Name: Mark Crawford
Home town: Glencoe, Ontario
Role/Position: Playwright of BED AND BREAKFAST
Thousand Islands Playhouse: You’re stranded on one of the 1000 islands. Other than food and water, what three items would you take with you?
Mark Crawford: Assuming I could wave down a passing boat when the thrill of adventure wore off, I would take a notepad, a pen, and my camera.
TIP: What is your favourite thing about Gananoque?
MC: Going for walks and bike rides around town, jumping in the St. Lawrence on a hot day, and cracking open a Thursty Pike Pilsner from the Gananoque Brewing Company.
TIP: You’re opening up a Bed and Breakfast. What do you name it?
MC: In Bed and Breakfast, the characters come up with a list of potential names for their B&B. I’m partial to one name they don’t choose. You’ll have to see the play and try to figure out which one it is!
TIP: Bed and Breakfast is about finding a place to call home. Is there any place or thing that makes you feel most at home?
MC: I grew up on a beef farm, so nothing tastes more like home to me than a classic roast beef dinner followed by a slice of pie.
TIP: Bed and Breakfast is full of exciting life surprises. Have there been any happy plot twists in your life so far?
MC: Just over a year ago, my first play premiered…and now here’s my second. From the outside, it might look like “The Year Mark Crawford Became a Playwright”, but as with most plot twists in life, this one was years in the making.
TIP: What led you to working in theatre?
MC: I was bitten by the theatre bug quite young…and quite mysteriously. I think the things that drew me to the theatre as a kid are the things that still draw me in today: seeing a story unfold with real people before my eyes, an active use of the imagination, a sense of play, and the magic that happens when artists and audience get together in the same room.
TIP: What’s at the top of your bucket list, theatre or otherwise?
MC: Theatre: Keep working! Otherwise: I have a pretty healthy list of places I’d like to travel. And I don’t know if it’s bucket list material, but I would love to get a dog. There are several dogs in Bed and Breakfast…and hanging out with Ashlie Corcoran’s dog Mabel in rehearsal is making me a bit puppy-crazy!
Mark’s latest play Bed and Breakfast previews at the Thousand Islands Playhouse on August 14 and opens on August 15. It will run until September 13, 2015 at the Firehall Theatre.
