Digital Dramaturgy Initiative

Co-imagined by Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Manitoba Association of Playwrights and the Blyth Festival, the Digital dramaturgy initiative (DDI) is designed around the expansion of Digital Literacy for those who work in the field of new play development.

GOALS

The pandemic has accelerated our use of digital tools.  However, knowledge and financial gaps are still with us. With this reality in mind, we designed three locally based residencies to explore and expand our collective vocabulary around three distinctive interactions with digital technology.  

These three distinct week-long residencies have been designed to allow for a deep investigation and articulation of two main questions:

  1. Where are the literacy gaps in managing the processes and systems in the integration of digital components?
  2. How to best organize creative relationships to maximize expertise in the collaboration process?

We will explore these dramaturgical questions through workshops, seminars, active learning, case studies, documentation and dissemination.

We are continuously working to make all of our programs accessible. We recognize that the identity of each person is fundamentally plural, multidimensional, changing and evolving.
We are committed to working with artists to create spaces within which Indigenous artists (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), racialized artists (including recent immigrants), members of the 2SLGBTQQIPAA+ communities and/or neurodiverse and disabled artists as well as artists living with chronic illness and chronic pain can create.

ORGANIZATION OF RESIDENCIES

Selected participants will bring their projects and creative questions into their local DDI residency, and hosts will provide access to dramaturgical expertise and digital technology. Participating artists will each receive a $750 honorarium.

We will be documenting activities and discoveries over the course of the residencies online to add to our national research dissemination.

Auxiliary programming over the course of the residencies will include collective investigations into both traditional and emerging digital tools and technologies, an exploration of the vocabulary needed to collaborate in digital integration, and assessments of case studies from Canadian and international initiatives.

Each of the three residences will be spearheaded by a different development centre, and each will focus on a specific theme.

MONTREAL
RESIDENCY

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Covid and its impact on live arts : how do we share and grow work in process. 

April 26 – May 1, 2021

Creating theatre inside a pandemic – how to use the tools available, what is possible, and what have we learned so far? How can we use this knowledge to create a more accessible platform for theatre? What can we take back into live theatre?

Application guidelines and information can be found on the residency’s site. For the application form click here. Open to all, however, priority will be given to artists creating in Montreal.
For more information contact: ddi@playwrights.ca


WINNIPEG
RESIDENCY

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Synthesizing digital and live theatre.

June 21 – 26, 2021

A week-long residency exploring the integration of digital technology and expertise in early stages of story creation and project development, with a focus on projects envisioning a theatrical form that synthesizes digital platforms and live performance.  

The Manitoba Association of Playwrights, in partnership with Video Pool Media Arts Centre and Manufacturing Entertainment, will meet with selected artists to devise a one-week workshop that will best serve their project exploration, and provide technology, equipment, and expertise to support the process. 

Call for applications will be announced the week of February 8, 2021, with applications due March 12, 2021, and selections made by mid April 2021. Open to Manitoba residents.
For more information contact Brian at mbplayoutreach@gmail.com


VANCOUVER
RESIDENCY

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Staging Screens: digital dramaturgy for macro and micro spaces.

September 20 – 25, 2021

Looking forward to post-pandemic realities, how will we bring our discoveries into live encounters and creation models? Which new audiences can we bring with us from a digital space into a live space?

We will apply our dramaturgy of site-specific performance using the digital realm as a convening and creative space. Live interactions will be determined based on the public health orders in place at that time.

Applications are due in May 2021, with selection by July 2021. British Columbia residents will receive priority, but national applications will be accepted. Schedules will be on Pacific time.
More info at plays@playwrightstheatre.com.

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PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS

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PLAYWRIGHTS’ WORKSHOP MONTRÉAL 

PWM is a national new creation centre for theatre and performance led by a team of dramaturgs and arts administrators. While playwriting has been at the core of what we do for over 50 years, our work now strives to include devised and interdisciplinary forms of creation. In addition to seeking collaborations across diverse artistic practices, we are strongly committed to supporting work which reflects a wide range of cultural identities and lived experiences. 

PLAYWRIGHTS THEATRE CENTRE

PTC is a dramaturgically-focused theatre company that finds, nurtures, and advances the Canadian playwright, supporting new plays from creation to performance. They collaborate on new work with emerging and established theatre artists, with a focus on dramaturgy, development, playmaking from A to Z. Through carefully curated programs and deep conversations with artists, they help them transform their practice and ideas. PTC fosters a culture of inclusivity and aim to make itself accessible to all artists of passion and vision.

MANITOBA ASSOCIATION OF PLAYWRIGHTS

Since 1979, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights has been the only organization in the province devoted exclusively to the development of plays and playwrights. MAP has played a crucial and invaluable role in nurturing and supporting the vibrant theatre scene we enjoy today. As a service organization, MAP has helped develop countless plays that have graced our provincial, national and international stages over the last 40 years.

BLYTH FESTIVAL

Since 1975, the Blyth Festival Theatre has put farmers and rural Canadians centre stage, telling their stories, sharing their history, and celebrating their way of life. A fully professional theatre, in the heart of Ontario’s bread-basket, the Blyth Festival’s ingenuity, tenacity, and creativity has irrevocably reinvigorated the region’s very imagination.

The Blyth Festival has passionately asserted, for 45 years, that rural Canada has a history and imagination that is full, vibrant and as worthy of championing as any Shakespeare play.

PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
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