A Season of Opportunity

On the 13th of October, a dreary evening that splattered Brisbane and surrounding areas with rain, Brisbane Arts Theatre held their annual Season Launch announcing their shows for their 82nd year. It was an event not to be missed, and a week and a half before the event I pondered whether I should or should not attend. A message from a friend one evening asking me whether I was going made me think. There was something else on that evening and I wasn’t sure which event I should attend. I told her so and the message she replied with was basically, ‘Season Launch, definitely better than anything else you have planned’.

And so, only a week before the event, I booked my free ticket for general admission and began looking forward to the evening. I knew it would be one of good company, of friends old and new, of snacks and drinks, as well as it would be at a place very close to my heart and filled with all things theatre. What could be better?

A couple of days before the event I discovered that a sports game would be on on the same night, which meant there was a very large possibility that parking would be restricted. Brisbane Arts Theatre is located on Petrie Terrace, which is just on the outskirts of Lang Park which surrounds the Suncorp Stadium. Parking on side streets is restricted during game times. This means you can either pay for parking in Roma and walk 15 minutes to the theatre, or attempt to find free parking closer. Which, on occasions, is an impossibility.

After careful consideration, I decided against buying a park and walking, partly due to the hot muggy weather, chances of rain, and a strain on my bank account. I decided to brave instead an attempt to find a park outside the theatre. Due perhaps to my furtive prayers beforehand, Petrie Terrace was almost bare of cars, with parking spaces aplenty, and I grabbed a spot a dozen metres from the theatre.

Arriving at 7:30, I was met immediately by friends and in the following half hour the courtyard gradually filled with roughly a 100 people. Many people I knew, and many I had only said a passing hello to. By 8pm, the door to the theatre was opened, and, with the friend I was meeting plus various others who joined us, we trudged in to find out seats and settle in for the launch.

The launch began with the President of the Arts Theatre welcoming us all, followed then by a speech by one of their sponsors, speeches by others, acts from upcoming shows performed by the vary talented youth program, and then finally the part we were all eagerly waiting for. The announcing of the 2018 shows. And what a bunch of shows they are! From A Clockwork Orange, to Shrek: The Musical, to Arthur Millers’ The Crucible, Ben Elton's We Will Rock You! And a selection of parodies that in the past two years the Arts Theatre has been presenting to eager audiences. Plays such as X-Files: The Musical, and That 80s Time Travel Movie: A Back to the Future Musical Parody are just a couple of the shows you can see at Brisbane Arts Theatre. Their 2018 season is one not to be missed.

Following the season announcement, we all retired back to the courtyard for snacks supplied by the Tibetan restaurant next door. We mingled for another two hours, catching up with friends we had not seen in a long time as well as friends we had seen the week before. We chatted and caught up with each other until the clouds broke and poured rain down upon us. Seeking shelter under the small roof over the box office and bar we chatted for a further half hour until the night drew in and people braved the rain to rush to their cars. The sky ceased its downfall for a moment and I and a friend took the opportunity to say our goodbyes and seek our car.

The evening was one not to be missed and I am so thankful to have been able to share the evening with good friends, as well as support a theatre that is very close to my heart. A Season Launch is not just a chance to see what shows a theatre is putting on the next year, but it’s an opportunity, if you’re interested in acting, to network, to put your face out there and remind people you exist. It’s putting an interest in community and supporting a company that works tirelessly to provide quality entertainment for their neighbours. It’s an opportunity to reacquaint yourself with friends old and new and share, even though briefly, life together. A season launch is an opportunity for anything, if you take a chance to take it.

I've been in a show and we got the first review this morning.

One of my favourite places to be, all time, is in a theatre, either watching a show, hanging out, or being in a show. I find a real joy in being on stage with a script in one hand and putting myself in the shoes of a character I don't know and trying to work out who they are. And I love the fact that, with a bit of work, you can become someone else. With the right set, the right costume, and other actors around you, you can become someone completely different and have your friends not recognise you.

Since the beginning of June, I have been hard at work rehearsing for a show. I went to the audition, planning to give my all to an audition I would be proud of even if I didn't get a role. About two hours later I sat in a stunned silence as the director announced I had the lead role. As someone who has only played supporting cast, it was stunning news. I went auditioning for one of the supporting cast, in no way had I expected the lead.

The show opened two weeks ago, the 20th of September and we've been doing about five shows a week. I will be honest and say that it has been absolutely exhausting for me. The play runs for about 120 minutes, with intermission, and it's full on physically and emotionally. Despite its exhaustiveness, it's been an absolute blast performing a show I'm proud of, with a cast I am super proud to be working with.

Our first review of the show came out this morning on Stage Whispers. As an actor, personally, I act because I want to. I want to be someone else. I love that. But also as an actor, it's fantastic when you spend so much time and effort rehearsing for a show and you finally perform it in front of an audience and they love it. It's one of the best boosts you could ever get. It's lovely to get recognition for your work. This review gave my ego a boost, but also a sense of relief in that I succeeded with my first lead role. But I gotta shout out to all the cast and crew because everyone has worked so hard on this show and without any one of them, the show would not have been the same.

The Whale's Song

For the past few weeks I had been working on an assignment for my professional writing course that I've been doing. I had to create a web presence with a main node (website) and three supporting nodes. Because I am a writer I decided that, obviously, my web presence would be based on my fiction writing.

This worked well because last year for NaNoWriMo I wrote a science fiction novel that I dreamed of making interactive. By interactive I mean I wrote an Appendix to go with my novel and the idea I had was if I publish the novel online then by the use of Hyperlinks people had the choice of going to a separate part of the novel to read facts and further descriptions of things in the book. By this means my story wouldn't be convoluted with abstract facts that take away from the story. The idea was genius.

Flash forward half a year later and I'm required to make a web presence, and so it seems natural to base it off my NaNo novel.

So I give you my new blog: 'The Whale's Song'.

Updates to it are every Tuesday and Thursday. 8 chapters are already up so if you're interested in reading a comedy/action/adventure/scifi novel then check out the link.

Of course, this blog is entirely dedicated to my scifi novel. I'm not going to be posting other things on it. Unless sometime down the track once I've finished 'The Whale's Song' to use the blog for posting other stories, but that idea is a long way away and I'm not ready to think about it.

So this blog is still active, though I haven't been on it all that often lately due to studies and rehearsing for another show, but believe me, I'm still aware this is here and I mean to keep it going.

Cheers
Peter

The Truth (Is Out There): A Reflection and Poem

As anyone that knows me knows, I love poetry and that I also love to write it. I don't know when this love first started, how or why, but it's been with me for a long time. The poem below is, I consider, one of the best poems I have ever written and is certainly my favourite. I have changed practically nothing since I first wrote this some 6 or so years ago. I was 14, and I wrote it because I knew the girl I had a crush on at the time was out of my league. We were too close as friends for anything further to develop, but I wished we could have been more. And out of that wish came this poem, but spread throughout is still the knowledge that we could never be. Since then my feelings have moved on, but this poem still remains my favourite. Probably due to the layer of nostalgia that covers it.

The Truth

I sit at your side as you cry,

And you sit at my side as I die.

We both know the truth,

And we both know the lies.

The truth is unbearable,

The lies make it so.

We will never know why,

And we will never understand.

No, we will never understand.

You heard the news on the radio;

I heard the news through a microphone.

You couldn't dare to bare the pain,

And I couldn't dare to not bare the pain.

We both believed only to be pushed down;

We got back up so that we could live again.

Everything we know,

Is everything we never knew.

Everything we ever wanted,

Was all we ever had.

Life is unfair, you said so yourself.

But who was there to tell you it was?

And who was it that said it wasn't so?

I guess we will never know.

Just like everything else we won't know.

I cared for all the wrong things,

And you cared for all the right.

I never knew that 'till I was told,

And you never knew until I was told.

We laughed and played until it was dark,

Never realising that it was the dark,

That caused more tears than happiness.

We shared our life together,

And now it's about to change.

You never cared for change,

And I was never bothered.

We just didn't believe enough to believe it.

I wish I could tell you how much I care,

But the words always become lost,

And I forget.

Of all the many things we both know,

We both know the truth.

And no matter how unbearable it is,

It will always be better than the lies.

And the truth is I love you,

And you love me back. 

But it can never be,

For many things never are.

But how do we know?

It's simple, we don't.

And we never will because it's not for us to say,

And that's one thing we're sure of.

(C) Peter Van Werkhoven 2011

To edit or Netflix: that is the question

To edit or Netflix: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to edit,

Pour hours into a novel for publishing,

Or to waste all on Netflix -procrastinate-

And so achieve nothing? To Edit: to write;

And by write, I mean stare at my monitor

Reading words that lose their meaning so quickly

As they blur into each other, tis a waste

Again we find ourselves. To Netflix, to chill;

To chill: perchance to relax: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that relax state what time may pass

when a TV show is complete, finished,

Must give us pause: chance to reflect

On what we must then next do after it;

For who would bear the sad after show blues,

The next season, provided it is now out,

The pangs of despised love, we dedicate,

The insolence of TV and the spurns

That patient we unworthy folks must be,

Time he could have spent editing his novel

Could have been put to use? Who do edits bear,

To grunt and sweat under computer heat,

But that the completion of something done,

The fulfilment that awaits an author

Only when the work is done, not before,

And makes us suffer through many blank screens

Is it not better than after show blues?

Thus discussion does provide an answer;

The analysis of the situation

Is overcast with what is right and wrong,

But the decision has not been made lightly

With all prospects taken into account,

And so stake reputation on the choice,

The great Netflix it is! Vice, is good TV,

May all my sins be forgiven for it.

The Brain is Cold and Mean

Upon a whisper as I heard, two voices inside my head.

A breath breathes out, a torturous sound, a broken heartbeat found.

Alone is felt; no mere thoughts break out except what is in need.

The high court rules, the brain is found commander over the heart.

The heart does scoff, decrees overruled, it pumps the life around.

No sorrows whispered, or found unmarked, that’s not the brain’s decree.

Loyalty is bound, in logic found, made up in make believe.

Conscience is cleared, it is no fool, but is paid off by the hand.

Muscles relax, their job is done. Orders obeyed from the brain.

The heart does ache; council disbands. Overthrown, the heart does weeps.

Rebellion thwarted. All hope to reclaim, hope for the body at large.

The pain is felt; the body shakes at the mighty war within.

The brain is cold -though blood is warm- it’s calculated and cruel.

“The mind obeys,” the brain proclaims, “my every whim, not yours.”

“But comfort and warmth,” the heart replies, “Is what the body craves.”

“It deserves no more than what it has, for futile ambitions,”

The brain does mock. It does proclaim its control over the heart.

“It had a chance, it hurt the soul, this is all for its own good.”

“Grief does not become,” the heart does say, “a soul in its healing.

It needs a heart, one not its own, that it can share its dreams with.

Someone to heal, someone to hope, the right one for this body.

“You can hold it back; claim its unworth, it doesn’t understand,”

The heart does plead, as it does ache. It tries to soften the brain.

“At the end of the day, when the chains rein in, is it me or you that’s a slave?”

The brain does not reply. It hears the whispers again, yet still it does not reply.

The heart is warm, it pumps the blood; it knows what the body needs.

But the brain is stubborn, it will not relent. The brain is cold and mean.

Who saw that coming?

Another year and I'm still here! (Rhyming on purpose because I'm like that).

Every January we usually start off by saying 'Happy New Year' to each other. Normally because it is a new year. Happy? It's too early to tell yet. We wished each other a 'happy' new year at the beginning of 2016 and look what happened to us.

Me? I'm not really complaining. Last year, while long, tedious at times, depressing, and sickening, was also an amazing year of my life. I decided to step into a theatre class and I ended up performing in three of Brisbane Arts Theatre's main house shows and I got to perform in a 10 minute play in a couple of theatres as part of the South-east Queensland Drama circuit.

I met so many awesome people and learned so many new things last year. I quit my old job (one of the best decisions of my life), I started a new job that's at a fantastic restaurant and I'm working with some top notch folk, I finished another year of study, I performed in plays, I competed in NaNoWriMo again and came out a winner with a finished book. It was a pretty good year.

I don't mean to brag or rub my year in anyone's face. It's the last thing on my mind. It's just a quick update as to how my year went. It's also sort of an explanation as to why I haven't written a blog post since September.

My last update was about Jurassic Park: The Musical. The Australian premier was a sold out success, and they are bringing it back later this month for another run that will hopefully also sell out. I'm not in it this time, the original Gennero is back and I can't wait to see him perform.

Straight after Jurassic Park I auditioned for a role in A Christmas Carol (at Brisbane Arts Theatre), and I got the role. Five roles actually. Thankfully I was able to have that changed to four. So many amazing costumes. Also, so very hot! Imagine dressed up in Victorian winter dress in the middle of summer and you'll get how I felt because that's exactly what I was doing.

And then during A Christmas Carol rehearsals I started a new job, wrote another book, finished studying for the year, then it was show time, then it was Christmas, then it was laze around and try to relax after almost a constant 6 months of rehearsals and performances. So, you get the picture? Right?

Now my goal for this year -it's not my resolution because I only half-halfheartedly make a resolution and I like to keep those to myself in case I fail and embarrass myself- is to edit and hopefully self-publish my 2015 NaNoWriMo novel by mid year. But I also have work, and I'll have studies starting up in February, and I'll be looking for more theatre work, so really we shall see how that turns out. Even if I just get it into a nice shape for sharing online for free, that'll be fine with me.

I have plans for the second half of the year, writing wise. I've got books to finish off, and I have to plan NaNoWriMo 2017's novel. This year is going to be busy, hectic, probably just as weird as last year's, and, hopefully, it will very much be a 'happy' year. Which I also hope, if you're read this, and even if you aren't, I also hope your year will be very happy.


-Peter