The speech I would have liked to have said at the 2019 METAs ceremony

but because I was too shocked and amazed, I have no idea what I really said at the podium.

On November 3rd, I was awarded the Unsung Hero of the Theatre Award at the 7th Montreal English Theatre Awards ceremony. It was a beautiful and completely unexpected moment that I will treasure for years to come. Since I have no idea what I said when I walked up on stage at the Monument National, I’ve written some more organized thoughts and thank yous here.

I want to thank those who nominated me for this award. It feels incredible to be recognized for my role as an Arts Advocate. It’s part of my work as a General Manager that I get really excited about — but that not many in the theatre community know that I do.

If there is one thing I wish I would have said up there at the podium, it’s that arts advocacy is cool! It’s about getting to know your funders, decision-makers and elected officials and telling them about your art! At the core, it’s about building relationships. It’s about sharing stories and perspectives on what makes a community strong. And really — it’s about making sure the arts continue to be funded and supported.

Since most of us working in theatre mainly get our funding from government sources (which includes Arts Councils), it behooves all of us to be arts advocates. It’s vital work that takes persistence and teamwork, and it needs to be a necessary part of our practice as theatre artists and cultural workers.

I would like to invite you to start being an arts advocate right now – because guess what? It’s actually pretty easy. Quoting arts advocate extraordinaire, Kate Cornell (Executive Director of the Canadian Dance Assembly, and Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition), here are 5 simple things you can start doing right now (written with the dance sector in mind, but works for us theatre people too):

I want to thank my amazing team at PWM, for supporting me in my advocacy passions which also includes putting up with me being away at meetings and events. Thank you Emma Tibaldo, Sarah Elkashef, Jesse Stong, Harris Frost, Heather Eaton, Marc Duez, and Josh Johnston. Thank you also to Charmaine Ciano and Danielle Eyer. And thank you to our amazing Board of Directors. 

Finally, I want to thank the METAC:  Jessica Abdallah, Trevor Barrette, Tau S. Bui, Michaela Di Cesare, Kym Dominique-Ferguson, Karine Kerr-Gillespie, Danielle Laurin, Orlando López, Elaine Normandeau, Stephen Maclean Rogers and Danielle Skene for awarding me this honour and organizing such a beautiful event. My heart and spirit expanded three sizes on November 3, and you’ve helped renew my commitment to continue ‘repping the English theatre community in Quebec and beyond. 

All my love, 

P.S. If you want to take your role as an arts advocate a step further, here are two initiatives I am inviting you to participate in this year: 

1

At the Federal level, we just elected a new minority government. Now is the time for arts advocates to get to know our newly elected MPs and begin our work together.  If you’ve never participated in Arts Day on the Hill in Ottawa, now would be the time to do it! It is an eye-opening, extremely educational experience. It teaches you how to talk about your art to a politician (which easily translates to learning how to talk about your art to anyone who isn’t an artist).  Mark your calendars for May 5, 2020. Every year, the Canadian Arts Coalition  needs more artists in attendance for Arts Day, which has become the largest single-day lobbying event in recent history. It’s a short day trip to Ottawa. I will definitely be going (so let’s carpool?) Travel subsidies are often available for equity-seeking artists. Sign up for their newsletter to get involved. 

2

At the Provincial level, the Conseil québécois du théâtre (CQT) is in the midst of organizing the Plan Directeur du théâtre professionel au Québec. It’s a plan outlining the current challenges our theatre community is facing in Québec, and how the community will address them in the next 10 years. The CQT will need your help in shaping and realizing this plan. Sign up for the CQT’s newsletter to stay informed of this process and how you can be involved. The CQT needs your participation to make this plan work for you. Attend events, and stay informed.

P.P.S. As you can tell, I love talking about this stuff. If you want to talk more about it with me, send me an email! 

The Young Creators Unit SHOWCASE

YCU Showcase 2019

Two nights of staged readings from new work by emerging theatre creators

For 26 weeks, diverse young artists, have been working with dramaturg Jesse Stong to develop exciting, beautiful, flawed and authentic new plays (Nine of which will be premiered at this summer’s MTL Fringe Festival).

Dates: April 10 and April 11, 2019
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7 p.m.
Location: PWM
Admission to all readings is free. Donations are welcome at the door. Some of the plays feature sexually explicit conversations.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

The Anniversary Speech by Kate Hammer
The Smallest Gesture by Simon Pelletier
Ne touche pas pas à mes cheveux (et autres principes de base) byJessica Beauplat
Sacred by Anne-Marie St-Louis
The One by Miriam Cummings
A Brief History of Time by Antonia Leney-Granger
Big Girls Don’t Cry / Goddesses Never Sleep by Sophie Stone
Tomorrow by Ryan Bommarito
Eyes by Josh Johnston
Wine and Halva by Deniz Başar

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Poetic Nonsense by Erin Brahm
Barbara is Drowning by Lauren Holfeuer
Judith and Holofernes by Alice Abracen
Twenty to twenty five – Sophy Drouin
Still Gay When I’m Not in Love by Adjani Poirier
If I Were You by Rebecca Bauer and Patrick Park
One week last summer by Anna Burkholder
It’s my baby and I’ll murder it ritualistically if I want to by Alex Hine
Love Is The Last Thing by Karuna Vellino


Jesse StongWe are so excited to be showcasing another group of amazing artists. This year’s unit has been a true pleasure to facilitate, gathering each week to share work and exchange ideas about the future of theatre. The presentation will be a dynamic mix of diverse voices that you don’t want to miss.” Jesse Stong, Unit Leader

 

 


ABOUT THE YOUNG CREATORS UNIT

Thanks to generous funding from Canadian Heritage and the Zeller Family Foundation, and the dedicated mentorship of PWM dramaturg Jesse Stong, the Young Creators Unit has become a mainstay for young Canadian playwrights. Since its beginnings in 2015, YCU has supported more than 90 young artists as they take risks, develop their voices and find their place in Canadian theatre. Meet the 2018-2019 Young Creators.

Logo: Canadian Heritage and the Zeller Family Foundation

ANNOUNCING THE 2019 PARTICIPANTS

Who's going to Gros Morne 2019

Lire l’annonce en français.

Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal (PWM) and le Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) are pleased to announce the playwrights who were selected to take part in the 2019 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency in Newfoundland.

From April 17-28, Julie Tamiko Manning (QC)Meghan Swaby (ON)Robert Chafe (St. John’s), Yolanda Bonnell (ON)Rébecca Déraspe (QC), Royds Fuentes-Imbert (QC), and  Sébastien David (QC) will be staying at the Bonne Bay Marine Station located next to the Gros Morne National Park.

The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency brings French and English playwrights from across Canada together to write, dream, share and create. Headed by PWM and Le Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in partnership with Creative Gros Morne, Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Cole Foundation, the program offers dramaturgy in both official languages.

Emma Tibaldo   Paul Lefebvre

The residency, hosted by Emma Tibaldo, Artistic Director of PWM, and Paul Lefebvre, Dramaturgic Counsellor at the CEAD, will give priority to an individual writing retreat while also offering group discussions, encounters, and public readings of work in progress.


THE PWM PARTICIPANTS

 

Julie Tamiko Manning

JULIE TAMIKO MANNING

Play in development: MIZUSHŌBAI

Julie Tamiko Manning is an award-winning Montreal actor and theatre creator. Selected acting credits include: Annie in Jean Dit, Elena in Butcher (Centaur), Isabella Bird in Top Girls (Segal), and Emilia in Othello (Scapegoat Carnavale). Her first play, Mixie and the Halfbreeds (with Adrienne Wong) was recently produced by fuGEN in Toronto and her second play The Tashme Project (with Matt Miwa), a verbatim retelling of the Japanese Canadian internment experience, has recently finished touring Toronto and Vancouver. Her third play, Mizushōbai, commissioned by Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, is about Kiyoko Tanaka Goto, a Japanese picture-bride turned ‘underground’ business woman in 1930’s British Columbia.

Meghan Swaby

MEGHAN SWABY

Play in development: Breadfruit

Meghan Swaby is an actor and playwright born and raised in Toronto. Her play Venus’ Daughter was produced by Obsidian Theatre in 2016 and was recently included on The SureFire List (Playwrights Guild of Canada) as one of the top 23 recommended  plays in Canada. She has participated in various playwrighting programs over the years, such as; Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip, Diaspora Dialogues Playwright Residency and The Stratford Festivals’ Playwrights Retreat. In 2017, Meghan was one of 50 playwrights selected to have their work included in, 50in50: Writing Black Women Into Existence which was curated by Dominique Morisseau at the Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn, New York.

ROBERT CHAFE

Play in development: Everybody Just Calm the Fuck Down

Robert Chafe has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland.

YOLANDA BONNELL

Play in development: My Sister’s Rage

Yolanda Bonnell is a Queer 2 Spirit Ojibwe/South Asian performer and creator from Fort William First Nation in Thunder Bay, ON. Now based in Toronto, and a graduate of Humber College’s Theatre Performance program, Yolanda was named one of NOW Magazine’s Theatre Discoveries and most exciting artists to watch in Summerworks 2016.  Her solo show bug, completed a tour of the unceded Coast Salish territories, followed by a premiere in the Luminato Festival.  She was also a part of Factory Theatre’s The Foundry, a creation program for new career writers, where her play, Scanner continues to be developed. Yolanda also completed a season at the Stratford Festival as well as a residency at the Banff Playwright’s Lab with her most recent piece, White Girls in Moccasins. www.yolandabonnell.com

THE CEAD PARTICIPANTS

Rébecca Déraspe

RÉBECCA DÉRASPE

Play in development: Ceux qui se sont évaporés

Rébecca Déraspe completed the Playwriting Program at the National Theatre School in May 2010. She has written several plays that have been performed and translated around the world, including Deux ans de votre vie, Plus que toi, Peau d’ours, Gamètes, Nino, Je suis William, Le merveilleux voyage de Réal de Montréal, Partout ailleurs, and Nos petits doigts. She is also a member of Théâtre la Licorne’s playwright-in-residence program. She won the 2018 Critics’ Award for Best Young Audience Play for Je suis William, Best Script Montreal 2017 for Gamètes and the 2010 BMO Playwright Award for Deux ans de votre vie.

Royds Fuentes-Imbert

ROYDS FUENTES-IMBERT

Play in development: Taxidermie

Born in Havana, Royds Fuentes-Imbert completed a degree in Theatre at the University of Arts of Cuba (ISA) specializing in Dramaturgy and Directing before going on to teach theatre history and dramaturgy. A poet, playwright and director, he has published several French-language plays. He has been living in Montreal since 1997 where he pursues research in anthropology and theatre. He joined the faculty of the École supérieure de théâtre de l’UQAM in 2017, where he teaches, among other courses, a dramaturgy workshop focused on playwriting (Atelier de dramaturgie : Écriture dramatique) and a course on dramaturgy and theatrical poetry (Dramaturgie et poétiques théâtrales). He has since combined academic activities (teaching and research).

Sébastien David

SÉBASTIEN DAVID

Play in development: Fins et suites

A graduate of the Performance Program at the National Theatre School (2006), Sébastien David is also a playwright and director as well as Artistic Director of La Bataille, a theatre company specializing in the creation of new works. An award-winning playwright, he wrote T’es où Gaudreault précédé de Ta yeule Kathleen (2011), Les morb(y)des (2013), Les haut-parleurs (2015) as well as Dimanche napalm (2016), winner of the prestigious Governor General’s Award in 2017. All his works are published by Leméac Éditeur. He is on faculty at the Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe Theatre School and is on the board of directors of several arts organizations.

 

The 2019 Gros Morne Playwrights Residency_Logos

 

Seeking Participants: Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab

Lire l’annonce en français.

A five-day exploration of the art of dramaturgy across three disciplines

Dates: February 4-8, 2019  (Mon.-Fri.)
Times: 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 
Location: Studio 303 (372 Ste-Catherine West, Montreal, QC)
Participation fee: $80

This lab is open to creators, writers, choreographers, dramaturgs and interdisciplinary performance artists.

This 5-day laboratory is a gathering of dramaturgs from various disciplines to exchange best practices and fundamental aspects of live art. Led by Kathy Casey (dance), Dana Dugan (circus) and Sarah Elkashef (theatre), the lab is a space to exchange dramaturgical tools and challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is an opportunity to acknowledge dramaturgy as an art form.

Application guideline: To apply for this training, please submit a bio, your CV, and a short (1-2 paragraph) statement explaining why this training interests you, how it is relevant to your artistic practice and what your expectations are for this lab.

Please send applications to emma@playwrights.ca and harris@playwrights.ca
Subject line: Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab
Application deadline: January 21, 2019

Biographies:

Born in North Carolina, Kathy Casey began her dance career in 1979 with the Chicago Moving Company. Settled in New York in 1980, she danced for many choreographers before joining the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1984. In 1989, she became a member of Susan Marshall & Company, with whom she had collaborated since 1981. From 1985-1989, she also assisted Mr. Lubovitch and Ms. Marshall in creation. Kathy Casey has danced in Europe, Asia, and North America and continues to give numerous workshops across Canada and the United States. Welcomed by Montréal Danse in 1991, she was appointed Artistic Director of the company in March 1996. A major portion of her work now is collaborating with choreographers on the dramaturgy of the works created for the company. In addition to her work with Montréal Danse, she also works as an artistic advisor with independent choreographers in the city.

Dana Dugan is an American circus artist, performer, pedagogue, and scholar based in Montreal. She was a founding member, programmer, project manager, and producer of the Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival and CirqueOFF. Dana recently completed her Master’s Degree at Concordia University under fellowship researching the circus body and its embodied knowledge. She will continue her research explorations and performance of the circus body and speculative performance narratives as a PhD student at Concordia, Fall 2018. Dana’s work reflects an agenda that advocates for socially conscious performances and alternative, queer, feminist, political narratives that cultivate agency on the circus stage.

Sarah Elkashef is a theatre artist, primarily a dramaturg, working in new play development and interdisciplinary creation. At Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal she leads the Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab in addition to various other projects. At the National Theatre School of Canada she often works across programs as a dramaturg, creator, and teacher and in 2016 received their Bernard Amyot Award for Teaching. Sarah recently co-created a circus show for families Eat Sweet Feet, and continues to work on High Z, an immersive performance installation for planetariums based on the 2011 Nobel prize winning discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. Prior to settling in Canada she was the Senior Reader at Soho Theatre in London, U.K. Sarah has also been an associate producer, company manager, literary associate and more in New York City. She is a graduate of Warwick University in English Literature and Theatre (U.K.), has an M.A. in Theatre from Hunter College (CUNY, NYC), and a Graduate Diploma in Communications from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada).

 

Presented in collaboration with Studio 303

Studio 303 Logo

 

Training made possible by

Emploi-Québec and Compétence Culture Logos

Looking Back at the 2018 Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac

By Bobby Theodore
Translation dramaturg and host of the Glassco Translation Residency

 Cliquez ici pour lire la version française

Much like the bees in the burgeoning flower garden outside Fletcher Cottage, this year’s residency featured a tremendous amount of cross-pollination as we welcomed playwrights and translators from Innu, Queer Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, Tamil Canadian, French-speaking Quebecois, English-speaking Quebecois, and Argentinian communities. The plays in translation dealt with the aftermath of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the perversion of contemporary art by corporate interests, the intersection of queerness and Islamic identity, and how to talk about life to toddlers. Conversations are always inspiring and exciting in Tadoussac, but there was an essential shift this year that provoked new exchanges which will likely reverberate for years to come.

Innu translator Joséphine Bacon kicked off the residency with a deeply moving, in-depth acknowledgment of the unceded land that Fletcher Cottage was built upon. It was a true gift to hear her speak about Tadoussac, her Nation, and its historical ties to the Saguenay and North Shore. She came to Tadoussac to work on residency veteran Jasmine Dubé’s Marguerite. Marguerite is a choral play which tells the entire life story of one woman, from her birth until her death. A poetic piece that flows like a river, Jasmine set out to write this play after she was inspired to create theatre for toddlers. With Marguerite, she shares her love of language and playfulness through straightforward and evocative storytelling. After performing this work in French for 10 years, Jasmine decided she wanted to try and tour it to smaller communities in Northern Quebec. After she approached Joséphine about translating the play, they both agreed it would be a wonderful opportunity for the Innu-aimun language to be reinforced and for toddlers (and even their parents) to learn the language through a theatrical experience, surrounded by other babies and their parents. The main challenge Joséphine faced was that Innu-aimun has far fewer words than French. So, on occasion, she needed to use several words to describe one French word when there was no Innu-aimun equivalent. It was wonderful to see Jasmine and Joséphine forge a deep bond at the Residency, even though they’d never met before. Jasmine took advantage of Joséphine’s presence to advance her soon-to-be produced play for adults (a first!) Lascaux, even cutting out a central part of story she felt she’d appropriated from an indigenous myth.

First-time resident Alexis Martin came to Tadoussac to work with playwright Michael Mackenzie on a translation of Art Object, Michael’s sequel to Instructions for a Socialist Government Looking to Abolish Christmas, also translated by Alexis. Art Object, slated to premiere at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 2020, is a play that satirises the often amoral and complex relationship between high art and high finance. In his translation of the play, Alexis drew upon his prior knowledge of Michael’s characters and universe, as well as his acting experience. During the residency, Alexis spoke about his need to find the “breath” inside each translation he works on. Until he finds its breath, until the text is playable, he isn’t satisfied with his work. He uses a more liberal and creative approach to theatre translation, something he executes with Michael’s enthusiastic blessing. Each day, the two old friends and collaborators would go for long hikes during which Alexis would ask all the questions he’d accumulate over his morning work session. Later in the residency, when Argentinian translator Jaime Arrambide arrived to work on his Latin American Spanish version Michael’s Instructions to Any Future Government Wishing to Abolish Christmas, all three artists exchanged tactics and ideas to improve the translations. During the residency, Jaime fell in love with Art Object and now feels compelled to translate that play too. Jaime spoke to us about the vibrant theatre scene in Buenos Aires as well as the challenges of getting translated work staged there. While both Alexis and Jaime were working on their translations, Michael advanced his numerous writing projects.

Dushy Gnanapragasam came to translate Suvendrini Lena’s play The Enchanted Loom into Tamil. The Enchanted Loom is a haunting drama about a Tamil Canadian family dealing with trauma in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war. The multiple levels of language in the play presented a big challenge for Dushy since Suvendrini’s writing is equally poetic, lyrical, and medical, with Tamil influences. This team had been working on this translation for the past 3 years but the Residency was the first time they were able to spend dedicated time to the process. While working with Dushy in Tadoussac, Suvendrini discovered there were elements of the play, her first script, which she wanted to rewrite or cut. This often happens in Tadoussac as the translation process provides a means to improve upon original work through the lens of translation. Once they completed the Tamil version, Suvendrini and Dushy worked day and night on a new bilingual (Tamil/English) version of the play, rushing to get it done before they returned to their busy lives. During her stay at Fletcher Cottage, Suvendrini often repeated how this was the version of the play she’d “always dreamed of” creating. Though The Enchanted Loom will premiere in Toronto in Tamil in the next year or so, it’s often difficult to find the means and time to translate theatre for communities that aren’t part of the so-called dominant culture. During our late-afternoon discussions, we spoke about looking beyond English – French translation in this country in order to address the needs of the many communities who want to hear and see themselves on stage.

This year Olivier Sylvestre returned to Tadoussac as a translator to work with Bilal Baig on his play Acha Bacha. Bilal wrote Acha Bacha to speak specifically to Queer Muslim Pakistanis, so translating this play into French for a Quebecois audience posed several challenges. Acha Bacha is about a Queer Muslim Pakistani living in Mississauga (a large suburb of Toronto) who’s haunted by a traumatic memory the day before his lover leaves on a pilgrimage to the Middle East. Olivier thought about transposing this story to Montreal but expressed his concerns about this choice. His inquiry created an opportunity for some wonderful and lively discussion during our end-of-day meetings. How does a Queer Muslim Pakistani Canadian speak in French? Do they just sound Quebecois using, as Olivier put it, “ma langue”? Olivier explained how there aren’t many French-language Quebecois plays set in South Asian communities, let alone about the Queer Muslim Pakistani experience – which is what inspired him to translate this play. After listening to the group’s advice and his gut, Olivier decided to keep the play in Toronto as well as all the Urdu that’s spoken in the play. Olivier realized he needed to be sensitive to Bilal’s intentions and not simply translate the play to make it palatable for a French-speaking Québecois audience. He had to find a way maintain cultural specificity while keeping his audience engaged with material that may be unfamiliar to them. No small feat. By the end of the residency, Bilal seemed incredibly honored to have gone through this process and trusted that his first play was in Olivier’s expert hands – a clear result of their sustained proximity at Fletcher Cottage.

Like every year, it’s challenging to summarize everything that happened during this year’s residency. There are intangibles: the increased confidence residents gain over their time at the residency; the new creative relationships that are made; the validation they all feel; the significant moments of creative birth/rebirth… There were also bracing noon swims (in honor of Bill who swam every day), a trip to Cap de Bon Désir with no whales in sight, spicy debates about cultural appropriation, and – depending on which room you walked into – a constant stream of Tamil, Innu-aimun, French, Spanish, Urdu, or English. As always, Briony Glassco’s welcoming and joyous presence helped set the positive tone of our wonderful 10-day stay at her family’s magical home.

(L to R) Michael Mackenzie, Dushy Gnanapragasam, Bilal Baig, Jasmine Dubé, Joséphine Bacon, Suvendrini Lena, Alexis Martin, and Olivier Sylvestre (Not pictured: Jaime Arrambide)

PWM would like to thank the Cole Foundation and the Friends & Family of Bill Glassco for making this residency possible.

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