12 or 20 (second series) questions with Tom Bentley-Fisher
Tom Bentley-Fisher
[photo credit:Miranda Bentley] is an award winning theatre director, teacher and publishedfiction writer and playwright. He has directed over one hundred productions,taught at numerous universities and theatre schools, and served as the artisticdirector of five professional theatres, working throughout North America andEurope.Hisfiction has beenpublished in Canadian magazines, including Grain, The Dalhousie Review, andNeWest Review. His collection of short stories, Blind Man’s Drum , was afinalist for Saskatchewan Book Awards, and his short story, "Wars and Rumoursof Wars," a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Humour. He has beenproduced by Canadian Broadcasting Company, written the foreword to sixteenpublications of new plays, and penned lyrics for plays produced in Barcelonaand Canada. His play Friends was published by Red Deer Press.
Duringhis twelve year tenureas an artistic director of Twenty-fifth Street Theatre in Saskatoon, Tom gaineda strong reputation for developing and producing original Canada plays, and wasthe founder of the Saskatoon International Fringe.
In 2008, Tom became theartistic director of Tant per Tant Theatre, developing, directing, andexchanging plays between Canada and Catalonia. His accomplishments includedirecting a critically acclaimed all-female version of The Iliad forFestival de Teatro Clásico de Mérida and a multi-lingual production of MarieClements Burning Vision for Barcelona’s International Grec Festival.
He is now the ArtisticDirector of The Yat/Bentley Centre for Performance, an international theatrecompany based out of San Francisco. He divides his time between his workoutside Canada and his home in Saskatoon.
1 - How didyour first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare toyour previous? How does it feel different?
My firstbook, Blind Man’s Drum, published by Thistledown Press, was a series ofShort Stories. At that time, almost twenty years ago, I used the name TomBentley. Writing initially was a way of running away from the pressures ofbeing an artistic director of a theatre. When I began to write, spurred on bythe great Canadian poet, Anne Szumigalski, I realized I could live in myaloneness. It was an interior world where I didn’t need to be an artisticleader, but was being led. I felt entirely at home.
It was thenthat I realized I could fully engage with the main thing that always fascinatedand drove me - the connection of the inner and outer life.
The Boy Who Was Saved By Jazz is my first novel - It has challenged me in new ways. I onlywrote for a few years twenty years ago and then found myself back in thetheatre. During those few years my focus was trying to discover what wasbeneath language. Strange way to get back into language but there we are.
This bookfeels different in that I am not involved with results. It feels honest andvulnerable. I am not hiding behind humour. I have been in the ‘zone’ and amwilling to expose by eccentricities.
2 - How didyou come to short stories first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I love thework of Alan Bennett. I loved how he suggested so much in the turn of a phrase.I am a bit of a sensationalist I think, and I enjoyed exposing the quick anddirty bizarre part of my mind that was challenged in short story writing.
Also - mylife’s work has been inspired by the theatre training of my mentor YatMalmgren, who is known for how he developed one of the most significantapproaches to acting. That work has guided me. It has taken me to a roadmap I’vebeen developing and now teach internationally called Character Transformation.Yat’s original title for it is ‘ThePsychology of Movement’. The premise of the work is that it takes us to theunknown in ourselves, allowing us to view the world through others’ eyes, which I believe is essential in these troubled times.
3 - Howlong does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writinginitially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear lookingclose to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
A firstdraft is usually a quick process. I let it flow. I don’t care if it’s accurate.I try to find the essence. I feel it emotionally and write emotionally. I lovesecrets. Then comes the hard part - the rewrites. Trying to say what needs tobe said - and trying hard not to fall into the state of being clever, oranticipating what people might think.
4 - Wheredoes a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short piecesthat end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a"book" from the very beginning?
I meet thehuman being before the circumstance in prose. I ask the questions - Who areyou? Who are you trying to be? And how are you perceived? And I know that thesethree questions provide very different answers. Then comes the detective work.And them I fold in given circumstances and relationships that challenge thecharacters the most. I
5 - Arepublic readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sortof writer who enjoys doing readings?
Yes, I lovereading and performing. My short stories are longing to be read out loud. Ihave been an actor - Including being part of BBC’s Radio Four Monday Nightdramas when I was an actor in England. I’m a story teller. When I ran a theatrein Canada, the administrative staff wouldn’t start work until I told them astory.
6 - Do youhave any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions areyou trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the currentquestions are?
How can getout of the pockets of ourselves?
How can wediscover the unknown in ourselves?
How can wecommunicate beneath borders and language?
How canyield down the resistances and conflicts of our time rather than taking asledgehammer?
How can wecontribute as artists and let go of the ever present ego?
How can welive within our contradictions.
Can weexperience the world upside down?
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being inlarger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writershould be?
I think Imay have responded to this above, butwould add:
The currentconditions of the world demand that the role of the artist is to be the one ofthe healthiest persons in society - Emotionally psychologically, spiritually,physically. And that our greatest tool is one of empathy. As a writer I do notbelieve we should judge. We should live within the contradictions.
We canproduce a change. We must.
And always,the writer must come from love. That gives us the freedom and license toexplore hate.
8 - Do youfind the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (orboth)?
It helpsenormously. As a director of theatre I tried hard to match the playwright withthe best dramaturge for the project.
9 - What isthe best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Listendeeply.
In order tosee you must be willing to be seen.
Never lookonce - Look again and again.
There areno straight lines in creativity.
Be guidedby mystery and wonder. What you don’t know is magnificent.
Live belowyour personality.
Love thechaos.
10 - Howeasy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to the novel todirecting to playwriting)? What do you see as the appeal?
I’m a cheapsensationalist. I bounce well. If you are stuck within a single medium, you canget lost in form. Different ways into the artistic questions are important. Infact, the question is often more important for the writer than the answer.
11 - Whatkind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How doesa typical day (for you) begin?
I amobsessed for several weeks. I wake up thinking - is too early to get up andstart writing? Then I leave it entirely. It is when my dreams start guiding methat I’m back. I try to write for fewhours in the morning before anything else.
12 - Whenyour writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of abetter word) inspiration?
I have ahard time not blaming myself for a stall. I try to allow myself to live in theinsecurity fully.
13 - Whatfragrance reminds you of home?
Gas fumes.My true home - Many years ago.
14 - DavidW. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other formsthat influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
This bookcomes from the inner experience of music. Between the notes, within thetransitions of chords, there is a world that is entirely awake. It is where Ifeel comfortable. Obviously my career in the theatre has also influenced mywork. What is active? What is really going on?
15 - Whatother writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your lifeoutside of your work?
Poetry isvery important. Problem is that I’ve always felt unworthy to be a poet myself.I feel like a coward.
16 - Whatwould you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I want toperform my own work. I want to bring my acting, writing, directing, music, andteaching under one umbrella. I want to turn the corner and meet someone amazingwho challenges me - revolutionizes me - And takes me on an artistic voyage Inever thought possible. I want to live in my beloved Catalonia. I want todirect Medea.
17 - If youcould pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately,what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Coming towriting is late for me. I do know that if I wasn’t an artist, and I’ve been employed as an artist from theage of sixteen, I’d be utterly lost. I’ve been a single parent most of my life.That has been my other joy. Maybe a teacher, although all the vocation tests Itook at school said I’d be best suited as a forest ranger. Once it came back asa light house keeper
18 - Whatmade you write, as opposed to doing something else?
It was atime when I didn’t have to take care of anybody - I could enter my ownmysteries, and that includes the pain.
19 - Whatwas the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I re-read Crime and Punishment last week. I tend to re-read books - Dostoyevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Shakespeare. I saw The Taste of Things.
20 - Whatare you currently working on?
The NakedReveal - something I’ve been carrying on my shoulders for years. I started it inNew York last summer and can’t stop. It is about the creative process, butreads in part like a novel, memoir, anda new way of looking at acting in the 21st century.
Almost aTherapist - a series I am writing with my daughter abouta therapist who needs therapy badly.
MetamorphosisBy Chaos - a series of short stories about theeccentricities of loneliness.
Almost aHamlet - a collaboration about ‘something’s rotten .…’
