The official website of the Canadian playwright David French, author of many award-winning plays including Leaving Home, Of The Fields Lately, Salt-Water Moon, and Jitters.
Ted Dykstra, renowned actor, director, and playwright, has directed all of David’s productions at Soulpepper. Beginning with Leaving Home back in 2007, the company went on to present Salt-Water Moon (2008), Of the Fields, Lately (2009), and Jitters in 2010. These beautiful shows were so important to David, and his collaboration with Ted gave his work new life and vitality.
When David died, it was Ted who put together the magnificent tribute to him at Metropolitan United, and I will be eternally grateful to him for organizing and directing that fitting send-off.
And our families are connected now in another way: over the past five years, Mary and Ted’s daughter Rosie have forged a friendship that manages to span the 13 subway stops between their respective neighbourhoods.
It’s a real gift that we will get to see the remount of Jitters at Soulpepper this month. Thanks to Ted, cast and crew, and everyone at Soulpepper!
Ted recently spoke movingly about this new production, and about the company’s connection to David:
This is the weekend that Jitters starts at Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto’s Distillery District! This remount features most of the wonderful actors who were in the 2010 production: Diane D’Aquila, Kevin Bundy, Mike Ross, Sarah Wilson, Jordan Pettle, and the incomparable Oliver Dennis. There are some great new additions to the cast, too, including Alex Furber, Sophia Walker, and Geordie Johnson as Patrick.
Director and friend Ted Dykstra very kindly invited Mary and I to the first reading of the play, and it was splendid! We can’t wait to see the show next week.
The previous incarnation of Jitters at Soulpepper was really special to us, as it happened while David was very ill with cancer. He went in to watch rehearsals every day, and the Soulpepper folks took such good care of him. It was the last opening night that David ever attended, and Mary’s first opening night. Such a perfect show for us at that time, the play David wrote about his adventures in the theatre, a show filled with laughs and love.
Last time Jitters played at Soulpepper, the Toronto Star called it “a comedic masterpiece,” and the theatre has already added some extra shows due to demand. See it if you can! Here’s a link to the theatre’s website: Soulpepper Theatre
Ron Hynes, Newfoundland singer-songwriter died this week, at the age of 64. David and I both loved Ron’s music.
Twice we saw Ron perform at one of our favourite venues, the Trailside Inn in Mount Stewart, PEI. The first time we brought our daughter Mary, who was about 6 months old, along with us. Ron saw her from the stage and dedicated a lullaby to her. The next time he and David had an animated conversation after the concert about how they should collaborate on something sometime. David often listened to Ron’s songs, with “Dark River” and “Godspeed” two of his particular favourites.
In the summer, John Connolly, a PEI singer-songwriter and friend of Ron’s, told me about a song Ron had written called “After Leaving Home.” I found it on YouTube and wrote to Ron to tell him how much I liked it, and how David had liked listening to his CDs. Ron wrote back to thank me for telling him that. At the time I didn’t realize how ill he was.
He was a towering talent, a master songwriter and poet. Gone too soon. Godspeed, Ron. RIP.
On June 22, 2014, David French Lane was officially dedicated with a City of Toronto ceremony. About 65 friends and family members came to celebrate on that sunny Sunday morning. At the event, Rory Sinclair and Tim Grant of the HVRA spoke, and then I said a few words about what the neighbourhood meant to David, which I will condense here:
A sense of place was very important to David’s work and to his life. His plays are often associated with Newfoundland, where he began, that island that shone vivid in his imagination. And of course, he loved PEI, where he spent 40 summers. But in fact, the majority of David French’s plays were set here, in Toronto. He lived most of his life in this city. From the lean-to at the back of Mr. Nutt’s shoe repair shop where his family moved in the 1940s, to the houses on Oakwood and on Euclid. He went to Rawlinson Public School, to Oakwood Collegiate, and also to Harbord Collegiate, just down the street from here. David moved into the upstairs apartment at 254 Brunswick Avenue in the mid-1970s. It was a place with great neighbours who became lifelong friends. It was close to the Tarragon Theatre, to bookstores, and to a movie theatre — some of the things David considered essential. He could have morning coffee and conversation at a friend’s apartment, or read his paper at JJ Muggs. All-day breakfast at Paupers Pub. Dinner at the Other Café, at the end of the street. And although some of the people and places changed throughout the decades, David stayed right here. He loved this ‘hood. It was part of him. And of course, David spent many, many hours writing plays at our kitchen table, which overlooks this very lane…
After the ceremony, the sign was unveiled and Rory played the beautiful pipe tune “The Battle of The Somme.” Afterward, many of us went to Paupers for a nosh and a drink.
The naming of the David French Lane means so much to his daughter Mary, to me, and to all of his family and friends. I’d like to thank the City, the HVRA, (Rory Sinclair and Jan Muszynski in particular) for making sure that David is now literally on the map. It’s a great honour, and we will always be grateful.
I’d like to thank everyone who came to share the day with us!
It’s with sadness that I write this tribute to Alistair MacLeod, one of Canada’s literary lions, who died on Easter Sunday. David and I both loved his writing. In the 1980s when I worked at Playwrights Union, our Executive Director Jane Buss gave me a copy of his wonderful short story collection, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood. I remember laughing, weeping, and marveling at MacLeod’s ability to get to the beating heart of family relationships. MacLeod’s novel No Great Mischief is, of course, a classic. (In 2006, I had the pleasure of selecting and editing David A. Young’s stage adaptation of that novel for Scirocco Drama.)
David French and I were lucky enough to meet Alistair several years ago when Lee Gowan of the U of T School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Department invited Alistair, David, and Michael Winter to do a reading. We all went out for dinner first, and it stands in my memory as one of those golden evenings where the company could not possibly have been improved upon.
David was to get to know Alistair better a few years later when he went to be Writer-in-Residence at the University of Windsor. Alistair’s office was just down the hall from David’s, and they formed a teasing friendship that apparently involved a lot of ribbing about offices. (Alistair’s office was famously cluttered, while David, who was only in Windsor for a year, had a very sparse set-up.)
My condolences to Alistair’s wife Anita and his children and grandchildren. His deep love for his family was apparent, and they will miss him very much.
In the years before he died, David was working on a suspense novel. The story was set in the fall in small-town Ontario, in a fictional place not unlike Gananoque. One October weekend David and I drove to Gananoque so that he could soak in the atmosphere and do a bit of research. We had fun walking around town and exploring…Somewhere I have a funny photo of him taking notes on the end of a pier! Of course, while we were in town we saw a show at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, an excellent production of The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey.
I’m happy to say that the Thousand Islands Playhouse will be presenting Salt-Water Moon this fall, from October 11 to November 2nd. More information is on their website. I look forward to hearing more about their production in the fall, and I hope to get to Gananoque to see it. Here’s the poster image from the show:
As it turns out, today is Jacob Paquette’s birthday. Happy birthday to the young man named after Jacob Mercer, who will soon be playing the character in Soldier’s Heart!
Yesterday I received a beautiful letter from Jennifer Paquette, a director whose production of Soldier’s Heart opens in Woodstock on February 8th. The Paquette family has a heartfelt connection to David’s work, and the Theatre Woodstock production of Soldier’s Heart features real-life father and son playing Esau and Jacob…but that’s just part of the story! Jennifer has kindly given me permission to quote her letter on this blog:
“Life Does Indeed Imitate Art” A Love Letter to David French
This is our family’s story;
In the spring of 1991, I learned that I was being offered my directorial debut with a small community theatre in Woodstock, Ontario. The show was David French’s Salt-Water Moon. I was a 29 year old single mom who had lived and breathed theatre since I was a girl, and Mr. French’s plays had figured prominently in my development as an actor, director and writer. I had toured Ontario schools with a repertory theatre in the early 80’s and Leaving Home was in our line-up and was one of our most requested productions.
I was excited and nervous to finally have the opportunity to share my vision of one of a series of plays about the Mercer family, written by the man who was and remains Canada’s most important English speaking playwright.
I met my husband Jason when he auditioned for the role of Jacob Mercer. Obviously, he got the part, and, well, the rest as they say…
Our modest production of Salt-Water Moon ran in February, 1992 and surprised us by going on to win the coveted Best Production award at the Theatre Ontario festival in Sault St Marie that spring.
Jason and I were married in 1994. In May of 1995, Jason and I learned that we were expecting a child. We had been raising my two little girls together and I think we both knew instinctively that we were having a boy. We didn’t even need to discuss what his name would be. The day before I gave birth, my husband telephoned Mr. French and told him our story. He explained how our own love had blossomed while telling the love story in Salt-Water Moon. Then Mr. French and my husband spoke of the thrill of becoming a parent.
Jacob Anderson Paquette was born the following day, on February 1, 1996. Three days later, after returning from the hospital with our beautiful new bundle, a package arrived in the mail. We opened it to find a copy of Salt-Water Moon with this inscription:
Jan 31/96 (this was the night I went into labour)
To Jason & Jennifer, who are proof positive that life does indeed imitate art. – David French
We treasure this generous gift. But the story doesn’t end there.
In February of 2013, our son will play his namesake, Jacob Mercer in a production of Soldier’s Heart. His dad will play Jacob’s father, Esau. In July 2012, Jacob, Jason and I traveled to Newfoundland where Jacob stood at Coley’s Point, was officially “screeched in” and did a first read-thru of Soldiers Heart with his dad on the steps of the old railway station in Bay Roberts. And so continues our connection with the Mercer family. It is as if these characters are our kin.
Jason and I have been fortunate to share our love of storytelling with our children. We believe that our stories are our most cherished inheritances. We are reminded of this every time we hear our now adult children recall to their friends their favourite story about a play called Salt-Water Moon, and of how their parents met and fell in love.
With gratitude, Jennifer Paquette
First read-through of Soldier’s Heart, Jacob and Jason Paquette on the steps of the train station in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, where the play is set.
This week playwright and poet David Freeman died. He was a writer of power and passion whose work opened our eyes to the world in a new way.
Freeman’s groundbreaking and highly theatrical play Creeps was the first play produced at the fledgling Tarragon Theatre in 1971. Creeps paints a frank and courageous portrait of a group of disabled people struggling to find meaning in a society that places little value on their lives. Since Freeman was born with cerebral palsy, he knew his subject. He also was fortunate to have placed his play in the hands of a great director (Bill Glassco) and a stellar cast that included a young John Candy. But it was the power of the writing that made Creeps such an important event in Canadian theatre history.
David French used to tell the story of how he met Bill Glassco and began his long association with Bill and the Tarragon. It’s a long story, but it starts with Creeps. David’s sister-in-law, Marlene Aarons, had seen the play, and told David that he should go. David was reluctant, but Marlene insisted. David was so impressed with the show that he immediately knew that he wanted whoever had programmed and directed Creeps to direct his own work. He went to the box office and asked for the director’s phone number. Which was given to him on the spot! David phoned Bill Glassco and made an appointment to see him.
I found a photo of the two Davids along with Michel Tremblay in the closet a few months ago, and after David Freeman died, I posted it on Facebook. It was picked up by CBC and several other news outlets, but I will repost it below. I’d also like to share a beautiful poem that David Freeman sent to me after my David died in 2010. It serves as a tribute to them both.
FOR DAVID FRENCH (1939-2010)
The day seized In staccato rhythm Of typewriter keys As enraptured youth Captured truth.
We could do no wrong On Tarragon Stage Where actors voiced Our rage.
The world was our oyster: We were the pearls. The headiness made our heads Swirl.
The center of attention, Hardly a day went by When our names Weren’t mentioned.
Fame flees rapidly And doesn’t defy Gravity. What goes up Must come down Including Toasts of the town.
The spotlight that warms Also burns. In theater, fortunes Turn On a dime. Time Goes fast. Fashions pass.
But Works of passion Leave lasting Impressions. Dispersed Seeds to change The universe, However small, Are better than No seeds at all .
We were young Turks Back then And now That you’re gone, Your words, your work Will live on.
Michel Tremblay, David Freeman, and David French at the Chalmers Awards, 1970s.
While going through some old photos last week, I found this wonderful shot of Michel Tremblay, David Freeman, and David French from the 1970s. I don’t know the occasion or the photographer, but wanted to share it here. If you have more information, write and let us know the scoop!
