I'm in Cambridge Ontario now, staying with my friend Cathy who I've know since grade one!!! If you go back to my archives in Jan. you'll see a class photo I posted, with her and me in the back row next to the teacher. I lost touch with Cathy for many years, then reconnected the year before we moved to Victoria in 1987, we've remained friends ever since.
She introduced me to live theatre and when ever I came back to Ontario to visit, she would take me to Stratford or The Shaw Festival to see a play. The first one we saw was The Inspector Calls by J B Priestly - I was riveted! After that I got into reading plays, I devoured work by Hedrick Ibsen. The Enemy Of The People was one of my favorite plays and when I found out the Movie Jaws was based on that play, I was facinated. Ibsen told stories of ordinary people, were as Shakespeare focused on Kings and Queens and their ordinary human traits that determine fate.
Every year when I visited Cathy we would see more plays and of course I couldn't wait to see King Lear at Stratford . One year we took Alex and Ray to see Macbeth, I figured it would capture there interest because it had the highest body count!!!
Any way, at that time, plays seemed to me to be the best way to tell a story, so I attempted to write a play way back in the 90s. I wasn't sure how to go about it but I had some good influences to help me with the process, I kept reading more plays and going to see more live theatre. I felt comfortable with writing dialog, it was good practice to get me writing. One day I may dust off the play I wrote called "Don't Let Go Of The Rope", I filed away in my closet. Who knows, it may appear in my third book.