There’s lots to celebrate. Last week, not only did Pat the Dog Playwright Center sign on our 100th member, we won the Gowlings Literary Award at the 22nd Annual K-W Arts Awards on June 6th. Being first-time nominees, we were taken by surprise.

Pat the Dog Playwright Centre is pleased to announce we’ve been chosen to present the playwright reading series for this year’s Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

piece/meal is a brunch-time series providing an intimate, playful introduction to fresh new plays in development from intriguing new theatre artists. All excerpts are from full-length plays currently under development at Pat the Dog Playwright Centre.  Come taste our spicy, innovative, invigorating new work served up with a soupcon of style, brioche and caffeine.

piece/meal takes place at:

The Artery
158 King Street West
Kitchener, ON (click here for the Google Map)
June 14, 15, 16, 2010
11 AM – 1 PM

Admission is free to Magnetic North Theatre Festival Industry Series participants.  For everyone else, it’s PWYC with a suggested donation of $15. Brunch is included on a first-come, first-served basis so arrive early.

For more than a decade, a pyramid of Seagram’s barrels sat at the corner of Erb and Caroline Street in downtown Waterloo. In August 2009, the landmark barrels went up for grabs. Within hours, the kegs had found new homes but left many questions. What happened to them? Where did they go? Who are the new owners?

While the wooden slats and metal rings may be scattered all over the county, their memory remains rooted in the local community.

Over the next few months, Pat the Dog Playwright Centre will gather stories, take pictures and cooper a play about these historic kegs. The results? The Barrel Project: A multi-media collective theatre piece for the entire community.

But we can’t do it alone. If you own or owned one (or more) of the authentic Seagram barrels, we’re looking for you.

Contact Charmian Christie using the form below and put BARREL PROJECT in the subject line, or phone us at 519-886-4577.

For more details see our Barrel Press Release.

It’s got categories and slideshows and a handy downloadable membership form. With the latest news right on the front page, you’ll always be up to date on what’s happening. And if you miss something? Poke about the archives.

Between the  new site and  e-bulletin we’ll keep you up to date.

We’ll deliver news about local and national theatres, contests, calls for submissions, workshops, professional development opportunities, special events and more.

And we promise never to sell, rent, lend, share or give away your email address. The primate at Mail Chimp makes sure of that.

Waterloo, we have a winner!

Allowed only a page of notes, a computer and their imaginations, playwrights from across Ontario spent 24 non-stop hours drinking coffee and pounding out an original play. Some wrote from the comfort of their homes, while others brought their laptops to Kitchener City Hall and wrote in the rotunda.

After much deliberation the panel of judges selected the winners, who were announced at a special reception held at Seven Shores Urban Market & Café in Waterloo.

The winners are:

• Grand Prize: Margaret Clark for You Know I Love You Still.
• Second Place: Johnny Trinh for Sometimes Y.
• Third Place: Evan Tsitsias for Aftershock.
• Honorable Mention: Miroki Tong for Crimson Falling.

Prizes for the winners are

• $500 and a staged reading for first place
• $100 and a reading for second place
• $50 and a reading for third place
• A reading for honourable mention

Grand-prize winner Margaret Clark, a graduate of University of Waterloo, had no idea what she would write about when she signed up for the contest. By focusing on what was urgent to her, Clark wrote a play about a 24-year old woman who was abducted at age 8 and held in a basement for 16 years. The play examines the woman’s first steps into an adult relationship following her re-entry into the world. “I didn’t want to be exploitive,” Clark says. “If you write a play about deep, urgent human issues, you must be responsible for what you write. It forces you, focuses you and with more empathy.”

O’Connell calls the results, “Timely, sweet, funny and poignant.”

Stay tuned for updates on when Pat the Dog presents the readings.

Balloon photo © bfick. Published under a Creative Commons License.

The Button Factory, home of Pat the Dog

Whiteboard? Check.

File folders? Check.

Pens? Check.

Mandatory air-cleansing plant? Nope.

We’re still setting up in our office. But with floor-to-ceiling books, a view of the railroad tracks and an organic coffee shop nearby, we’ll be just fine.