Summer is here. For much of my life, especially as a child, that meant No More School! Now as a parent of children, no more school just means I have to be responsible for those kids… all day. I’m not complaining… well, not too much. It just changes the nature of what summer …
I love music. I love listening to music. I love playing music. I love listening to music with my friends. I love playing music with my friends. I love it when I get to listen with my friends to music that I made with my friends. Such was the joy I had last Friday night, listening to an EP that my …
I’ve been meaning to write for a while. There have been all these wonderful things going on and I’ve wanted to post about them but it never feels like I have time to say all I want to say and so… ironically… I don’t end up writing anything at all. So here I am, …
In the month of October, I drove over 2000 kilometers across Ontario highways in a big black SUV. It wasn’t exactly my dream vehicle, and the 401 is no picnic to drive, but it was all worth it. It was great to be on the road because I got to share My Little Plastic Jesus with dozens of people …
Photo by Ira Bratton I’ve been up past midnight too many nights in the past month. I know midnight is not late for some, but when you’ve got younger kids like I do you are going to be awake by 7 a.m. whether you like it or not, even when your body wants a full 8 hours of sleep. Some …
Are you enjoying your summer? I think I’m enjoying my summer. At least, I’m trying to enjoy my summer. I had a great evening celebrating my birthday and singing songs with my sister in The Bratton Backyard (look at those siblings singing sad songs together). I’m grateful for the …
Over the past few months I’ve been having fun writing songs, recording songs, and teaching songs all in a joint effort with my friend Amanda Trapp to create the best sound design for not one but two Shakespearean plays. Romeo and Juliet opened on Friday, July 7, and As You Like It opens on …
Back in 2002 I was an intern working with the youth group at my church in Edmonton. My good friend Dave Von Bieker and I worked together for two years helping entertain, engage, and sometimes (Lord help us) have a positive impact on the spiritual formation of young people. During my time in that …
I’ve been blessed by the generosity of other artists who have freely let me use their art in a variety of creative ways, but I’ve never been so bold as to ask Peter Gabriel if I could use any of his music. Thankfully Deanne Bertsch was that bold, and Peter Gabriel was so impressed with …
Orson Welles said that “acting is like sculpture. In other words, it’s what you take away from yourself to reveal the truth of what you are doing that makes a performance.” A good performance then, is “always entirely made up of the actor himself and entirely achieved by what he …
It’s that season again. No, not that season - Not the season of Santa Clause & wreckless overindulgence. Not the season of shopping in congested malls, or the season of happy-clappy Christmas music. Not the season of slippery roads and ice damned roofs. Then again, maybe it is a season …
This little blog is mainly a way for me to share what I’m doing professionally with people, but I hope you’ll allow for a bit more of the personal from time to time. Like this picture from last month of me and my kids navigating a corn maze (picture by Amy). Sometimes I’ll explain …
It’s nice working with people you like. It’s even better when those people are really talented at what they do. So, when really talented and lovely theatre people invite you to be a part of a Pulitzer Prize winning play it’s hard to say no. That’s why I’m currently in rehearsals for A Long Day’s …
Making the decision to give yourself more fully to a vocation is always a little fraught. I’m not just talking about changing jobs, though that may be part of it. I mean that dedicating yourself to work that is deeply connected to your identity can come with a host of challenges. It may mean …
Back in April, Burnt Thicket Theatre released the first episode of our podcast series We Treaty People. We released four more brand new audio dramas along with insightful interview podcast episodes over the next couple of months before taking a break for the summer. I’m glad to say that as of …
For almost 28 months I didn’t act on stage. Such is the nature of a pandemic. Now, at long last, I am back on stage again in Shakespeare On The Saskatchewan’s production of Cymbeline. I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but when you take on a production in which you …
It’s been hard to make Theatre during the pandemic, which is why last year I helped Burnt Thicket Theatre launch our first Audio Drama Podcast, Tied in Knots - burntthicket.com/show/tied… It was fun to make and we learned a lot, it’s why we thought we could make another podcast, …
Back in 2019, I started touring a one-person show that I wrote about growing up within Evangelical Pop Culture. I mainly shared it in people’s living rooms. It was intimate, it was fun, and I enjoyed every time I got to share it. That show, My Little Plastic Jesus, toured right up until Covid …