Reading Week (Inaugural Trans-Canada Edition)

Factory Theatre

presents

Reading Week (Inaugural Trans-Canada Edition)

October 3-6, 2007

(A Free Event)

As part of its play development program this season, Factory has launched a major national initiative to present a reading series of new plays from across Canada. This year, our inaugural Reading Week (Trans-Canada Edition) is a unique collaboration between Factory Theatre and play development centres in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and the Maritimes to choose some of the most exciting new works from their own development programs, and to bring these playwrights and their key collaborators to Toronto for a festival of play readings in the Factory Studio Theatre. Reading Week (Trans-Canada Edition) was conceived and coordinated by Factory's Director of Play Development, Bill Lane.

According to Artistic Director Ken Gass, "Play development is an important part of what we do at the Factory. We're delighted to collaborate with major play development centres in other regions not only to expand our national perspective, but also to seek out important new work from outside the Toronto area for potential future production."

TRIGGER HAPPY by Mansel Robinson

Saskatchewan Playwrights’ Centre

Director/Dramaturge Heather Inglis

October 3, 7pm

A black comedy about gangsters, academics and a hit-man with carpal tunnel syndrome in his gun hand. It’s about love, family, poetry and the truth. Well, public relations. Better make that “spin.” Ok – it’s also a story about lies.

Playwright: Mansel Robinson’s recent work includes the anti-war play Scorched Ice (Last Exit Theatre, Saskatoon) and Picking Up Chekhov (Scirocco Drama, 2007). Ghost Trains, in a translation by Jean Marc Dalpé, is touring Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick in 2007/08. Mansel has been writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, the University of Windsor, the Regina Public Library, and he will be in residence at the Surrey Public Library in 2008. He lives in Saskatoon.

KILL ZONE…A LOVE STORY by Wanda R. Graham

Playwrights’ Atlantic Resource Centre

October 4, 3pm

For Canadian troops, the rules for peace-keeping have changed but war is still… hell. Ray is a good soldier, but now, back at home, he is unable to defend himself on trial because of permanent brain damage. Did he try to kill himself or was he the only innocent man in the ‘kill zone’?

Playwright: Wanda R. Graham is a Chalmers Award winning actress (Stratford Festival) and has an MFA in Playwriting from York University. She was Artistic Director of Stage East Theatre in Nova Scotia for five years and founder of Playwrights’ Atlantic Resource Centre. Her first TV documentary, MILITARY WIVES premiered at the 2000 Atlantic Film Festival and in 2001 her screenplay WALL OF SILENCE won the Linda Joy-CBC Prize at the Atlantic Film Festival.

HOUSE OF KOSA by Miranda Huba

Playwrights’ Theatre Centre, Vancouver

Director/Dramaturge Heidi Taylor

October 4, 7pm

The theatre becomes a high fashion runway in this epic that exposes the inner workings of the oldest and most prestigious couture house in the world. A young woman coming of age in a society filled with price tags and empty values challenges her father for control of the House. A perversely poetic exploration of the life of a fractured family -- a metaphor for a society obsessed with everything sexy (accompanied by a chorus of models, of course).

Playwright: Miranda Huba is a playwright and actor. Writing credits include: The History Of My Domestication, commissioned by Playwrights Theatre Centre, Hospital City (Tiger Milk Collective) The Tour (Fringe Tour), Terrible girls, who are not really terrible (Walking Fish Festival), and Victory of Course (The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, NYC). Currently she is participating in the Pataphysics Playwriting workshop in NYC at the Flea Theatre. She is a recipient of the Enbridge Award for an emerging playwright through Alberta Theatre Projects.

THE CONFESSIONAL OF THE BLACK PENTINENTS

or THE TRUE PATH TO THE CHURCH by Carolyn Gray

Manitoba Association of Playwrights

Director/Dramaturge Ardith Boxall

October 5, 7pm

Winnipeg, 2008: five thousand more VLTs are readied for use and public opinion is against it. The Lotteries Corp. Inc. partners with the Province to train a new kind of government employee charged to ensure citizens follow the Path of Gambling for Entertainment Only. One night, Stella, a gambling addict, rolls the wrong person for quick cash and is forced into an underground labyrinth under Main Street built by VLTers who can’t stay on the Path. But tonight, their secret refuge is infiltrated.

Playwright: Carolyn Gray began writing plays in the Hull Truck Method as a member of the Rude Players led by Alan Williams. Her play 'The Elmwood Visitation' was published by Scirocco Drama and won the Manitoba Day Award. She has been involved in numerous independent productions as an actor, playwright, director, dramaturge, puppeteer, and designer.

OFFICES by Alexis Martin

Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal

Director/Dramaturge Emma Tibaldo

Translated by Bobby Theodore

October 6, 3pm

The office is a fluid space, transformed according to its use or its time in history. As much as it reassures us by its purpose, it can also perturb. Here, the audience is invited to a reshuffling of offices: literally, the office of the priest, police detective, janitor of the Galéries d’Anjou shopping mall, the office of the bishop, the rabbi and the psychoanalyst. We are invited to share an investigation into the disappearance of a man with possible connections to a radical religious sect.

Playwright: Alexis Martin was born in Montreal in 1964, and studied at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montreal and at the Université de Montréal. For the past 15 years he has worked as an actor in theatres in Montreal, across Quebec, in France and Switzerland. He has collaborated with many theatre directors as both playwright and actor. He has also written and acted for film. He is presently the co-Artistic Director of le Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental with Marthe Boulianne and Daniel Brière.

Translation: Bobby Theodore translated The Leisure Society by Francois Archambault, a hit at Factory Theatre in the 2005 season. Other translations include 15 Seconds, also by Archambault (Belfry Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Prairie Theatre Exchange, GCTC), Martian Summer by Nathalie Boisvert (Theatre Direct Canada), La Noirceur by Marie Brassard (Infrarouge Théâtre), and The Sheep and the Whale by Ahmed Ghazali (Cahoots/Modern Times/Passe Muraille).

WRITER'S BLOCK by Eugene Stickland

Alberta Playwrights’ Network, Calgary

Director/Dramaturge Bob White

October 6, 7pm

Writer's Block could be seen as a delusional, autobiographical fantasy. While employed at Alberta Theatre Projects, the playwright joined the company's health plan and his occupation was listed as "Playwright." One day, while flipping through the policy manual, he came upon the section on long term disability. If he was no longer able to perform his stated duties, he would be eligible for some serious cash. What other reason could there be for a playwright not to write, than writer's block? The play answers the old question, "What if he had really called in sick?"

Playwright: Eugene Stickland is one of western Canada's most produced playwrights. Based in Calgary, Eugene served as playwright in residence for Alberta Theatre Projects where he wrote six plays that premiered in the playRites Festival of new Canadian plays. Since leaving ATP in 2004, Eugene has written a feature column for the Calgary Herald while working on several new plays, including Closer and Closer Apart which opened at Edmonton's Theatre Network this spring.

Panel Discussion:

"REGIONAL DIFFERENCES, REAL OR IMAGINARY?" A discussion with Play Development Centre Directors Coast to Coast. Moderator, Ken Gass.

October 5, 5:30pm (Reception at 5:00 p.m.)

Please add to listings immediately.

Reading Week (Trans-Canada Edition)

October 3 -6, 2007

Factory Studio Theatre

125 Bathurst Street at Adelaide

All events are Free!

416 504-9971

Schedule of Events -

Trigger Happy

By Mansel Robinson

Director/Dramaturge Heather Inglis

Wednesday October 3, 7pm

Kill Zone… a love story

By Wanda R. Graham

Director Jenny Munday,

Thursday October 4, 3pm

House of KOSA

By Miranda Huba

Director/Dramaturge Heidi Taylor

Thursday October 4, 7pm

The Confessional of the Black Penitents or the True Path to the Church

By Carolyn Gray

Director/Dramaturge Ardith Boxall

Friday October 5, 7pm

Offices

By Alexis Martin

Director/Dramaturge Emma Tibaldo

Saturday October 6, 3pm

Writer's Block

By Eugene Stickland

Director/Dramaturge Bob White

Saturday October 6, 7pm

Panel Discussion:

Regional Differences, Real or Imagined?

Friday October 5, 5:30pm

Sarah Mackie

Publicity and Outreach Officer

Factory Theatre

416.504.4473 x224

125 Bathurst Street (at Adelaide) Toronto M5V 2R2