The award-winning playwright and screenwriter David King is turning his talents to music with a new band, The Living End, which will make its debut at the Gumboot Café Saturday, May 12, at 8 p.m. The band consists of King (guitar and lead vocals), Peter Hill (guitar and vocals), and Varya Rubin (violin and vocals).
“I played in a band in high school,” explained King, the son of a band leader. “I wrote a couple of songs but they were pretty awful. Then a girlfriend took me to see a play, and I decided I’d rather act.”
Not long after he joined Confidential Exchange, the resident company at the Manitoba Theatre Workshop. “We performed sketch comedy as well as full length plays, most of which I wrote.”
King moved to Vancouver in 1978 and began working with Tamanhous Theatre where his play Garage Sale was performed. It won King the first ever Jessie award for playwriting. (His son James won the same award two years ago.) He then went on to have other plays mounted at various theatres, including The Arts Club and Vancouver Playhouse, where he was playwright in residence in the ‘90s.
It was after King moved to Gibsons that he got back into music. “It began when I bought a guitar from my neighbour – a 1957 Martin that he sold to me on the condition that if I ever sold it, I would sell it back to him. I fell in with a song circle known as the Duttons and got to know some fine local players and song writers. I finally acquired the knack I never had for song writing back in high school.”
King still writes plays. His Life Skills was recently performed at the Heritage Playhouse featuring a company of professional calibre actors who live on the Sunshine Coast, including Dave Hurtubise, who also directed the show.
“Dave was in a play that I wrote and directed for Fend Players long ago. He has a wonderful flair for comedy that not many directors have. There’s so much talent here, both in acting and making music.”
King has also written for the song stylist Wanda Nowicki, who acted with King in Life Skills.
“I’ve got about 50 songs that we have to choose from, along with some of Peter’s tunes. Our goal as a band is to simply get as tight as we can get.”
– Submitted
