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Amiel Gladstone

Frank Borg

Joy Russell

Maiko Bae Yamamoto

Tim Carlson

what we do

how to read a financial report

Bar in the financial district. Early evening. Jazz trio lighting up the first set. K, early 30s, suit jacket over his shoulder, belly busting out between suspenders, enters the bar with a bounce in his step, drops onto a couch, orders a scotch. The bar fills, and a group of severe young women and confident young men gather around K. They laugh. They drink. But after about the third round, K aims pointed accusations of betrayal at B, a young man whose confidence quickly erodes. The situation escalates until K is roaring a stream of expletives into the face of B, who is literally on his knees, pleading for his job.

Ideas for stories usually suggest the form in which they need to be told. The story that K and his actions implied wasn't an essay. I wasn't inspired to sit down with him and conduct a Q&A. Or write a short story. What happened there at the table next to mine about three years ago was, by definition, theatre. K didn't notice his audience: me. Nothing between his world and mine but a naturally occurring fourth wall.

Character is the element of drama I prefer to begin with. A good character will introduce me to others, offer plot and reveal theme.

It's true, I didn't know K or anyone like him, at all well. But I was interested in him, rather than just annoyed, because characters like him are in the news regularly and tend to exert a lot of influence in society. I was drawn back to that bar to take notes. I didn't need to eavesdrop, exactly, since people of K's sensibilities tend to broadcast their deep thoughts and opinions at a high volume.

My notes fused with daily reports of various venture capitalists here in the "scam capital of North America" (Wall Street Journal) - men, mainly, who might screw their grandmother or church congregation on an investment deal then either disappear completely or make an appearance later in court or be found in a car in the early morning on Pender Street with their brains blown out. Their ambitions are as likely to be global as local - mining in South America, importing from Asia, arms dealing in the U.S., gambling everywhere, cocaine sprinkled here and there. At this point in history, such activities aren't too exceptional, but no less interesting. It seemed to me that K had the "skill set" be part of that world, well documented in non-fiction.

I wrote a few scenes. Then, at Under the Gun (the annual 48-hour playwriting event at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre) I co-wrote a short play along with A Western Theatre Conspiracy's ensemble. Over the next year, I added and deleted scenes. Tried them at readings and cabarets. Character traits, plot points and dialogue discovered in those rehearsals were brought into the first draft of a threeact script. I wanted to keep the localglobal link intact, so it had to be a three act: opening here, going there, then returning.

A first draft is about discovering potential and experimenting with it (what is the foundation of K's power? what would bring him to his knees, in front of someone else?) and letting plot and theme present themselves.

My first draft seemed locked into both genre and polemic. I let the story take familiar courses perhaps to score political points. It was more my story than it was K's. So naturally, the third act wasn't drama, it was farce, which was made clear at the first reading. The parts that worked created chemistry between the actors, even though they were just sitting at a table, reading the script cold. The parts that didn't work led to ridiculous comments after the reading - ridiculous according to the story I had in mind, but perfectly legitimate according to what was on the page. After editing, some ridiculous comments became valuable suggestions. Smoke Tree has been re-envisioned twice since then. It's half as long. And still requires rewrites - different ones to focus on different aspects of the piece. One to refine plot and theme. One to further streamline characters.

Writing a script is different than writing for a reader - the playwright has to keep interpreters as well as the audience in mind. Another rewrite is required to edit those details that read well on the page but might suggest loopy tangents to a director or actor. And another to edit details from a scene better left open for director, designers and actors to fill in the space.

I like rewriting in the rush of rehearsal - although I'd never admit it publicly. Deleting more tangents and incorporating the answers that a director and actors find on the fly. After all those solo rewrites, the atmosphere of rehearsal offers the kind of fuel that made writing the first draft such a blast.

Sometimes playwriting feels as much like practicing architecture, as it does storytelling. The draft that comes out of a first production and the following rewrite is a lean, flexible skeleton of character, plot and theme that will hopefully hold up under any circumstances. The script that lends itself to interpretation can live multiple lives. I'd enjoy seeing the curtain come down on K repeatedly.