P.L. Haines-Ainsworth is an artist working in a variety of media - graphic design and visual arts, theatre, and writing. She enjoys creating plays and stories for children and young adults. For the past 12 years Pat has been a co-producer and writer for a touring theater company Last Leaf Productions.
Her original plays have been seen on stages around the state of Washington.
The Traveler's Society is her first venture into self-publishing a novel series. Between her research and other ventures, the first book; The Patch of Red Velvet took her eight years to write but she already has two more books in the series planned. The Patch of Red Velvet is now available to download or in paperback through Amazon.com. You can also order a copy through winkingkatbooks@gmail.com.
This past weekend, Winking Kat's two-act, musical adaptation of "Yeh-Shen" had its premiere performance in Redmond Washington. Though the show toured with Last Leaf Productions for several years, this school production was filled with new songs and scenes. It was a perfect fit for the multi-cultural cast who did an amazing job. Next month, Willard School in Willard, Missiouri will feature their talents in a production of "Bayou Bug Tales". Going to do my best to try and make a performance of that show and excited about doing a Q & A with the students afterwards. Two new adaptations are in the works. A two-act musical version of our popular adaptation of "Aesop's Fables" is currently in rehearsal and we are beginning work on our new version of "The Barber's Wife" next month. Check out our website at www.winkingkatbooks.com for samples of the music from several of our most popular shows.
Lots happening at Winking Kat. This summer has been crowded with inquiries about our plays. Consequently, three have been confirmed to be produced at two theatres for their upcoming seasons. This fall Dakota Stage Ltd. in Bismark, ND will be producing "The Scarecrow", a musical adaptation of a short story by Washington Irving.
Following that in early spring, Second Story Repertory in Redmond, WA will be producing our adaption of the adventure classic, "Treasure Island". It will be a high-energy, multi-media show.
Dakota Stage will produce a second Winking Kat show in April, "Bayou Bug Tales", and take it on tour to schools in and around Bismark.
We've also had a number of inquiries from theatre companies in Tennessee and Texas. Plus, we are getting the envelopes ready to send out notices about the release of our script, "The History of Washington State: in 45 minutes or less", to elementary schools in Washington State.
The other day, our local Seattle radio station announced that there might be a chance that Seattle will host the 2024 Olympics. At first I thought, 'Cool. That would be pretty exciting'. Then, I had the realization that I would be about 70 years old in 2024. Given my age, genetics, and family history, there was a real chance I might not be in Seattle or indeed on the planet in 2024. It was one of the first times that my mortality really struck me between the eyes. I mean, we all theoretically realize that we might drop dead at any minute by natural or unnatural causes, but it was the first time that I considered that I might really be gone in a foreseeable moment in the future.
My husband, being of about the same age, has begun talking about his 'bucket list'. You know the phrase made popular by the film that denotes all the things you want to do before you die.
I've jokingly toyed with the idea of making one, but my epiphany the other day made me really think about it. I've always wanted to travel. I love volcanoes so my husband and I joked about making a retirement volcano tour -which might actually hasten my 'unnatural death' if I'm at the wrong volcano at the wrong time. I've always wanted to see Japan, New Zealand, Sicily and Italy, Iceland. Not just volcanoes, however. I want to visit China, Germany, St. Petersburg in Russia, Greece, Spain, and so many places with amazing art and architecture. Chile, Bolivia, Kenya, Australia, Tahiti - places with history and phenomenal natural beauty. Travel, I suppose, is a bucket list staple for normal people.
Hugh Jackman
But as an actor, singer, and writer I also have my nerdy artistic bucket list. I would like to see some of my plays published and enjoyed by more people (which might help with travel expenses -see volcano tour above). But after seeing Hugh Jackman in a production of "Oklahoma" I've always wanted to dance a waltz with him. That makes my bucket list. Having him place his arm around my ample waist and guide me around the dance floor would be magical.
I also love to sing jazz and popular music and the way Hugh Laurie plays jazz is amazing and fun. His playing is so smooth and easy on the ear. So, also on my bucket list is singing an old standard song accompanied by Hugh Laurie (aka House) on the keyboard.
Last nerdy artistic bucket list item involves an actor I first saw in the films, "Bright Young Things" and "Starter for Ten". By "Atonement" and "Becoming Jane" I was a fan of James McAvoy. So my last 'artsy' bucket list item is to sit or stand opposite him and read a scene from a play or film.
James McAvoy
No, I'm not totally crazy or obsessed - I'd want to play his mother, or his crazy aunt, or the cleaning lady. I just love his energy and would like to play a scene with him. He's got such great focus and commitment to the emotion in every moment. It would be a privilege to be in that bubble for ten minutes or so.
Anyway, those are my fantasies. What is on your bucket list? Hopefully, your demise is not as looming as mine, but it's always good to set goals and have dreams even ones that are pretty sure to remain only dreams.
Taking the trail one step at a time. It was a crazy summer with family activities and amazing changes, but I am so excited to have so many wonderful things happening. The recording we made of the songs from "The Dancing Princess" turned out great and I am putting the final touches on a novelized version of the story.
A discussion of the current status of theatre for children in this country has led me to wonder if many theatre companies even consider producing shows that are not already based on a popular book. I discussed the trend with Linda Hartzell of the Seattle Children's Theatre and Mark Chenovick of Second Story Repertory. One of the problems of doing something original is that parents and teachers are hesitant about taking their children to a performance when they aren't certain of the content or the ending of the story. It's sad but true that we all want to know what's going to happen before we see it. So many parents are afraid there might be something unexpected.
Mark Chenovick took a risk presenting 'The Dancing Princess'. It was not a well-known story, although loosely based on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". But it wound up being one of their most successful productions of last season. Maybe the trend is turning and parents as well as children are willing to take the risk of seeing something without first securing a guarantee of the outcome.
Here is Emily Shuel singing one of my favorite songs from the show, "Yulia's Lullaby".
When I was a kid, my parents didn't have a lot of money - especially for your basic white, middle-class, Americans. We weren't living out of our car, but there were many days when I had oatmeal for breakfast as well as dinner and had one pair of school shoes and one pair of sneakers to my name that were supposed to last for two years. Luckily, I liked oatmeal and I pretty much reached my full height and shoe size at age 13 so the shoes were able to last the two years.
It was kind of frustrating for me, however, because I was a kid with big dreams. It didn't help that most of my friends came from wealthy families. They had pools in their back yards and went to Switzerland on vacation while I used the rafters of our unfinished basement as monkey bars and floated on inner tubes down the muddy creek behind our home. My father used to tell me, 'where there's a will, there's a way. If you really want something, you will find a way to get it.' He wasn't talking about anything illegal, of course. He was talking about thinking outside the box to find a creative way to achieve your dreams. In school, we studied amazing feats of achievement like 'The Great Wall of China" and the pyramids of Egypt and I learned that seemingly impossible things can happen with planning, patience, and sheer will.
If human beings could do amazing things like that maybe I could accomplish some of my dreams. After all, I didn't exactly want to build a 500-foot-tall monument to myself. I wanted simple things. For example, we had an amusement park down the road from my house. I could never afford to go there except when they had 'Report Card Day' where they gave away tickets for good grades. So when I turned 13, I applied to work there. I got a job attaching strings to people's wrists for special events and later, at age 17, I was able to operate some of the rides. The hours were long, but I was surrounded by the sounds and sites of the park and on rainy days when things were slow, I got free rides on the merry-go-round.
I'd always wanted to work in show business. Although I was ridiculously obnoxious as a young child, I became very shy as a teenager. Way to shy to try out for school plays or choir. The force was strong within me, however (yes, I went there)and it pushed me to search for other ways to get involved. I looked for ways to work backstage and continued to do so after I graduated from college. Every chance I could, I worked for free to learn more about every aspect of television and theatre. I interned at a television station for minimum wage to help pay for college. I stage managed community theatre productions - one after the other. After a while, I realized the people on stage were just as nervous and anxious as I was about performing and I tried it. Soon I was singing and dancing all over the place. Another check off my proverbial bucket list.
I'd always wanted to travel, so with a little money saved up, I applied for some post-graduate work at a school 3000 miles from my home, packed my VW Baja Superbeetle and left for the West Coast. I wound up not attending the school but found a cool job working with a design firm and building a life here in Washington State. Check. Started my own successful business with money I borrowed on my credit card. Check. Sold that, then started two more. Check. And check. All the while I was able to continue to do some work in theatre and films and writing stories, ( http://theponymanmovie.com/cast.html )and (http://winkingkatbooks.com/). Double check.
I didn't mean for this blog entry to wind up so autobiographical, but I wanted to illustrate that the advice my father wound up to be true. I've checked off so many things on my 'to do' list of life by just finding some way, any way, to make them happen without money or connections. Though it often meant entering through the back door, I still got into the house. Now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I know that I may never realize the grandiose dreams of my youth (unless I live another fifty years) but in small, satisfying ways I've seen most of them granted.Thanks for the advice, Dad.
I've had many jobs in my life and could say a couple careers. I still divide my time between art and theatre and have been lucky to earn money at both. As an actor, I can tell you (and most other actors will agree) one of the most annoying and frightening parts of the job is the audition process.
Auditions are kind of a mixed blessing. You are 'Oh, so glad' you have them, but at the same time, wish you were going to a session of waterboarding instead. The big problem is that you are usually unsure of what the expectations of the producers and directors of a show will be. How do you plan for the unknown? Sometimes, you're lucky and on the mark, everything goes well, there are smiles all around, and you have a good shot at the role. Other times you get the feeling when you pull out your tap shoes and everyone else in the green room has ballet slippers and ballerina buns that you have totally misinterpreted the concept the production is looking for. That's when the directors watch your audition with that look of bewilderment and a fixed smile and you know the minute you walk into the room that you're screwed.
I have an audition this weekend for a period piece. The story takes place in medieval times. The script is not badly written and in the right hands it could be a very cool project. (This is actor speak for "I genuinely hope I get the part"). There is one problem. I'm not sure at the present time whether they will be looking for someone who can do the role with an appropriate dialect or if they are planning to do this in pseudo historic times where everyone talks like they came out of the local Wendy's with a couple of 'thy's and 'm'lord's thrown in. I could ask them ahead of time via email, but I've already asked a different question and I don't want to appear to be a pain before they even meet me. Actors hate to be labeled a 'problem actor' before they even show up at an audition.
So I will have to wait and ask them right before my audition and be prepared for both. I hope they do want some type of dialect. One, I know if they do I can nail it. Two, I really hate to watch films and television where the story takes place in another time or in 'generic fantasy land' and all the characters sound like they came from LA Central Casting. It really takes away some of the magic. Maybe I'm being to anal or picky, and I don't expect actors to be too authentic. In the case of the Renaissance or the Middle Ages, if you were too authentic, everyone would need subtitles to understand what the actors are talking about.
One example that drives me crazy is the new TV series, "Once Upon A Time". I basically like the cleverness of the plot and the acting isn't bad, but other than a more dramatic hairstyles and costumes, the characters in fairytale land look and sound like they just stepped out of the Valley Galleria. It may be intentional, but it really takes away from the story for me. I know there are other examples in film and TV as well.
So, I'll be ready with my generic, middle-ages, European dialects -French, Irish, or British (if they ask for German or something else, I'd be astonished and impressed), but will ask first. Otherwise, I'll see that bewildered, fixed smile on the director's face and I'll know I totally screwed the audition.
Okay. I am working on a new play for our summer touring season of shows for young audiences. I'm on schedule with the deadline I have set for myself of May 1st to finish the play. That way our actors have enough time to rehearse the show before our first performance in June. About one-third of the way into the play, I hit a roadblock or should I say 'writer's block'. A song, or what I hoped to be a song. It is a common problem with writing this type of play for children. The song has to be short, fun, witty, catchy, a little silly, but still has to impart some information and move the story forward. I could have left it and come back to the lyrics later, but I find it difficult on the first draft to leave a block out of the story like that. Silly, I know, but that's the way I write for better or worse.
I tried and tried to work the problem. Dragged out information from Google, Wikipedia, and rhyming dictionaries, but nothing was coming. My brain was a dry well. One day went by then two and I was still staring at the same page. I knew what I wanted to happen after this section, but I couldn't go on without the connecting puzzle piece.
While driving to an appointment on the second day I was listening to a radio talk show. They were interviewing a man who had written a book on the nature of creativity in the brain. He said creative people are average people who have an epiphany about something, can recognize it and respond to it. I kind of knew that part. Like many writers or artists I have a lot of epiphanies - usually in the middle of the night or in the shower unfortunately when I don't have a paper and pencil handy. I have too many epiphanies. They crowd my brain and keep me from having a decent, coherent conversation with anyone. I knew about that. But the gentleman on the radio had some other interesting facts about creativity.
He said scientists could tell when an epiphany is coming by the number of Alpha waves in the brain. It seems epiphanies come when the impulse inhibitors of the brain are calmed or disabled and the Alpha waves take over. The key is to relax. Walk away from the problem. Forget the deadlines and don't stress about it. It seems counter to every lesson about perseverance and tenacity, but one can't argue with the EEG's. The author on the radio suggested taking a small drink or using another similar relaxing substance. Not wanting to turn into Earnest Hemmingway or Edgar Alan Poe, I didn't think using alcohol was a good option for me. But the idea of going for a walk or taking a nap could work. I do often get my best ideas when I'm half asleep. This time, however, I'd have a pen and paper ready. Sure enough while I was sleepily putting away the laundry my epiphany arrived. I bolted downstairs and typed the lyrics into my computer before they had a chance to scatter among the other images and phrases caught in my brain's neuron whirlpool.
Lyrics recorded, I could finally move on to the next scene and the next sequence of the story. I wish I could have caught the name of the gentleman they were interviewing. Whoever he is, I owe him many thanks for the relaxing hours ahead and their accompanying epiphanies.
