Author: nbacts2013

A Q&A with playwright Brandon Hicks

​​Brandon Hicks is a writer and cartoonist based out of St. Stephen. His work appears in a number of publications, including American Bystander, National Lampoon, Fangoria, and CBC. Locally, he’s a regular contributor to The Manatee and The EDIT magazine. His short films and plays have had fun in several festivals, and his work has won awards from international galleries. He co-wrote the children’s book That’s Not True, with Shauna Chase, and is the author/illustrator behind the Beezle, Buzzle and Barb series from Humorist Books. His first novel is forthcoming this fall. 

Somehow amidst his busy schedule, Brandon finds time to write plays, and we have had the pleasure of sharing his work for the past many festivals. He’s back again with his latest, Keeping Tabs.

How would you describe your new play Keeping Tabs without giving too much away?

Keeping Tabs is a look at how people currently communicate. Most of our social, professional and even romantic interactions are now taking place behind a screen. I think we were heading in this direction anyway, but the pandemic has certainly expedited the process. I hope that it helps to highlight how strange this can still feel. 

It’s a physical play, full of farce, gags, and a ton of colourful characters, but it’s also a play about a woman, alone in her room, fiddling around on the computer. Both of these things are equally true.

How important is humour to you in your everyday life and what motivates you to write year after year for NB Acts? 

I’ve been lucky enough to make humour writing into my career, so it certainly drives what I do. On a personal level, it’s just a great way to contextualize your thoughts and ideas. It’s kind of like how in poetry, a rhyme can give a line some extra weight. Similarly, if the joke clicks, then the idea is valid. Through the use of absurdity, you can almost convince yourself that there is order to the universe.

I love the theatre scene here. When you’re working in Fredericton, you’re drawing from a pool of the funniest, cleverest and most creative people in the province. Notable Acts has created a great framework for highlighting local talent and making it accessible. 

Can you explain what it’s like writing a play and then handing it over to someone else to direct and act? Is it weird at all hearing other people deliver the jokes you’re written? 

When I write a script, I try to picture the whole thing happening in my head. My mind’s eye watches it happening and I try to record it in as much detail as I can. Once it’s done, though, I’m happy to hand it off to the people that are going to realize it.

I’ve directed a few shows myself, and the last person I wanted to hear from was the writer. As far as I’m concerned, after I finalize the script, it’s no longer my project. I’m happy to support the process, but it’s not the crew’s job to shepherd my vision from the page to the stage. It’s my job to provide them with a script that will stoke the flames of their own creativity. 

If you allow creative people to have a sense of ownership over a project, you’re guaranteed to get better results. 

Writing and drawing can be such a laborious process, full of compromise and self-doubt, so I rarely get the chance to laugh at any of my own stuff. But seeing what these actors, directors and the crew do with the blueprint I hand them is always such a joy. It always surprises me, and I laugh myself silly. 

What’s your favourite part of the festival? Is there something you look forward to each year? 

I live in St. Stephen, so it’s harder for me to engage with the local theatre community as much as I’d like to. If you are there, though, I’d recommend going to see everything. Again, Fredericton has a unique wealth of talent, and we’re fortunate to be able to see these shows. Theatre is only happening as it’s happening. You never know when we’ll be forced back inside for another two years, so don’t miss out!

Keeping Tabs is one of four ten-minute plays featured in this year’s Taking It To The Streets series of pay-what-you-can outdoor performances. Catch a performance July 24-27 at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Keeping Tabs by Brandon Hicks | Directed by Jane Deil | Featuring Diana Chávez, Kaylee MacNeil and Alex Pannier.

A Q&A with playwright Julianne Richard

Julianne Richard (she/her) is a writer and theatre artist, returning for her sixth season with NB Acts. Born and raised in Fredericton, she has recently taken a break from being onstage in order to shift her focus to writing, directing, producing, teaching, choreographing, and occasionally chilling out. Her plays tend to focus on absurd jokes and reimagined clichés, or small moments and understated emotions – there is rarely an in-between. 

Julianne’s plays Murder Mondays and To Dig or Not to Dig are part of this year’s festival lineup. 

Two plays? Where do you find the time and the motivation?

Both of these plays began as creative writing projects for a playwriting class at UNB (shoutout to Len for developing his assignments to perfectly fit into NotaBle submission requirements – very clever move), so the early drafting process was mostly just deadlines and mild panic. That being said, I knew going in that I wanted both plays to be more than just class assignments. When I’m creatively fulfilled by a project, I tend to hyper focus on it until I feel satisfied, so time is always more of an issue than motivation. Late nights, early mornings, neglecting other deadlines, and a boatload of encouragement from many kind folks in my circle were key when it came to crossing the finish line for both of these stories. 

With two examples of your work included this year, how do they relate to one another opr do they? Can you explain a bit?

There’s definitely similarities between the two plays – they’re both comedies (though one is significantly more absurd than the other), and they both feel a little whimsical or quirky. I also write with a lot of wordplay, alliteration, and ridiculous vocabulary, so they’re both tongue twisters for the actors involved. At the heart of it, though, I just write what I know. While I’ve never been on a dinosaur dig and have never been involved in a murder investigation, my childhood was one of fieldwork (my parents are biologists) and Agatha Christie adaptations. The circumstances of both plays are very different from my own life, but they are both in settings or literary traditions I understand, at least to a certain degree. I’m also very guilty of mining my own conversations for good lines – so if dialogue from a play sounds familiar, it’s probably a variation of a conversation I’ve had in real life. Hazard of being my friend, I guess? 

You have been involved in NBActs for a few years now in different roles. Could you comment on the important role NotaBle Acts plays in supporting new and emerging writers like yourself?

This is the jackpot question, because I could easily spend all day waxing lyrical about how much I love NotaBle Acts. This is my sixth season with the festival (I don’t think the terrified-to-audition version of myself from 2017 would believe that I’m writing this), and I’m still blown away by the wealth of talent it supports, and the amount of creativity that it fosters every single year. I think having accessible spaces for people to share their art, where it can exist with and be seen by people at all skills levels, is an invaluable resource. In my experience, NotaBle Acts builds community, collaboration, and confidence – not just for playwrights, but for the many actors, directors, and crew members involved. These are my first plays that are ever being produced, and I feel so lucky that it is with this festival – it would have felt wrong to start anywhere else. 

Julianne’s play Murder Mondays will be performed as a double bill with I Hope You Can See The Birds from July 28-30, 7:30 p.m., nightly, at Memorial Hall, UNB (9 Bailey Drive). Tickets available at the door for 15$ regular, 10$ senior/student/underwaged.

Her other play To Dig or Not to Dig is one of four ten-minute plays featured in this year’s Taking It To The Streets series of pay-what-you-can outdoor performances. Catch a performance July 24-27 at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Murder Mondays by Julianne Richard | Directed by Jake Martin | Featuring Rose Messenger, Brenna Gauthier, Alex Fullerton and Jason McIntyre.

To Dig or Not to Dig by Julianne Richard | Directed by Armin Panjwani | Featuring Rebecca Tremblay and Adrian Saliendra.