Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Canada's largest ten-minute play festival, the InspiraTO Theatre Festival, offers an innovative approach to the ten-minute play format. This upcoming season there are 4 distinct shows, with 6 ten-minute plays in each show. Each show addresses a creative challenge: RedShow - all the plays have the opening line, “I see a rabbit”; BlueShow - all the plays have at least one of the characters leaving home; OrangeShow - all the plays take place in a tunnel; YellowShow - all the plays use rope as an integral part the play. This year, for the first time in its history, the InspiraTO Festival will also feature the White Show - a “safari” approach where audiences will be led to four site specific venues and see a ten-minute play at each venue
This will be InspiraTO’s largest collection of plays to date: 28 ten-minute plays (four shows with 6 ten-minute plays in each, and a safari show with four venue specific ten-minute plays). With a growing trend in theatre to offer exciting new approaches that audiences find intriguing and accessible, InspiraTO has a format that appeals to today’s theatre-goer. “Each play is a self-standing entity with its own pitch, rhythm and pace. And yet, each is a microcosm of a greater whole” (Dominik Loncar, Artistic Director of the festival).
Half the plays are selected from an international competition (there were over 230 play submissions). The other half are from new Canadian voices – InspiraTO’s Playwrights’ Mentoring Project – where 12 aspiring playwrights are mentored to write a ten-minute play. Each playwright receives training, a dramaturg, and a workshoping of their play along with guaranteed productions in the festival.
There are no intermissions in the shows with quick set changes between plays allowing audiences to experience what is akin to a full length play: 6 individual stories that up to one unified experienced. Because each show is 60 minutes, you can easily see two or three shows back-to-back. Audiences also get a chance to vote for their favourite plays with the winners announced at the finale awards ceremony on the last day.
What I saw that evening was much more than a collection of individual ten-minute plays in one show -- it felt like a full length play - with rising action, turning point andresolution.” Elaine Romero (winner of the 2013 Blue Ink Playwriting Award)
VENUE: Alumnae Theatre
70 Berkeley Street, ON, Toronto (one block West of Parliament on Adelaide)
DATES: May 30-June 8, 2013
TICKETS: $15 / $12 for students; Festival Pass: $50/ $40 for students (four shows)
Available online: www.inspiratofestival.ca
Or the Alumnae Theatre Box Office – open one hour before each show.
Full schedule and more information visit: www.inspiratofestival.ca
Dedicated to producing high quality short plays and making theatre more accessible for both artists and audiences, the InspiraTO Theatre Festival was launched in 2006 by founding Artistic Director Dominik Loncar. In 2009, Lumir Hladik joined the Festival as Associate Artistic Director to create a unified set design and lend his visual arts expertise. Since 2010 InspiraTO has been proud to partner with Pat the Dog, Ontario's playwright centre, helping emerging and established playwrights across the province. The InspiraTO TheatreFestival, now in its 8th season has produced 106 ten-minute plays and received over 2,000 play submissions to date with over 100 participating theatre artists each season.
8th InspiraTO Theatre Festival Lineup:
International Competition – InspiraTO’s Playwriting Contest
RedShow: Natural Selection by Anne Flanagan
Metallica is the Last Straw by Tim Plaehn
One Decision by Stanley Brown
Carrots in the Toy Box by Elise Newman
Crazy by Lindsay Price
Baggage Handlers by Greg Vovos
BlueShow: Dead Zone by Spenser Davis
Just One More Thing by Sheldon Rosen
Strange Bedfellows by Peggy Dougherty
The Blue Balloon by Angie Farrow (1st Prize Contest Winner)
When a Tree Falls by Garret Johnston
Lazy Crazy Canadians by Dominik Loncar (Artistic Director’s submission)
InspiraTO’s Playwrights’ Mentoring Project – New Canadian Voices
OrangeShow: Under the Overpass by Christopher Duthie
Autobiography of a Fluke by Lindsay Cochrane
The Author by Mirella Christou
Benji-Boy by Rachel Ganz
Tunnel Vision by Jenny Alexander.
Bathwater by Ayesha Mansur
YellowShow: Friendly Strangers by Brett Haynes
Id Id Ood by Ashley Park
Daughters by Jordan Mechano
Perfect Timing by Kevin Craig
Bagged by Madeleine Jullian
Tug of War by A.M. Matte
2013-03-18
Toronto: 8th Annual InspiraTO Theatre Festival runs may 30-June 8 at the Alumnae Theatre