When Sylvan Lake teacher Steve Neufeld came back from Africa in 2006, he spent several weeks marvelling over the way water comes out of his kitchen faucet.
His month-long visit to Kenya not only disoriented him from a technological standpoint, it also left Neufeld with lingering questions about Western materialism and the meaning of life. He used these questions as themes for a play he wrote, Tumaini.
Neufeld’s two-act script, about a high school teacher who suffers guilt-induced hallucinations after contrasting African poverty to the decadent western lifestyle, has been reworked several times with professional guidance. It was even made into a feature film by a Red Deer College Motion Picture Arts student.
But Neufeld wanted to refine his script further with the help of a live audience. And he’s getting the chance Friday evening, when Tumaini goes to a heightened staged reading with five actors at the Margaret Parsons Theatre at the college. The public performance closes the week-long Scripts at Work Page to Stage Playwright’s Festival.
Preparing his play for a public airing “has been an absolutely amazing experience,” said Neufeld, who has been editing his work since Monday with Vancouver dramaturge DD Kugler and Calgary director Glenda Stirling.
The playwright watched as his 108-pages got whittled down to 98 pages, then 93 pages, and the streamlining process continued on Wednesday.
Kugler and Stirling helped clarify the play’s plot by getting rid of all extraneous wording. And Neufeld noticed something funny happen through this process — the more unnecessary words and conversations were removed, the more the play began to resemble what he first envisioned.
“It’s shaping up to be more like what I was hoping it would be,” he said.
Kugler, who adapted several novels into the stage, including Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage and Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter, credits Neufeld for being receptive, yet unafraid to speak up.
“I’m not interested in anyone who just takes all of my notes without putting up a useful argument,” added Kugler, a professor at Simon Fraser University.
About 10 original scripts were submitted for consideration for the Scripts at Work Page to Stage project. Tumaini was at the top of the list because of its “largeness of vision,” and familiar classroom setting, said Kugler, who also liked that the protagonist is struggling with how to live his life.
Despite having universal themes, Tumaini offers plenty of humour through the teacher’s (Terry) conversations with students, added the dramaturge — “although some of it is devastating humour . . .
One of the major changes Kugler suggested is to have a young actor play the part of the African girl that factors into Terry’s hallucinations. The playwright had originally envisioned her only appearing as a ray of light, but Kugler thought the audience should see the jarring visions that heighten Terry’s inner turmoil.
Stirling cast the actors for Friday’s heightened staged reading, and made suggestions to Neufeld whenever a line sounded clunky or confusing. “My concern is always about clarity,” said the director, who has helped stage other original plays with Alberta Theatre Projects as well as Quest, Lunchbox and Ground Zero Theatres.
Stirling also provided input on some of the stage blocking that will be seen in the Margaret Parsons Theatre. Stirling said the actors had a week with the script, so feel comfortable enough to move about during the staged reading. Costume pieces, props and set pieces will also be used.
The most important role, however, will be played by the audience.
Neufeld, Kugler and Stirling will be watching to see how the crowd reacts to certain scenes and lines. “We always want to know if people are laughing at lines we thought were funny, and whether they get into certain scenes we weren’t sure would work,” said Stirling.
The staged reading of Tumaini is at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception. Tickets are $10 ($7 for students/seniors) at the door.
Budding area playwrights interested in submitting works for next year’s Scripts at Work session need to get writing: the deadline is Dec. 15.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com