Work With Me! Session 1 with Beverley Cooper
PGC is launching Work with Me!, inspired by American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and her “Watch Me Work” sessions, which is billed as a “playwriting master class,” “a performance piece,” and a “meditation on artistic process.”
Award-winning playwright Beverley Cooper will kick off the first session on Monday, September 18th from 3:00 – 4:00pm EDT.
Join Beverley online to watch her work on her latest writing project while you also work on yours, and then ask her your questions at the session’s end. This is the perfect opportunity to get writing and thinking about your current playwriting project.
The event is FREE, but registration is required prior to 12pm EDT on Sept 18. Sign up HERE.
Playwrights & Fringe Festivals: What Do You Want to Know?
SOLD OUT
We have reached our capacity with space.
What do you want to know about Fringe Festivals? Presented by the Calgary Fringe and Playwrights Guild of Canada. Join Dan Bray, Madeleine Brown, Marty Chan, and moderated by Kanika Ambrose as they discuss their experiences in the Fringe across the country.
Join us Saturday October 14th, 2023 at 11am PDT, YT/ 12pm/ CST, MDT/ 1pm CDT/ 2pm EST & 3pm ADT/ 3:30pm NFLD.
FREE Registration, click HERE to register.
Dan Bray (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, whose original works have been performed in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia (upcoming). Dan served as Vice-Chair of the Halifax Fringe for two years and is a longtime lover of this local festival, during which he annually presents many new plays. He is also a 9-time Merritt Award nominee, the 2022 Merritt Award winner for “Outstanding Adaptation by a Nova Scotia Playwright” (Hänsel und Gretel in der Garten von Edible Horrors: a Terrible Parable), and a 2023 East Coast Music Award nominee for “Children’s Entertainer of the Year” (Dinostories). Dan has had the good luck of working with many of Nova Scotia’s finest theatre companies – as a playwright, director, actor, and dramaturge – including Two Planks & a Passion Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea, Festival Antigonish, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, and Phyllis Rising Productions. He received his MA from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama in 2009.
Madeleine Brown is a playwright, actor and Theatre Direct’s Company Producer. Playwriting Credits: Give ‘em Hell (Theatre Direct/Prairie Fire, Please/4th Line Theatre/Peterborough Museum and Archives), Margaret Reid (Here For Now Theatre), Tryouts (Driftwood Theatre), News Play, Everyone Wants A T-Shirt!, Madeleine Says Sorry (Toronto Fringe Festival). Acting Credits: Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (Outside the March), Knocking on Doors, Health Care: Code Blue (Mixed Company Theatre). Creators/Playwrights Units: Interdisciplinary Residency Program (4th Line Theatre), Beyond the Bard (Driftwood Theatre). Awards: BMO Loran Award, NOW Magazine Awards for Outstanding Ensemble and Individual Performance, Ellen Ross Stuart “Opening Doors” Award. Training: UofT Mississauga/Sheridan College, Second City Training Centre – Conservatory, Writing, Stand-Up. www.thatmadeleinebrown.com
Photo Credit Dahlia Katz
Marty Chan writes plays for adults, books for kids, and social media posts for fun. He’s best known for his hit plays The Bone House and Mom, Dad, I’m Living with a White Girl. A seasoned Fringe playwright and producer, Marty has seen the highs and lows of Fringe Festivals. He’s since moved on to writing for main stage theatres and publishing. He currently works and lives in Edmonton. For more information, check out his website (martychan.com)
Kanika Ambrose is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter and mom. She is a recent graduate of Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Primetime TV Program (2022-2023). Her critically acclaimed play “our place,” was first produced by Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille in November 2022 and received a Dora Mavor Moore Award in June 2023. Her children’s opera “Anansi and the Great Light” with composer Nick diBerardino and the students at Girard College premiered at Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) in 2019. Her opera “Of the Sea” with composer Ian Cusson premiered at the Bluma Appel Theatre in March 2023, commissioned by Tapestry Opera and Obsidian Theatre Company. Other short works have premiered across North America including celebrated digital work “Tak-Tak-Shoo” with composer Rene Orth.
Kanika has been in residences, festivals and programs including at Cahoots Theatre, Obsidian Theatre Company, Tapestry Opera, Musical Stage Company, Toronto Fringe, and Rhubarb Festival.
Kanika is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University and is Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company. She was featured as one of Cahoots Theatre Company’s 30 for 30 theatre makers for their 30th anniversary season.
An Evening of Stories with The Siminovitch Prize Finalists
October 17, 2023
4PM PST, 7PM EST, 8:30PM NST
Online
Join the playwrights shortlisted for the 2023 Siminovitch Prize as they come together on Zoom for the very first time! Hear them read excerpts from their work and discuss the craft of playwriting. This will be a bilingual conversation with simultaneous translation. Secure your spot now by registering for this free event on Eventbrite.
–
Rejoignez les dramaturges présélectionnés pour le Prix Siminovitch 2023 qui se réunissent sur Zoom pour la toute première fois. Écoutez-les lire des extraits de leurs œuvres et discutez de l’art de l’écriture dramatique. Il s’agira d’une conversation bilingue avec traduction simultanée. Réservez votre place dès maintenant en vous inscrivant à cet événement gratuit sur Eventbrite.
Relationships in New Play Development
New play processes can be joyful, delicate, energizing, and destabilizing- – sometimes all in the span of 5 minutes. Join playwright/creator Elena Belyea and director/dramaturg Jenna Rodgers (frequent collaborators) as they discuss some of the gifts and challenges of new play development, and how directors and playwrights can set themselves up for fun and fruitful partnerships.
Join us Thursday November 9th, 2023 at 12pm PDT, YT/ 1pm/ CST, MDT/ 2pm CDT/ 3pm EST & 4pm ADT/ 4:30pm NFLD.
FREE Registration for PGC Members.
Non Members $21 + Tax.
ASL will be provided.
Elena Belyea (they/she) is a queer playwright, performer, producer, arts educator, and Artistic Director of Tiny Bear Jaws. She was born and raised in amiskwaciwaskahikan (colonially known as Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory and have had work produced across Turtle Island and internationally (including Hungary, Austria, Berlin, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Quebec, and Wells). Her play “Smoke” was recently published by Playwrights Canada Press. They’re also half of queer sketch duo “Gender? I Hardly Know Them” (on Tiktok + Instagram at @genderihardlyknowthem). This past June, Elena was the recipient of the 2023 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical, and Tiny Bear Jaws’ production of “Smoke” (directed by Jenna Rodgers) won the 2023 Sterling Award for Outstanding Independent Production of a Play.
Photo Credit by Brianne Jang.
Jenna (she/her) is a mixed-race Director and Dramaturg who gratefully resides here in Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), on Treaty 7 Territory. She is the founding Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre, the Dramaturg for the Playwrights Lab at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Board Co-Chair of LMDA, and the Director of Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek. She is a passionate arts equity advocate, a graduate of the NTS Artistic Leadership Residency (2020), the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program (2019), and a member of the artEquity National Facilitator Training cohort (2018). She is the most recent recipient of Canada Council’s John Hirsch Prize. She holds a MA in International Performance Research from the universities of Amsterdam and Tampere.
Craft Bites
PGC members have been paired up to share their work and discuss the craft of playwriting with one another. You can tune into these live events and get a glimpse of what these theatre creators have been up to!
Craft Bites is open and free to the public.
