Patricia Zentilli in The Pink Unicorn, Northern Light Theatre. Photo by Brianne Jang, bb collective photography
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
•Opening tonight: Northern Light’s 50th anniversary season, with a new Trevor Schmidt production of The Pink Unicorn — a solo play by the American writer Elise Forier Edie whose timeliness has only escalated in the decade since the theatre introduced us to it. Here’s the scenario: a small-town Texas widow, a conservative church-going single mother whose world and all her social connections in it splinter apart when her teenage daughter announces she’s gender-queer. Patricia Zentilli, who stars as the unlikely activist, has fascinating things to say about the role in the preview here. It runs through Oct. 11 at the Studio Theatre in the Fringe Arts Barns. Tickets: northernlighttheatre.com.
Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Troy Feldman, Davinder Malhi in The Life of Pi, Citadel/ Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Photo by Nanc Price.
•The Citadel is turning 60, and the opening production of their anniversary season, Life of Pi, is up and running (through Oct. 5). Directed by Haysam Kadri, a technical marvel it is — a perfect storm of inspired lighting, sound and set design, with a cast of humans and puppets in Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel. The story of improbable survival — a shipwrecked teenage boy trapped on a lifeboat or hundreds of days with a quartet of zoo animals, and finally one ferocious Royal Bengal tiger — married to improbable theatrical magic. Have a peek here at ’s preview interview with puppet designer/creator Brendan James Boyd of Puppet Stuff Canada. And the review is here.
Alberta Playwrights’ Network executive director Trevor Rueger with playwright Rose Scollard. Photo supplied
•And here’s a 40th birthday you might know about: the Alberta Playwrights’ Network.
Imagine this scenario: You’ve written a play. At least you think it’s a play…. So what do you do now? Alternate scenario: You’ve written a play, but you have the feeling that all is not quite right with it…. So what do you do now? Third scenario: you’re a seasoned playwright and you want to hang out with other playwrights and talk about the 12th draft of your new play and the how-to’s of getting your play read by a theatre and onto a stage…. So what do you do now?
That’s what the Alberta Playwrights’ Network is for.
Forty years ago an unofficial quartet of Alberta playwrights — Stephen Heatley, Conni Massing, Lyle Victor Albert and Raymond Storey — founded it, with some money from Alberta Culture. At a moment in our collective cultural history when British and American theatre ruled, their inspiration, as executive direct Trevor Rueger points out, was “to create a network of support and assistance for our own Alberta playwrights. “A network for playwrights to meet each other — for education, advocacy, workshops, mentorship, the sharing of resources….” After all, actors and directors have each other. What about the artists who write the plays? Who do they have?
And speaking of “networks,” it was Theatre Network that provided the backroom space for the office, until APN moved its HQ to Calgary in 1992.
APN is all about “the journey of the playwright,” as Rueger says. “It’s a playwright development centre, not a play development centre.” Still he reckons that APN has had a hand in developing some 3,000 plays in the last four decades, through many changes in the theatrical landscape and the growth of respect for and confidence in Canadian theatre production and the capture of our own stories.
Rueger compares APN to an AMA for playwrights. “For a membership fee, you can get a map from us if you’re lost. Or get towed to the nearest playwright” for advice and assistance.
The venerable Alberta Playwriting Competition is an Alberta Playwrights Network initiative (a recent winner Hayley Moorhouse’s Tough Guy will launch Fringe Theatre’s season in October). Script Salon, one of Canadian theatre’s notable little success stories which happens the second Sunday of every month at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Strathcona — new Alberta scripts read by professional actors — is jointly presented by APN and the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada. The idea is to provide actors and an audience to assist playwrights in preparing their plays for full production.
playwright Beth Graham
APN is having a 40th birthday celebration Saturday night at the Hazeldean Community League 9630 66 Ave. Expect readings from Alberta plays that have had successful mainstage productions here and elsewhere, among them David van Belle’s Liberation Days, Beth Graham’s The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble, Michelle Robb’s Tell Us What Happened. There will also be cake, Rueger assures, and a performance from his own Calgary-based cover band. Hello Penguins is their Calgary name. They are currently brainstorming an Edmonton name for the band: “The Whyte Avenue? Trevor Schmidt’s new Fringe play?” Tickets for Saturday’s event: pay-what-youy-can at 40thyeg@albertaplaywrights.com.
Postscript: congratulations to both Beth Graham and MacEwan University. The actor/ playwright/ dramaturge is their new playwright-in-residence.
