The play isn't finished yet, so of course the playwrights want you to see the show.
It might sound odd to perform a piece of theatre before it's ready, but that's the only way a writer can truly know if they're on the right track. Ask any comedian about how effective a joke is and they'll tell you the same thing. It's impossible to know for certain until you test it out multiple times.
The writers of Painting The Streets did a short discussion session in fall of 2016. It was a 15-minute verbal outlay of the play's main points under development.
Now it has progressed to a full reading of the script so far. On Friday and Saturday Lauren Brotman and Amy Blanding will perform their two-hander play at Theatre Northwest. It will be a one-hour reading of what they've wrought so far, knowing they have more to do. The audience reaction is a critical ingredient in the recipe for moving the play forward.
"It is now a fully formed story, based on the characters we started with back at the beginning," Brotman said.
"The process has been good. Surprisingly, because we are two different people from very different backgrounds, we luckily had similar writing styles, and that's really helped," said Blanding.
There is a musical component to this production. Blanding has deep roots in music and she has been the leader of that aspect of the play. Brotman is a professional actor and has handled the dramaturgy elements. Both have been equally involved in character development and script growth.
Sometimes that happened as a duo and sometimes they would do homework on their own, then reconvene.
Each one portrays a primary character in the play, and each one also covers some supplementary characters as well, one of which is the city itself. Prince George is the setting, the play deliberately places its action here, but the plot unpacks how being in and of Prince George is emblematic of being a Canadian.
"They don't want to be friends, at the beginning," said Blanding describing the basis of the two women in focus.
"They are both come-from-aways who meet in Prince George. They had a forced interaction for a first meeting, then they keep running into each other, as we are wont to do in Prince George."
"Because we come from such different points of view and hold true to such different values, we have a hard time being in each other's company without clashing," Brotman said.
"The characters show how judgments happen, how judgments can be really incorrect, how we are more than just one kind of person, and how sometimes the judgments that people place on each other are just as toxic as someone throwing oil into the ocean. Through this play we are calling things out, but we are showing that we're all just trying to do our best and so many different things make us up as people."
"No one is a stereotype," said Blanding. "These two women have their initial impressions of each other but there is a discovery of a shared struggle as women, a shared struggle to find peace in this place, they both go to the Nechako to find solace, and Prince George does play a large part. This play could only have been written here and be true to who we are as writers, but our hope is that it speaks all across Canada and could be performed almost anywhere with that same kind of authenticity."
Blanding and Brotman each moved to Prince George from other communities. Brotman said growing up in Toronto gave her an impression that her hometown was the very definition of the Canadian mosiac, but having moved here she was exposed to the shocking realization that Prince George, not Toronto, is more typical of the rest of this country. Urban metropoli might have the most people, but they don't have the most accurate reflection of this unique country.
Blanding said it was a disconcerting shock, at first, to experience the open discourse of political extremities in this city. The tips of the left and right wings are outspoken here in ways the big city doesn't demonstrate. However, even more surprising was the deeper discovery that people here can espouse strong views on certain subjects that push individuals apart, but shift mental gears and come together on other topics. Few people in Prince George keep the exclusive company of those within a narrow ideology.
Even the name and original genesis of the idea, came from that interconnection of political actions. A letter to the editor in The Citizen decried one resident's disapproval of some crosswalks being painted in rainbow colours to convey sexual and gender empathy on a civic level. It was a blast of prejudice in a public display.
Yet there was City Hall approving the plan, indeed going ahead with the multi-coloured gesture, and the public expressing pleasure and pride in the act.
That complexity of community is what Painting The Streets reflects, and the composers dare believe it is an accurate condition of what you'd find all across Canada once you get out of the urban sprawl in which too many people are overly consumed with just getting by on the mortgage payment and just getting home for a pittance of personal time at the end of the day.
"It's very honest, but it is made fictional," said Brotman.
"We definitely drew from our own experiences to construct these characters, and some of that was hard to get through," Blanding added.
Francois Lake singer-songwriter Rachelle Van Zanten contributed a song to the play's soundtrack. Theatre enthusiast and performer Tracy Summerville is aiding with stage directions. Bound To Create Theatre and Theatre Northwest are drama companies offering their resources.
Anyone wishing to attend the live reading and open discourse is invited to attend.
Both events are at 8 p.m. and admission is pay-what-you-can so as to have no one miss out on the chance to see their local community hewn into the performing arts, and perhaps even contribute to the finished project.
"Workshopping a play under development is commonly done all over the place, but Prince George doesn't have a lot of experience with it. Part of what we want to do is develop that as well, and encourage other playwrights to do it too, and maybe we can encourage that side of the performing arts," Blanding said.
"The truth of the matter is, a play should typically take about five years. We are in year two," Brotman said. "What gives us pleasure is the process as much as a finished product. We really hope people want to come and be there for this reading, take part in the process with words or energy or laughter, so maybe people feel more invested in how it turns out in the end and feels more energized by making their own contributions to this art form."
