Colony Theatre Member Robert Canning

Robert Canning was a Board of Trustees member of L.A.’s prestigious Colony Studio Theatre (now the Colony Theatre Company for a dozen years prior to his move to Northern California in July of 1998, and a practitioner of the "3 Ps" -- Publicity, Props, and Plays. He continues to be the theatre's Publicity Director, has worked as Property Master on a number of its shows, and is one of its multiply produced Playwrights. Weekend Serenade, his first full-length play, had its World Premiere at The Colony on Valentine's Day, 1987. And two of his critically acclaimed one-acts (Icebergs and No Soap) were featured in Late Night at The Colony under the umbrella title, One Hour of Surf and Soap during the run of Thornton Wilder's The (very proppy) Matchmaker.

The playwriting bug bit after a successful reading of his short play Icebergs at Oliver Hailey's Writer's Lab at The Back Alley Theatre. He has since studied Comedy Writing with Danny Simon, and Playwriting with Doric Wilson. His play MurderProof was First Place Winner of the University of Southwest Louisiana Writer's Conference. Skating on Thin Ice placed second in the 1989 Little Theatre of Alexandria (VA) National One-Act Playwriting Competition and went on to win the '91 DramaRama Festival at the Playwrights Center of San Francisco, the only one-act play to win over full-length plays since DramaRama's Playwriting Competition was established several years ago.Skating on Thin Ice has now been turned into a full-length play and re-titled Ice/Age.

Proceeds from Bob's one-act play Connie & Sally are donated to AIDS research, education, and support groups. His critically acclaimed drama Listen to the Lightning was part of the West Coast Ensemble's 9th Annual Celebration of One-Act Play Festival in November-December, 1993, and called "Best on the Bill" by Los Angeles Weekly. Graduella!, for which he wrote the book and additional lyrics, proved to be a popular favorite among audiences when it was presented at the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in June, 1997. His Crazy for You-style musical, Buddy, Beware! (featuring the music of Cole Porter), sponsored by (Tom) McCoy/ (Cathy) Rigby Entertainment, Inc., was submitted for presentation at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in New York. Another Porter musical, Saloon Singer, was completed with the “enthusiastic permission” of the Cole Porter Trust, and Dances with Dinosaurs, a farce which had its first reading at The Colony in May, 1998, has been rewritten.

Bob has written several award-winning industrial films, syndicated TV and cable specials, radio and TV commercials, and co-scripted a sex comedy for Vestron Video called Takin' It Off!, which went gold in sales, and begat a sequel. His screenplays, Blind Turn and Specialty of the House, were named among America's 50 and 100 Best Screenplays in The Writer's Foundation's America's Best Scriptwriting Competition. As a freelance writer, his credits include articles for L.A. Magazine and Backstage West.

He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, and, for 14 years, worked for the Walt Disney Company and has lived to tell about it.

6/2000