By Greg Nikkel
A class in creative writing at the Signal Hill Arts Centre was the starting point for Leeann Minogue, who went on to write plays and become the editor for an agricultural publication.
Minogue, who lives on a grain farm with husband Brad Barlow south of Griffin, spoke to the Weyburn Rotary Club on Thursday about being a playwright and editor, and had some Rotary members help her by reading parts of two different plays.
After marrying in 2002 and moving to the farm with her husband from Regina, she wanted something to do, and took the class which taught her about the use of dialogue in story-writing. “I really liked telling stories that way,” said Minogue, noting she applied this to a story idea she had about a young woman who moved to a farm in 1987, and she wrote her first play, called “Give ‘Er Snoose”.
One of her girlfriends who was involved in a community theatre in a small town north of Swift Current talked to her, decrying the lack of good comedies that would be a good story for a rural community.
Many of the plays they looked at “either weren’t comedies or they were set in New York City,” said Minogue, so she sent her friend her play and they produced in that small town. “It was so much fun watching people listening to my words and laughing in all the right places,” said Minogue. “I thought I could do more with that play.”
She sent the play to a group in Saskatoon that works with playwrights, and she got a lot of help with the story and the script. “I made a bunch of changes, cut some scenes and a character, and I did a re-write,” she said, noting that it was used at a festival of new plays where a group of actors and directors did a stage reading of the play. One of the actors who helped out with the reading was Weyburn native Trenna Keating, who has since gone on to television work in Toronto.
The play was staged at the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, and she said the play, now called “Dry Streak”, did well, receiving ovations at the end.
The play has been produced several times since then, including on stage in Weyburn, and has also now been turned into book form. Another play she wrote, “Homecoming”, was performed at the fringe festival in Edmonton.
One of the performances of “Dry Streak” was set for the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., a facility that was aptly named, said Minogue, as the theatre there reminded her of the grand old theatre that housed the Muppet Show years ago.
“They were worried that might be too rural for London. I was terrified,” said Minogue, noting that at the performance, for the first while there was no laughter in the places there should’ve been. But then, as the play went on, the laughs began to come, and they did give an ovation by the end of the performance.
Another play she wrote was titled “Bloom”, a one-act play with two characters which was staged in Weyburn a few years ago. Minogue noted this play was put on by ex-pat Canadians in London, England, and with the help of some grants, she was able to travel over and see it.
“What I do during the day is slightly less interesting,” said Minogue, explaining that she works as the editor of Grain News, an agricultural publication published out of Winnipeg 18 times a year.
She works on a contract basis from her home, getting articles from freelancers and columnists, and she also writes a fiction column for the publication “Country Guide”, where she writes an ongoing fictional account of a farm family.
“It’s a fiction column which is really a pleasure to write, about a multi-generation farm family. I put in a lot of things that have happened on my own farm or I’ve heard about,” said Minogue.
As the editor of Grain News, she was attended the world’s largest farm machinery show in Germany, which was spread out over 18 acres and featured all the latest in high-end agricultural technology. To highlight her presentation, she enlisted the help of Rotary members who read the parts from two plays, including “Dry Streak” and “Bloom”.
