Welcome to the newest feature of inregina.com, a weekly column on the arts.
Which arts? Why, all of them. Music, mime, fiction, film, painting, poetry, drawing, dancing–if it involves human creativity in the pursuit of beauty, truth, or just a good belly laugh, then this column is interested in it.
OK, OK, “this column” can’t be interested in anything, consisting as it does of a few electrons strategically aimed at the phosphorescent screen of your monitor. Who’s really interested in all these arts is the person aiming those electrons: yr hmble srvnt, Edward Willett.
And who is that, you may well ask?
I’m glad you did, because it is a time-honored tradition in the ranks of columnists to write your first column about yourself. You have to establish your bona fides, you see, if you want anyone to take you seriously.
So, here’s the brief official bio. Edward Willett was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the town where Billy the Kid shot his first sheriff, on July 20, 1959. After a brief, uneventful couple of years, he moved to Texas (pretty much involuntarily) and, six years after that (again involuntarily) to Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where he grew up and became interested in science fiction, music, writing, acting, art and girls, not necessarily in that order.
After studying journalism and art in Searcy, Arkansas, just before Bill Clinton became governor of that fair state, he (Willett, that is, not Clinton) returned to Weyburn, where he became a newspaper reporter/columnist/cartoonist/photographer and, eventually, news editor, for the Weyburn Review. As a founding member of Crocus 80 Theatre, and eventually its president, he began acting in earnest. During this time he also sold his first few short stories.
In 1988, our hero moved to Regina, where, as communications officer for the fledgling Saskatchewan Science Centre, he wrote almost all of the copy for the original exhibits. More acting and singing occupied his spare time, primarily with Regina Lyric Light Opera Society. In 1993 he struck out on his own as a freelance writer and performer.
Now he makes his living writing books of various sorts (from young adult science fiction novels to computer books to children’s books on various horrible diseases), with the occasional foray into acting and singing, sometimes just for fun, sometimes (the best times) for pay.
He… (um, maybe that’s enough third person for one column) …I’ve always had a strong interest in all the arts, and have tried my hand at a lot of them (although I seldom commit poetry). I think those of us who live in Regina are incredibly lucky to have the quality and variety of arts activities surrounding us that we do. From the Regina Symphony Orchestra to Globe Theatre to the Mackenzie Art Gallery to the thriving community theatre scene to the active film production community, Regina is alive with creative, talented people.
In this new weekly column, I won’t even attempt to tell you everything that’s going on in Regina: that would be impossible in the space I’ll have (hence the column title).
Instead, I hope to bring you one interesting arts story every week. It might be about a particular artist I’ve interviewed or a show I’ve seen; it might be about someone making her living as an actress or a writer whose new book I admire; it could be about the film they’re shooting up the street or the choir that’s singing on the weekend.
And that’s where you come in. I know lots of people in the arts in Regina, but I don’t know everyone. If you know of someone or some event you think would make an interesting story, especially if that person or event isn’t getting the attention you think they should be getting from other media in the city, e-mail me about it. I can’t promise I’ll write a column on the subject, but I very well might.
If I don’t…well, see, here’s the other thing about this column. It’s mine. In fact, it’s probably the first column I’ve ever written (and I’ve been writing weekly columns of one sort or another for almost 20 years now) where I don’t have to write about anything I don’t want to. So if you see it mentioned here, it’s because I thought it was interesting.
Fortunately, I find just about everything to do with the arts interesting. If you do, too, then we should get along just fine.
Check back next week, and we’ll start our exploration–and celebration–of the arts in Regina in earnest.
