Preview
ALES & TALES
Alberta Playwrights Network
Saturday, June 12
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
Following last year’s successful serving, Ales & Tales will be on tap once again this month to raise some laughs as well as funds for the Alberta Playwriting Competition.
The fun event, to be held this year on June 12 at the Big Secret Theatre, turns media personalities into directors, artistic directors into actors and actors into critics, all fuelled by generous amounts of ale supplied by Big Rock Brewery.
To kick things off, local playwrights Neil Fleming, Paul Matwychuck, Sharon Pollock and Eugene Stickand will each be asked to pen a 10-minute play in four hours’ time, inspired by a mystery line of text that will be provided to them on the day of the fundraiser.
From there, the freshly minted scripts will be turned over to wannabe directors selected from the local media, including Dave Kelly of A-Channel and Katherine Duncan of CBC Radio.
"It’s supposed to turn the tables," says Duncan. "I’m looking forward to it."
The tables may be turned in all sorts of directions with Duncan and her media cohorts leading what amounts to a theatrical coup d’état.
"I have absolutely no theatrical training," admits Duncan with a laugh, before correcting herself. "Actually, I did play the Ghost of Christmas Past in a Grade 8 production of A Christmas Carol."
Duncan will have to call upon all of the Dickensian inspiration she can muster to direct four well-known artistic directors, who will be playing the characters in each of the four plays created for the fundraiser. John Paul Fischbach of Vertigo Mystery Theatre, Quest Theatre’s Duval Lang, Mark Lawes of Theatre Junction and One Yellow Rabbit’s Denise Clarke will all be there, ready to take centre stage.
Each of the four teams will rehearse all four plays until curtain time at 7:30 p.m. When the doors of the Big Secret Theatre swing open, theatre patrons will join with "critics" drawn from a group of professional Calgary actors to watch what can best be described as theatre created on the run.
Ales & Tales is being organized by the Alberta Playwrights Network, which a decade ago took over responsibility for the Alberta Playwriting Competition from the provincial government. The competition has since established itself as one of the richest playwriting awards in Canada, with a $3,500 cash prize awarded in the full-length play category. Past winners of the award include such noted playwrights as Stephen Massicotte, Clem Martini and Brad Fraser. |
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