The Living Centrifuge

Today I e-mailed Bruce Sinclair who is the main grants officer at the Theatre Section of the Canada Council for the Arts. When you're unsuccessful, or even successful in your application, a grants officer can go through the jurors' comments on your application in a good amount of detail.

So, I e-mailed Bruce because I wanted to get those comments. It's the summer, so it's often very difficult to get a hold of someone at the CC offices at this time of year. I thought I'd get a note from him some time next week at the earliest. Two minutes later, my phone rang, and it was a 613 number (Ottawa). I answered it and it was Bruce. We chatted for a bit, and then he told me that a successful applicant had had to cancel their show, and that The Thistle Project would be getting their money. I can't freaking believe it. We have public funding - and a fairly substantial amount - on our first project!!! I can't believe it. Can you believe it? Man, this is going to be great. Next year when we apply for funding again, we'll be able to say that we got funding from Laidlaw AND the Canada Council. It's so ..... fantastic!

And now Christine doesn't have to contribute (as much of?) her hard earned dollars to get this show going. Sooo great.

"Now don't exhaust yourselves. Only put in the amount of energy that's required for each thing..."

"...Of course each thing requires a lot of energy"

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are. While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need. Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational. You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

Last night I went to a get together with all my acting class, pretty much. Weird. Being around people who once wanted to act, and who are now doing things like real estate and such - makes me realise how difficult it is to do what we do, and also how much I love it. If there is a persistent doubt about art, it becomes too strong in the face of abject poverty. Maybe I can look at my current poverty as a test of my commitment to art. So far so good.

That's me. A busy fella. The workshop is going well - we pretty much have a show that we have to write now. A good chunk of our original writing has stayed so far, which is very nice. I've finished teaching with the TYT. I had a great time. And there was one or two young actors who I was amazed by. One young man in particular was jaw droppingly good. I look forward to seeing the show, to see if he's any good as an actor. I've started teaching butoh classes - yesterday I had my first student. Whee. And maybe I'll get a job for the film festival.

31 July marked the three hundred sixty fifth day since I met Ben.