Dorian is a rock musical that Ted Dykstra and I began writing in 1987 or 88 (I can't quite remember).  I wrote the libretto and Ted wrote the music. It is loosely based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, which has been adapted widely for stage, screen, radio and just about any other medium you can imagine.  Our version is a rock musical that takes place from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The characters are somewhat based on the ones in Wilde's story.  Dorian (single name only) is a young scruffy hippy who is transformed into a male super model by an agent, Rhonda Westgate (a female version of Lord Henry Wotton), after fashion photographer, Norman Pearl (a thinly-disguised Basil Hallward), takes his photograph.  Norman's assistant, Rose (standing in for Sibyl Vane,) is Dorian's doomed love interest.  The cast of characters is rounded out by the Portrait, who has some of the best songs (in my opinion).  

This project has had a long and tortuous history, including workshops and performances at the Blythe Festival, Video Cabaret, the Tarragon Extra Space and St. Anne's Church (Dundas & Dufferin).  At one time there was even a New York producer interested in the show (due to the success of a show Ted had created with Richard Greenblatt called 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, which played off-Broadway and in London's West End).

In all, Dorian went through umpteen various incarnations and rewrites right up to 1997 or 98 (again, I can't quite remember).  I have quite a number of cassette tapes and a CD of demo recordings created in Ted's various home studios, McClear Pathe Studios and live performances.  A web site was created by our friend, Stephen Caswell, who also put together a CD (comprised of some of the McClear sessions and live performances), which can be purchased on CD Baby. 

Dorian has been pretty much dead as a door nail for the past ten years.  Every now and then I listen to the CD and am still mostly impressed by the level of song writing (you can listen to samples at either DorianRocks or the CD Baby page).  For the most part I have been happy to let Dorian rest in peace, rationalizing to myself that some things are not meant to be. Nevertheless, the last time Ted and I met (in June), we talked about trying to drum up interest in a concert version of Dorian.  This recently led me to look at the last script we put together from our last workshop performance.

Having just finished a draft of my novel and looking over the other writing projects I have planned, I felt a sudden urge to revise the Dorian script.  Ten years is certainly enough time to look at a piece of work with "fresh eyes" and it was very clear to me what I needed to do to streamline the script so that every song pushes the narrative forward.  I suppose the past ten years I've spent plying my craft as a fiction writer may have had something to do with it, too.  The chance to revisit this work-in-progress has reinforced a long-held belief that there are no short cuts through the creative process.  I know Ted has always harboured the belief that Dorian will have its day at some point.  Who knows if that will happen?  Still, I can't get a bit of lyric that runs throughout Dorian out of my head: 

Beauty to its beholder 
will never really die 
as time passes him by
quicker than the eye. 

Been a while since I showed my face around here, so it's nice to see that not much has changed. The last time I checked in I was about to head off to the Great Blue Heron Workshop.  Normally when I go to GBH I take an Acadian bus to Antigonish, which is a four hour journey and entails changing buses at Amherst and again at Truro.  This year a pal of mine, Liza (or just Za, whom I met at the Seawords workshop at Brackley Beach here on PEI last year) was driving there and taking the ferry to boot (Yay!) ,so I offered to help out with gas and we rode together.  Much more pleasant than the bus and Za is a fun traveling companion, very easy going and interesting to talk to.  I actually ended up paying for us to get on the ferry, which is cheaper than the round-trip bus ticket, so it all worked out quite well.

As usual, GBH was a great week.  I was in Alistair MacLeod's fiction group (my second time working with him).  He actually remembered me from last time, remembered one of the stories we worked on then, and even remembered (much to my embarrassment) that I had inadvertently commented (half-jokingly) that he had “control issues” with his characters.  We had a good group of writers and our sessions together were pleasant and fruitful.  My one-on-one session with Alistair was also very encouraging.  He liked the story I was work shopping and had only a couple of minor suggestions for improvement.  He even asked if I would submit it to The Windsor Review (of which he is the Fiction Editor).  I've been published twice in that fine magazine.  After I've done my revisions on the story I may submit it to The New Yorker (which I try every now and then, being the cock-eyed optimist that I am).  No doubt I will be rejected by them yet again and will most likely end up sending it to the WR.  I guess that sounds like I'm settling for second-best or something, but I don't mean it that way at all.  I just think it is important to submit my work beyond the normal purview of my publishing experience.  I'd like to think Alistair would agree with me on that.  Of course, I would be more than happy to have my work appear once more in The Windsor Review.

In the middle of our week we had a free day and I had arranged to do a reading at Frog Hollow Books in Halifax.  They had recently moved from their location at Park Lane Mall to a new store nearby on Brenton Street.  It was a very cool and funky little space. The owner, Heidi, was very welcoming and had a nice little set up with Fatted Calf Blues displayed prominently.  Three people I know showed up and it was nice to catch up.  I read a couple of stories, which garnered the attention of some of the walk-in traffic and resulted in a couple of more sales.  I was really hoping that I would be able to go back and read at Frog Hollow some time in the future, but I am sorry to report that they are closing their doors permanently (after 25 YEARS!) near the end of August.  A very sad state of affairs indeed.  

I also brought copies of FCB to display at the Great Blue Heron book table and actually sold around eight copies.  

When I got back home it was time to get down to brass tacks and finish my novel so I could get it to my agent before the end of her reading period (after which she is very busy).  That is the reason for my recent absence from this blog.  It was quite a haul, but I did finish the draft a few days ago and then had to read it over to clean it up as best I could and make a few revisions.  Let it not be said that my agent wastes any time.  When I was done I emailed it to her at midnight and the next morning had got some early feedback on my first chapter.  There were some compliments and some criticism, accompanied by a heavy edit of the chapter attached to the email.  I thought the edit was quite good (my agent has many years of experience as an editor}. Now she is reading the rest and I expect to hear from her shortly, no doubt with some other changes that need to be made.  

Other than that, I'm looking forward to tackling the pile of books that I've been ignoring while I've been writing the novel.  Of course, I have a number of other writing projects on the back burner.  I think the next thing I will work on is a screenplay adaptation of my short story, The Most Important Man In The World (the opening story in Fatted Calf Blues) for a short screenplay competition. After a novel, writing in a different format that I can finish relatively quickly will be a nice change of pace.  A change is as good as a rest, as they say.