Raghu Lokanathan is accustomed to writing, creating, performing but always with some kind of musical tool in his hands.
For his latest artistic venture, the well known singer-songwriter had to put down the banjos and guitars in exchange for manipulating the human instrument. He has recently become a playwright and stage director for the first time.
Lokanathan is Prince George's representative in this region's New Play Festival held annually by Theatre BC's Central Interior Zone. Prince George, Williams Lake and Kersley have entries in this showcase of original one-act plays.
Lokanathan decided to give scriptwriting a try when he heard of an opening for a workshop by celebrated regional playwright Roy Teed. Over the course of eight weeks, Teed and the group of aspiring writers helped each other along on their respective projects, and at the end, three of them would be selected for full production. Lokanathan's was one that made the cut.
He said Teed was a true mentor to the group. "I learned a lot of valuable technical stuff: how you manage things on a page, the concept of 'show don't tell' by making things emerge out of actions instead of the characters talking about it, economy of language, pacing, and the idea of what the characters each want and how they develop based on what they get or don't get as they pursue what they want."
Apart from the foreign art form, this scriptwriting exercise was far from how Lokanathan usually operates in his song crafting. Many songwriters will send drafts of their unfinished work to fellow composers for their suggestions. Lokanathan does not. It is a solitary process for him, so he also expanded his creative expertise simply by having the others in the seminar go over his progressing work, and he theirs.
He also said he looks forward to seeing the audience reaction to the play, since his familiar performance territory is getting crowd feedback instantly in three- to four-minute segments. Theatre audiences give momentary fragments of emotion then unleash their ultimate critique of the work at the very end.
"In some ways, the two processes are not that far apart," he said. "I put my mind to writing a play based on simple conversation - the way people actually talk and interact by speaking," he said. "What I'm interested in in songwriting is lyrics that have an element of the qualities you find in speech. I'm also interested in speech that has the quality of song to it. So I think about that a lot."
Another new experience is the rehearsal process. Like a song that gets written on a guitar or piano, then gets fully dressed later with the full array of band or orchestra, a play is only in its underwear as a script. It doesn't truly come out into view until it has actors, sets, props, and the one-dimensional words come to three-dimensional life.
"It's interesting and quite moving as well to hear someone give themselves to something you wrote. You can't imagine it," he said.
Many playwrights consider first rehearsals just part of the draft writing process. Once words are said out loud and actions demonstrated by moving actors, it can trigger new plot directions. Entire rewrites often occur. Lokanathan said he is not doing that. Other than a word tweak or two, he and the cast of four are sticking with what they have.
"I'm not inclined to labour over it," he said. "This is a first-time thing for me so I'm more interested in seeing how the theatre thing works. It is what it is, and that's fine with me. I was fascinated by the writing process and now I'm fascinated by the production process.
"And I'm not hard on myself about this," he added. "I know I applied myself and gave myself to this adventure, and I like how it turned out. It leaves me with a taste to do more. Some people describe writing as an act of suffering, and I definitely get that, but for me it was a playful and joyful thing. You can find joy inside labour of any kind. If I didn't like it for its own sake, I'm sure by now I would have moved on to something else I did enjoy."
Nor does he fear the disapproval of an audience. He is well experienced in the ups and downs of public opinion of his art, and he believes there are lessons for the creator in all forms of feedback.
"One of the precious things about performing is it asks you to still be there, if it's awful or if it's wonderful - to be present in something emotional," he said. "It's the great opportunity we all have to practice that for life itself or for future versions. It's an opportunity to explore feelings and not run away from them if things get uncomfortable. And writing, too, is an exercise in staying there and making yourself available to experience what happens next. Don't disappear. Don't be half there. That's when you really do blow it. But if you can occupy that moment and recognize your presence in it, it can be truly uplifting even if you don't even like the art or if the performance isn't going well - and I am speaking from experience."
Prince George audiences can be in the moment of Lokanathan's theatrical debut on Oct. 4 at Art Space. His play is called Work and will be presented along with The Trip by April Gerwing of Williams Lake and Down the Rabbithole by Pete Drewcock of Kersley.
The $15 ticket gets in to see all three plays. They are available in advance at Books and Company or at the door while supplies last. Doors open at 7:30 and showtime is 8 p.m.
All three productions will be repeated at the Kersley Community Hall on Oct. 10 and again at the Williams Lake Studio Theatre on Oct. 11.
