Devon Flynn's pen has been working overtime and now all that ink is spilling off the page and onto the stage.
The local writer-actor-comedian is having not one, not two, but four plays presented to the public all in one raising of the curtain. The Nechako Community Theatrics Society (NCTS) staged a four-play suite of performances this past weekend and they are doing it again this weekend. All four are penned by Prince George's Flynn.
The burst of acting action is parallel, in some ways, to the way the scripts came into the world.
"I definitely write in spurts," said Flynn.
He admitted the truth faced by most writers - that he gets knocked off a good creative streak not by some form of writer's block but by the mundane realities of daily life, all the constant common duties that need snippets of attention, and sometimes large gaps of time elapse before he gets back to a long writing drive again.
He'll catch himself loving a movie or a book, maybe a few of them in succession, and those will ignite his inspiration again.
The good work he consumes turns into the good work he makes himself.
"I have a friend who was a published author and I told her about this," said Flynn, referring to Charlene Mattson, author of The Curious Case of Prince Charming and The Glass Slipper Conspiracy.
"And she said 'Devon that tells you you are a writer. You are moved by the words and the stories.' She's definitely been an excellent friend for bouncing ideas with, but I have a lot of friends who are accomplished writers and performers so there is a wide range of support."
Some of that support was on the board of the NCTS. When it came time for them to do their annual winter production, they wanted to expose a local writer if they could. Flynn was on that board himself but didn't pitch his own work at first, but once the others discovered his talent, they wanted to see his work. Since the four scripts timed out, together, at the same duration as a full-length feature play they surprised Flynn by taking on all four at once.
"It was pretty chaotic to do them all at the same time," he said, especially since he was tapped to direct one of the plays, act in another and consult on the whole quartet.
Part of the pressure is adapting scripts on the fly. These plays haven't been workshopped. This is the first time even Flynn is seeing them done out loud with human voices and physical movement rather than his internal voices and imagination.
Edits need to be made when a scene is made tangible for the first time.
"I got a degree of tunnel vision, writing the plays," he said. "Once you get people on stage and you get people saying 'Devon, this doesn't make sense,' you have to sheepishly nod and say 'yes, you're right, that needs to be changed.' The actors and directors have been incredibly patient and adaptable. And like any artist has to accept, you're never going to get it perfect and if you think that, you're in for a lot of frustration. Sometimes you have to declare that it's finished and just get on with it. And sometimes you also have to be flexible and rewrite on the fly."
Flynn was not schooled in the craft of writing, but he has made a personal study of it. This started back in his youth, growing up in South Hazelton. It was there that he spotted a writing contest sponsored by the Royal Commonwealth Society of Canada.
He entered it and won second place. This involved taking his first plane ride and making his first arrival in Vancouver, to attend the commemoration ceremonies. He felt uncomfortable and out of place, but the feeling that resonated out of the experience was an understanding that writing was rewarding and he was adept at it.
Now 28, he moved to Prince George seven years ago to attend UNBC where he obtained his bachelor's degree in environmental planning. He is now the regional coordinator of the Gatekeeper Program for the Canadian Mental Health Association in Prince George. And of course, he is also writing and writing.
"The communication skills - be it acting or comedy or writing - it all helps convey message and convey story. That's transferable to any profession," he said.
He finds his most fruitful times are the hours between 6-10 p.m. However, he is going to relax through the evenings of the foreseeable future.
"I'm kind of played out," he said. "But the fact the theatre group wanted to run with four of mine was incredibly thoughtful and supportive. I was nervous."
He has two nights of performance under the NCTS belt. There are two more nights remaining to watch the four plays. They are all comedies and the plays are entitled Anyone Wanna Be A Hero? (directed by Debora Volpiana), Flight 815 and Awards Show (both directed by Laura Bennett) shown during the first half. Following the intermission, the second half of the night will be a one-hour show entitled Drama Play directed by Flynn himself.
Altogether the night is called Guns, Angels & Thespians. Showtime is 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30) on Friday and Saturday night at Art Space. Tickets are $15 in advance (at Books & Company) or $20 at the door.
