the Other Guys theatre company

Good Timber

Songs. .&. . .Stories. . .of. . .the. . Western. . .Logger. ........... .. ............ .. ..... ............... ............

............................................................................

The Other Guys Theatre Company

proudly presents

Good Timber
Starring Ross Desprez Sarah Donald Colleen Eccleston Kelt Eccleston John Gogo Mark Hellman Director Musical Director Visual Design Lighting Design Costume Design Set Design Stage Manager Audio Technician Ross Desprez Tobin Stokes John Carswell Keith Houghton Erin Macklem Peter Pokorny Karley Wolfert Ben Brysiuk

of the Western Logger

Songs and Stories

The show runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. The use of cameras, recording devices and cell phones or texting is strictly prohibited. Please turn off all technology so everyone can enjoy the show thank you!

The Other Guys Theatre

Board of Directors
Chair Jim Leard Vice-Chair Mark Dusseault Secretary/Treasurer Heather Regan Members Darren Adam, Michele Forslund, Lin Hansen

Communications and Management Team

Company Manager Mary Desprez Production Manager Keith Houghton Accountant Jenn Dakai Publicity Heather Jeliazkov, Ovation PR Graphic Design Jane Francis Design Website Design Sam Estok

www.otherguystheatre.ca

Special Thanks To:

Dr. Roberta Swanson for her blessing and for providing access to her fathers poems. Dr. Ken Williams who, as a former high-rigger in the 30s, has been our resident expert. BC Archives for the use of photographs and film from their collection. Photographer Wilmer Gold and USW Local 1-1937 formerly I.W.A. Local 1-80 Archives and Weyerhaeuser Intl for access to the MacMillan Bloedel film archives.

For their assistance and faith in this project we thank:

Pauline Rafferty Tim Willis Janet MacDonald Sue Stackhouse Pam Lowings Dr. Robert Griffin Holli Hodgson Kelly-Anne Turkington Vicki Holman Heather Regan Debra Fitzsimmons Tim & Betty McGonigle Shirley Richmond Jim & Kathleen Russell Hugh Davidson

Amy Cann for granting permission to play her fiddle tune Catharsis.

Our Sponsors

Director's Notes
Since 2001 the Other Guys Theatre has created original theatrical productions intended to reflect and entertain our community. Most often our productions include a strong musical element and more and more we are finding subject matter in local history. My wifes family was employed in the woods of Vancouver Island and she introduced me to Robert Swansons collection of logger poetry some 30 years ago. The rich imagery of the language and the meter of the poems made me instantly aware of their adaptability to song and perhaps some sort of theatrical production. It took all of these years to find this group of artists and this unique partnership with the Royal BC Museum to bring the idea to fruition. For more than a year these poems continued to inspire the ensemble through three workshop sessions culminating in the material you see and hear tonight. The company is excited to be performing in front of the amazing images compiled by John Carswell scoured from the BC archives. Please take note of and support our sponsors and funders. We hope you enjoy our glimpse into this rich cultural era in our history. Ross Desprez

BC Archives: D_05051

About Robert E. Swanson (1905-1994)

Swanson worked for many years as a logger, and then as a railroad safety inspector for the BC government. Swanson loved the sound of train steam whistles and, to replicate their sound, invented the air horns for diesel trains that have been adapted for use all over the world. As the inventor of the O Canada Horns (now known as the Centennial Horns) he developed an international reputation for creating the signature sound of Canada. He is responsible for the O Canada Whistle in Vancouver, train horns, fog horns and all ship horns including the ones found on BC Ferries. He even invented the little hand held air horns. Although originally intended for use as warnings on construction sites and in the woods they are now commonly used at hockey games. He also pioneered the development of air brakes and run-away lanes for logging trucks. Swanson was best known however for his logger poetry and, to his legions of fans, he will always be known as the "Bard of the Woods." During his forestry career Swanson visited every logging camp and mill operation on the coast and spent long evenings bull slinging with the legends of logging. He started writing down their stories and ballads in the 1930s, and in the process he became one of BC's bestselling poets. His four chapbooks of folk verse and ballads were enormously popular in the 1940s and 1950s. "The easiest way to describe Robert Swanson's writing is to say he did for the loggers of the BC coast what Robert Service did for the goldminers of the Klondike. Swanson never hit international bigtime like Service but in the world of the BC coast logger, he achieved legendary status, a status he retains to this day. Like Service's writing, Swanson's has a breath of authenticity, a spirit of workplace vitality, which lifts it above the common run of folk verse. As such it makes an important contribution to the story of the west coast." -Rhymes of a Western Logger, Excerpt from Foreword by Howard White. In the 1980s he was part of a performing troupe that read and sang literature about logging. Forestry authority Ken Drushka observed that being on a reading tour with Robert Swanson was "like traveling with an octogenarian rock star." A new edition of his collected bunkhouse ballads, Rhymes of a Western Logger, was published in 1992. Robert Swanson died on October 4, 1994.

Good Timber Songs and Stories of the Western Logger

Title The Legend of the Spruce Life in the Western Woods Chokerman's Lament Loggers Alphabet The Apes of BC The Death of Rough House Pete The Green Chain The Ambitious Punk Faithful Unto The End BC Hiball Climax Courageous Good Timber Cat Skinners Prayer The Gal from the Soo Good Bye, Old Timer When Snoose Was King He's Goter Made! The Frozen Logger Ballad of the Soiled Snowflake The Tame Apes The Camps of the Holy Ghost Lumber Words by Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson John Gogo John Gogo Seattle Red Robert E. Swanson Jim Munro Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Douglas Malloch Robert E. Swanson Author Unknown Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson James Stevens Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Robert E. Swanson Cicely Fox Smith Mark Hellman Ross Desprez Traditional Mark Hellman James Stevens Tobin Stokes Ross Desprez Mark Hellman Jim Munro Kelt Eccleston John Gogo Mark Hellman Ross Desprez Music by Colleen Eccleston Tobin Stokes John Gogo Traditional Ross Desprez

Photo by Peter Pokorny

Take home a piece of the world premiere! Good Timber CDs will be on sale following each performance.

Creative Team
Ross Desprez, Creator/Director/Ensemble, is the Artistic Director of the Other Guys Theatre Company. With the support of the company and the community, Ross has premiered a wide range of productions, from Charles Tidlers poetic drama Tortoise Boy and Tobin Stokes opera The Vinedressers to his own musicals Sex: the Musical, The Ballad of Jim Pane and Moodyville Tales. His original works and collaborations have been seen from Victoria to Halifax. A native Vancouver Islander, Ross has performed, directed, written plays or composed music for The Belfry Theatre, Theatre SKAM, Sunshine Theatre, Langham Court Theatre, Kaleidoscope Theatre, The Arts Club Theatre and Theatre One. He is also an Instructor of Acting and Directing at Vancouver Island University. Ross would like to thank friends, family and particularly his wife Mary for her inspiration and her tireless support of the arts in British Columbia. www.otherguystheatre.ca. Tobin Stokes, Creator/Music Director, is a Victoria-based composer and musician. He has been musically involved with dozens of theatre productions both locally and in other Canadian theatres. His choral music commissions have taken him to Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, England, France, the Czech Republic, and Australia, and his television scores has been heard on all the major networks and stations in Canada, with rebroadcasts in several countries. He has written full-length opera and ballet scores and has served as composer in residence with the Victoria Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, and the International Choral Kathaumixw. His music for large events includes commissions for the BC Summer Games, the XV Commonwealth Games, and the 2010 Olympic Games. Sarah Donald, Creator/Ensemble. Having grown up in Victoria, Sarah is delighted to be back and to be performing with The Other Guys. Locally she has performed at The Belfry, Blue Bridge Theatre and numerous productions with Theatre SKAM, of which she is a co-founding member. Sarah has worked in many theatres across Canada and the UK. Most recent theatre credits include: As You Like It/ Death Of A Salesman (Blue Bridge Theatre ), The Back Kitchen Release Party (Arts Club Theatre - Jessie award winner), Still Desire You (Alberta Theatre Projects), She Stoops to Conquer, My Fair Lady, Christmas in Whales (Chemainus Theatre Festival), Quasimodo (Boca Del Lupo), One Last Kiss (Vancouver Playhouse/ The Belfry), Einsteins Gift (The Firehall/ The Gateway), Alls Well That Ends Well, Taming of The Shrew, Anthony and Cleopatra (Bard on the Beach) and several productions with Western Canada Theatre. As a musician, Sarah has spent many years playing fiddle, performing or touring with inspiring musicians such as Kris Hansen, The Breakmen, Patrick Brealey, Stars, and The Back Kitchen. Colleen Eccleston, Creator/Ensemble, is a singer/songwriter with a multifaceted career including recording seven albums/CDs of her own original material and writing, touring and recording four CDs of original and traditional music with The Ecclestons over the past decade. Colleen has been a Mentor for the BC Festival of the Arts in Victoria and teaches History of Rock and Roll and The Beatles at the University of Victoria Music Department. As a performer she has enjoyed sharing the stage with many artists such as James Keelaghan, Oscar Lopez, John Gorka, Lucie-Blue Tremblay, Garnet Rogers, Valdy, Shari Ulrich, Roy Forbes, Sue Medley, Mae Moore, Christine Lavin and many more. Colleen has composed songs for Amnesty International, Child Find, Carmanah and Walbran Valley preservation movements and the Victoria Food Bank. Her music has also been featured on Swinging on a Star with host Murray McLaughlan and Coast to Coast, Gaberau and North by Northwest on CBC Radio. She is releasing her brand new recording The Garden of Chaos this summer.

Creative Team
Kelt Eccleston, Creator/Ensemble, is a veteran performer of stage and screen. He has performed stage roles such as Romeo, d'Artagnan and Long John Silver, has acted in films alongside Jennifer Beals and Burt Reynolds, and has shared concert stages with Bruce Cockburn and 54-40. He is a singer and songwriter with the Canadian band The Ecclestons, and has been featured in music magazines in Italy and Poland. www.theecclestons.com

John Gogo, Creator/Ensemble, is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor, from a large musical family in Nanaimo, BC. After a two year stint as a Chokerman in a logging camp, John followed the lead of his musician parents. He has released three full length albums of his original songs, four music videos (which enjoyed rotation on CMT and MuchMusic) and toured Canada several times. John has also appeared in two productions of The Other Guys Theatre Companys Moodyville Tales. He released his latest (fourth) CD of original music, One of These Days in June 2010. www.johngogo.com

Mark Hellman, Creator/Ensemble, has made his living as an independent artist since 1981 as an actor, musician, dancer, puppeteer, voice-over artist, writer, teacher, director and independent producer, and sometimes as all of them simultaneously. He has lived in many parts of Canada and has toured to almost all the other parts, moving back to Victoria in 1998. He couldn't be happier to be collaborating with the Other Guys again, and recently appeared in The Life Inside at the Belfry. His one-man shows include: World's Smallest Shakespeare Co., Quinn Harley's Dream Factory, The Minstrel's Dream (Story Theatre), and most recently Tracks of the Troubadour (also with Story Theatre), a BC musical ride dating back to 1860, now available for bookings (storytheatre.ca). Mark's also the founder and director of the Vic High Neighbourhood Choir, an all-ages/all-levels community acapella group now entering its sixth season. Above all, he's a proud single dad of two daughters, step-dad to a third daughter, and adoptive uncle of two nieces. Life is full and rich. www.markhellman.ca

John Carswell, Visual Design. John has worked in the television and multimedia realm of Vancouver Island for the past 23 years, and during that time has seen many changes in the technology, style and form of media production. Working on a project that combines the imagery of a bygone era and live music, in collaboration with the talented cast and company of Good Timber has been a rewarding, creative experience - and a great privilege. With his partner Alice, John runs Shine*ola Communications, a company long-associated with the Victoria arts community. Along with six year old Will, the family enjoys hiking, camping and exploring the good timber of this amazing province. Keith Houghton, Lighting Design. Keith is a Victoria based technician and designer and is the Production Manager for the Belfry Theatre. He is pleased to be working with the Other Guys once again. Past credits include Projection Coordinator Madama Butterfly, Regina, and Semele for Pacific Opera Victoria. Projection Coordinator 150 Years in Golden Mountain for Victoria Chinese Cultural Association. Lighting Designer Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad for The Other Guys. Lighting Designer Cariboo Buckaroo for Theatre SKAM.

Creative Team
Erin Macklem, Costume Design. Erin is very happy to be back with The Other Guys gang, the company that provided her first big break in the biz over a decade ago. Since then her designs have been seen at The Belfry Theatre, Pacific Opera Victoria, The Arts Club, Kaleidoscope Theatre, Theatre SKAM, Sunshine Theatre, Story Theatre, TheatreOne, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and Caravan Farm Theatre. Her writing has been featured at SummerWorks (Gladstone Gallery), Playwrights Theatre Centre (Playwrights Colony and Festival of New Work), Rumbles Tremors Festival (Foreshocks and Aftershocks), Theatre SKAM (School House Rocks and Bike Ride), Belfry Theatres SPARK Festival (mini plays), Solo Collective (Solo Flights), and The Walking Fish Festival. She is the Artistic Associate at the Belfry Theatre and has a BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria. Peter Pokorny, Set Design. Peter studied at The College of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia with the main focus on photography. He started his theatre career at Capitol Theatre in Nelson, BC as a set and lighting designer, scenic carpenter, painter and technician. Peter has spent the last decade working at the Belfry Theatre, Victoria as a scenic carpenter and head of props. He has collaborated with some of Canada's most talented directors. Some of Peter's design credits include: Any Night (Dual Minds, Vancouver), Moodyville Tales (The Other Guys Theatre Company, Victoria), Eyes on the Mountain (Opera Studio, Victoria Conservatory of Music), Hair, The Fantasticks, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, West Side Story (Capitol Theatre, Nelson). He is delighted to have a chance to work again with this fun and very inspired group of talented artists. Karley Wolfert, Stage Manager. Karley is excited to be joining the Good Timber team on their summer adventures. A graduate of Vancouver Island Universitys Technical Theatre Program, she works as a freelance technician and Stage Manager on Vancouver Island and the mainland. She has had the pleasure of working in various capacities with companies such as Chemainus Theatre Festival, Bard on the Beach & Monster Theatre. In the future, Karley hopes to keep exploring the incredible world of performing arts from the backstage perspective.

A Logger's Dictionary
from Rhymes of a Western Logger by Robert E. Swanson

A B

ape (usually tame-ape): a rigging man. ass: the back end of anything. bag boom: logs in water surrounded by boom sticks in circle. big holed the air: put air brakes on in emergency. bight: to be inside the angle of a line or block. bitch: a tough anything (a bitch of a day); blew the lid: to get out with gusto; to quit in a hurry. board hole: a hole cut by fallers in a stump for spring boards. boom: logs rafted in water ready to tow. bone yard: place for worn-out machines. boxing gloves: counterweights on a Climax locomotive.

brains: the headmen, bosses, owners, etc. bucker: a man who cuts logs once felled in the woods. bull: conversation as a pastime. bull of the woods: the superintendent, foreman, etc. bull block: a large open-mouthed pulley block. bull bucker: the boss of the fallers and buckers. bull cook: man who puts in wood, makes beds, etc. in camp. bull moose: a large anything. bull pen: second class steerage on a northern boat. bunk: a rude form of bed; anything but the truth. bunk house: the residence of anything but a happily married man.

cat: a caterpillar tractor. cat-skinner: a caterpillar tractor operator. cat-tracks: the tread of a cat tractor. caulked boots: spiked boots for walking on logs. cherry-picker: machine for picking up lost logs on a railway. chicken-crap show: miserable outfit. chin-whiskered: poor show, haywire, lousy. choker: steel cable with hood end to put on logs. chokerman: man who puts on chokers (setting chokers). chuck: Chinook word for salt water; the sea; food. chunk: a log not bucked off at both ends; usually left in the woods. claim: timbered country surveyed to be logged by a company. Climax: a breed of geared locomotive. complaining: something which a hooker does a lot of. crock: a bottle of liquor. cross cuts: cross cut saws for cutting logs. crown: the top branches of a standing tree. crummie: a closed boxcar for hauling loggers.

gear-stripper: truck driver, sometimes gear jammer. goat: a rig-up donkey. good-head: a good fellow to work with. guthammer: dinner gong. guy: a male person aged from 9 to 90. gyppo: a small log contractor (poor, haywire).

haulback: line which pulls rigging back in yarding. hay burner: a horse. haywire: inclined to be not up to standard (broken). head-tree: spar-tree next to the railway. heart: centre growth rings of a tree. heel-line: line for tightening skyline. hi-ball: go ahead fast; fast outfit; fast. high-lead: system of logging using spartree. hiring board: blackboard upon which jobs are written in a hiring office. hitting-the-ball: working very fast. hog: locomotive; also known as a locie. hogger: locomotive engineer. home guard: a man who works for the same company and never quits his job. hooker: hooktender; boss of yarding crew.

I J

inkslinger: time-keeper or office man. jack: money. jack-pot: a hell of a mess. jagger: sharp strands on a worn cable. jewelry: rigging, hooks, knobs, etc. J.P Justice of the Peace. .: jug: jail. jungle: a name for logging camps and the woods.

dame: a female person aged from 9 to 90. dangle: to move fast. diesel yarder: diesel powered yarding donkey. dive: a place not so good. dolly: a roller for timber. donkey: a logging engine with drums. donkey puncher: donkey engineer. dozer: bulldozer. droop: stoop-shouldered person. duplex: a loading donkey with double engines.

E F

eagle eye: sharp eye; loco engineer. eye: a loop splice in end of cable. fake: a gas donkey. falling and bucking: falling trees and cutting them up into logs. fir: a coniferous tree of the west coast. flicker: a woodpecker, bird of the northwest. flunkey: a table waiter or a dishwasher. fog: steam.

king pin: part of a log car; the main person. kink: a twist in a cable. knit: to splice a cable. knoll: a rounded timbered ridge.

galloping goose: a locomotive that runs with a galloping motion.

lead: to hang a block. line: line is said when enough slack has been pulled out by hand, also the name for any rope. loaders: the men who load logs onto railway cars or trucks. locie: a logging locomotive, also known as a hog. log dump: end of railroad where logs are put in water.

mainline: the main hauling line in yarding. main-line: the main railway. mill: sawmill. mug up: cup of coffee, not at mealtime.

nose: front end of a machine (or front of anything). nose bag show: had to pack a lunch bucket to work. notch: a groove in a stump for a guy line.

O P

open face: a wide drum donkey. pannicky: always in trouble, or excitable. pencil pusher: time-keeper. pension: an easy job. percolate: to make a machine run well. pig: sled used in skid road to bring hooks back. powder-monkey: man who uses explosive powder in the woods. pull the pin: to quit the job and go to town. punk (whistle punk): signal man on yarding crew. purchase: a good steady pull (using blocks).

show: conditions governing output of logs. side-swipe: to hit sideways. side winder: a tree knocked sideways by another tree. skidder: a skyline system for rough ground; a donkey engine special for this system. skid road: road on which logs are dragged. skidroad: a street in town which loggers frequent. skyline: 1 to 2 inch steel cable, three thousand feet long, to haul logs through the air in rough country. slash: logged-off country. sled: sled on which donkey sits. soup: superintendent. spar-tree: tree topped and rigged in high lead system. stake: wages saved up to spend on a spree in town. stand: a good stand of timber. stanfield suits: long woolly underwear. straw line: small line to pull the haulback line. stump: what is left in the ground when tree is felled. suckhole: a tale packer to the boss. swedish fiddle: a bucking saw.

Q R

quirk: an artful trick. raft (Davis raft): invented by Davis at Port Renfrew, BC; a boom of logs capable of being towed in heavy seas, bound up with cables. raise hell: to do anything in a boisterous manner. rat: a no-good person, an informer. rigging: lines, hooks, etc. rigger (high rigger): a man who tops trees and rigs same. rip-wrap: cable spiked crossways on a blank road for traction. rob: to steal parts of one machine for another.

tame ape: a real logger. timber: logs and trees fit to be logged. Timber-r-r-r!: signal call, Keep clear, tree is going to fall. tongs: tongs used to load logs onto railway car. top a tree: rigger climbs and cuts off top. tycoon: a big boss logger.

undercut: the notch cut determining which way a tree will fall. unit: a combined yarding and loading donkey on railway wheels.

virgin forest: forest not yet opened up for logging.

scaler: man who measures and calculates logs. scissor-bill: a stupid person. section crew: a railroad track repair man. setting (a setting): a piece of country to be logged off to one spar tree. shanty queen: loggers wife living in a shack in camp. shay: a geared locomotive; sidewinder.

whistle: a signal (on a whistle) in yarding logs. widow-maker: a loose limb hanging high in a tree. wrench: to repair a machine.

Y: a track for turning a locomotive around. yarding: hauling logs from the stump into a pile at the track.

The Logger
The Royal BC Museum is the caretaker of many materials that document past lives. We have large collections of photographs of loggers and of how they lived. The photographs also show what it was like before the loggers encroachment and how the forest has changed over the past 100 years. Our collections show the ambivalence of an industry that cut the forest down, while at the same time treasured the outdoor life and even envisioned the forest as a trust. Some loggers did go into the woods just for a job, but for many it was a means of finding an active life in the outdoors they loved. All of this is documented in the collections of the Royal BC Museum, and especially in the photographs and manuscript records of the BC Archives. Dr. Robert Griffin Manager, Human History Royal BC Museum

BC Archives: E_00797

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#mymuseum Emi

Victoria

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The Train!

I like watching on the bench for the train and I like the whistle Ding-ding, choo-choo.
BC Archives F-06005

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