Tag: canadian theatre

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Public Reading of Mizushōbai (The Water Trade)

Date: Friday, February 28, 2020
Time: 7 PM
Venue: PWM Studio, 7250 Clark St Suite 103, Montreal, QC  H2R 2Y3
Please note that Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal is not located in a fully accessible building. Our space is located above street level and is only accessible via a flight of stairs (nine steps). More info here.

This is a FREE event. Donations are welcome at the door.

Don’t forget to RSVP, seating is limited.

RSVP

Synopsis

Mizushōbai (The Water Trade) explores the life of Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto, a Japanese picture-bride turned ‘underground’ business woman in 1930’s British Columbia. It delves into her history, not as a clichéd dragon-lady madam (although at times, perhaps she is), nor as a dutiful daughter (although at times, perhaps she is), nor as a submissive and sexualized female Asian body (although at times, perhaps she is), but as a valuable member of Canadian society who had to fight against expectation, and for autonomy and recognition every step of the way.

“What fascinates me about Kiyoko is that she broke EVERY SINGLE RULE and expectation of culture, gender and society.”

Mizushōbai (The Water Trade) was developed with Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal through a variety of programs, including the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency and the EstérELLE Writers-in-Residence.

Mizushōbai (The Water Trade) was the recipient of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre’s inaugural More than a footnote commission, and received financial support from the Cole Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Content Warning

Sexual References, Mature Language

About the Playwright

Julie Tamiko Manning is an award-winning Montreal actor and theatre creator.

Selected acting credits include: Sin in Paradise Lost (Centaur), Annie in Jean Dit (Théâtre D’Aujourd’hui), and Elena in Butcher (Centaur).

Her first play, Mixie and the Halfbreeds (with Adrienne Wong), is a play about mixed identity in multiple universes, first commissioned as a radio play by CBC, then adapted for the stage for Neworld Theatre in Vancouver. Her second play, The Tashme Project: The Living Archives (with Matt Miwa) is a one act verbatim play about the Japanese Canadian internment camps during WW2, which recently toured to Montreal (Centaur), Toronto (Factory), Vancouver (Firehall) and Ottawa (Prismatic Arts Festival/GCTC).

Creative Team

This play is currently in development.

Play by Julie Tamiko Manning

Dramaturged by Emma Tibaldo

Featuring Deena Aziz, Brenda Kamino, Kyungseo Min, Mahalia Golnosh Tahririha, Annie Yao

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Chez Nous Staged-Reading Series

Coming up from February 24th to 27th 2020, join us and delve into the history of English Montreal theatre!

WHAT: Chez Nous: A Staged-Reading Series Showcasing English-Language Drama in Québec (1930-1979)
WHEN: Monday, February 24 – Thursday, 27 February at 7 P.M.
WHERE: Moyse Hall, McGill University – 853 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal H3A 0G5 

Chez Nous: A Staged-Reading Series Showcasing English-Language Drama in Quebec (1930-1979) is a collaboration between Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and professor Erin Hurley (Department of English, McGill University), with the artistic collaboration of four of Montreal’s English-language theatres: Black Theatre Workshop, Centaur Theatre, Imago Theatre, and the Segal Centre. The event will spotlight influential writers like Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Mada Gage Bolton and more, including PWM’s founders Carol Libman and Aviva Ravel, who helped shape Montreal’s English-language theatre tradition.

The series, which is free and open to the public, runs from Feb. 24 to 27, 2020 in McGill University’s Moyse Hall at 7 p.m. Each evening will be followed by a talk-back with the director, cast, and research team. The research team is composed of Alexis Diamond (playwright and translator) and Alison Bowie (dramaturgy and PhD candidate at Concordia), along with Emma Tibaldo (Artistic and Executive Director of PWM).

Feb. 24: Theme: “A Question of Class” – Rethinking the ‘good life’ during the Depression and WWII.

Facebook event
  • Mada Gage Bolton, Dealer’s Choice (1937) — A working woman comes up with a plan to trade her independent New York lifestyle for a family homestead in the country.
  • Janet McPhee and Herbert Whittaker, Jupiter in Retreat (1942) — A haughty mathematician and his two servants play a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse in a Laurentian cabin.  

Directed by Micheline Chevrier, Artistic and Executive Director, Imago Theatre.

Feb. 25: Theme: “He said X, She asked, Why” – A poetic take on the darker aspects of human nature.

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  • Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, A Man Was Killed (1959) — A black comedy about the human impulse for violence and the destruction of social relations.
  • Elinore Siminovitch, Big X, Little Y (1974) — Women’s roles in society are playfully examined through nursery rhymes, songs, and games.

Directed by Eda Holmes, Artistic and Executive Director, Centaur Theatre.

Feb. 26: Theme: “The Third Solitude” — Portraits of the Jewish Montreal experience.

Facebook Event
  • William Werry, The Bag of Earth (1967) — A respected Jewish tailor awaits the return of his grandson who is bringing him a bag of earth from Israel.
  • Aviva Ravel, Dispossessed (1976) — Moved by the death of a former lover, a woman confronts what her life could have been.

Directed by Caitlin Murphy, Artistic Associate, Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.

Feb. 27: Theme: “Identity Crisis” – Tension between fact and fiction comes to a head.

Facebook Event
  • Carol Libman, The Reluctant Hero (1956) — One miner, two reporters, and a media circus. Who will determine what makes a hero?
  • Linda Ghan, Coldsnap (1979) —  An immigrant from Jamaica must get married in order to stay in Canada, but he questions his motives and recounts his experience with racism.

Directed by Quincy Armorer, Artistic Director, Black Theatre Workshop.

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Public Reading of Reflection of Silence

Date: Friday, January 31, 2020
Time: 7 PM
Venue: PWM Studio, 7250 Clark St Suite 103, Montreal, QC  H2R 2Y3
Please note that Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal is not located in a fully accessible building. Our space is located above street level and is only accessible via a flight of stairs (nine steps). More info here.

This is a FREE event. Donations are welcome at the door.

Don’t forget to RSVP, seating is limited.

RSVP

Synopsis

Detached from family and friends, Parifam Mana draws and paints in her private studio—a place where memory and inspiration are in a continuous battle.

Parifam’s world is turned upside down when her childhood friend Ramak re-enters her life. Parifam and Ramak grapple with the hidden truths that linger in their past—soon to be revealed in an exhibition at a museum they built together. 

Warning

Description of rape

About the Playwright

Headshot-Aki Yaghoubi

Aki Yaghoubi is an Iranian-Canadian theatre and film artist involved in writing, directing and acting. Dedicated to the arts for over 18 years, she was trained by iconic Iranian director and drama professor Hamid Samandarian at Kanoon, where she received two awards in Film and Theater Acting & Directing, and Film Script Writing. 

Aki has worked alongside many great writers and directors such as Bahram Beyzai and Mohammad Rezaeirad, the highest regarded writers and theatre directors in Iran. 

Over the years, Aki has participated in several major theatre productions as director, assistant director, stage manager, and costume designer. 

Aki also performed in several plays, movies, and television shows, among them A Streetcar Named Desire, To Damascus, and Even Soul. 

She moved to Montreal Canada in 2009, bringing with her love and passion for theatre. In 2014, she had her first performance in Canada, in the piece One Minute silence, which was put on stage at the Segal Centre for performing arts. In 2015, Aki started to write her first full-length play Reflection of Silence, and in 2017 won an individual writing grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for this project. She also won the grant DémART-Mtl program from the Conseil des arts de Montréal in 2017. In 2019, she performed the lead on a Canadian movie Sin la Habana produced by Voyelles Film in Montreal. 

www.facebook.com/aki.yaghoobi

Creative Team

Play by Aki Yaghoubi

Directed & Dramaturged by Diane Roberts

Guest cultural dramaturgy by Ülfet Sevdi 

Featuring: Adam Capriolo, Davide Chiazesse, Burcu Emeç, Ariel Ifegran, Amir Sám Nahkjavani, Anne-Audrey Remarais, Anne-Marie Saheb, Natalie Tannous

Photo Credit: Lukas Rodriguez

The writing of this play is supported by a writing grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Public Reading of Barbed Wire

Reserve early! Seating is limited.

Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Time: 7 PM
Venue: PWM Studio, 7250 Clark St Suite 103, Montreal, QC  H2R 2Y3
This is a FREE event. Donations are welcome at the door.

RSVP

Synopsis

A strand of barbed wire has started to grow inside you. You’ve got about an hour before your lips are sewn shut. What will you say while you still have the time? What will be your last word?

“So it attacks us when we censure ourselves in front of someone else, is that it? It assaults us when we hold back our opinions? We’re condemned for this! Seriously? I blow on my wounds to help them heal.“

Warning

Reference to racially motivated rape, strong language and violent imagery.

About the Translator

Johanna Nutter is a performer, creator, and curator of live arts.

In 2015, she started creature/creature, consolidating her passion for blurring lines between established divisions.

As an actor, she’s distinguished herself in leading roles at both Centaur (Good People) and La Licorne (Les Évènements).

She won the Cole Foundation and PWM’s Emerging Translator Award for CHLORINE (Florence Longpré & Nicolas Michon), which she also produced and directed (Centaur, Brave New Looks). She attended PWM’s translation residency in Tadoussac, working with Linda Gaboriau on Mon frère est enceinte, the French version of her international hit solo, My Pregnant Brother. It played in both languages at La Licorne, where it was awarded the Cochon d’Or for Meilleure production de la relève 2011-2012 and went on to tour throughout Quebec, across Canada, and to Scotland, England, and Belgium. She has also translated texts by Étienne Lepage, Guillaume Corbeil, and D. Kimm.

She is currently working on translations of two recent solo creations, OSCAR: girl gone wilde (with Joseph Shragge, Jamais Lu 2019), and Tree Hug (Art in the Open, PEI 2019), as well as continuing her work with Algonquin art star Nadia Myre,  STRIKETHRU (Phénomena, Origins, UK 2019), going up at the MAI in May. She is the founder of Espace Freestanding Room and former curator of the Wildside Festival.  

www.creaturecreature.org

Creative Team

Les Barbelés written by Annick Lefebvre

Translation by JOHANNA NUTTER

Directed by ALIX DUFRESNE

Translation dramaturgy by MAUREEN LABONTÉ

Featuring JOHANNA NUTTER

Translation commissioned by PWM and developed through PWM’s Cole Foundation Translation Graduate Program.

This reading is supported by

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