OCTOBER 25 E-NEWSLETTER

Power Among the People:
An interview with E Day playwright Jason Chinn 

In many of these plays, the focus is on the key players – kings, queens, politicians – but what about the people on the ground doing the legwork that ensures a campaign’s success?

I meet Chinn on a Friday afternoon, between a strike on climate action and a federal election.  The night before our meeting, Serial Collective premiered E Day as part of Theatre Network’s Roxy Performance series. Chinn's latest piece is inspired by the New Democrat Party’s unprecedented victory in the 2015 Alberta provincial election. Set in the campaign office over the course of the election, E Day delves into that historical context by exploring the hurdles, both personal and political, faced by the campaign workers. It may not be a typical tale of political intrigue, but for Chinn, the dramatic potential of the moment was always clear.
 
“It started with the stakes of the results,” says Chinn, who worked as a canvasser during the 2015 election. “Waiting for the people at the polls to call you and give you the numbers, to me was super dramatic. Then it became about representing a community of people who came together with a common goal, and not always agreeing on every single thing, but just coming together and making it happen.”
 
The piece offers a refreshing perspective on election campaigns, which almost exclusively centre the candidates at the expense of everyone else. Chinn is quick to point out that “politics is not just the people who are elected. It’s about everybody that works for them and gets them there, and more importantly,  the grassroots movement of everybody that does the day-to-day work.” It’s because we so rarely see that side of a campaign that it was important for Chinn to showcase it on stage.
 
It’s impossible to ignore the distinct resonance E Day will have as its run falls right in the middle of a federal election campaign. Chinn says that while the current political climate didn’t change the piece itself, it did change people’s reception of it. “For NDP people in particular, what I’ve been hearing is that it’s extremely bittersweet. There’s kind of a sadness and a nostalgia when we explore that victory evening.” He’s also happy not to have premiered the piece around the last provincial election as “emotions would have been too raw and it wouldn’t have been the right time. But now during this election, I think there’s hope for people. “
 
One notable aspect of the play is its cast of twelve actors. A cast of that size is rarely seen in independent theatre productions, being simultaneously exciting and intimidating for producers.
E Day has always called for a large cast, though, and part of that is thanks to the development in underwent at the Citadel Theatre’s Playwrights’ Forum, led at the time by Colleen Murphy and Brian Dooley. “A challenge was presented to us to write a big play for the [Citadel’s] Maclab Theatre with no limitations. So the cast was always twelve.”
 
It’s refreshing to see, especially since theatre creators working at any level can easily get trapped in a mindset of scarcity when it comes to the scale of their projects. Chinn still faced challenges getting the play produced: “I did have discussions with producers and directors who told me they loved the play, but couldn’t program it because of the cast size.” However, through municipal and federal funding, as well as fundraising, Chinn was able to secure the funds needed to produce the show without cutting corners or compromising his vision for the piece. “I just think about telling the story I want to tell first, and then deal with the challenges later, rather than saying ‘Oh, this is never going to get produced’, or ‘This could never realistically happen’. There are ways to make it happen.”
 
Conceiving a play of this size must give a playwright a deep sense of satisfaction regarding their work process, right?  Well… “The consistent thing across all my processes is that they’re terrible and self-destructive,” Chinn admits, laughing.  “I’m not one of those people who sits down at 10 am and has a six hour writing session, and needs that kind of process. I am someone who discovers a lot in rehearsal, and with this play, even though we had a limited rehearsal schedule, the actors contributed much to the re-writing process.”
 
This collaborative approach has proved effective for Chinn who,  in the future, would like to spend more time in advance of the rehearsal process working with the actors to incorporate their input into their roles. “For me, the characters don’t truly start to appear until the actor is in the room. What hit home this time is that I’ve really started gearing the parts towards the people who are cast.”
 
While Chinn may not have a set writing schedule, his writing process isn’t devoid of routines or rituals. A major one for him is the procrastination period (I think most writers can admit to partaking in that particular ritual). “I have to psych myself up. I’m more of an evening person, sometimes after everyone has gone to sleep is when I do the most work.”  He is also “trying to be more organized – make better notes and plans instead of just trying to force it out by going 'Let’s see what happens!'”
 
Finally, I ask if he has any advice to add to the collective consciousness of playwrights. Yes, but by his own admission, he feels self-conscious about giving it. “It’s quite cliché and maybe a bit trite, but my honest-to-goodness advice is to be yourself, to tell the stories that you want to tell as a writer, and not feel like you have to emulate the trends that are popular at the moment, or that you feel you have to write a certain way to be produced. I think when you genuinely write about things that are important to you, that will resonate with people.”
 

To access the survey go to:
https://albertaplaywrights.squarespace.com/surveying-the-landscape

This is for all Canadian playwrights so feel free to share this across the country.

U of A Playwrights Forum

Facilitated by Meg Braem, Lee Playwright-in-Residence
 
The forum meets from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on the following dates:
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Sunday, November 17, 209
Sunday, December 1, 2019
 
 Meetings will take place in the Sandra Guberman Library in the Drama Department, on the 3rd floor of the University of Alberta's Fine Arts Building. If you are interested in writing for theatre and wish to join the U of A Playwrights Forum, please contact Meg at braem@ualberta.ca
  
About Meg Braem
Meg's plays have been nominated for the Governors General’s Literary Award and won the Alberta Literary Award for Drama, the Alberta Playwriting Competition and Playwright Theatre Centre's “The News Competition.” Her work has been presented at Theatre Calgary, Lunchbox Theatre, The Belfry Theatre, Sage Theatre, Sparrow and Finch Theatre, Theatre Transit, Atomic Vaudeville, and Intrepid Theatre. Meg is a past playwright-in-residence at Workshop West Playwrights' Theatre, member of the Citadel Playwrights Forum and the Artistic Associate at Alberta Theatre Projects.

SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITY:
12TH WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MONTRÉAL
JUNE 20-25, 2021
 
OPEN CALL FOR FEMALE, GENDER-FLUID, NON-BINARY AND GENDER NON-CONFORMING PLAYWRIGHTS!
 
Applications are open for participating in the 12th Women Playwrights International Conference in Montréal! Plays can be submitted from October 15, 2019 until December 15, 2019. We will notify those plays that are chosen for WPI Montreal by April 15, 2020.
 
We estimate that around 250 delegates will attend the conference from over 40 countries.
 
You may apply to participate in the following categories:
• Dramatic Readings (15-20 minutes)
• Staged Readings (full text)
• Full Productions (you must bring your own production/venue and tech support will be provided)
 
OUR THEME:
We invite the playwrights of the world to write about anything that explores the spectrum of identity, be it about racialization, sexualization, class, gender, age, dis/ability, language and so forth.
 
We invite you to think of these questions:
• What does racialization and sexualization mean now? What does gender mean? How do we accommodate our evolving ideas of gender and sexual identity in our writing? Is there a post-gendered future looming?
• What does it mean to be a woman playwright? What does it mean to be a feminist writer?
• What does the idea of class mean and imply now?
• What is the experience of dis/abled writers? How does the body we inhabit inform our writing?
• Do all stories have to be told through lived experience? Who gets to tell whose stories?
 
Women Playwrights International (WPI) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to facilitating communication, opportunities to meet, to build networks, to create genuine, lasting contacts among women playwrights and theatre professionals from all over the world. This is done mainly through holding International Women Playwrights Conferences every 3 years at different locations around the world.
 
For more information, please see submission guidelines.

For more information, please email: wpimontreal2021@gmail.com, or check our Facebook page or our soon to be up website! Thank you!

SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITY:
PEEP SHOW AT SKIRTSAFIRE 2020

PEEP SHOW 2019: READING OF “BALETI” BY LEBOGANG DISELE. PHOTO BY GALLICAN BUKI.

SkirtsAfire, along with Alberta Playwrights’ Network is now accepting submissions for the eighth annual Peep Show!, a tease of new plays, to be presented at SkirtsAfire Festival taking place February 27 – March 8, 2020 in Edmonton.

SkirtsAfire Festival values diversity in the women we represent and therefore welcomes submissions from women artists from all diverse backgrounds including trans women, self-identifying women, the LGBTQ2 community, all ethnicities and all abilities.

Criteria for submission:

• All plays submitted must have been written by Edmonton and area women
• All plays submitted must be in PDF format
• 1 Play will be chosen in each of two categories (2 plays total):
  • Category 1 – must be a new, never-produced piece
  • Category 2 – must be a piece that has had a production or extensive workshop, but still needs further development

Chosen playwrights in each category will receive:

• A cash prize of $250 each
• 3 full days of workshopping and dramaturgy spread out over the months leading up to SkirtsAfire Festival, culminating in a public staged reading at SkirtsAfire in March 2020

Runner-up playwrights in each category will receive:

• A half-day Wordshed workshop through Alberta Playwright's Network

Submission guidelines are as follows:

• Your play must be received via email by 11:59pm on Friday, November 1, 2019
• Playwrights may submit a different play for each category
• Please include a cover letter with contact information, a brief biography, synopsis of the play(s) being submitted, and which category you are submitting to (Category 1 never-produced OR Category 2 previously produced)
• If submitting in the produced play category, please include a history of the play’s development
• No musicals will be accepted

Please send submissions and inquiries to:
Tracy Carroll, Peep Show! Coordinator at peepshowedmonton@gmail.com

SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITY:
DIASPORA DIALOGUES 2020 NATIONAL LONG FOR MENTORING PROGRAM

Diaspora Dialogues supports diverse writers to turn their craft into a career through mentorship, professional development and opportunities to publish and present their work. We do this through mentorship, professional development workshops, performance series and symposiums and TOK Magazine. For more information, visit: www.diasporadialogues.com 

Diaspora Dialogues invites submissions from emerging writers who currently have a full or near-full draft of an original full-length novel, or collection of short stories, or collection of poems. We also accept works intended for young adults. Full or near-full draft means that the writer has up to 85,000 words or 300 double-spaced pages of prose; or up to 25 poems (50 pages maximum). 

Diaspora Dialogues is committed to supporting a literature of Canada that is as diverse as the country itself. Writers are encouraged to keep this mandate in mind, but it is not essential in the submission. 

Submission Guidelines:

• Work from which the excerpt is submitted must be in a full draft or near-full draft stage. 
• Samples submitted can be one chapter from the novel or one short story from the collection (up to but not exceeding 5,000 words); poetry can include up to 10 poems but not exceed 15 pages. 
• Submissions must include a one-page description of the novel, short story or poetry collection. 
• Submissions must include a short biography in paragraph form (no more than 250 words.) 
• The work must be original and not previously published. 
• Submissions must be in English. 
• Each writer may submit only one manuscript. 
• A completed submission form must be included. 
• Submissions will be accepted by email. 
• Commentary/feedback is not available on submissions. 

Eligibility:

• Writers must not have a previously published full-length manuscript (although appearances in magazines and/or anthologies are acceptable). 
• Any writer of any age can apply. 

Deadline: November 11, 2019 at 11:59 pm. The mentorships will begin in January 2020 and run for six months. Assigned mentors are at the discretion of Diaspora Dialogues. 

Please read all of the guidelines carefully before submitting.
If you have questions, email Zalika Reid-Benta at zalika@diasporadialogues.com 

Find out more info on the program here: https://diasporadialogues.com/mentoring-program/ 

INTENSIVE OPPORTUNITY:
GHOST RIVER THEATRE 4-DAY DEVISED THEATRE INTENSIVE

Open to adventurous artists of all backgrounds, this long running intensive will foster an innovative environment where participants will develop, learn and experiment with new tools for creative expression. The intensive demands rigorous participation from individuals through hands-on exercises based on the unique artistic practices Ghost River Theatre has forged in the creation of such shows as GIANT, THE LAST VOYAGE OF DONALD CROWHURST, and THE HIGHEST STEP IN THE WORLD.

Topics:

• Collaborative creation dynamics
• Visual Approaches to storytelling
• Non-traditional text generation
• Key principles of healthy creation practices

Dates and Times:

Thursday, November 7, 2019 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Friday, November 8, 2019: 5:00 - 10:00 PM
Saturday, November 9, 2019: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday, November 10, 2019: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Location:

West Village Theatre, 2007 10 Ave SW, Calgary, AB, T3C 0K4

Pricing:

Early Bird (Register by Thursday, October 17, 2019) $350.00+GST
Equity $350.00+GST
Regular $450.00+GST

Sound like your kind of jam? Register now at www.ghostrivertheatre.com

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SUPPORT OUR WORK

APN annually provides support, development, resources, & technology for over 75 playwrights and provides employment opportunities for over 100 actors and directors. In the past 5 years, we have championed over 25 plays which have gone on to production at theatres of all sizes. As we do not produce the work, we do not see any return on the investment we have made. 

If you like what we do, please think about supporting us with a donation through ATB Cares (click the link below). We can turn every dollar into three dollars of support for the writers and creators in our great province.