Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Eight of Canada’s most exciting theatre artists have arrived in Stratford for the ninth annual Playwrights Retreat. Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Director of New Plays Bob White are delighted to welcome: Beth Graham, Jeff Ho, Rosa Laborde, Ciarán Myers, Hannah Rittner, Andrea Scott, Quelemia Sparrow and Meghan Swaby.
“The inclusion of new Canadian plays is a vital part of our programming,” says Mr. Cimolino. “As we look forward to marking the 150th anniversary of our nation, I’m excited to get to know the work that will define Canadian theatre in the years to come.”
“We’re thrilled to once again offer playwrights from across the country the opportunity to pursue their work as part of the creative hub that is the Stratford Festival,” says Mr. White. “The seeds of many a successful and engaging project have been developed through the Retreat, and we are looking forward to engaging with these artists as they forge the theatre of tomorrow.”
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. Created to integrate artists of all stripes into the fabric of the Festival, the Retreat offers writers the opportunity to work on self-defined projects, confer with Festival artists and staff, and immerse themselves in the classics and other repertoire being presented on Stratford’s stages.
The work of several playwrights from past Retreats has been produced by the Festival, including Christina, The Girl King, written by Michel Marc Bouchard and translated by Linda Gaboriau; John Murrell’s Taking Shakespeare; Judith Thompson’s The Thrill; and Daniel MacIvor’s The Best Brothers. The 2017 season will feature two past Retreat participants: Colleen Murphy and Reneltta Arluk, writer and director of The Breathing Hole, respectively.
Support for new play programs at the Stratford Festival is provided through the generosity of Rita & Rudy Koehler, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and Kelly & Michael Meighen. The Festival gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council’s support of its new play programs.
Playwright Biographies
Beth Graham
Beth Graham is a playwright and actor from Edmonton. Her latest play, The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble, premièred at Factory Theatre (with Obsidian Theatre), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award. Beth is also one of the co-creators of The Drowning Girls, which was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award and received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award. She is currently developing Pretty Goblins with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre in Edmonton and co-writing the book for a Catalyst Theatre production premièring at Alberta Theatre Projects in the fall. Beth has been a member of the Citadel Theatre Playwrights’ Forum and has attended the Banff Playwrights’ Colony. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA acting program.
Jeff Ho
Jeff Ho is a performer and playwright from Hong Kong. As an actor, credits include Hana’s Suitcase (tour: Toronto/Montreal/Seattle/YPT; 2015 Dora nomination, Best Ensemble); Unknown Soldier (lemontree/Architect Theatre); Murderers Confess at Christmastime (Outside the March); The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet (Repercussion Theatre); Orphan Black (BBC America). As an emerging playwright, Jeff has been developing his first piece, trace, with the support of b current and Factory Theatre. Currently, Jeff is the Playwright in Residence with Nightswimming Theatre (2016-2017) and a member of the Cahoots Hot House Writers Unit, as well as working on a modern adaptation of Antigone for Young People’s Theatre. Jeff was in residence at Factory Theatre (2015-2016) and was a member of the Banff Playwrights Colony (2015) and Factory Theatre’s Natural Resources Creation Group (2014-2015). Jeff is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
Rosa Laborde
Rosa Laborde is an Ottawa-born, Toronto-based Chilean/Canadian playwright and actress. She has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her writing. She received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her acting in television and a Dora nomination for performance in theatre and was the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist’s Award for theatre. Rosa is Playwright-in-Residence at both the Tarragon Theatre and Aluna Theatre. She is a graduate of the Oxford School of Drama and the Canadian Film Centre and divides her time between acting and writing for theatre, television and film.
Ciarán Myers
Ciarán Myers is an award-winning playwright and dancer, and a multi-published poet, performer and pedagogue. He recently returned to Kitchener-Waterloo after living and working in the United Kingdom for two years, where he completed his MFA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. During this time he was long-listed for a handful of playwriting awards and honoured by Oxford's Almost Random Theatre for his short scene, Egon Schiele, which premièred in Oxford, at the Royal Central School and at the Baron’s Court in London with different casts and directors. Last year Ciarán’s full-length play Touch received five stars at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Adding received four stars at the Cockpit Theatre a month later in London. His book InSight was published with StoneGarden Studios in Kitchener in 2013. Ciarán is an alumnus of the Tron Theatre’s 100 Club in Glasgow and the Traverse Theatre’s Directing Program in Edinburgh. He is a champion Irish dancer and, as of last spring, a dad! Acting credits include Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew, Woyzeck in Woyzeck and Florina in Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest. Later this year he will be participating in GreenLight Arts’ inaugural Writer’s Unit just down the road from here in Kitchener, Ontario. ciaranmyers.weebly.com
Hannah Rittner
Hannah Rittner is a writer, producer and human rights advocate based in Toronto. Her company, LACE Productions, premièred the first live performance about the 2014 Yazidi genocide, The Unbelievers, at the 2016 SummerWorks Performance Festival. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts MFA in Dramatic Writing, where she received the Chair's Award in Excellence. She was nominated for the 2014-15 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Love & Exile. In addition to the Stratford Festival's 2016 Playwrights’ Retreat, she is a member of Nightwood Theatre’s 2016-17 Write from the Hip Program. In July 2016, Hannah acted as an ally to Nadia Murad (Nobel Peace Prize nominee) and Murad Ismael (Executive Director of Yazda) during their testimony to the House of Commons. With Ashley Peoples (LACE Development & Advocacy Associate) she facilitated meetings between Nadia, Murad, and Canadian leaders. Hannah is represented by Ian Arnold of Catalyst TCM.
Andrea Scott
Andrea Scott is a writer/producer who has been in playwright units at Cahoots, Roseneath, Obsidian and, most recently, Factory Theatre. Past writing credits include Eating Pomegranates Naked (SummerWorks), Frenemies (Mixed Company Theatre), Princesses Don’t Grow on Trees (Solar Stage) and Better Angels: A Parable (SummerWorks), which won Best Production last year. She is a graduate of the Generator Artist Producer Training Program. Don't Talk to Me Like I'm Your Wife (Cayle Chernin Award winner) will be in SummerWorks this summer.
Quelemia Sparrow
Quelemia Sparrow is a half First Nations actor and writer from the Musqueam Nation. She graduated from Studio 58’s acting program and the Langara Film Arts program in screenwriting. Quelemia’s acting credits include The Snow Queen/Globe Theatre directed by Rachel Peake, Our Town/Osimous Theatre directed by Bob Frazer, The Edward Curtis Project/GCTC/NAC directed by Marie Clements, The Penelopiad/Arts Club Theatre directed by Vanessa Porteous, August: Osage County/Arts Club Theatre directed by Janet Wright, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout/Firehall Arts Centre directed by Lorne Cardinal and Where the Blood Mixes/Playhouse/WCT directed by Glynis Leyshon. Various film and TV credits include Clouds of Autumn, Fringe, V, Sanctuary 2, Blackstone, Unnatural and Accidental, Da Vinci’s City Hall, Dead Zone and Da Vinci’s Inquest, for which she won a Leo Award for Best Female Guest Appearance. Her writing credits include a podplay for Neworld Theatre and Raven Spirit Dance called Ashes on the Water, Salmon Girl/Raven Spirit Dance, Papiyek/Full Circle Theatre, The Pipeline Project/Itsazoo and Savage Society and O’wet/Lost Lagoon/Alley Theatre. She is currently an Associate with Playwrights Theatre Centre and in residency with Full Circle Theatre.
Meghan Swaby
Meghan Swaby is an actor and playwright born and raised in Toronto. Venus’ Daughter, her first full-length play, received its world première with Obsidian Theatre at the Theatre Centre in February 2016. As a playwright she has worked with Obsidian Theatre, b current (rock.paper.sistazh festival), Nightwood Theatre (Groundswell Festival) and Buddies in Bad Times (Hysteria festival). She is currently part of the Pulp collective, which will première The Numbers Game this fall with The Storefront Theatre. Acting credits include Sheila Heti’s (All Our Happy Days Are Stupid), Suburban Beast/Harbourfront World Stage/The Kitchen – NYC; Woody Harrelson’s Toronto production of Bullet for Adolf; Roseneath Theatre (In This World); Birdtown and Swanville (The Physical Ramifications of Attempted Global Domination); Necessary Angel (Tout Comme Elle); and Blyth Festival (The Devil You Know). Meghan is an alumna of the International Actors Fellowship at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, England. She received her BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor.
2016-09-14
Stratford: Ninth annual Playwrights Retreat now under way