It was in the spirit of this milieu that Sheila Kincaid, director of 
the Burnaby Art Gallery hosted an art fete called VIDEO BAG. 1 
2 3
VIDEO BAG included a number of performances. 
One of these, curated by Gerry Gilbert, was a collaboratively written 
radio play by members of the New Era Social Club, the Western 
Front, and others.4It was about beavers in the sewers of Ottawa.5 
This play was significant in two ways that deserve to be addressed here. 
It was HPs first experience with radio, though it was not recorded in any way. 
The concept of taping did not really exist in what for us was a pretechnical age.
This was a performance, but done in the style of a radio play.6
Secondly, it entirely bypassed individual creators.
The piece had come out of everybody yelling and scribbling and stringing
together ideas.This separating of the creative act from a particular
individual's effort allowed concepts to emerge that could not have come
from one person alone. Nor could one person take credit for the piece. 
Nor did it even matter whether or not one was an artist.7  
This became an important tool in everything HP later got involved 
in.8 9  


After that people banded together in the large performance room at 
the Western Front, called the Grande Luxe,10 and did Lux Radio plays
(later called Luxe Radio 
plays when Victor Coleman reminded us of the earlier Lux Radio) off 
and on until about 1982.11 
The more regular members of the group were Kate Craig, Helen 
Tuele, Mary Beth and Warren Knechtel, Glenn Lewis, Bob Amussen, 
Donna Balma, Gretchen "Greenbean" Perk, Suzanne Ksinan, Eric 
Metcalfe, Muriel Coleman, Bill Little, Jane Ellison, Byron Black, 
Henry 
Greenhow, Lin Bennett, Peter Fraser, Robert Amos, Josephine Rigg, 
Opal L. Nations and Andy Graffitti. Most of the visiting artists to the 
Western Front would get involved in these plays as well. They were 
always performed in front of audiences, usually in costume. Some 
members only did sound effects. The potter, Charmian Johnson, only 
did breaking glass, for example.  Eric Metcalfe was a specialist in 
horse whinnies and ricocheting gun shots. There were usually songs 
backed by live music that some of us learned to play musical 
instruments for.  Sometimes the instruments themselves were 
invented. The plays were performed at the Western Front, in several 
art galleries and on CBC.12