Sunday, November 05, 2006
Playworks
I just spent the weekend in the company of playwrights, actors, directors and other theatre people. Theatre Alberta and the Alberta Playwrights Network collaborated to present a series of workshops and presentations, collectively called Playworks Ink.
On Friday, I attended a workshop with Clem Martini, who has written plays for both kids and adults, and just published a textbook on writing plays, called The Blunt Playwright. It is unique in its field in that it cites Canadian plays -- and the book is great. Clem writes the same way he talks, which is both humorous and plain-spoken. The workshop was about what makes a play producible. These days, a small cast is a real bonus, simply for economic reasons. Naturally, a good, well-written story will always help. Later in the evening, we were treated to an excerpt from Wendy Lill's new play, Chimera, which is about the politics of emerging medical technology. Since Wendy was the Member of Parliament for Dartmouth and the Culture Communications critic for the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), for seven years, she knows whereof she speaks. This was followed by a readers' theatre of "Slumberland Motel".
Saturday was taken up first by "Writing the Real Story" led by Wendy Lill, in which we took an article topic and tried to see what kind of a play might arise out of it. At lunch, we had a discussion on the trials and taboos of Canadian Theatre (one of which turned out to be hay -- the posters for one of the plays mentioned had to have an allergy alert on them). After lunch, we analyzed a script by Aaron Sorkin. It was interesting to see what happens to a script when it comes into the hands of a director -- in this case, Kevin McKendrick of Lunchbox Theatre.
On Sunday morning, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and take a workshop on how to make my voice louder. This turned out to be exercises on relaxing and breathing, the basis for nice, strong voices. We didn't even use our voices until the last hour. So it was a lot less stressful than I expected it to be. I learned a lot from Jane MacFarlane, an acting and voice instructor at Mount Royal College.
Sunday afternoon was graced with a readers' theatre production of "Where the Blood Mixes" by Kevin Loring, a brilliant new play about a father meeting his daughter again, many years after she had been adopted out.
I don't know whether I'll do it again next year, but if I do, I know it will be great.
On Friday, I attended a workshop with Clem Martini, who has written plays for both kids and adults, and just published a textbook on writing plays, called The Blunt Playwright. It is unique in its field in that it cites Canadian plays -- and the book is great. Clem writes the same way he talks, which is both humorous and plain-spoken. The workshop was about what makes a play producible. These days, a small cast is a real bonus, simply for economic reasons. Naturally, a good, well-written story will always help. Later in the evening, we were treated to an excerpt from Wendy Lill's new play, Chimera, which is about the politics of emerging medical technology. Since Wendy was the Member of Parliament for Dartmouth and the Culture Communications critic for the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), for seven years, she knows whereof she speaks. This was followed by a readers' theatre of "Slumberland Motel".
Saturday was taken up first by "Writing the Real Story" led by Wendy Lill, in which we took an article topic and tried to see what kind of a play might arise out of it. At lunch, we had a discussion on the trials and taboos of Canadian Theatre (one of which turned out to be hay -- the posters for one of the plays mentioned had to have an allergy alert on them). After lunch, we analyzed a script by Aaron Sorkin. It was interesting to see what happens to a script when it comes into the hands of a director -- in this case, Kevin McKendrick of Lunchbox Theatre.
On Sunday morning, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and take a workshop on how to make my voice louder. This turned out to be exercises on relaxing and breathing, the basis for nice, strong voices. We didn't even use our voices until the last hour. So it was a lot less stressful than I expected it to be. I learned a lot from Jane MacFarlane, an acting and voice instructor at Mount Royal College.
Sunday afternoon was graced with a readers' theatre production of "Where the Blood Mixes" by Kevin Loring, a brilliant new play about a father meeting his daughter again, many years after she had been adopted out.
I don't know whether I'll do it again next year, but if I do, I know it will be great.
