The other night, Lauchlin Johnson (the highly-creative director putting on my one-act play Daguerreotype in the Brave New Play Rites Festival) invited me to his first rehearsal. I met the actors -- Evan Frayne and Joanna Rannelli -- and was very impressed. Okay, more than impressed -- I was blown away. They were good. Very good. And it was only a reading. I learned very quickly it's one thing for a writer to workshop a play with a bunch of other writers, listening as we muddle through a script, it's quite another to hear gifted and trained professionals tackle the same material. Both Evan and Joanna are graduates of UBC's BFA Acting Program, each has an extensive list of productions behind their names, and they've acted together before. I'm really looking forward to seeing their performances.

Evan will be playing the role of Edgar, a professional daguerreotypist, and Joanna will be Mrs. Bosanko, the widow of an army engineer. The play is set in 1855 and takes places in Edgar's downtown studio over the course of a lunch hour. We open the Brave New Festival on April 2 (at 7:30 p.m.), with two more performances on April 4 and 6. I hope to see you there.