These are pictures of Sukhpreet Sangha rehearsing Hum-Buzz for a staged reading in the year before we all started using Zoom for some reason.
I try not to let a year go by in which I don't write a project grant (except for 2020, for obvious reasons). Hum-Buzz is the wonderful gift that occurs when you receive the grant you didn't think you'd get while losing the ones you've been pining for.
My successful grant forcefully shoved my collective, Informal Upright, into producing a short run of staged readings of original works that artfully responded to the Beckett canon. I took this opportunity to delve deeply into writing these 37 pages of dramatic blank verse which Sukhpreet read in less than 13 minutes.
A housefly lives in your bathroom, she talks fast, she's going to die soon, and she' is terribly in love with you. From this pitch, you wouldn't quite know it: this piece is about parenthood.
I directed the staged reading but, for an application sent to a festival (since canceled for covid, of course), solicited the assistance of director, Jay Northcott, to help us stretch the piece into a 30-minute performance without losing the breakneck speed that Sukhpreet so virtuosically delivers.
With the time to create this piece gifted to my collective by the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund I permitted myself to approach the writing process with high-abandon. It is rare for me to feel as naked in my writing as I am here. And I'm excited for this piece to eventually have an audience some day.
Because of the grossly atypical nature of this particular play, I'm not entirely sure how to excerpt it for you. It's hard to isolate any given section in a way that does justice to the content. However, the latest update of the original staged-reading version is available for purchase from the Canadian Play Outlet.
I try not to let a year go by in which I don't write a project grant (except for 2020, for obvious reasons). Hum-Buzz is the wonderful gift that occurs when you receive the grant you didn't think you'd get while losing the ones you've been pining for.
My successful grant forcefully shoved my collective, Informal Upright, into producing a short run of staged readings of original works that artfully responded to the Beckett canon. I took this opportunity to delve deeply into writing these 37 pages of dramatic blank verse which Sukhpreet read in less than 13 minutes.
A housefly lives in your bathroom, she talks fast, she's going to die soon, and she' is terribly in love with you. From this pitch, you wouldn't quite know it: this piece is about parenthood.
I directed the staged reading but, for an application sent to a festival (since canceled for covid, of course), solicited the assistance of director, Jay Northcott, to help us stretch the piece into a 30-minute performance without losing the breakneck speed that Sukhpreet so virtuosically delivers.
With the time to create this piece gifted to my collective by the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund I permitted myself to approach the writing process with high-abandon. It is rare for me to feel as naked in my writing as I am here. And I'm excited for this piece to eventually have an audience some day.
Because of the grossly atypical nature of this particular play, I'm not entirely sure how to excerpt it for you. It's hard to isolate any given section in a way that does justice to the content. However, the latest update of the original staged-reading version is available for purchase from the Canadian Play Outlet.
It doesn't cost much. Please forgive me for baiting you with a purchase. If there were a choice I'd much prefer you come watch it live instead. To give you a clue, there are very clear echoes of Hum-Buzz in the Untitled Goose monologue which I am actually sharing the text of in this series. Peace, lovers!