Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
This old house
Prolific playwright pens play about packing up his parents
Though his plays now premiere off-Broadway, local boy made good Vern Thiessen is thrilled to be unveiling his new one-man show on home turf.
"This piece called out to be performed in Winnipeg," says the Governor General's Award-winning playwright who now hangs his hat in the Big Apple.
"It's a personal story about growing up Mennonite in North Kildonan."
And he's not trusting it to any actor but himself.
Thiessen, 46, left home 22 years ago after completing his undergraduate theatre degree at the University of Winnipeg.
The youngest of four children (and lone male), he did a master's in playwriting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He tried Toronto for a couple of years, then returned to Edmonton to write, teach and work at the Citadel, the capital city's big regional stage.
With his knack for locating human stories in historical subjects, not to mention his penchant for poetic dialogue, he has built a resumé as one of the country's most-produced playwrights.
He estimates he has penned 25 plays since the late 1980s. His best known ones -- Shakespeare's Will, Apple, Einstein's Gift (the G-G winner in 2003), Blowfish, The Resurrection of John Frum and Vimy, get productions not just in Canada but in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
His most recent effort, the historical drama Lenin's Embalmers, premiered in March off-Broadway, where the New York Times gave it a rave. It will have its Winnipeg premiere this fall at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre.
About five years ago, Thiessen returned home to help his immigrant parents, Gerhard and Susan, move out of the family home on Edison Avenue.
The experience elicited a wave of memories that he has fashioned into a 45-minute drama, complete with various visual props, thanks to his director and designer, Warren Sulatycky.
Bungalow is being staged at 9 nightly (7:30 p.m. July 25 only) at a BYOV, the Rory Runnells Studio at 504 in the Artspace Building, 100 Arthur St.
"We're testing it in Winnipeg," Thiessen says. "If we get feedback saying I should expand it into something bigger, I might do it."
Can Thiessen act as well as he writes? His old U of W buddy, the playwright and WJT artistic director Michael Nathanson, recalls Thiessen as a veritable Olivier in his performance in a Bruce McManus play, Caffe, in the mid-1980s.
"I don't think Vern chose the wrong path, although he did have a flair for flower arrangements that few know about."
Thiessen has four commissions on the go. He's writing a musical with Winnipeg composer Olaf Pyttlik for Manitoba Theatre for Young People, an adaptation of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage for the Shaw Festival and a drama about Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque for the Citadel.
The fourth is a play about friendship with six women over 60. American actor Leonard Nimoy and his wife, Susan, commissioned it after they staged his one-woman play about Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's Will, in Los Angeles.
"He's not just insightful to the female condition, he's actually incredibly self-aware," vouches his sweetie, Winnipeg novelist Susie Moloney, whom he reconnected with on Facebook a couple years ago.
"We can have a fight, and he gets just as pissed off at himself as I do."
morley.walker@freepress.mb.ca
Fringe preview
Bungalow
z By Vern Thiessen
z Venue 22 (Rory Runnells Studio)
z 9 nightly (7:15 p.m. July 25 only)
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 16, 2010 D5
-
WFP Hockey
Download our new hockey app for the iPhone for Winnipeg Jets updates
-
Editor's Bulletin
Sign up for daily bulletins from editor Margo Goodhand
-
Winnipeg Jets
All things NHL on our Jets landing page
-
Twitter
Follow our reporters and our news feeds on Twitter
-
News Cafe
Check out the menu, read our blog posts or get info on coming events
-
Facebook Fanpage
Follow our Facebook Fanpage for story links, contests and special events
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to The Arts
Poll
Most Popular
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- RCMP receptionist told Stobbe wife was dead
- Cabela's to open massive store just west of IKEA site
- Steinbach booms to No. 3 city in province
- RCMP receptionist told Stobbe wife dead
- Juror dismissed in second-degree murder trial of Mark Stobbe
- Should infants be allowed in the House of Commons?
- No comfort in trade talk: Veteran Thorburn says closely knit club well worth keeping together
- Search is on for man seen leaving the scene where two Alberta Mounties were shot
- US teen gets life in prison for killing 9-year-old; called the murder "pretty enjoyable"
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Three winning tickets sold for Friday's $50 million Lotto Max jackpot
- Woman's car stolen at gunpoint at St. Vital mall, police say
- Eleven people killed after truck hits van in southwestern Ontario
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Stobbe said slaying during shopping trip 'strange': sister-in-law
- Tactical squad storms St. Vital house
- Woman sexually assaulted during noon-hour in Exchange District
- Restaurant Dubrovnik may be closed for good
- Do you smoke marijuana?
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- George Clooney's prank could end Pitt's career
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Tina Maze strips down to her sports bra to send out underwear message: 'Not your business'
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Two children, two women die in fire
- Kate Beckinsale's weight fears over Underworld catsuit
- Tassimo brewers and espresso packages recalled amid rupture, burn concerns
- Cabela's to open massive store just west of IKEA site
- Fighting fire with knowledge
- Spain mourns death of Catalan painter, sculptor Antoni Tapies, top contemporary art figure
- Pardon application fee to quadruple later this month despite complaints
- Our 'true champion'
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- OMG! Candy kings back at it
- Original Joe's, Elephant & Castle expanding
- Flood reviews launched
- Tassimo brewers and espresso packages recalled amid rupture, burn concerns
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- Cabela's to open massive store just west of IKEA site
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- Northern fishing lodge destroyed by fire
- Police target drivers talking on cellphones, texting
- Obama torn by conflicting allies
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Fighting fire with knowledge
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Paddler Starkell was modern-day voyageur
- Tassimo brewers and espresso packages recalled amid rupture, burn concerns
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Canadian woman 'badly injured' in Mexico, local media report apparent beating
- Winnipeg mother watches as car stolen with child inside
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- The cost of calories: It's expensive to eat healthily
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.
The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010; View the changes. New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.