Making theatre meet instant gratification
People House Theatre is a Guelph-based theatre production company that aims to create theatre for the community.
With this in mind, Friday Night Writes: Monday Edition (FNW) was free, open to everyone, and took place at the University of Guelph’s campus at the Bullring.
Those in attendance had the opportunity to sign up as either a writer or actor.
Julia Haynes, FNW organizer, introduced the event and extended a friendly invitation to the Bullring’s patrons.
“We don’t want it to be as formal as it has been in the past, where everyone sort of sits and waits for the action to happen. We want it to be a social night for people to connect with each other and potentially connect creatively as well. Writing is often a very lonely art, and to stretch those muscle—the writing and the acting muscles—in between projects you’re working on is really important,” Haynes explained.
The way FNW is organized gives ample opportunity for socializing. Those who had signed up as writers were given 30 minutes to write a monologue—a speech presented by one character— based on the evening’s theme. Taking inspiration from leap day, the theme was “taking a leap.”
Haynes then began the acting portion of the evening. She would call a writer to the stage and have him or her choose a name. The person whose name was pulled would perform the writer’s monologue.
The monologues for the evening touched on a variety of topics: taking the leap to be a manatee whisperer, the origin story for leap frog, a to-do list involving Idris Elba, bungee jumping, leaps of faith, and more.
It was interesting to see how differently each writer interpreted the theme and to watch each actor portray a monologue on the spot.
The Ontarion asked Danielle Fernandes, FNW organizer, what people enjoy about FNW.
“I think why people like it so much is because it’s so quick. There’s no preparation—usually theatre takes such a long time and there’s so much rehearsal—but people can just show up and anyone can participate and it’s highly accessible to anyone who wants to be a part of it,” said Fernandes.
The Ontarion asked Claire Plant, FNW participant, what she liked about FNW.
“It was very spontaneous and so much fun to just go up there and try something new,” said Plant.
The Ontarion also asked Liam Thompson and Thomas Wright about the importance of this event on campus.
“Events like this […] help to foster a sense of community between programs and make people feel like they belong […],” said Thompson.
“I think the world of spontaneous creation in art is absolutely what inspires students—inspires us—to always be recreating what we thought was normal and redeveloping new ideas. And sometimes the best thing comes from nothing. These opportunities force us to face nothingness and find new creation,” said Wright.