Spring 2009
With the Season Arc written for Fashion Week (AKA Threads), I pressed forward with writing the second episode. It brings the characters to Berlin and is an enormous amount of fun. Now that things are off the ground, the show is so much fun to write. I know this series will really fly.
Also, as expected, CBC ordered a new pilot script for Natural High. We’d put together a pilot “screetment” and revised series bible, the network wanted more. I’m very happy with the episode, and know that this will make a phenomenal new series.
Playwrights Canada Press is back in my life again, as I work with them to ready my new play The Good Egg for publication. It’s my sixth book and it’s looking very good!
After a busy six months, I finally found time to begin work on the feature Light at Dusk. The outline is shaping up very well.
Winter 2009
In preparation for bringing CBC a re-conceived version of Natural High, I worked with Brightlight President Steve Hegyes to produce a new series bible along with an entirely reworked pilot concept. The results were worth the effort — a solid drama with broad appeal.
Network response to my new series Fashion Week (now called Threads) was excellent. Based on the strength of my first script and bible, I was charged with writing a detailed plan for the first season. First I went to Berlin and Munich for research and to meet executives at producing partners RTL, BetaFilm and Dreamtool.
In Toronto, I hired fellow writers Shelley Eriksen and Daegan Fryklind; together we generated a detailed character arc and season breakdown — basically, a sixty-page blueprint for the series. We also did a bit of preliminary outline work for the second episode.
Rehearsals for The Good Egg were intense. It was nine weeks and I did significant rewrites, including some cuts that ensured that the play was a lean and effective comedy. The premiere was a huge thrill. The cast was great and once again, director Gina Wilkinson was phenomenal. I was very gratified by the critical and audience response — the play clearly has wide appeal, and I believe it will enjoy many future productions.
I was approached to story edit The Mighty Madigans, a TV Movie that has the potential to become a series. I loved the concept and was very impressed by the writer, Mary Pedersen, and so have embarked on the development journey with her.
Autumn 2008
Fall started with a bang as I went to Milan Fashion week in order to research Fashion Week, a one-hour dramatic series about fashion for German and Canadian television. We were whisked through the various fashion shows and met all kinds of people involved in the high-end fashion world. I’m definitely enjoying working with my producing partners at Capri, Dreamtool and BetaFilm.
After that, I went to Paris for further research and to begin writing what will become an extensive bible for Fashion Week. I also commenced research for my new feature Light at Dusk, which is largely set in the City of Light.
Back in Los Angeles, I continued to develop the series with Trevor Walton and Stefan Raiser, and wrote the first episode. As an international treaty co-production, there are many creative and production challenges, but everybody is on-board and I feel very confident in our success.
I began to work with film-maker Ann Marie Fleming on her new feature script, currently entitled Window Horses. I continued to fine-tune the script for The Good Egg to get it ready for rehearsals in December.
The cherry on top of a busy schedule was a short film I wrote called Grace (based on a scene from my play of the same name). It was directed by Samantha Simmonds and is currently in post-production before making the festival rounds.
Summer 2008
Here’s something that only ever happened once before (with Darren’s Greer’s novel Still Life With June). I read a book I loved so much, I knew I had to do whatever I could to write the feature adaptation. The book is called Light at Dusk and it’s written by Los Angeles author Peter Gadol. I met with Damon D’Oliviero, president of Flimshow Inc., and pitched him the idea. He was sold and we immediately started negotiations with the author, who is such a humble, kind and talented man. With the rights secured, we began the process of garnering funding for me to write the script.
I also took on the job as Consulting Producer on a new CBC TV series Being Erica. It stars Erin Karpluk, whom of course I adore, having cast her as the female lead in Godiva’s. The series has a time-travel element presented its challenges, but the other writers on the team were tremendous, we had a lot of fun, and I was very happy with my script. It was also great to work back in Toronto again.
On the opera front, composer Jeffrey Ryan began writing music for Ruth. I’ve been working with him as he sets my words to music — but he’s so talented, he could be working off the phonebook and we’d still want to hear it.
At the end of September, I met with Trevor Walton, president of Capri Television, who told me about an interesting international co-production between Canada’s CBC and Germany’s RTL network, along with BetaFilm. Currently titled Fashion Week, it’s an epic series about the fashion industry. Needless to say, I signed on.
Spring 2008
Sell sell sell. I created and pitched a great number of new TV series, two of which (Strip and The Seeker) are gaining real traction. In addition to all this development work, I bought a new house in Los Angeles, which has taken a lot of time.
In preparation for the upcoming production, I spent a lot of time working on The Good Egg. A large part of this writing was done at my residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. It had been eleven years since I wrote there, so I was very happy to be back among some of Canada’s best playwrights. Working with my director Gina Wilkinson and the Alberta Theatre Projects team, we ensured that the script would be in great shape for its premiere. Oh and I took up rock-climbing!
I also began work on a screenplay adaptation of The Good Egg. While the play itself is still evolving, I’m excited by its potential as a feature, and wanted to get a jump on it while I had some time.
Additionally, I delivered the pilot to Natural High. While it won’t go to camera this year, the positive feedback and network’s enthusiasm have meant that they’ve asked for a revised version for next year. Stay tuned!
Winter 2008
Heaps of travel. I went to Hawaii again, where I wrote the libretto to Ruth, a new opera I’m writing for composer Jeffrey Ryan (we collaborated on The Laurels five years ago). It’s based on The Book of Ruth, and is a fantastic story. After working on revisions, Jeff and I met in Toronto with the commissioning company, Tapestry New Opera Works. We had a workshop led by director Tom Diamond and artistic director Wayne Strongman. It’s proven to be an amazingly strong story with powerful characters that will inspire the composer. My share of the work now done, it goes to Jeff, who’ll spend the next year composing the music before the opera premieres in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympic Arts Festival (with the Cantata Singers) and then a subsequent Tapestry-produced run in Toronto.
Telefilm financed another draft of The Shooting Stage, so I spent a few weeks in Vancouver rewriting the script with producer Kevin Eastwood and story editor Annie Gibson. The script has evolved far beyond the original play it's based on. I doubt anybody but the original writer (i.e., me) would've so boldly rethought the adaptation. The final revisions made, it’s time to go director-shopping.
My play The Good Egg (previously entitled Honour Bright — see Winter 2006) was selected as one of three to be presented as a Platform Play in this year’s PlayRites Festival, produced by Alberta Theatre Projects. I had an intense week of writing in Calgary (luckily during a chinook) as part of a workshop directed by the brilliant Gina Wilkinson. I reworked the ending and pretty much everything before that. In performance, the play worked really well, proving itself to be funny, moving and topical yet highly theatrical. Two weeks later, I got the good news that The Good Egg will receive a full production and premiere as part of next year’s PlayRites Festival. I’m thrilled. The company premiered Grace ten years ago, and I couldn’t ask for a better launch for my new play.
I’ve been working with Amaze Film in moving Still Life With June forward. We’re in search of the perfect director.
Hawaii, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto... I’m glad to be back in Los Angeles for a while — and to be embarking on some exciting new film and TV projects.
Autumn 2007
The writers’ strike sucks. But it’s a fight worth fighting, and so I’ve been out picketing a lot.
jPod premiered on CBC, getting great numbers in the covetted youth market, so everyone’s happy.
The most exciting new development is that I’ve signed on with managers Justin Silvera and Brad Mendelsohn at New Wave Entertainment. I’m so stoked to be working with them!
There have been pitches aplenty in LA. I developed a series with Brandy Norwood and producer Mary Martin based on the amazing true-life story of Monica Groves. I’m also working with Jackie Collins and Fremantle Media on selling a great new series entitled Rich Girls — vintage Collins, how much fun is that!
I sold a series to CBC called Natural High. Since then I’ve been working with Brightlight Pictures as producers. I’ve been travelling a fair amount for research and have worked on developing the pilot and writing the series “bible.” It’s shaping up really well.
I did a few presentations, including a special guest luncheon with Vancouver’s Women In Film and Television.
Summer 2007
jPod is moving along well. I’m not that involved now, except to write two more scripts for the series. It’s so much fun working with the other series writers Douglas Coupland, Daegan Fryklind and Dennis Heaton.
Life After God was published by Playwrights Canada Press, as well as three excerpts in another Gay Monologues and Scenes: An Anthology, edited by Sky Gilbert (Playwrights Canada Press)
Raymond Storey, who years ago hired me on my first-ever television gig, asked me to write an episode of his new series, The Guard, for Global. It was great to get to work with him again, and I think the series is going to do really well.
Oh, and I got my green card!
Spring 2007
I’ve spent most of the past few months writing the first draft of Still Life With June, and a third episode of jPod with Douglas Coupland.
I’m also happy that Life After God has been accepted for publication by Playwrights Canada Press. My fifth book! I worked to put the final touches on the script, and then did all the fun publishing stuff with my editor. We’re looking at a June or July launch.
I'm happy to be back working with the genius composer Jeffery Ryan, on an opera called Ruth, based on the book of the Bible.
I'll be attending the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards, as I'm nominated (for the fifth time now) for best dramatic series. It's for an episode of Godiva's.
I've been included in two anthologies: He Speaks: Monologues for Men (Playwrights Canada Press) edited by David Ferry, and Canada On Stage: Scenes and Monologues (Playwrights Canada Press) edited by Iris Turcott and Keith Turnbull.
And finally, I’m going to be a panel moderator for the Q-Me Conference -- the Queer Media and Entertainment Conference.
Winter 2007
After another restful retreat in Hawaii, I finished the two pilot scripts for The Healer and The Box. They couldn’t be more different — one’s a family drama procedural and the other’s a fun ensemble soap. But in the end, I think they’re both fantastic, and work I can be proud of.
Came back to co-write a second jPod script with Douglas Coupland, which went well, capped by the great news that CBC has picked up jPod as a series, to premiere January, 2008. While I elected not to stay with the show as Executive Producer, I’m confident that the team they’ve assembled will produce an amazing series. Me, I look forward to continuing to write episodes for them when I can.
Optic Nerve Films succeeded in getting development financing for The Shooting Stage from Movie Central, Telefilm and BC Film. It’s enough to get us working toward a second draft of the feature, which I’m thrilled about.
Autumn 2006
Spent the summer developing and writing the two series -- The Box for ABC with Paul Davidson, and The Healer for CBS. They were both amazing experiences. They resulted in great scripts that generated a lot of buzz. Personally, it was a thrill to work with such esteemed producers as Cary Brokaw on The Healer, or Craig Zaden and Neil Meron and his team on The Box. Also, to get to spend time with Adam Dreamhealer in research for the CBS pilot was really great. He and his family are amazing people.
Additionally, I spent a lot of time in Vancouver helping to produce the jPod pilot for CBC. It was a wild time, the end result being a fantastically successful episode that we’re all very proud of.
We received development financing from Telefilm for Still Life With June, so I worked with my producers and story editor on the outline. I’m excited to find that it is indeed possible to translate this rich and complex novel to the screen.
After three years of work, Life After God premiered in Vancouver. I was thrilled by the production -- and by the success of the run. The play broke box office records for its company, Touchstone Theatre. Connected to this, I also read from the play at the Vancouver International Writers’ Festival.
Summer 2006
As is perhaps appropriate, but the seeds I planted in the spring have started to bear fruit. Most of my time has been in Los Angeles, with trips to Vancouver and Portland. My feature Still Life With June is moving forward with Amaze Film + TV in Toronto. We’ve got an amazing team and I really feel great about its possibilities. I’ve signed on with Optic Nerve Films in Vancouver for the feature The Shooting Stage. We’ve worked out a rewrite plan and once we finish assembling our team, I’ll get to work.
In TV-land, I’m co-creating a new series with Paul Davidson and the folks at Storyline Entertainment (Chicago, Hairspray). We sold a TV pilot called The Box to Touchstone Pictures and then to ABC. They were the first network we pitched and they’d bought it before we’d even gotten back into our cars. It’s a wonderfully rich and soapy mystery-comedy that I think will fare extremely well. Writing with Paul Davidson has been a dream.
Additionally, I have the pleasure and honour of working with Cary Brokaw at Avenue Pictures (Angels in America, Closer, The Player), and with Fox TV to develop their series The Healer for CBS. Based on a Vancouver family, this drama promises to be a smart and entirely original pilot.
Finally, I’m working with Douglas Coupland to adapt his new novel jPod into a new television series for No Equal Entertainment in Vancouver. They’ve succeeded in selling it to the CBC, and the pilot films this Fall. There’s nothing like it on television.
Capping it off, we’re about to go into rehearsals for Life After God, which runs in Vancouver November 1 - 25. After three years, it’s great to be back in a rehearsal hall! The play feels like a real departure for me, but it’s such a great story, with themes that really speak to people’s lives -- that I feel good about its chances. Led by Touchstone Theatre’s Katrina Dunn, the actors and creative team that are amazing! www.lifeaftergod.ca
Spring 2006
I've spent most of the last few months in Los Angeles, loving it here. Most significantly, I'm adapting the the novel Still Life With June for Amaze Film + TV. They're an amazing production company in Toronto who produced St. Ralph with the wonderful Adam Butcher (whom I take credit for discovering, giving him his first part -- the lead on Super Rupert, but I digress...). Darren Greer's novel tells the most amazing, hilarious and heartbreaking story. I mostly have to just worry about doing honour to the novel and not screw anything up.
Also finished the screenplay to The Shooting Stage which I'm looking to have produced in Vancouver. Working on a new Los Angeles production of the same play with an amazing cast. We're looking to see this happen in the coming months.
We've cast Life After God and we're ready to roll for our November 1 premiere. I'm thrilled.
Other than that, some new feature scripts I'm writing and a raft of new series ideas which I'll soon be developing.
Winter 2006
After another great holiday in Hawaii (fourteen novels in seventeen days!) I'm back finishing post-production on Godiva's. We had our final sound mix early February, and the next day I was down in LA for meetings with the networks there. Some very exciting possibilities.
Godiva's season II premiered February 14, to great reviews and a thrilled fanbase. A fun, smart, heart-wrenching series... we've managed to strike gold.
I visited Seattle for the premiere of my first play Beat The Sunset at ArtsWest Theater. It's a great production, wonderful cast and some really creative direction, and quite the event for me to see the show -- the first play I wrote, back in 1993 -- standing up so well. Did a fundraising dinner and this artist's interview that was good for the ego. I'm glad I went.
As for new material, I've developed six new hour-long series pitches which I'll start pushing when the time is right. Meanwhile, I've also finished the screenplay adaptation of The Shooting Stage and the first episode of Season Three of Godiva's, should it go ahead. The new draft of Life After God had a workshop in February and it rocks. We're set for a November 2006 premiere at Touchstone Theatre in Vancouver, and before that, a workshop at the New Play Festival there. I also finally -- after four years -- finished Honour Bright, a new play commissioned by CanStage in Toronto and Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. So it's been a time of finishing some major projects, clearing the decks for some new great stuff.
Autumn 2005
Godiva's is in the throes of production. I've basically got thirteen episodes on the go in my brain right now, as I'm starting to arc out episodes 11-13, writing or supervising the writing of earlier episodes, with still others in production, and the first episodes of the season not quite done yet, in editing or sound editing. I'll be glad when we get a few completed, and I can stop feeling like Elastagirl.
As Executive Producer, I'm involved in every creative aspect of production, deciding everything from series and character arcs, individual story structure, breaking each episode and writing or polishing scripts; hiring and prepping directors; casting roles; approving production design, locations, costume choices and even special hair/make-up issues; meeting regularly with the ten series regulars, doing the last-minute script rewrites; being on set for the rehearsals and early filming of every scene; watching dailies; making producer edits with Julia Keatley; choosing the songs we use and working with the composer, and giving notes on the final sound mixes. Along that, there's the ad campaign to oversee, budgets to accommodate, cast read-throughs, media interviews, network notes, and drinks with the crew.
It's killing me.
I'm loving it.
Managing to get a modicum of exercise and decent sleep, although I haven't had to set my alarm since June. I just wake up with a jolt of worry about something, every morning.
Gemini Awards: the first season, we were nominated for Best Dramatic Series. Not bad for a six-episode series on a cable network.
I led master classes at the Canadian Film Centre in Vancouver and Toronto. Good to talk to such a smart group of young writers.
Summer 2005
Pre-production swiftly leads to filming and the cameras roll mid-August. Producer Gigi Boyd managed to get all our cast back on the show, and to assemble/re-assemble the most amazing miracle workers of a crew. I'm taking a few weekend trips to Whistler (and some great long-distance swims across Alta Lake) but for the most part, I'm steeling myself (and my friends) for the fact that life is pretty much All Godiva's, All The Time.
Did a reading of work in July as part of Pride Week, at the UBC Robson Square Library. That was fun.
Spring 2005
Back in Toronto, a few months of getting life back in order, dealing with business, petting my cat and writing another draft of Life After God. Some big changes on that front, but the play's basically there now. Some preliminary discussions of casting and design have me very excited about next year's production.
Took a trip to LA to see my agents at William Morris, and then have subsequent meetings with producers and networks. Very promising stuff. Of course, the problem is, I'm not available to work yet, with Godiva's getting picked up for another season. I really feel I need to see that through, at least one more season.
We have a big release party in Toronto at the Laurentian Room and the reviews and buzz have been great. We premiere March 16.
Flew to San Francisco to see a production of The Shooting Stage at New Conservatory Theatre. My fave American city and a thrill to finally have this production happen -- it was three years in the making.
I had to write the first two episodes of Godiva's season II. It's not the way I like to work, without a writers' room, but I've managed to soldier on and they're pretty good.
After seven years, the screenplay I wrote called The Hunting Party, finally received its premiere at the Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto in a feature now entitled Iceman, directed by Thom Best. Not quite how I saw it, but some great acting, and it's interesting to see after all these years. Also good to see all the guys again.
Come May, I'm back in the Godiva's writers' room with my posse -- Graham Clegg, Abigail Kinch and Meredith Vuchnich. Julia Keatley's also able to sit in with us and together we managed to break episodes 3-6, and they're looking mighty fine! After we finished those up, we were off with our marching orders to write our respective scripts, and after a big farewell party mid-June, I was back to Vancouver for pre-production.
Winter 2005
After a quick holiday to visit my friend Don at his house in Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii (twelve books! Fourteen days!) I'm back to finish up Queer As Folk. I was honoured to write the second-last episode of the series, teeing things up for Executive Producers Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman's amazing conclusion. It's been four of the most intense and rewarding years of my life. I'm so pleased with the work we did on the show. Sure, some people dismiss the series because it didn't take itself seriously and was actually fun to watch. But the fact is, Queer As Folk explored issues that were truly groundbreaking, and we did it fearlessly. The show was every bit as narratively sophisticated and morally complex as the best out there. Working with Ron, Dan, as well as Del Shores, Brad Fraser, Adam Newman those guys are like my brothers. I can't believe we won't be in a room with them every day next spring.
Still, I didn't have much time to mourn the loss here. I flew up to Vancouver the next day to do final edits of the first season of Godiva's. It's been a real challenge the past months, as I've had to do double-duty, Co-Executive Producer on Queer As Folk and Executive Producing Godiva's. I survived and the results have been worth it.
Last day's work on Godiva's and we get the good news -- the series has been renewed for a second season -- thirteen episodes. Ratings on Bravo have been good, and everybody at the network seems thrilled with the work. A handful of Leo Award Nominations too.
I'm teaching a course at the University of British Columbia with Touchstone Theatre Artistic Director Katrina Dunn, that's about play creation. In the process, I'm writing a new play (to be produced by Touchstone next year) called Life After God. It's based on Douglas Coupland's short story of the same name, with a good measure of his book City Of Glass (about Vancouver) thrown in for good measure. The public reading rocked, and I'm very optimistic about the possibilities here.
Down to New York for a production of The Shooting Stage at the Culture Project. The best cast I've seen, and a great production.
Then to Ottawa to speak on a panel for the Canadian Film and Television Producers' Association. Good to shmooze with Canada's best producers, and offer them up some sneak peaks of Godiva's.