Stage Door News
Stage Door News
September 8, 2014… The Stratford Festival’s seventh annual Playwrights Retreat begins today and runs through September 28. The Festival is delighted to welcome eight playwrights this year: Jessica Anderson, Briana Brown, Rob Kempson, Jordi Mand, Mieko Ouchi, Jeff Pitcher, Beatriz Pizano and Michele Riml.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming writers from right across the country – from Newfoundland to British Columbia,” says Bob White, the Festival’s Director of New Plays and host of the Playwrights Retreat. “As well as providing these writers with that all-too-rare resource of concentrated time to work away from the distractions of daily life, here at the Festival we are blessed with the opportunity to get to know the work that will be defining Canadian theatre in the years ahead.”
The work of several attending playwrights has been produced by the Festival including John Murrell’s Taking Shakespeare, Judith Thompson’s The Thrill and Daniel MacIvor’s The Best Brothers. The 2014 season features two past Retreat participants: Michel Marc Bouchard and Linda Gaboriau who, respectively, wrote and translated Christina, The Girl King.
Under the umbrella of the Stratford Festival Laboratory, the Playwrights Retreat is part of a suite of programs designed to support the development of new work and new ways of looking at the work created by the Festival. Part of Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino’s vision for integrating artists of all stripes into the fabric of the Festival, the Playwrights Retreat offers writers the opportunity to work on self-defined projects, meet artists and staff, and attend productions.
2014 Playwright Biographies
Jessica Anderson
Jessica was the recipient of the 2012 RBC Tarragon Emerging Playwrights Award for her play The Gods and Calvin Brewer. Her full-length play My Purple Wig premièred Off-Broadway in November 2013. She has been a member of the playwright’s units at Thousand Island Playhouse and Theatre Aquarius. She is currently an artistic associate at Pat the Dog Theatre Creation.
Briana Brown
Briana Brown is a playwright and theatre director hailing from rural Ontario. Recent credits include The Concessions (Touchstone Theatre/Playwrights Theatre Centre, Vancouver), and the publication of two of her one-act plays in anthologies by Signature Editions. She recently completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Briana is proud to have directed the world première of The Way Back to Thursday at Theatre Passe Muraille last January.
Rob Kempson
Rob Kempson is a theatre artist and educator, working as a playwright, composer, performer, producer, and director. Rob was most recently seen starring in his musical The Way Back To Thursday (Theatre Passe Muraille). As a co-creator/director: #legacy (HATCH 2014, Harbourtfront Centre); In My Own Skin (YRDSB); The HV Project (Community Project); Intersections (TDSB Arts Co-Op). He is the past Artistic Producer of the Paprika Festival and the current Associate Artistic Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille.
Jordi Mand
Jordi Mand’s first full-length play, Between the Sheets, premièred as part of Nightwood Theatre’s 2012/2013 season in Toronto and has since been produced both nationally and internationally. Other plays include: The Speedy (Unspun Theatre/Harbourfront Centre), Right of Passage (Theatre Yes). She is a resident artist of Theatre Passe Muraille and was the 2013/2014 Playwright in Residence with Nightswimming Theatre and a past member of Tarragon Theatre’s Playwrights Unit. Jordi is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
Mieko Ouchi
Mieko Ouchi is an actor, writer, and director who works in both theatre and film/TV. Her plays The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The Blue Light, The Dada Play, Nisei Blue and I Am For You have been produced across Canada and the U.S.A., and been finalists for the Governor General’s Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
Jeff Pitcher
Jeff was born and raised in Newfoundland; he is the author of over fifteen professionally produced plays. He’s currently the Artistic Director of Theatre Newfoundland Labrador and splits his time between Vancouver and Newfoundland.
Beatriz Pizano
Beatriz Pizano is the founder and artistic director of Aluna Theatre: a leading Canadian-Colombian company that creates, develops, produces and presents artistically innovative and culturally diverse performance work, with a focus on Latin Canadian and women artists. Beatriz has written and directed a trilogy about women and war that includes La Comunión (2010), Madre (2008), For Sale (2003). These three plays have received a total of 13 Dora nominations, including three for Outstanding New Play, and have won four of these awards. Her first long play for young audiences, La Maleta earned her a 2014 Dora nomination and is currently being produced in Canada and the United States by Roseneath Theatre. She is the recipient of this year’s K.M. Hunter Award.
Michele Riml
Michele Riml is a critically acclaimed playwright from Vancouver, BC. Her plays include Poster Boys, RAGE, Souvenirs, On the Edge, The Amaryllis, Henry and Alice: Into the Wild and Sexy Laundry, produced in Canada, Poland, Germany, New Zealand, Iceland, Mexico and the U.S.A. Her plays for young audiences are The Skinny Lie, The Invisible Girl and Tree Boy. Michele was nominated for the 2008 Siminovitch Prize.
2014-09-08
Stratford: Seventh annual Playwrights Retreat now underway