A Great Opportunity for Edmonton Playwrights of All Levels...
Edmonton Playwrights’ Gym
Want a creative workout? Want to kick-start for a new project? Or maybe you’d like to take a chance and try some new approaches to your writing process? Playwrights’ Gym is unique opportunity for playwrights to exercise their crafts via a series of in-class and take-home writing exercises, weekly discussions and sessions with senior Canadian playwrights and dramaturgs. Topics and writing assignments will give participants creative workouts in crafting dialogue, building characters, using structure, driving dramatic action, unlocking intuition and editing. There will be homework each week, sharing, and timed exercises in each class. Playwrights are encouraged to work on a new short piece or use the class to enhance something they are already working on, but this is not necessary. Playwrights at all levels as invited to participate.
Classes will be convened by Director/ Dramaturg Heather Inglis with special guests, Daniel McIvor, Colleen Murphy, Mieko Ouchi, and Brian Dooley. See below for more information on the special guests.
When: Classes will be held Mondays 7-10pm
Where: All classes will be held in the Workshop West Theatre’s 3rd Space*.
Fee: $250.00
Course dates are:
1. November 14th, 2011
2. November 21st, 2011
3. November 28th, 2011
4. December 5th, 2011
5. December 12th, 2011
6. January 9th, 2012
7. January 16th, 2012
8. January 23rd, 2012
9. January 30th, 2012
10. February 6th, 2012
Participants will be given a complete syllabus at the start of the first class.
Please note: The maximum number of participants for this class is 10, so register now to avoid disappointment!
For more information or to register, please email Michelle Kneale at dramaturg@albertaplaywrights.com <mailto:dramaturg@albertaplaywrights.com>
*APN gratefully acknowledges the support of Workshop West Theatre for this program.
Heather Inglis is an award winning director, dramaturg, producer, and educator whose career has taken her across the country. Over the past 15 years Heather has worked with countless playwrights and lead over 100 play development workshops and staged readings. Heather has formerly been both the Dramaturg at Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre and the convener of the Playwrights Development Centers of Canada. Some of Heather’s recent dramaturgical credits include serving as guest Dramaturg/Director for Scripts at Work in Red Deer (2011) and as guest Dramaturg at Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre’s Annual Playwrights Colony in Sackville New Brunswick (2011). Heather currently leads the Citadel Theatre Playwrights Young Company and is the Artistic Director of Theatre Yes in Edmonton.
Daniel MacIvor is playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. For 20 years, he and Sherrie Johnson ran da da kamera, an internationally respected company that toured his work to Australia, Israel, Europe, the UK, and extensively throughout Canada and the United States. With Daniel Brooks, he has created the solo shows House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac, and This Is What Happens Next. Daniel’s play In On It garnered him an Obie Award and a GLAAD Award. Daniel is a recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and the Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize for Theatre. www.danielmacivor.com
Colleen Murphy is the 2011 Canadian Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre in London. In 2008, she was shortlisted for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. She is currently working on four plays: Deliver Me (National Arts Centre), Armstrong's War (Banff Centre), The Birthday Boy (Shaw Festival) and Pig Girl (Factory Theatre). She has also begun work on a new chamber opera with composer Andrew Staniland. Her play The December Man (L’homme de décembre) won the 2007 Governor General Literary Award for Drama Winner of 2008 CAA/Carol Bolt Award for Drama, the Canadian Authors Award/Carol Bolt Award, the 2006 Enbridge playRites Award and was nominated for Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play 2007. Other plays include The Goodnight Bird, The Piper, Beating Heart Cadaver (nominated for the 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award), Down in Adoration Falling and All Other Destinations are Cancelled. As well as being a playwright, Colleen is also a filmmaker. Her distinct films have played in festivals around the world and garnered a total of eight Genie nominations. They include Putty Worm (’93), The Feeler (’95), Shoemaker (’96), Desire (’00), War Holes (’01), Girl with Dog (‘04) and Out in the Cold (’07). Colleen is 2011 Writer in Residence at the University of Guelph and a writer in residence at Factory Theatre in Toronto.
Mieko Ouchi is an actor, writer, and director who works in both theatre and film/TV. Her plays The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The Blue Light and The Dada Play have been produced across the country and in the U.S. and have been short-listed for the 4 Play Series at The Old Vic in London, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize, winning the Canadian Authors Association Carol Bolt Award. The plays have also been translated into French, Japanese, Czech and Russian. Her documentary, narrative and experimental films have played over 30 festivals and aired internationally. Mieko is a co-founder and Artistic Co-Director of Concrete Theatre and was the inaugural Faith Broome Playwright in Residence in 2009 at the University of Oklahoma. Mieko’s new play Nisei Blue premiered at ATP playRites Festival in 2011. It recently won a Betty Award for Outstanding New Play and has just been nominated for the 2011 Carol Bolt Award.
Brian Dooley is a Producer, Director, Dramaturg, and Actor. Mr. Dooley has participated in many workshops and development projects for new plays for a variety of organizations including Playwrights Workshop Montréal; Factory Theatre in Toronto; The Banff Playwright’s Colony; The National Film Board; and Le Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques (CEAD) in Montréal.Early in his career Mr. Dooley was Associate Dramaturge and Director of the Young Playwrights Program at the Playwrights Workshop and has been a guest instructor at various colleges and universities across Canada. Mr. Dooley maintains a long-standing relationship with the National Theatre School in Montréal having been involved as an instructor and coordinator for many years. From 1990-94 Mr. Dooley led the Directing and Self-Start Programs of the National Theatre School and was an Acting Instructor from 1983-94. Mr. Dooley has a diploma from the National Theatre School (’80; Leo Cicery Award recipient), and is a graduate of Bishop’s University (B.A. Honours, Drama ’77; O.B. Thornton Scholarship recipient). He is currently the director of Play Development at the Citadel Theatre.
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