Alex is a playwright suffering from writer’s block and harsh reviews. His best friend, Roy, is a theatre director with lung cancer and six months left to live. In pursuit of fresh air and great wine, they go on a road trip to the Okanagan Valley, where Roy rediscovers his passion for theatre. But when he decides to stage a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a winery, disaster ensues: the woman cast in the lead is the winery owner’s wife and has no talent; wildfires encroach upon the surrounding forest; and Roy slips closer to death, one cigarette at a time.

Curtains for Roy is a hilarious peek into the world of theatre, where the greatest drama is offstage and the best performances take place behind the curtain.

Aaron Bushkowsky is a Vancouver-based playwright with publications and productions across several genres, including film, theatre, prose, poetry, and non-fiction. His first collection of short fiction, The Vanishing Man, was published by Cormorant Books in 2005, and his two collections of poetry, ed and mabel go to the moon and Mars Is For Poems, are available through Oolichan Books. Aaronâ??s plays, Strangers Among Us and The Waterhead and Other Plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press. His plays have been nominated for Jessie Richardson Awards several times, winning twice. He teaches film and playwriting at several institutions, including Langara College, Studio 58, Kwantlen University, and Vancouver Film School. He also helps run Solo Collective Theatre, a professional mid-sized theatre in Vancouver that produces original plays by Western Canadian playwrights. Aaron is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Aaron Bushkowsky's profile page

• Short-listed, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour
• Commended, <i>Inside Vancouver</i> Top Ten Book

“If Douglas Coupland had his name on the spine, Curtains for Roy would be admired and discussed worldwide as a brilliant comedy of manners, an exceedingly funny and searing portrayal of modern angst, a generational follow-up to Generation X, perfect grist for a movie. It’s that good.”

BC BookWorld

“[Bushkowky’s] debut novel, based on real places and (some) true events, has written a tale of two men that reminds me so much of a recent film, Sideways.”

The Sun-Times