the simple gift - stage play

The wonderful people from BOOTLACE Productions at Coffs Harbour are staging another series of performances of my verse-novel, the simple gift at the Jetty Theatre in Coffs.

I had the pleasure of being in the audience for a few performances last year and was mighty impressed with the actors, the stage design, and the great adaptation and direction by Sue Dickinson. Sue and most of the cast are back for this second season, so I'm sure it will be as entertaining as it was last year.

The link for bookings is here:

Dates for the play are:

Thursday 4 March 11 am (school show)-full house already

Friday 5 March 11 am(school show), 8 pm

Saturday 6 March 8 pm

Sunday 7 March 2 pm

Wednesday 10 March 8 pm

Thursday 11 March 11 am (school)

Friday 12 March 11 am (school), 8 pm

Saturday 13 March 2 pm, 8 pm

Day One of another school year

Today was my first school visit for 2010 and it marks my 21st year of visiting schools on a regular basis of approximately two hundred schools per year. That's a lot of schools and students. Think about it... students who heard me speak all those years ago are now in their mid-thirties. I've even visited schools where the teachers were once students in one of my shows.

I still get a buzz out of my schools shows. Not every show is word perfect, not every show changes every students perspective on poetry, but I know, by the response of the majority of students, that I've shown them that poetry can be accessible and relevant and... dare I say it... entertaining.

Today I visited Lurnea High School to do three shows with over three hundred (male) students. Students like Wahid and Jake and Samer make this job worthwhile. I thank them for their attention and support. And the teachers for taking on the extra workload of inviting me to the school to talk poetry.

I hope the desire remains with me for a few more years yet!