Chapter 35 – The Question (2011-2012)

                The last chapter ended with Eric and his father, David, in Ottawa for Eric’s mother’s (Chris’) Celebration of Life with extended family.

                Upon returning to Edmonton, Eric continued down the road of his new career of teaching; by applying to various education boards and schools. September (2011) was still a difficult time as Eric was continuing to cope with the loss of his mother. Slowly he got his focus back, through activities such as meeting up with friends, and taking a First Aid course.

                Eric got out of the house more in October thanks to volunteering with a couple great organizations: The Walterdale Playhouse, community theatre, reflecting Eric’s love of theatre; and the Telus World of Science, in the school programs, allowing Eric to enjoy the teaching environment. The question remained, when he would be getting a full time paid teaching position.

                Around this time Eric also received a decent inheritance from a good friend of his grandparents, Charles Beer, who passed away June 15, 2010. Eric used some of this inheritance to do some shopping therapy, buying such things as a new laptop, a guitar (to learn to play), as well as hire a trainer at a gym to get in better shape and get out of the house. He invested the rest in both RSPs and his house (paying a lump sum towards the mortgage).

                Throughout the autumn, Eric took time to try and catch up with friends both in Edmonton and in Calgary. He even managed to re-connect with his best friend in Junior High, Jason, thanks to a whim to look him up on Facebook. Newer friends, JD, Josh, Steve and Jen invited him to join their board games nights. Eric also spent good time with his father, David, out at various social events; a few plays, exhibit openings at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and other events.

                With a little spending money (inheritance), and a feeling of needing a purpose through the endless days of job searching, Eric entered the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival lottery. In November, Eric found out that he was 14^th on the waiting list… inciting questions: Was that high enough on the waiting list to actually be in the Festival in August 2012? Would the play he had in mind be ready for Fringe?

                It was also in November that Eric learned about Stage Struck 2012 one-act festival happening in February 2012. Eric entered, and was accepted; seeing Stage Struck as a good chance to workshop the play.

                November and December were busy months for Eric as he worked on ensuring the play, titled “The Question” was ready for Stage Struck. He also worked as Santa’s Helper, for the third year, taking photos of kids with Santa at St. Albert Mall. This was on top of his continued volunteering for the Telus World of Science and Walterdale Playhouse, seeing a trainer at the gym regularly, and socializing with friends (in Edmonton and Calgary) and events with his father. Of course, as Murphy would have it, Eric got a job interview for a teaching position in Bon Accord, during all this activity. Although the interview went well, and Eric got praise from the principal, he lost out to a candidate with more experience.

                Christmas was a short relaxing, low-key, event. Eric’s sister Samara, her husband Geert and kids Sebastian and Klara, came for a visit from Brussels. It was also a difficult Christmas as it was the first without Eric’s mother Chris. The somewhat sombre, low-key, atmosphere spilled into Eric’s New Years celebrations. Samara and family were off with friends to ring in 2012, where as Eric spent the evening with his father, David, and family friend Robin, going to a movie downtown. 2012 came as they were on the bus home.

                January presented the ongoing question on the probability of having The Question happen at Stage Struck. Although Eric had a stage manager, Heidi, prior to Christmas, he still didn’t have actors, nor a complete script. As January rolled on, Eric managed to get a finished draft of the script and a couple actors, yet time was pressing. Because of all these late happening factors (along with Eric trying to juggle job search, volunteering, gym and socializing), a couple of the actors felt that things were too rushed and politely resigned. This made Eric question the viability of producing the play at Stage Struck, as well as the quality of the script. In the end he withdrew from Stage Struck 2012, and signed up for Alberta Playwrights’ Network’s (APN) Playwriting Circle.

                February brought a new focus to Eric, even after a re-occurrence of losing out on another teaching job to someone else with more experience (again with praise from the principal), this time in Ardrossan. Eric started a weekly yoga class to work on core strength and relaxation, as well as the start of the APN Playwriting Circle.  He continued to socialize with friends at games nights, and volunteer at the Telus World of Science and the Walterdale Playhouse. He even went to see all the plays at Stage Struck 2012 – where his friend and housemate Zack won best new work for his play “Death Comes to Aunty Norma.” [Note: as of sending this out, Zack’s play is 2^nd on the waiting list for the Edmonton Fringe 2013]

                The Playwriting Circle helped refine the script for The Question; over the eight weeks the script was re-written twice. Hugh Kemeny, the credited author, really appreciated the critiques and comments on the script. Thanks to the great group for ensuring there was a good script ready for the Fringe.

                Spring (March through June) came in with a surge of part time jobs, leaving Eric questioning if he could handle the time management of: starting to tutor math and science at Lights on Mediated Learning Centre in Sherwood Park; as an employee of the City of Edmonton (in April only), by helping to officiate the city census in his neighbourhood; substituting for one day for the St. Albert Protestant School Board; teaching Lego Robotics in an after school group, once a week at two different schools (John A Macdougall and Athelone – both were groups of students from grade 4 to 6. This was his second year in a row of teaching the Lego Robotic course, which he developed last year); and supervising make up exams for high school evening courses at Metro Continuing Education (the same school that hired him to teach the robotics at other Edmonton Public Schools). Luckily, as these paid activities came into Eric’s life, some of his paying activities ended: yoga and time with trainer at the gym. Eric still maintained some volunteering at the Telus World of Science and Walterdale Playhouse as well as social activities.

                Once Eric had got use to balancing the timing of the various jobs (paid and volunteer), and especially once the City Census was over, he managed to get the word out for new actors for The Question. Throughout May and June, Eric not only found great actors for The Question, but word that if the play was 45 minutes it could be in the Fringe. Since the play’s most recent, and best draft to date, was not quite done and well under 45 minutes, this was an easy Yes – spawning more questions: What would the set look like? How could it be built for quick set up and take down? Would the script be finalized in time? Would the actors be ready for opening night? Where to rehearse? What props, costumes, and sounds were needed and where to get them? Many of these questions were answered as the next few months unfolded.

June also brought a range of other activities and news, which included: Eric shooting a gun for the first time at a gun range, as part of his friend Marc-Julien’s bachelor party (with attendance of Marc-Julien’s wedding in July); an interview to teach technical mathematics at NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology); and a visit to the optometrist resulting in unexpected minor laser corrective surgery – Eric’s optometrist, Dr. Brisbin, having new equipment, saw something he figured needed a closer look by a specialist; an ophthalmologist. Eric went in to the ophthalmologist’s office, not expecting much more than typical eye exam. However the exam showed an old torn retina, which Dr. Baker wanted to fix right away… so under the laser Eric went (it was painful! – However, that has not deterred Eric from corrective laser eye surgery in the future).

                An incident with Eric’s stage manager for The Question in mid June left the cast and small crew (Adrian, Angela, Greg, Laena, Orion, and of course Eric) questioning if there would be a replacement stage manager in time for the first performance. Luckily spreading the word quickly brought Chris to the team for July.

                With school out, and most tutoring also on holiday, Laura and Carol kindly offered the Lights on Mediated Learning Centre (where Eric tutored) as a rehearsal space. The set design and build came soon after, and slowly answers came to many of the questions that had come up with confirmation of performing at the Fringe.

July unfolded mostly as the month of answers, and lots of fun work. Preparation for the play went into full swing with great rehearsals and promotional materials being developed: connecting with other like minded plays for cross-promotion, photos, a website (http://hughkemeny.ca/thequestion2012.html) and twitter accounts. Additional work included teaching LEGO Robotics through Metro Continuing Education’s Cool School’s Summer Camp, for the second year, as well as an offer letter for the teaching position at NAIT.

As July was fun in the activities Eric was involved in, August was down right super busy. Once August was over Eric questioned how he managed to: produce The Question at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival, volunteer as an information Team Leader at the Fringe Theatre Festival, taking NAIT’s Becoming a Master Instructor course as part of his training (a two week course that overlapped the Fringe), as well as begin the preparation for teaching four technical mathematics courses at NAIT (three pre-calculus and one calculus). Eric didn’t even get a break between the end of the Edmonton Fringe (August 26) and working at NAIT, for his first day teaching was the next day (August 27).

Eric managed to take a couple short, relaxing, breaks at both the beginning of August and September. In August he went to PanFest; a weekend of joyous learning that reminded him a little of his Waldorf days. In September, a week into work, he took his annual birthday trip; this year was a road trip to Saskatoon with his friend and housemate Zack. Although Saskatoon was a break and an attempt to get away from the busyness of August, Eric spent some of the time preparing for his first full time teaching job, the rest of the time was enjoying the beauty of Saskatoon.

We will leave things there, but before we do, a few answers: The Question had small to medium houses, with mediocre reviews. Eric lost money, but doesn’t regret producing the play. Especially thanks to the amazing cast (Adrian, Greg, Angela, and Laena) and crew (Chris and Orion); He continued on with his volunteering at the Walterdale Playhouse and Telus World of Science as September started; Spends time with his father David going to plays, AGA (Art Gallery of Alberta) openings, and other events around town, as well as with other family when possible; And also makes time for friends.