Social Media

Currently you can find me here:

jayskis.bsky.social 

Self Producing

It just doesn't work anymore.

The days of cost effective promotion are over. Social media is so toxic that I refuse to create and share events, visit group pages, and tell my "friends" about upcoming performances. And a social media platform that relies on visuals is no help for a art form that relies on the imagination or "the minds eye".

Email newsletter platforms are now too expensive, and if I am spending a lot of my time unsubscribing, so is everyone else.

Eventbrite or other on-line ticketing services are now too cluttered and too expensive.

Covid decimated local theatre spaces. The result is that they will accept anything if it pays the rent, even if that means ignoring their mandate to present only live theatre.

Local media is dead or dying. Certainly it's standards have been chopped off at the knees.

It's just no fun anymore. Sigh

Playwriting

Something new for 2025.

Local live theatre booster Eric Goudie, put out a call at the end of 2024 asking people to submit a 10 minute play. A few would be selected for a play reading at the Fergus Grand Theatre to celebrate World Theatre Day, Thursday March 27, 2025.

A 10 minute play felt doable. Although I knew that might be deceiving, because they say poetry is taking a full length novel and reducing it to ten lines. 

ANYWAY, I gave it a go and thoroughly enjoyed the exercise.

Many times throughout my theatrical journey I have had to compose scripts or texts. Sometimes for child drama presentations or adult workshops. Under pressure and time constraints, I was able to whip something off because procrastination was not an option. Were they good? Well let's just say they were not dreadful.

What scares me most about writing is the constant rewriting. It's so damn hard to stay motivated after the initial "ah ha" moment of inspiration. Now the drudgery begins, like every creative endeavour.

Still, that experience of writing a ten minute play was, on the whole, lots of fun and extremely rewarding. I was able to say after several hours and many rewrites, "I did it"!

I love performing. I know I am in my comfort zone when I do it, however the media landscape has changed drastically in the last few years and self promoting live shows is increasingly depressing. I have come to loath social media. I miss the days of newspapers, local theatre reviews, and print advertising.

The nice thing about playwriting is I can keep it a solitary activity (and yet here I am - the irony is not lost on me).

Still, I have just finished a full length play, two more 10 minute plays and am now struggling with two more full-length drafts. Will I now die trying, or will this move forward? I don't know.

What I do know is many years ago when dabbling with the story of The Unfortunate Man, I initially wrote it as a play. I threw a play reading party, which was loads of fun and I learned then that I was not a playwright. That play went on to become a walking tour.

My latest full length play, based on the notorious story of Burke, Hare and Knox, a 19th century tale of murder, will make for another marvelous play reading party if nothing else. Stay tuned for details and if this sounds like fun, reach out.