We’re back in the “real” world after a few days at Rosebud Alberta participating in The Budding Playwrights’ Festival, which was amazing. I will treasure the memories for a long long time.

When I googled some of the other writers/actors/directors I was totally intimidated – I was definitley the “newbie” in the crowd! I was so nervous to think my play, A Pattern in Blue would be read alongside those of such talented people. But they were all so affirming and kind.

Seeing my play rehearsed by professional actors under the direction of an amazing director (it just happened to be Adam Furfaro, the exec. director of Rosebud!) and then hearing the dramatic reading of it on stage – what a gift!

There were so many wonderful “coincidences.” I, of course, had no control over who was chosen to do play the parts (my dad, the nurse and the Rabbi) but I was blown away by the ‘fit.’ There is a part in the play where a Rabbi recites the kaddish and I suggested it would be great if that could be done in Hebrew, but wrote out the English translation because I thought that would be highly unlikely.

But when we got to that point the man reading the part of the Rabbi told us his family were in fact German Jews – and oh by the way, he was a Hebrew scholar and he had taken the time to write out the Kaddish in Hebrew and even chanted it during the performance!

Adam (the director) had taken the time to do a lot of research on Bergen-Belsen, which he asked the actors to look at before they began the rehearsal. Then he asked where my dad had lived when he was a boy and I said, oh just a small town near Ottawa. The young man playing my dad asked what town. When I said, Perth he shook his head and said, “Wow. That’s where I was raised. All my family still lives there!”

The girl who played the part of the nurse was quite young and not as experienced as the others, but under Adam’s direction she rose to the challenge beautifully.

Right from the start the actors seemed to “get it.” They asked insightful questions as the afternoon went on and then Adam started to give them some direction – just small things, the inflection in the voice, the pacing etc. that made all the difference. I was so very impressed with it all and totally blessed to have been there to be part of it.

My instructor (Lucia Frangione) and Adam both have encouraged me to expand the one act into a full two act play and Lucia has offered to direct me to a couple of companies in Calgary that she thinks might be interested in producing it!! WOW!

The icing on the cake was that two of my daughters and my husband were there to see/hear it too, and on my birthday!!

Can you tell I am over the moon? 😉

The only down side – I did have to come back to the “real” world! 🙂