Lee Playwright-In-Residence

The University of Alberta’s Department of Drama invites applications from established Canadian playwrights for the position of Lee Playwright-In-Residence.

This innovative residency offers a unique opportunity for a playwright to devote time to their own writing, and to make a significant contribution to new play development within the university and professional theatre community in Edmonton. Terms of reference for the residency stipulate that the writer spends 50% of their time writing, and 50% of their time in outreach and new play development activity with local playwrights, students and professional theatres. Although the playwright will be invited to visit university classes and to consult with students, this is not a formal teaching position. The residency is stipulated to be sixteen months over a two-year period – proposed dates: Jan – April 2011; Sept – Dec 2011; Jan – April 2012; Sept – Dec 2012. (The proposed dates above may be negotiated.)

Women Playwrights International – Indian Theatre – Part One

By Gail Nyoka

For seven days in November, women playwrights from around the world converged on the University of Mumbai for the Eighth Women Playwrights International Conference, an event held tri-annually, each time in a different country.  This year’s conference gave participants an opportunity to see Indian theatre, ancient and modern.  The theme: Liberty and Tolerance.

Maharashtra Folk Theatre at the WPI Conference

Vlogcasting: Or How I Learned To Stop Whining and Love New Media

By Don Bapst

I’m guessing everyone in the arts has spent more time discussing “new technology” in the last few years than they ever expected or cared to. At best it’s a sore spot…downright overwhelming on a good day. On a bad day, it’s just plain scary. Well, at the risk of sounding like a corporate motivation poster, I’ve finally decided to embrace it. No, I’m not going to pretend I don’t miss the days before I needed an iPhone app to fart (pardon my français), but I’m tired of fighting it. Plus, I’ve discovered vlogcasting. Look, up on the Internet, it’s a video, it’s a blog, it’s a podcast, it’s a vlogcast!

Political Plays

By Shirley Barrie

I spent my early theatrical years in England in the 70’s & 80’s when plays with a decided political agenda had a growing, if sometimes controversial, prominence.  I was the associate artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre, and in the early 80’s we were dubbed Dykes on Trikes in some circles because we had the audacity to present a women’s season including a play titled Red Door Without a Bolt.  Although I don’t always write political plays, I love theatre that grabs the audience by the throat and forces them to theatrically confront the big issues that currently face us.  But these plays can sometimes be hard to find. So I was intrigued by English playwright David Edgar’s recent article in The Guardian, lauding a new wave of political playwrights.

And this theatre isn’t just found in the back rooms of pubs and in small spaces.  It’s being commissioned and produced by mid-sized theatres as well as by the biggest and best-funded theatres in the nation.

Writing Plays and Ruffling Feathers

Playwright Sky Gilbert

Is the reluctance to produce challenging work leading to a crisis in Canadian theatre?  Sky Gilbert believes so.  In this essay, drawing from his own experiences and observations, Sky examines the threat to theatrical vitality that’s created when Artistic Directors refuse to present plays that explore controversial territory.

I’ve often written against Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and Rent.  “What have you got against megamusicals?” people always ask. Hey I’m as much of an entertainment junkie as anyone (these days, my favorite TV program is Flowers Uncut!) but that it seemed to me the Phantom was creating a whole new generation who would not understand that theatre isn’t defined by special effects – helicopters or chandeliers falling on their heads. Well, I think I can safely say that the philistines have won; the megamusical has vanquished Canadian theatre. We are now reaping the rewards of generations of schoolchildren being taken to see Phantom and Miss Saigon instead of Passe Muraille’s Farm Show. Torontonians don’t know what real theatre is. And when they do, they don’t want to see it.