Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Playwrights’ Unit, now going into its fourth year, is a year-long residency program designed to nurture promising playwrights. The writers will develop new plays over the course of the residency – with the Playhouse audience and resources of both the Springer Theatre and Firehall Theatre in mind. These works will be developed through:
1Monthly collaborative meetings in Gananoque: an opportunity to exchange theatrical ideas and impulses.
2Dramaturgical support from Associate Artistic Director Rob Kempson and Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran.
3A week-long writing retreat in May in Gananoque. Accommodation provided by the theatre.
4A four-hour workshop of the writers’ script in August.
5Full day workshops during our Sneak Peek Week in December 2016 – a series of free public readings of the playwrights’ work.
Meet the 2016 Playwrights’ Unit:
Briana Brown
CHRISTMASTOWN: A RURAL FARCE
A new farce that asks questions about the fragility and the strength of community.
Kringle, ON doesn’t have a lot going for it these days. The glass plant closed a decade ago; the bank closed earlier this year, and its government grants keeping ice in the hockey rink this winter. When Mary Schollart, a saucy retired schoolteacher, has the perfect solution: what if it was Christmas — All. Year. Long. Convinced it’s the way to put the ‘pep in the step’ of the residents of Kringle, while also attracting a tourism industry, Mary embarks on a campaign to create 365 days of Christmas – much to the chagrin of, well, everyone. But she won’t let that stop her.
Jenna Harris
SO SHE SAID
A fictional play, inspired by Jenna’s relationship with her grandmother, about identity, legacy and the stories we tell.
In Jenna’s own words: My dad refers to his mother, my grandmother, as a “going concern.” At the age of 91, Zelda Ruth Harris has more energy and drive than most people I know; this year she went to Costa Rica, next summer she will be going to Germany, and when not traveling she spends her days driving her older, less mobile friends to and from their appointments, checking out Facebook, going to bridge groups, book clubs and knitting circles, participating in studies on memory and aging and writing editorial letters to newspapers. Last spring, I had a conversation with my dad about my grandmother’s activities and he said that he wonders if she – whether conscious of it or not – is trying to say all that she has to say before she dies. And now I am even more fascinated.
JULIA LEDERER
NO MURDER, ALL MYSTERY
A comedy about growing up, growing apart and the technology that appears to keep us close at all times and distances.
Millie is throwing a party for her oldest friends, so they can finally see each other and meet Tracey’s mysterious new fiancé. They’re arriving at Millie’s sister’s place in the country to play an old fashioned Murder Mystery game, just like they did growing up. But it’s been a long time. Social media updates have made them feel like they know what’s going on in one another’s lives, but they haven’t spent time together in six years. Secrets are revealed and miscommunicated, and what is true becomes tangled in the guise of a ridiculous murder mystery game.
PAULA WING
THE COTTAGE
A new play inspired by a gently gothic story written more than a hundred years ago by Charlotte Perkins Gilman called “The Giant Wistaria”.
The play opens with some couples on vacation at an atmospheric cottage which they joke is so ancient and crumbling it must be haunted. Workmen are in the midst of fixing the rickety front porch during their stay. On their first night, several of them have quite vivid – and very similar – dreams about a young woman wearing a red necklace who is carrying a large bundle and crouching beside a deep, dark well. The next day they discover a well in the basement and when they raise the bucket they find the body of a baby. In the meantime, the workmen have torn up the porch to hack away the intrusive wistaria roots. They find the body of a young woman. She is wearing the same red necklace seen in the dreams. An engaging, surprising, funny, and touching look at our ties to the land and its ties to us.
Photo: John Koensgen in Butcher. ©2015 Andy Nichols.
2016-02-09
Gananoque: Thousand Islands Playhouse introduces its 2016 Playwrights Unit