Scott's Thoughts on Live Theatre

06/20/2026

Six Weeks - July 14 – August 18

Tuition: $195 per person

Registration closes Friday, June 26 at Midnight

06/15/2026

https://www.scotthurststudio.ca/acting The Acting Fundamentals 6-week summer session is filling quickly. If you'd like to take advantage of the Early Bird registration by June 19, just send me a message and I'll be happy to add your name to the class list. And, if this isn't for you at this time, please feel free to share it with a friend! Or both... ❤

06/13/2026

In the musical The Best Little Wh******se in Texas there is a song titled 20 Fans A-Turning. Well friends... FB tells me that I've had 119 fans a-turning for this page, Scott's Thoughts on Live Theatre, for a record number of weeks. If we can get that number up to 125 I will give a free half hour online coaching to #125 and I'll give whoever is responsible for bringing in number 125 a $50 gift certificate for any class or workshop at The Scott Studio. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

06/11/2026

30 DAYS, 30 PLAYS, 30 PLAYWRIGHTS… PRIDE!

DAY 10 THE BOYS IN THE BAND by Mart Crowley, 1968

I used to love the Samuel French Catalogue in the same way that some people loved the Christmas Wish Book. And for less money than I could now buy a Venti latte, I could purchase my own personal copy of gay-themed plays like Mart Crowley’s “The Boys in the Band”. In the privacy of my second storey bedroom, with photos of David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman gazing approvingly over my shoulder, I began to memorize colourful phrases like “you show me a happy homosexual, and I’ll show you a gay corpse.” Heaven!

Then one December my brother Bryon, of all people, bought me the double LP recording of the Original Broadway cast for my birthday (most appreciated present ever), and Leonard Frey, Cliff Gorman, and Kenneth Nelson (who originated the role of Matt in The Fantasticks), offered me the definitive line readings that warm my cockles to this day: “Oh, Mary, it takes a fairy to make somethin’ pretty” … thank you Bry.

06/09/2026

30 DAYS, 30 PLAYS, 30 PLAYWRIGHTS… Pride!

Day 9 LAUGHTON COMMON by Scott Hurst
First produced in 2006 at Barrie's Talk Is Free Theatre, Hamilton's Theatre Aquarius (2009) and Theatre Collingwood (2022).

Some plays arrive quickly. Others take a lifetime.

My relationship with Charles Laughton began in 1984 when I first encountered a biography written by Charles Higham. What began as admiration soon became fascination, and eventually a forty-two-year journey through biographies, films, recordings, correspondence, archives, friendships, and research on both sides of the Atlantic.

The result was Laughton Common, a solo play that premiered in 2006 at Barrie’s TALK IS FREE THEATRE and continues to evolve to this day (I’m hoping that a newly expanded production will debut in the next 12 months.)

Part biography, part memory play, and part conversation across time, Laughton Common imagines Charles Laughton reflecting on his life, his art, his triumphs, his disappointments, and his enduring belief in the power of storytelling. Along the way, the play explores themes of belonging, shame, identity, exclusion, resilience, and the search for human connection.

I chose Laughton Common for 30 DAYS, 30 PLAYS, 30 PLAYWRIGHTS... PRIDE! because it represents both a personal and artistic journey. Long before public conversations about sexuality, visibility, and authenticity became commonplace, Charles Laughton navigated life as a gay man in a world that demanded silence. His story reminds us of the cost of concealment, but also of the courage required to continue creating, teaching, and sharing one's gifts.

At its heart, Laughton Common is a love letter—to Charles, to storytelling, and to the belief that our stories matter. Forty-two years after our paths first crossed, Charles is still teaching me, still surprising me, and still inviting me to remain curious about what it means to be fully human.

06/08/2026

30 DAYS, 30 PLAYS, 30 PLAYWRIGHTS… Pride!

Day 8 THE NANCE by Douglas Carter Beane, 2013

An interest in the origins of “the pansy craze” led writer Douglas Carter Bean to devise a play about a significant period of LGBTQ+ visibility in American popular culture when openly gay and drag performers—slang-termed "pansies"—achieved massive underground and mainstream popularity in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

That play is The Nance.
What’s “a nance” you ask? (Oh, Mary, you are straight, aren’t you!?!”
A "nance" was a camp stock character in vaudeville and burlesque. And while we may think that the “nance” is a thing of the past, just take stock of the number of television shows and movies where straight men camp, often for comedic effect, and often at the expense of gay men... (But I digress, and not very cleverly either… my apologies.)
What is "The Nance"?
The Nance, the play, juxtaposes the seemingly singular lives of burlesque performers during the 1930s, with the sometimes secretive, sometimes dangerous, usually political and plural lives being led away from the theatre... in the Automat, the park, the alleyway.. Gosh… some things don’t change a whole helluva lot, do they?
Once again, our good allies at Great Performances gave us not only a faithful “pro-shot” of the show, live in performance, but they gave us a lovely interview with Nathan Lane, Jack O’Brien and Douglas Carter Beane that was both informative and emotive.
Anywho… I’m not here to give a synopsis, or a critique, though both would be positive and detailed; I’m here to ask, “Why the f**k haven’t more regional theatres and, dare I suggest it, community theatres tackled this fascinating and multi-leveled play?
This play will most definitely make the short list for my Mauve Performance Lab in 2027. I’m sure there are some folks out there with impeccable comedic chops, and the ability to turn a double entendre into a quadruple entendre. May I name names… other than myself, of course?

06/07/2026

Over the past year, something unexpected has been happening.
A growing community of actors, directors, storytellers, and curious souls has been gathering at The Scott Studio to learn, explore, challenge themselves, and build something together.
Some are taking their first steps.
Some are returning after years away.
Some are rediscovering a part of themselves they thought had been left behind. Now we're opening the door a little wider.
ACTING FUNDAMENTALS is a six-week introduction to the craft of acting and an entry point into the work we're building together.
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to step into the room, perhaps this is your moment.
The class runs July 14 - August 18. Early Bird Registration is now open. Join us when you're ready. [email protected]
www.thescottstudio.ca

06/01/2026

Everyone deserves to have their story told... Everyone. And that's true for June, and every month of the year. Let me help you tell your story...

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