April 2015 - Playwrights Guild of Canada

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WC Newsletter April 2015
April 2015
Hello Women’s Caucus, A reminder: the Women’s Caucus meets at the Playwrights Guild of Canada AGM in
Edmonton on Sunday, May 31st from 2 to 4 pm at the Timms Centre for the Arts, University
of Alberta. Please join us for a complimentary lunch at 1 pm. I look forward to seeing many
of you there!
In the April newsletter you’ll find the sixth in the Women for Women Playwrights
interview series by Sally Stubbs. The interview features Jacqueline Russell, AD of Calgary’s
Urban Curvz Theatre, speaking on Urban Curvz’ Girls Gone Wilde Festival. Last month the inaugural AD­AMA (Artistic Director­Ask Me Anything) interview with Nigel
Shawn Williams of Factory Theatre was published in CanScene for the wider PGC
membership. As a result of this interview questions have been raised pertaining to this
initiative and the fate of the Women’s Caucus AD Interviews. I’ll speak to this below and
seek your input. You’ll also find opportunities and member news below.
***
A reminder to please contact me at sallys@axion.net if you would be interested in:
Sharing Writing Tips and/or Prompts with your colleagues;
Writing for ‘Voices’, an initiative begun two years ago. Members have a chance to
share memorable writing­related experiences or ideas and issues relating to
playwriting: the good, the bad, the ugly, and Who­Knows­What­Else. As always, if you have questions, ideas for articles you’d like to write, research you’d like to
undertake and/or present, a blog or article you’ve discovered and wish to share in the
Women’s Caucus Newsletter, or what you will, please contact me at sallys@axion.net. This
is your newsletter. The next Women’s Caucus Newsletter will be published in May 2015. The deadline
for submission to the May Newsletter is Friday, April 24, 2015. Thank you.
A reminder: calls for submission are published regularly in CanScene ­ PGC’s Membership
Newsletter – and, therefore, those published in the Women’s Caucus newsletter will
continue to be more specific to our membership.
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Women for Women Playwrights: On the Girls Gone Wilde Festival
An Interview with Jacqueline Russell, Artistic Director, Urban Curvz Theatre,
Calgary By Sally Stubbs
I was fortunate to be part of Urban Curvz Theatre’s Girls Gone Wilde Festival last year. The
Festival was organized predominantly as a late night cabaret featuring work by and about
women. A scene from my script And Bella Sang With Us was featured in the cabaret and a
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workshop and reading of the complete script was organized during the day on one of the
two weekends that the Festival ran. My experience in the Festival was fun and extremely
rewarding.
Urban Curvz’s mandate is to invest in and celebrate women’s perspectives, stories and
experiences through the art of theatre and to advocate for an artistic ecology that
recognizes the bravery and excellence of the female contributor. *
How, when, and why did the Girls Gone Wilde come about?
The idea for Girls Gone Wilde came to me in the early hours of the morning (around 3 am)
in November 2010. I had just finished performing a show at Fem Fest in Winnipeg and I
came home totally jazzed about the idea of a feminist theatre festival. Watching over 20
women sharing the stage created a visceral excitement and I wanted to create that same
feeling of collaboration and exhilaration in Calgary. I staged the first Girls Gone Wilde
Cabaret in 2011, independently with a group of friends. When I began working at Urban
Curvz in the fall of 2011, it was the perfect opportunity to grow the event into something
bigger.
Who are your partners – individuals and/or companies – in the Festival? It is virtually impossible to get a fledgling festival to take flight without the support of other
arts organizations. Lunchbox Theatre and Evergreen Theatre have both been tremendous
supporters of the festival. We have also had some fantastic small business owners like
Aldona B Photography, Perfect Performance Printing and Sanbel Creative Designs come on
board as well.
What is the mission of the Festival?
The mission of the festival is to promote a theatrical ecology that includes a larger diversity
of female artists and showcase stories that are richly complex while engaging a gender­
diverse audience. What’s next for GGW?
Next year is Urban Curvz 10th anniversary so we are planning a big ol’ bash. We are
planning to expand the festival to include a couple of full length productions, more staged
readings and multiple venues. The hope is to partner with other theatre companies to
expand the amount of productions and to find ways to engage other arts genres (live music,
dance, etc.). Where do you hope the GGW will be in five years?
I hope we will be an International Feminist Theatre Festival. Calgary is an incredibly
“masculine” town, so I think it would be highly cathartic to have our city host a festival that
promotes the work of female artists. What are you most proud of that the GGW has achieved?
I love that we have tapped into a young (20­30’s) audience demographic and that we have
people coming out to our event that don’t normally attend theatre. I love the camaraderie
and collaboration that we have seen grow between the artists involved in GGW over the
years. Female theatre artists are taught to view each other primarily as competition, so it
makes me swell with joy to see women working together as creators, and to see the work
that is generated outside of the festival as a result. And I love that our festival is
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characterized by being funny, edgy and cheeky. It’s the type of festival that people come to
and walk away going “hey, feminism is rad”. That makes me most proud. What advice would you give to others who might be interested in starting up their
own festival? Do it! Make mistakes and learn as you go. There aren’t a lot of models for this type of
festival yet, so I just try and create the type of feminist theatre festival I would want to
attend. *
Jacqueline Russell is a Calgary based director and performer and
playwright. Jacqueline's directing credits include: A Christmas Carol (The
Keyano Theatre Centre), One Good Marriage (Lunchbox Theatre),
Weaving Yarns (Calgary Young People’s Theatre), The Moon Between
(Calgary Opera), Peg and The Yeti, Munsch­o­rama (New West Theatre),
Invasion of the Pine Beetles (Evergreen Theatre) and The Underpants
(Theatre BSMT). Jacqueline was an artist in residence at the Manitoulin
Conservatory for Creation and Performance in 2014, where she co­
created (with Jed Tomlinson) and performed The Sama Kutra (directed by
Michael Kennard). Jacqueline was the RBC Emerging Director at Lunchbox Theatre in 2013­
14, the Artistic Producer for Evergreen Theatre in Calgary from 2008­2013 and is presently
the Artistic Director for Urban Curvz Theatre http://www.urbancurvz.com. ***
About AD­AMA and the Women’s Caucus Artistic Director Interviews
Should the Women’s Caucus Artistic Director Interviews continue? That’s up to you. Some
questions regarding the fate of this very popular initiative are being raised as a result of the
first AD­AMA (Artistic Director­Ask Me Anything) interview with Nigel Shawn Williams of
Factory Theatre. My desire here is to:
present the issues and facts that I’m aware of;
express the related thoughts and ideas of Joy Fisher, Rita Deverell, and myself. Joy and Rita have, for the last two years, been organizing and writing the Women’s
Caucus AD Interviews;
generate a response from you, our Women’s Caucus members, either via email by
Friday, April 24 at sallys@axion.net or at the AGM Caucus Meeting when we’ll have a
chance to discuss the issue. As you may remember from the brief introduction in our last newsletter, the new AD­AMA
initiative was proposed by PGC staff, specifically Rosalie and Robin, ‘to create a dialogue
between PGC members and participating Artistic Directors.’ The thought behind the new
initiative is that ‘by responding to questions asked by individual members, Artistic Directors
can offer insight on issues that are of interest and which may help to develop members’
careers.’ Let me say here that Joy, Rita and I think this is a terrific idea. The first interview
was very detailed and thoughtful, and we hope more will be published. What are the concerns then? Well, we noted that the questions in the Nigel Shawn interview
were essentially identical to those developed by the Women’s Caucus for use in our AD
Interviews, but minus those questions developed specifically to address issues relevant to
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equity and women playwrights. As the WC interviews were initially developed to give our
Caucus members a bit of a leg up in an inequitable game, this is something that we believe
the Women’s Caucus must consider as we move forward.
It has been proposed by staff that both the WC and the AD­AMA interviews should continue.
My first reaction to that was that it didn’t make a lot of sense, as I doubt that an Artistic
Director who has already interviewed for one initiative would be willing to go through the
process again. Furthermore, as the AD­AMA interviews give the interviewee the right to pick
and choose the questions he or she wishes to respond to from those forwarded, there is a
pretty good chance that questions geared towards women’s equity issues may simply
disappear. That concerns us. PGC staff are aware of and sympathetic to our concerns and have suggested that they will
stop the AD­AMA interviews if we believe that’s the right thing to do. I don’t believe any of
us desire to stop a process that has the potential to benefit all PGC members: men and
women. However, it really comes down to you, our Caucus members.
Here, in no particular order, is a collection of proposals that have emerged from some email
brainstorming between Rita, Joy, and me. We ask that you consider the following and then
weigh in. We propose that:
the Women’s Caucus AD Interviews continue, at least for the next year, after which
time the issue might be revisited;
the AD­AMA interviews continue with a small credit, e.g., ‘With thanks to the
Women's Caucus for suggested questions’;
the WC AD Interviews be reprinted in CanScene, perhaps three months later, with
the WC focus intact, i.e., the questions that speak to the issue of equity for women
playwrights;
the WC Chair/Newsletter Editor and WC interviewers develop a list of four to six
target interviews before September. The list would then be forwarded to PGC staff
affiliated with the AD­AMA interviews who will develop and present their own list to
the WC Chair. The intent is that the two lists will not overlap;
CanScene should be permitted to reprint WC Interviews that have already been
published in the WC Newsletter. (Currently, the WC Interviews are archived and
available to the entire membership a year after the Interviews appear in the WC
Newsletter.)
WC members who might be interested in becoming part of the Women’s Caucus AD
Interview process should think about stepping forward. Joy and Rita are willing and
ready to continue with the process next year, but help would be appreciated and Joy
will be unavailable as of August 2016. As well, I am stepping down as WC Chair and
Editor this year; my last WC Newsletter will be June 2015. It’s time to pass the
torch. Finally, a relevant observation to consider. It came out of our aforementioned email
brainstorming. I’ve found that doing a thorough analysis of the theatre company yields a more complete
picture than it’s likely random questions will do.’ (A reminder that random questions will
form the basis of the interviews being organized and published by the AD­AMA.) ‘Thorough
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analysis’ means studying their website, discovering their special programs and interests, as
well as their limitations. For instance …Theatre Inconnu is a good place to seek staging of
plays that have already premiered… I don't know yet, but I'm guessing 2b, to the contrary,
is much more into developing new shows rather than staging shows that have already
premiered elsewhere…’
Over to you. Should we continue with the Women’s Caucus Interviews? Do you
have any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding any of the above? Please
respond by April 24th to sallys@axion.net and/or come prepared to discuss the topic at the
Women’s Caucus Meeting at our AGM, Sunday, May 31st. from 2 to 4 pm at the Timms
Centre for the Arts, University of Alberta in Edmonton. A reminder: a complimentary lunch
will be provided at 1 pm.
I look forward to hearing from you! Thank you.
Sally ***
Calls and Opportunities
Check Member News below. Some of that news also presents member opportunities.
Lady Plays Podcast (NYC and everywhere!) Lady Plays Podcast, a monthly podcast
dramatizing new plays by women, is accepting submissions for future podcast episodes.
Each episode will consist of a “staged” reading of the play and an optional interview with
the playwright. Plays that will easily translate to a “radio” medium and that feature 5
characters or less will take priority at first as the podcast logistics get settled. Plays of all
length and style will be considered, writers may submit more than one script. Submissions
are accepted on a rolling basis, and can be emailed to ladyplayspodcast@gmail.com.
Rolling submissions.
Toronto Cold Reads has returned. This unique reading series showcases works­in­
progress by screenwriters and playwrights at all stages of their careers. Actors arrive one
hour before show time for the chance of getting cast in an excerpt that they’ve never read.
The writers are on hand to give them insight into the piece. An hour later, the readings are
presented to the warmest audience a theatre artist could ask for. PGC Member and co­
curator Marcia Johnson encourages Caucus members to submit their work (10 – 20
minute excerpts) to help balance out the submissions from male playwrights.
torontocoldreads@gmail.com. This is not just for Toronto playwrights. We can work
around your schedule to have a reading when you’re visiting our fair city. We’re at the
wonderful Social Capital Theatre, 154 Danforth Ave., above The Black Swan, east of
Broadview. Show at 8. Casting at 7. Admission by donation.
For more information, visit www.torontocoldreads.com .
Canadian Woman in the Literary Arts Call for Essays: any topic pertaining to the
literary arts by Canadian female writers of any genre. Accepted essays will be published on
the CWILA website and receive a $150 honorarium. Submissions should include a bio (50
words) and either the complete essay or a short description (250 words) of the proposed
work, all in PDF format. Deadline: ongoing http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2ca5b5e280d1f81507240586d&id=066a44f001
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www.cwila.com/wordpress/call–for–essays
Equity In Theatre Symposium
***
Member News
AWARDS, PRODUCTIONS, READINGS, AND WORKSHOPS
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If you have received an award, have been short­listed for an award, have published a play
or scenes from a play and/or have a production, reading or workshop coming up, please let
me know at sallys@axion.net and I’ll be sure to include it in the next newsletter. Reminder: next deadline for submission is Friday, April 24, 2015. Please limit your
news to the details, i.e., a brief description of your project with websites or contact
numbers for additional information. See below for examples. Please note that I can no
longer publish member news that is forwarded in long press releases or posters. I
simply don’t have the time to rewrite submissions. Thanks.
*
Member News
Belated, Upcoming and/or Ongoing
Willow Quartet by Joan Burrows was read on March 28th at the Victoria Hall, Coburg, ON.
Lezlie Wade’s THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF PRINCE JEN (short listed last season for a
Tom Hendry Award) was one of two plays chosen for the ASCAP ­ DreamWorks Musical
Theatre Workshop in NYC where it will be presented to Stephen Schwartz.
Leanna Brodie received a travel grant to attend the première of Ulla's Odyssey, her opera
with New Zealand composer Anthony Young, with OperaUpClose in London, UK, this fall.
*
March – April 2015
The (Mad) Playwrights’ Tea Party with Readings. Delicious cakes and cookies with tea
and readings by Marcia Johnson and Gail Nyoka from their work to be presented at the
Women Playwrights International Festival in Cape Town, South Africa on Sunday, April 12,
2015 from 3 to 5 pm. Where: Playwrights Guild of Canada, Suite 350, 401 Richmond Street
West, Toronto M5V 3A8. By donation. Charitable receipts available for donations of $20
and over. Door prizes: Tea and writing related – enter your name to win. Proceeds will
help defray the costs of attending the Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape
Town; and to the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Donations can also be made through
PGC:
https://playwrightsguildcanada.wufoo.com/forms/z1aqmwav0834int/
or http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/sites/default/files/PGC_Donations_Form.pdf
A re­imagined version of Shirley Barrie's I am Marguerite, directed by Molly Thom, will be
produced at the Alumnae Theatre, 70 Berkeley Street, Toronto from April 10 ­ 25, 2015.
www.shirleybarrie.ca
Kristen Horner Da Siva’s play Book Club receives a reading April 16th at 8 pm in Oakville,
Ontario at the Oakville Players Rehearsal Space, 1100 Invicta Drive #21.
For information: kristendasilva@rocketmail.com or 905­301­2255. Book Club is a fast­
paced comedy of manners centered about a predominantly female book club and the
misunderstandings and chaos that ensues when Josh, a member of the club, invites male
friends to a meeting.
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Playwriting Class: The Craft of Writing Plays led by Beverley Cooper, Theatre Aquarius:
Hamilton, Six sessions: April 28th ­ June2, 2015. What does it take to write a great play?
Over the course of six weeks, students will learn, in a supportive environment, the
fundamentals of playwriting and apply those elements while writing a ten minute play.
Suitable for playwrights at all levels, writers curious about the craft of playwriting, as well
as those looking to improve their writing in other genres. For
information: http://theatreaquarius.org/CommunityEvents/Playwriting.html
*
Looking Forward
The Fever Trees, Christine Foster’s new play about the young Rudyard Kipling and his
sister, Trix, will be workshopped this summer at the annual Kipling Festival in Brighton, UK.
***
Here’s to the Canadian Spring!
Sally & Rosie
Sally Stubbs, Chair
Rosie Fernandez, Deputy Chair
sallys@axion.net
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Playwrights Guild of Canada uses this email list to distribute messages to its members, including CanScene,
member news and calls for submissions, messages from the President, and special notices and
announcements.
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