 |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||
2012 Spring Festival of New PlaysA Celebration of 30 Years of Great Saskatchewan Plays April 30 to May 5, 2011 Public Readings & Full Workshops of the following:
God, Todd and the Last Song by WENDY LOCKMAN The Frenzy of Queen Maeve by ANTHONY McMAHON National Exchange Play and Playwright TBA One-Day Workshops of the following: The Ergonomics of the Future by MIKE THOMPSON More detail about the Festival will be posted in the near future ........................................................................2011 Spring Festival of New Plays:May 23 - 28, 2011University of Saskatchewan, John Mitchell BuildingAll Staged readings will begin at 8 pm and are open to the public.See the special SPOTLIGHT SERIES 1 PM READINGSAdmission is free Monday, May 23 The Great Debate A hot & hilarious festival kick-off!
Tuesday, May 24 Mercy by Daniel Macdonald Directed by Ron Jenkins David, the spider, has all eight of his tiny legs stuck to a piece of masking tape. Martha, the human, who hears a cello as the sound track of her painful life, wants to save him. Darkness ensues. Dan really likes to write plays. He doesn’t know why. It seems to make him happy except when his plays make him a bit sad. Generally he writes plays that are funny without really meaning to be because pretty often they get kind of dark. But dark and funny aren’t mutually exclusive, are they? He’s written plays called Pageant and MacGregor’s Hard Ice Cream and Gas and Velocity (at Persephone this season) and A History of Breathing. He’s also written and done other stuff. He’s taught high school and university and now is just finishing an MFA in directing. It just seemed like a good idea. He lives and writes in Regina with his slightly dark and funny wife Heather and their more funny than dark cat, Eddie.
Thursday, May 26 (National Exchange Play) Dead Peasants by Leif Oleson-Cormack Directed by Pamela Haig Bartley A worker dies in a suspicious accident while cleaning augers in an animal food pellet factory on the outskirts of a small rural community. Moving back and forth in time, we see how his death came to pass and the bloody aftermath that occurs when things don't go exactly according to plan. Leif is a playwright, director and actor from Edmonton, Alberta. His first full length play, Meat Puppet, was recently co-produced by Northern Light Theatre and Shadow Theatre. He received his MFA in Playwriting from the University of Calgary in 2008. Previous works include Odds of Losing, Bad Timing, Jumping the Shark, The Power of Sedak(a)Sean and Fast Food. Leif is delighted to be a part of the 2011 Spring Festival of New Plays and would like to thank everyone involved. Friday, May 27 Muskeg and Money by Mansel Robinson Directed by Linda Moore In recovery from a marriage gone awry, Sarah hauls her teen-aged daughter, Thea – urban, lippy and whip-smart – back home to Northern Saskatchewan. What awaits them is a crashing economy and Syd, the bootlegger’s daughter from Lower-town. Muskeg and Money is Mansel’s tenth play to be presented at Spring Festival, eight of which have gone on to professional production. Recent work includes Two Rooms, which won the 2010 John V. Hicks Award and the 2010 Uprising National Playwriting Award, and will premiere in April at Persephone Theatre. He is currently collaborating on Hometown, a group commission for Blyth Theatre in Ontario. Mansel has been writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, the University of Windsor, the Regina Pubic Library and the Surrey Public Library. He lives in Saskatoon. Saturday, May 28 The Chosen by Wendy Lockman Directed by Elsa Bolam A clever young girl who wants to reunite with her secret love struggles to escape a government program and its sinister leader, putting her very life in danger. Wendy started writing plays in 2009 and nine plays later she may have personally put Heather Inglis into retirement. She has had five full-length plays produced by community theatre groups and two ten-minute plays selected for the King’s Shorts Festival (one ultimately won the Second Place Writer’s Award). The Chosen was a finalist in the San Francisco Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project competition. It most recently won 1st place in the Ottawa Little Theatre’s 70th National One-Act Playwriting Competition, Plays for Children or Young People Category. She is thrilled to have it now be part of the Spring Festival of New Plays.
1PM READINGS
Thursday, May 26 Dead End Drift by Christopher Harrow Directed by Ron Jenkins Dead End Drift is the story of a group of men trapped underground in a mine after a collapse. The men's relationships are tenuous and strained and the stress they are under pits one man against the other. Christopher Harrow grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan before moving to Saskatoon. He studied at The University of Saskatchewan and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting in the spring of 1999. After convocation he traveled with the Fringe circuit and spent three summers touring across Canada with two different plays, both of which were written as a collective. Harrow attended the University of Western Ontario completing a Masters of Library and Information Science in 2009. He lives in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Saturday, May 28 Self Defence by Lee Boyes Directed by Alison Darcy The lives of three friends explode and fall apart when secrets are uncovered and they are left to decide what’s more important, their relationships or themselves. Sometimes the ties that bind will cut off your circulation... Lee Boyes is a graduate of the University of Regina, with a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance. In the past he has performed and directed for Hectik Theatre.(Zastrozzi, Pillowman & My Name is Racheal Corrie ). Most recently he was Valdez in the Unseen, directed by Dan Macdonald. He is also an improvisor who performs regularly with his one man form ‘Leegion’ as well as recently completing DeadLee a one man show written and workshopped as part of the Shumiatcher Sandbox series for Globe Theatre, Regina. Self Defence is his first full length effort and he is ecstatic to be involved in the Festival this year.
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 2012 Spring Festival is in Regina
|
||||||
