How Not to Play a Fangirl

I attended a workshop last weekend alongside one of my favorite Edmonton playwrights, Marty Chan. Though not as prolific as Lemoine or Belke, I credit Chan's Bone House as the play that started it all for me - after watching it that cool, fall night many years ago, I began my yearly pilgrimage to the Fringe the summer following, and my love of theatre has grown ever since.

Anyway, I felt that I should communicate the impact that his work had on me, so I essentially accosted him at the buffet table and told him so. Keeping in mind that The Bone House centers on the hunt for a serial killer, it wasn't surprising that his immediate response was something along the lines of, "Really? But that was a pretty disturbing play..." Perhaps I should have made it clear why I enjoyed it as much as I did - stellar acting from Chris Fassbender, great use of space and circumstance to heighten the tension (and fear) in the room, and clever manipulation of audience imagination with the use of everyday sounds and objects. Of course, none of this came out in that moment of stilted verbosity, so all I ended up uttering was "Thank you."

I do hope he remounts it soon - it's about time more of the Edmonton community be exposed to his genius!