| How strong is Alberta’s theatre on the national front? At this year’s inaugural Magnetic North festival of English Canadian theatre, held in Ottawa in June, four of the 10 productions featured were from Alberta.
"This is a festival in Ontario, our most navel-gazing province, whose artistic director is from the Maritimes, and 40 per cent of the programming comes from our province? That’s a really healthy reflection of the state of playwriting in Alberta," says Ken Cameron, executive director of the Alberta Playwrights’ Network (APN).
And it’s no coincidence that Magnetic North’s director, Mary Vingoe, was in Calgary this time last year, participating in APN’s annual showcase. "Two of the plays that we featured in our cabaret went on to Magnetic North," says Cameron proudly.
That was the first time the four-year-old showcase had brought in theatre people from outside Alberta and, according to Cameron, it was so successful that it’s coming back bigger and better this year.
PlayWorks Ink, which runs November 21 to 23, promises a full weekend of play readings, panel discussions, workshops and what it calls a "schmooze-a-palooza," with theatre artists from Alberta and beyond.
The out-of-province guests include two well-known Canadian playwrights who are no strangers to Calgary audiences – Toronto’s Linda Griffiths and B.C.’s Joan MacLeod. Actor-writer Griffiths, whose plays include Maggie and Pierre and The Duchess, was last seen here in Alien Creature, her solo show about poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, at the 2001 High Performance Rodeo. That same year at the playRites festival, MacLeod premièred The Shape of a Girl, her gripping drama about teenage violence, which went on to national success.
MacLeod and Griffiths will be speaking, giving workshops and reading from their latest works-in-progress during the event, which takes place at both the Big Secret and Lunchbox theatres. "The two of them have won so many awards and they have a lot of skills (as playwrights) to share," says Cameron.
Also coming from afar is Newfoundland dramatist Robert Chafe, whose offbeat, under-a-sheet play Under Wraps was a surprise hit at the 2000 Rodeo. He’ll be here for a staged reading of his new work, a real-life ghost story called Isle of Demons, which will kick off the PlayWorks activities on Thursday, November 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Big Secret Theatre.
"We’re bringing in Robert and his director, Danielle Irvine, who directs at the Stratford Festival, and the reading will be done by local actors," says Cameron. "It allows us to make these connections across the country. You bring in these playwrights and directors and introduce them to some local artists and you never know what it will turn into."
PlayWorks also offers staged readings of this year’s winners of APN’s Alberta Playwriting Competition – The Last Train by Daniela Vlaskalic and Beth Graham, and Dust by Mark Stubbings. As well, Calgary playwright Daniel Libman (who tends to get more productions outside Alberta these days) will be represented with a reading of his new play Intermission.
Non-playwright participants leading workshops include Theatre Calgary artistic director Ian Prinsloo, Alberta Theatre Projects dramaturge Vanessa Porteous and actor Valerie Planche. Veteran fight director Jean-Pierre Fournier will lead a day-long class in hand-to-hand stage combat, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts representatives Paul Pearson and Paul Reich offer a one-hour session on how to write grants.
The "bigger and better" part of this year’s event is due to APN joining forces with its parent, Theatre Alberta, with the latter combining its annual Calgary conference with APN’s showcase. The two not-for-profit organizations are dedicated to assisting and promoting the province’s theatre industry, with APN receiving its funding via Theatre Alberta, which in turn is supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
If you want to participate in PlayWorks, there are full-weekend, day and special-events registration packages. If you’re just interested in attending some readings, speeches and panels, there are single-event tickets, too. The grant-writing workshop, Saturday, November 22 at 1 p.m. in the Big Secret, is free. To register, call 1-888-422-8160. For the full schedule of events, go to www.theatrealberta.com |
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