the stories that run through my head, but it’s by no means a biographical story about my grandparents — I’m using them as a launchpad into another world.

Michael Holmes-Lauder & Crystal Chettiar rehearsing Standing At Opposite Ends Are Ducky & Murdock

When Becky and I performed a scene from this play-in-progress a couple of years earlier for a Remembrance Day event out at TNB, I didn’t really have a chance to gain perspective on it as a performance since I was in it. And so, using Michael and Crystal for a few recent rehearsals to play with the text again was very fun, educational, and in all honesty a relief — it actually seemed pretty good! Can I say that … ? Regardless, very cool to have Michael show me a more gentle side to ‘Murdock’ than I’d imagined, and it was a treat watching Crystal bring a vulnerability as well as a determined strength into ‘Ducky’ — only wish the 3 of us got to play together a little more before she left for Banff, and then on to National Theatre School (break a leg!).

Michael Holmes-Lauder & Crystal Chettiar rehearsing Standing At Opposite Ends Are Ducky & Murdock

So it was cool to have the chance to see Becky and Crystal in the role of ‘Ducky’, and Michael and myself as ‘Murdock’ — just nice to see the text float across these different voices and bodies, and that the “characters” are different each time while maintaining the same core. Both Becky and Crystal are small in stature with intense energy, but the ‘Ducky’ the each created was just as telling of them as it was the text or “character”, because the actor and the character are all messed up with each other, so you can’t have one without the other, meaning each time it’s different — I was thankful to see the words worked for each woman’s approach.

Stepping away from this as I start to plan for an actual production of something for the coming fall … no telling just yet …

scott

STANDING AT OPPOSITE ENDS ARE DUCKY & MURDOCK
Notes – Jan 2/2013(PM)

REHEARSED/PERFORMED Oct-Nov 2012
Becky was kind enough to jump into this project with me as a way to help commemorate Remembrance Day at TNB’s Studio Theatre. On a personal note, this was also in memory of my grandparents who were young people during the 2nd World War.

The scene we played comes from a larger piece about two people in love during war time. The writing continues and one day I hope to revisit this project.

scott