in development | reunion | sean devine

Pacific Theatre is working with another Vancouver company, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (with the dramaturgical support of the Playwrights Theatre Centre) to develop Sean Devine's new play Reunion. We're considering it as our season opener for the fall.

Can't tell you much about it at this point, I'm afraid, but it's really something. What I can do is share this peek at Sean's writing process, which came in an email this morning...

Honestly, the rewrite was so much fun to do. Especially the last chunk, where I had 5 days in a row all to myself. It's significantly different, at least structurally, plot development, and character focal points.

There was one point in the writing where I could tell how much fun I was having. You know when a momentum starts and the characters control the writing more than the writer. Well, that had been happening. One of the characters had just done something that was inevitable and had to happen, but it still caught me off guard. I was at Starbucks when I wrote it. After writing it I needed to take a break cause I didn't know what to write after that point. On my way back, I said out loud to myself "I can't believe [that character] just did that!"

We'll be aiming to line up our 2011-12 season by the end of February. In March we work on practicalities - scheduling theatre and rehearsal space, lining up artists, finalizing performance rights, all that - and it all falls apart. By the end of March we get it rearranged and all firmed up again, dig in on the season brochure, and have it all ready to unveil at the opening night of our final mainstage show. This year, the announcement will come May 20,when the curtain goes up on our production of C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.

Definitely one of the fun parts of my job.