Mommy’s Mask Feedback Winner!

Posted on October 29, 2014 by grunerp in book, Playwriting and tagged Hamilton Fringe Festival, Laund-o-mat, laund-o-mat at the end of the world, Minced, Mommy's Mask, Peter Gruner, peter gruner playwright, play, playwright, playwriting, Renurg, Renurg Productions.

Thank you to everyone that provided feedback on Mommy’s Mask at the 2014 Hamilton Fringe Festival. We collected the names of the people that provided feedback on our web page, sent email, sent facebook messages, scribbled notes or rambled drunkenly. We put the names in a hat and randomly selected a winner.

Congratulations to Jo Anne Stoddart! She will receive a copy of Laund-o-mat at the End of the World and Other Fringe Favourites by Peter Gruner.

If you’re disappointed that you didn’t win a copy of this book, have no fear. You can buy a copy! You can either purchase a copy from Renurg Productions here or you can purchase a copy from Amazon.com.

Again, thank you to every one that provided feedback and also to everyone that came out to see our show.

We Open in a Week!

Posted on July 11, 2014 by grunerp in My Year of Living Dangerously, Playwriting and tagged audience, control, failure, improve, learn, Mommy's Mask, my year of living dangerously, perform, performance, Peter Gruner, peter gruner playwright, play, playwriting, Renurg, Renurg Productions.

Mommy’s Mask opens on July 18, 2014! After months of preparation, the day is finally arriving. Just a couple more rehearsals and then we perform in front of an audience.

As the writer and director, I find myself feeling more nervous than I usually do when I perform on stage. I’m not worried about my team. The actors are all wonderful. And the crew is top notch and reliable. But I still have a nagging feeling of unease…

Will an audience like this play?

It is a darker play than most of the other ones that I’ve written and had performed, but it does touch on a lot of the same themes of my other works. Even though it won the Playwriting Contest, I don’t know how it will “play” in front of an audience.

Part of me can rationalize that however it goes over with an audience, it will be a learning experience. If an audience hates it, I will have learned something, right? So it wouldn’t be a failure. But let’s face it, it would feel like a failure.

“Failure” is part of the process. Not everything we try will be successful, but we have to keep trying if we want to improve our skills. If we want to get better at our art, we will “fall” down occasionally. We just have to remember to get up after we fall down. And learn from what it was that knocked us down in the first place.

I get it. I understand it. I accept it.

But, man, I hope it succeeds…

However, an audience’s reaction is out of my control. What is in my control is focusing on making the show as good as I can make it. I can also control how I react to negative feedback, if we get that. Hopefully, I will have the grace to be positive if if/when there’s comments I don’t agree with. I can also make notes on what I need to do to improve the play so that it can get better. It is a work in progress.

So, when the butterflies come into the belly or the anxieties start to fester, I have to take a deep breath and focus on what I can control. It’s hard. But it beats freaking out over things that you can’t do anything about.

Who Am I?

Posted on May 2, 2014 by grunerp in My Year of Living Dangerously, Playwriting and tagged Almost Righteous, content, Mommy's Mask, my year of living dangerously, Out to the Folks, Peter Gruner, peter gruner playwright, play, playwright, playwriting, producer, professional production, relationships, Renurg, Renurg Productions, theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Torn Coupons, TV writing.

Who am I? I’m Jean Valjean? Uh, actually, I’m Peter Gruner. I recently started Renurg Productions as an independent content production company. Well, I created it as an independent “television” production company, but who knows where TV is going these days? And there are so many ways to get your “stuff” out there (like youtube, netflix, amazon, etc) that it seems a bit limiting to identify myself as a TV producer.

My dilemma is that I don’t have a lot of experience in the film or TV industry. Zip. Nada. I do watch a lot of TV and film, however…

Although I identify myself as a playwright, I have yet to have a play of mine produced by professional actors at a professional theatre. I do feel that I’m zeroing in on that goal, though. I’ve had one of my plays workshopped by professional actors at a professional theatre (Theatre Aquarius). And I have been a professional playwright since 2009 (i.e. I’ve gotten paid by people to put on my plays).

Originally, I considered making this website appear much more sophisticated and experienced to give the impression that Renurg Productions was a “player” in the field. But this industry is all about relationships and I’m a firm believer in honesty in relationships. I don’t like pretending to be something I’m not.

So, I am a newbie, embarking on this journey. I expect to gain expertise and abilities as my experience grows, I should also be able to leverage skills that I developed while working in IT for twenty years.

This blog will chronicle some of my experiences as I continue to develop as a creative producer of content. Currently, I’m preparing to direct my play Mommy’s Mask for the Hamilton Fringe (July 17-27, 2014). I’m also working on a rewrite of my play Out to the Folks (sorry Luke, I’m still working on it!) and developing my play Torn Coupons as a musical. And I’m developing a TV series tentatively called Almost Righteous. And I’m trying to find ways to get into this business and make some money!

My name is Peter and I’m a content creator.