Marc Duez, Author at Playwrights' Workshop Montréal

December 10, 2020January 22, 2021

Introducing AMPLIFIER artist Sylvia Cloutier

Photo of Sylvia Cloutier, artist of the AMPLIFIER program.

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, LA SERRE — arts vivants, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal are thrilled to announce the inaugural season of AMPLIFIER: a fully supported exploratory creation process for playwrights with artist Sylvia Cloutier and her project HUSH!

THE ARTIST

Photo by Maxime Côté

Sylvia Cloutier is an actor, musician, playwright, television and theatre producer, director, motivational speaker and mother from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), currently residing in Montreal.

Over the course of her twenty-five-year career as a singer, she has performed nationally and internationally both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many esteemed artists and ensembles including Tafelmusik, the National Art Center Symphony Orchestra, Florent Vollant, DJ Geronimo Inutiq Leela Gilday and Madeleine Allakariallak .

A recent graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal as the Indigenous artist-in-residence (2018-2020), Sylvia has worked as a performer for 25 years. Cloutier is the co-founder of the Inuit performing arts company Aqsarniit; served as Artistic Director of Qaggiq theatre company in Iqaluit from 2004-2009; and as theatre project manager in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (2008-2010).

Building on her talent and expertise in both theatre and music, Cloutier began writing, producing and directing for stage and screen in 1999. She has developed live shows for such prestigious events as the 1999 Inauguration of Nunavut in Ottawa and the Arctic Inspiration Prize, and concerts for both the festivals Alianait (2005-2019) and Toonik Tyme (2003-2018) in Iqaluit. Sylvia has also been a producer for six Inuktitut television series, including Niqitsiat (2015-2016) and Nunavummi Mamarijavut (2017-2018). She also produced and co-created the musical production TULUGAK (2011-2014), collaborating with Inuit artists from Canada and Greenland.

A motivational speaker and mentor for youth, Cloutier was named “Woman of the Year” by Pauktutiit, the national Inuit women’s organization in 2009, and received an award for “Outstanding young woman of the year” by Qullit Nunavut women’s organization in 2013.

THE PROJECT

Sylvia’s project, HUSH, explores how an Inuit community is impacted by the loss of someone to suicide. The play invites the audience to Nunavik to witness the Inuit culture, its relationship with the environment, its resilience, and how colonization stripped away its power to take over and take away spirituality and sense of autonomy.

“If we can be aware of our realities then we can learn to understand our history better. If we can understand our history and the trauma then we can work on acceptance. When we accept our pain then we can heal. When we heal, only then can we can reconcile. No more need to HUSH.”

Sylvia is the first artist supported by AMPLIFIER in English. Over the duration of the program, she will benefit from dramaturgical consultations, creation workshops, a creation production residency followed by a laboratory presentation, and receive a creation grant of $13,000.

THE PROGRAM

The Conseil des arts de Montréal, Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, and LA SERRE — arts vivants created this program to highlight the artistic and social contributions of theatre artists from culturally diverse, indigenous, or racialized communities working creatively in one of Canada’s official languages.

AMPLIFIER tangibly supports the professional development of theatrical writers from cultural communities, and reduces obstacles faced by these artists in the Montréal theatre community, including those related to inclusion, access to resources and services, visibility and legitimization, and funding.

Additionally, it seeks to foster dialogue between Montréal’s English- and French-speaking theatre communities, as well as intercultural exchanges and greater representation from culturally diverse artists within the theatre community and on Montreal stages. In order to support artists writing in French and artists writing in English, this program is offered by the Centre des auteurs dramatiques in French under the name Voi.e.s.x Théâtrales, and by PWM in English.

The development of Sylvia’s project will take place over 2 years. We wish her an exciting creation!

This program is a partnership between

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020

Impact Creation — Our year-in-review crossword puzzle

Illustration of 2 characters carrying PWM from 2020 to 2021. This is the year-in-review crossword puzzle for the Impact Creation campaign.

Here is our gift to you, our community: a 2020 year-in-review PWM crossword puzzle!

Every artist needs a home — a place where they can fully be themselves to create, a place where they just belong. Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal is that place for countless artists. This puzzle offers you a glimpse of what we did to keep us all interconnected during this roller coaster ride of a year.

It is also a draw! All correctly completed puzzles are entered in the draw for a chance to win their choice of Controlled Damage by Andrea Scott, Okinum by Émilie Monnet, or Some Blow Flutes by Mary Vingoe. All plays were created with the support of PWM.

Send us a correctly completed puzzle by December 31, 2020, and you will automatically be entered for the draw. You can submit your entry by clicking the submit button after filling it online, or if you choose to print it, send us a picture of the completed puzzle here. Don’t forget to leave your email or phone number when prompted, so we can contact you.

DONATE TO IMPACT CREATION

December 3, 2020December 3, 2020

Apply Now: Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab

Illustration for the Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab workshop 2021

Note:
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this workshop will take place remotely.
Contact harris@playwrights.ca for any questions about the workshop.

PWM and Studio 303 invite dramaturgs, theatre artists, dancers, circus artists and interdisciplinary artists to the third edition of the Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab. Led by Kathy Casey (dance), Dana Dugan (circus) and Fatma Sarah Elkashef (theatre), the lab is a space for artists to exchange dramaturgical tools, share challenges and experiences, and explore how we are working in these exceptional times.

Schedule:

(5-day virtual workshop)
9:30 AM to 12:30 PM EST every day
Monday, January 11 to Friday, January 15, 2021.

Location:

The workshop will take place remotely via video-conferencing software.

Fee:

$60
(Please contact us if this fee would be a barrier to your participation)

Application Instructions

Please send us a bio and/or artistic CV as well as a brief (1-2 paragraph) statement explaining why this lab interests you, how it is relevant to your artistic practice, and what your expectations are for this lab.
Send your application and any questions to: harris@playwrights.ca using the subject line: Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab
Apply before 11:59 PM on December 18, 2020 to ensure that your application will be considered.

About the Workshop Leaders

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 is currently continuing her research explorations and performance of the circus body and speculative performance narratives as a PhD student at Concordia University. 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.

Born in the UK, Fatma Sarah Elkashef is a dramaturg based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) working in new play development and interdisciplinary creation. Since 2013 she has been a dramaturg at Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM) where she has collaborated on numerous plays and performances. Sarah began the Interdisciplinary Writers’ Lab at PWM to explore non-text centric approaches to theatre/performance creation and is deeply inspired by the brilliant theatre, dance, circus, performance and visual artists who have been a part of it thus far. At the National Theatre School of Canada she has worked across programs as a dramaturg, creator, and teacher since 2012. Sarah’s preoccupations are rooted in her hybrid identity and practise, and she is excited by the possible futures for collaboration and process sharing across performance disciplines.

WITH THE collaboration of

This workshop is financially supported by

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020

APPLY NOW: Writing the political through the personal with Carmen Aguirre

Note:
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this workshop will take place remotely.
Contact harris@playwrights.ca for any questions about the workshop.

This five-day workshop led by theatre artist and author Carmen Aguirre is focused on writing that taps into personal experiences, with the goal of generating content leading to the creation of a one-person show or a multi-character play.

Using an exercise from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed canon to kickstart the writing process, the group will explore personal stories that are intentionally set within a larger social, political, and historical context.

The workshop will tackle the challenge of writing works which are meant to speak to universal experience as opposed to a writing process meant only for personal catharsis. Participants will also begin to learn how to wrap the personal and the political around each other effectively. The workshop will address questions such as: how do I write about personal experience without being self-indulgent? Why would anybody care about my personal story? How do I enter into a dialogue with the audience through my personal story, as opposed to using a personal story to enter into a dialogue with myself? How do I write about political issues that are important to me through personal story?

Schedule:

(5-day virtual workshop)

1PM to 4PM EST every day
Monday, December 14 to Friday, December 18, 2020.

Location:

The workshop will take place remotely via video-conferencing software.

Application Instructions

Please attach a bio and/or CV as well as a brief paragraph detailing your interest in the workshop.
Send applications to harris@playwrights.ca with subject line: Exploring Practice with Carmen Aguirre.
Apply before 1 PM on November 26, 2020 to ensure that your application will be considered.
Please note that the number of spots are very limited.

About the instructor

Carmen Aguirre is a Chilean-Canadian, award-winning theatre artist and author who has written and co-written over twenty-five plays, including Chile Con Carne, The Refugee Hotel, The Trigger, Blue Box, Broken Tailbone, and Anywhere But Here, as well as the #1 international bestseller Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (winner of CBC Canada Reads 2012), and its bestselling sequel, Mexican Hooker #1 and My Other Roles Since the Revolution.

She is currently writing an adaptation of Euripides’ Medea for Vancouver’s Rumble Theatre, Moliere’s The Learned Ladies for Toronto’s Factory Theatre, a short digital piece for Ontario’s Stratford Festival entitled Floating Life, and an untitled play on the life of famed twentieth century Italian photographer and revolutionary Tina Modotti for Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre. Reframed, an outdoor performance piece about online discourse, conceived and co-created with The Electric Company, received its world premiere on October 7th, 2020, in Vancouver, commissioned by Ottawa’s National Arts Centre for its Grand Acts of Theatre initiative.

Carmen is a Core Artist at Electric Company Theatre, a co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC), and has over eighty film, TV, and stage acting credits, including her award-winning lead role in the Canadian premiere of Stephen Adley Guirgis’ The Motherfucker with the Hat, and her Leo-nominated lead performance in the independent feature film Bella Ciao!. She looks forward to starring in Cecilia Araneda’s stunning debut feature film, Intersection, to be shot in Winnipeg in Spring 2021. Carmen is presently on the 2020 Siminovitch Prize shortlist, the most prestigious theatre award in Canada. She is a graduate of Studio 58.

carmenaguirre.ca

WITH THE collaboration of

This workshop is financially supported by

November 6, 2020May 21, 2024

Welcome to our Digital Dramaturgy Clinic!

Do you have a performance piece you have been working on for some time, with concepts you want to fold into your work but do not know how to accomplish technically or digitally?

Perhaps you are at the early stages of your next creation, and want to gather information and knowledge on what is possible on a technical and digital level?

Or maybe you had a piece originally intended for live performance, and want to carry it over in a digital format?

“I want to write holograms into my piece, how would holograms work on stage?”

This digital dramaturgy “first-aid” program offers creators a free, one-time session (up to 2 hours) with tech and digital specialists Emily Soussana & Andrew Scriver (otherwise known as potatoCakes_digital), to discuss their creation and the technical questions they might have.

After learning about your goals, Emily and Andrew will help you brainstorm and offer possible technical or digital solutions to your needs. They can discuss the technical processes required, as well as potential story-driven digital concepts to best translate your piece digitally.

HOW IT WORKS

The Digital Dramaturgy Clinic is an ongoing program, artists in need of assistance should contact Emily & Andrew at potatocakesdigital@playwrights.ca with a short synopsis of their work and the question they wish to address, so that the session can be prepared in advance.

Further consultation can be scheduled if appropriate. This program is set up to help you identify the expertise and technology you need to realize your vision.

project supported bY

The Digital Dramaturgy Clinic is funded by the Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers

October 7, 2020October 8, 2020

INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE TRANSLATION 2020

A one-on-one mentorship opportunity

For years Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal (PWM) and the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) have worked to forge links between French and English language theatre communities and foster the art of theatre translation. To this end, the two organizations have once again partnered together to offer two individualized mentorships meant to familiarize playwrights to the craft of theatre translation. The mentorship described below is focused on French to English theatre translation. Details on the English to French translation component of this mentorship can be found on the CEAD’s website.

How the mentorship works:

PWM will select 1 participant with an interest in French to English theatre translation;
Over a period of several months, the participant will translate excerpts (roughly 10-12 pages) of two contemporary Québécois plays selected by the CEAD;
Over several weeks, the participant will receive a total of 12 hours of dramaturgical support from acclaimed playwright and theatre translator Alexis Diamond;
The participant will have the opportunity to discuss their translations with the original playwrights;
The mentorship will culminate in two 4-hour workshops during which professional actors will read and discuss the newly-translated excerpts;
The participant will then have the chance to meet with the second participant as well as both mentors to present their work and discuss their experiences;
After the workshops, the participant will submit their final drafts of the translated excerpts to the CEAD.

Who can apply?

Montreal-based playwrights with a strong interest in French-to-English theatre translation;
The candidate must have excellent writing skills in English and have fluent comprehension of Québecois French;
Playwrights with little to no experience in theatre translation are encouraged to apply;
Applicants must have a minimum of two professionally produced pieces or Fringe productions.

Application Guidelines

Send your application, documents, as well as any questions you may have to Harris Frost at harris@playwrights.ca.

The deadline to apply is Monday, October 26th at noon.

Please include the following attachments (preferably as PDFs) in your application email:

Your artistic CV and/or bio;
A brief cover letter outlining your interest in this mentorship and in French-to-English theatre translation more generally.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

October 26th
Application deadline.

November 4th
Participant selected and provided with excerpts.

November – March
Several meetings with translation mentor, translation of excerpts and meetings with playwrights.

Before March 6th
2x 4-hour workshops of translated excerpts and final meeting with other participant.

Biography of Alexis Diamond

Alexis Diamond is a Montreal-based playwright, opera librettist, translator and theatre curator. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for audiences of all ages have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. She also collaborates with several international artists on performance-installations involving text, movement and sound. In 2019, Alexis Diamond served as co-artistic director of the Jamais Lu festival, where she also presented a bilingual play, Faux-amis, with co-author Hubert Lemire, with support from the CALQ. In 2018, Alexis joined a multiyear project led by professor Erin Hurley (McGill University) on the history of Quebec’s English-language theatre.

This mentorship is made possible by: