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2010 Spring Festival of New PlaysThe Spring Festival of New Plays will take place May 16-22, 2010 at the University of Regina, Riddell CentreAll staged readings begin at 8 pm and are open to the public.Admission is free.
A Place in the Shade by R. A. McLean (May 16) Set in the present, A Place in the Shade (working title) was inspired and adapted with permission from award-winning Saskatoon based poet Glen Sorestad's collection of poems "Today I Belong to Agnes" (Ekstasis Editions Canada, 2000) that dealt with his mother's journey into the world inhabited by those with Alzheimer's. Episodic in nature, the play examines some of the issues, challenges, conflicts, and lighter moments that emerge primarily between the two main characters, the elderly mother and her adult son. Rodney McLean is sixty and presently living (retired) in Regina. This two act (at least for now) drama is the first play he has written for the stage. He was a participant in the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s 2009 Writers’ Colony held in Wynyard with dramaturg Heather Inglis. Really Crude Morally Bankrupt Artistically Devoid But Not Pornographic Crappy Play by Jarrett Rusnak (May 17) "You only get one chance to live your life... and you can only live it one life at a time." Really Crude Morally Bankrupt Artistically Devoid But Not Pornographic Crappy Play is a dramedy that sleeps around with this idea. In mere hours, Robert will find himself hovering a pen over his divorce papers. Wrestling with the gravity of that reality, he finds himself walking up to that one moment between, when everything is the way it was before, and when everything becomes what it will be from now on. He can free himself from a marriage to the woman he loves and a life that gave him so much, or fight passionately to maintain his status quo. The great seductive unknown awaits his decision. Jarrett Rusnak is President and CEO of Dacian Productions Inc. He concentrates his efforts on writing, producing and directing, though you will also find him behind a camera capturing images, or in an edit suite pushing buttons. When not developing TV projects, Jarrett indulges his love of theatre at the University of Regina, taking the odd directing or performance class to improve his writing and directing chops. An early version of his play, Really Crude Morally Bankrupt Artistically Devoid But Not Pornographic Crappy Play, won the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s 2007 24-Hour Playwriting Competition.
Jarrett was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan and has been working in the Saskatchewan film industry since 1995. He is passionate about history, beat poetry, physics, theatre, film making, football, automobile racing, music and the outdoors. Balance of Power by B.D. Miller (May 18) In a politically turbulent Canada of the near future, two opposing radicals—Slipshod Ambler, a right-wing Western separatist from the flatlands of Saskatchewan, and Nakeisha Hardaway, a Marxist revolutionary and proud woman of color from the mean streets of Scarborough—are elected to the House of Commons. Together, they hold the balance of power in the fractious 43rd Parliament of Canada. Can the two political firebrands settle their obvious policy and cultural differences for the good of the country? Or will the corrupt, philandering Prime Minister Alphonse LaRue, leader of a tenuous minority government, be able to exploit their weaknesses to stay in power? Playwright and fiction writer B.D. Miller lives in Regina. His two-act comedy, The Scarborough Four, won Regina Little Theatre’s National Playwriting Competition in 2001, was a mainstage production the following year, and was anthologized by Playwrights Canada Press as part of a Theatre Saskatchewan centenary project. His one-act comedy, Dumpster Diving, premièred at the 2003 On the River’s Edge Festival and was published later that year in North by North Wit: An Anthology of Canadian Humour. Miller’s two-act drama, Kobyla, was part of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s 2008 Spring Festival, was a finalist in Theatre B.C.’s 2009 national playwriting competition, and will receive a workshop and public reading this July as part of Theatre B.C.’s New Play Festival in Kamloops. Miller’s fiction has appeared five times in Storyteller, Canada’s short story magazine, and has been broadcast on CBC Radio. He is currently completing his first novel and working toward an MFA in Creative Writing through the University of British Columbia. Gaudeamus by Margo Regan (May 19) Gaudeamus by Margo Regan is a drama set in Pointe St. Charles in Montreal in 1947. The Kearney family are ardent Catholics. Patrick is a priest, Mary Kathleen is a devoted member of the Legion of Mary, Mickey works for the Montreal Fire Department and Brendan, who currently teaches at The Catholic High School of Montreal, is a former Presentation Brother, who sought and obtained a release from his vows to marry Eileen Reddin. Eileen has suffered through four unsuccessful pregnancies, and this has taken a terrible toll on their marriage. She is terrified to become pregnant again, and seeks spiritual counsel from her brother-in-law, Father Patrick. But can he help her? And what is Brendan’s position on this matter? The play explores issues of faith, passion, love and betrayal, which beset the Kearneys, during a time when the world around them is bursting with the frantic, optimistic post-war fever of World War II. Margo Regan is an actress, director and teacher/coach, who in the past twenty years has been involved in more than sixty theatrical productions in one or more of these capacities. This is her fourth year teaching acting in the Department of Theatre at the University of Regina. For the Riddell Centre, she has directed The Merry Wives of Windsor, Charming and Rose: True Love, The Water Children, Transit of Venus and most recently, And Baby Makes Seven by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Paula Vogel. Since coming to Regina, she has performed in the films Hanson and Greta as Olga, 45RPM as Mrs. Wilkie, and has been heard several times reading poetry on CBC Radio’s Sound Xchange. For the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s Spring Festival 2008, she appeared as Devorah in B.D. Miller’s play, Kobyla, directed by Sharon Pollock. Previous directing credits elsewhere include Defying Gravity, Perfect Pie, The Baby Dance, The Learned Ladies, Simpatico, The Love of the Nightingale, Village Wooing/Overruled and A View From the Bridge. Recent acting credits elsewhere include Measure for Measure (Mistress Overdone), Buried Child (Halie), You Can’t Take It With You (Penny) and Look Homeward, Angel (Mrs. Pert), all for Theatre South Carolina. She has taught acting previously at the University of South Carolina and the University of Victoria. She received her acting training in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, of which she is a graduate, and subsequently in San Francisco at the American Conservatory Theatre. She has an MFA in Directing from the University of Calgary and an MA in Drama from the University of Alberta. Gaudeamus is her first play.
Gordon Winter by Kenneth Williams (May 20)Gordon Winter is about the fall of a prominent First Nations leader after his bigoted comments are broadcast around the country. He is charged with a hate crime and put on trial. As the trial progresses, we see his life unfold from the time he saves a bush pilot's life and earns a medal of bravery from the RCMP to when he's taken away to residential school as a child. We see the important moments that make him the man he is today. Kenneth T. Williams is an award-winning Cree playwright and filmmaker from the George Gordon First Nation. His plays Thunderstick, Suicide Notes, AWOL: Aboriginals Without Official Leave and Three Little Birds have been professionally produced across Canada. He recently co-wrote an adaptation of Are We There Yet, a play for young audiences about sexual decision-making for Aboriginal youth. A new play, Café Daughter, has been commissioned by Gwaandak Theatre in Whitehorse, Yukon. In January 2009, he won the Fully Committed category of the 10 Days of Madness’ 24-Hour Playwriting Competition (organized by the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton) with a play called Deserters. His newest play, Bannock Republic, enjoyed a successful run as part of Persephone Theatre's Deep End Series in the BackStage Stage. As well as writing plays, Kenneth has edited three television series. He is the first Aboriginal writer to earn an MFA in playwriting from the University of Alberta. He currently resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It is Solved by Walking by Catherine Banks from the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre Exchange (May 21) When Margaret met her husband, she was a fledgling poet, a scholar of Wallace Stevens’ poetry, and like John, a PhD candidate. Twenty-four years later, she is coming to terms with abandonment of her PhD thesis (twice) on Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, the loss of her marriage, and her failure to create beautiful poems. Catherine Banks’ work has been performed across Canada. Her plays include The Summer of the Piping Plover, Three Storey Ocean View, Bitter Rose, Bone Cage, and Missy 'n Me. Bone Cage was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Literature (English) Drama in 2008. Her plays are characterized by black humour and compelling dramatic metaphor. In 2008 Banks was awarded Nova Scotia's Established Artist Award for her body of work. Catherine lives and writes by the sea in Sambro, Nova Scotia.
A History of Breathing by Daniel Macdonald (May 22)A massive flood: Lily (18) and her father are adrift in a small boat. They have escaped the devastation of war and genocide where Lily has been repeatedly raped by soldiers and her mother has been killed. The same flood, somewhere else: Muskrat, Toad, and Turtle are adrift in their own boat. They are waiting for the Woman Who Fell from the Sky so that they can start the world. For Lily, it is the end of the world. The animals think it is the beginning. Then God arrives. Dan’s plays include Pageant, MacGregor’s Hard Ice Cream and Gas, Velocity, Johnny Zed! The Musical! and Radiant Boy. He has also collaborated with students on several full-length plays for high schools. His plays have been produced and workshopped at Alberta Theatre Projects, Persephone Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Hyde Park Theatre (Austin, Texas), Ship’s Company (N.S.), Keyano Theatre (Fort MacMurray), Shadow Theatre (Edmonton), Rattlestick Theatre (New York), and the LARK Play Development Centre (New York). He is a past recipient of the Regina Writer’s Award and is the 2010 recipient of the Enbridge National PlayRites Award (Alberta Theatre Projects). He is currently working on an MFA in directing at the U of R. He lives in Regina with his wife, Heather and Eddie, the cat.
Spring Festival Workshop with Joey Tremblay Place: University of Regina, Riddell Centre, Theatre Department Time: May 22 (11am to 6pm) and May 23 (11am to 2pm) Cost: $50, scholarships and assistance available. Spots are still available in the workshop. Register Saturday morning at the workshop. The Playwright in Production: Bridging the Gap Between the Page and the Stage Theatre is an art form that relies on collaboration between the playwright, the director, the designers and the performers. But does the playwright have a voice as the script starts the journey towards being mounted on stage? It is generally assumed that the directors, the designers and the actors are the production specialists – let them take care of staging. This symposium is intended to invite the playwright into the production conversation by sharing the processes, the tools and the language utilized by the other three collaborators. This workshop will explore how to bridge the gap between the written words and the mounted play, and to invite playwrights to investigate the multifaceted elements of production when writing a script. Joey Tremblay Joey grew up in a very small hamlet called Ste. Marthe in Southeast Saskatchewan. He received a BFA in Drama from the University of Regina (1987) and a diploma from the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School (1989). After working several years as a freelance actor, Joey co-founded Noises in the Attic, a theatre company mandated to produce and create new Canadian plays on the Fringe Festival circuit across Canada. From 1996 to 2002, Joey became Artistic Co-director of Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton where he wrote, directed and produced (and sometimes performed in) the following plays: Electra, The Abundance Trilogy, My Perfect Heaven, Elephant Wake, Songs for Sinners, The House of Pootsie Plunket, The Blue Orphan and Carmen Angel, which, combined, have garnered over 30 awards and nominations for outstanding work including two Scotsman Fringe First awards for Outstanding Writing. Currently Joey is living in Regina and is pursuing his career as a freelance actor/director/writer/teacher. For Globe Theatre, Joey has written and directed The Alice Nocturne, Elephant Wake, and O George. He also devised and directed Fusion I, II and III.
Since 1983, the Saskatchewan Playwrights' Centre has held an annual Spring Festival of New Plays either in Regina or Saskatoon. Spring Festival is the highlight of our year. We bring in directors and dramaturgs from across the country to work with our playwrights and actors in workshops that range from 2-6 days and culminate in a staged public reading. Submission GuidelinesPlays must be written by playwright members of the SPC in good standing.
Yearly Deadline: October 31
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