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This month, Cheeses Murphy brings his fabulous flying panini press to Piece/Meal. Munch on hot grilled cheese while you enjoy an intriguing reading from the script that won our 2011 24-Hour Playwriting Contest.

Neighbours by Allie Bell is a thought-provoking absurdist comic-drama. Plucking stories from the headline, it explores contemporary issues of sedition, homeland security and interrogation. On stilts.

Join us for  a night of theatre, grilled cheese and the unexpected.

Wednesday February 8, 2012
Doors open at 7:00 PM
The Button Factory
25 Regina Street South,
Waterloo, ON N2J 1R8

Pay what you can. Suggested donation $10.
Food will be available for purchase courtesy of Cheeses Murphy.
Cash bar.

Who or what is Cheeses Murphy?

Cheeses Murphy is the buttery brainchild of the Princess Cafe. Open only 7 hours a week, in the middle of the night, it serves up a full menu of unique, delicious grilled cheese. At Piece/Meal, you’ll have the chance to sample just a few of these melty creations.

Erin Sheilds: Winner of the Governor General's Award for her play "If We Were Birds"

What inspires you as a playwright? Where does your motivation come from?
I’m inspired by what’s around me – people, stories, news, politics, art, my family. I also take great inspiration from other works of literature and art. I love to interact with other texts – usually older texts – working to figure out how that those stories, ideas and perspectives impact my life today. Archetype is important to me as a writer.

What is your writing process? Is it basically the same for each play or does the script affect your process?
The process does change according to the piece. Often I work in cycles of development and performance with a company: devising work in studio, going away and writing, bringing it back into the room, working with designers from an early stage, bringing that work to an audience, drawing from that interaction, going back to my computer, reimagining, restructuring, rewriting, trying it with actors and designers and directors until … it feels ready for production. Other times I do all of this work by myself, taking the piece from draft to draft with input from a dramaturg and/or director. It depends on the piece.

What are your most productive writing habits?
Starting first thing in the morning and writing until three or four in the afternoon. I take short breaks and limit my internet access. I don’t believe in ‘writer’s block’. I just write.

However … I have a toddler and another child on the way. My writing habits are much less particular than they once were. I write whenever I am alone.

What derails you?
My daughter waking up from her nap. Knowing I have to get my protagonist from point A to point B, knowing there’s a major gap in the action, not knowing how to fill that gap. Isolation. Noise/music/sound. Feeling like I don’t have enough time.

When revising a draft, what are your stumbling blocks and how do you push past them to the next draft?
I have become obsessed with premise, structure and action. Aristotle would be proud. When I feel like I’m waffling – I don’t know how to get a character where I need her to go, I don’t know what I’m saying with the piece, I don’t know where I’m heading – I revisit my premise, story arch and outline to make sure all of the big pieces are in the right place. Then I go back to writing. I also come from an acting background, so if thinking for a number of characters at one time is becoming difficult, I think about each character’s objective in the scene and play. That usually helps.

What role does the dramaturg play in your process?
It depends on the play and the process. Often my dramaturg is my director. He/she has the most immediate and three-dimensional perspective on the work so if we have the luxury of readings or workshops, the director becomes a central ‘question asker’. When I am working with larger theatres, I find the company dramaturg plays multiple essential roles for the playwright. Often the AD will not have had time to go through the text thoroughly from draft to draft. Dramaturges make time. They love it. And they’re good at understanding how the play has transformed from one draft to another. Those dramaturges are therefore in the best position to talk about the work; to ask provoking questions that will inform the next draft. Often I find they act as a translator for the AD’s questions or concerns or thoughts. And they can champion work they feel passionate about and influence programming choices. Dramaturgs and literary managers are great.

What do you wish you knew about playwriting / theatre ecology when you started out?
Find your collaborators. Make your work. Produce it yourself.

How has winning the Governor General’s award affected your career?
My hope is that it may help my work may find a larger audience. It’s only been two months though. I’ll get back to you.

Has this award affected your writing process?
No.

Female playwrights are not produced as often as their male counterparts. Why do you think this is? Has the GG helped you get past this glass ceiling or is it still in place?
Artistic Directors program seasons. Most Artistic Directors are men. They program work they find to be most interesting. Most of that work seems to be by men. We need more female Artistic Directors who program work they are interested in. In the independent theatre community – where I self-produce much of my work — there seems to be a healthy balance between male and female playwrights creating and producing work. As I move on in my career, I am seeking more opportunities to have my work produced by larger theatres. I have not yet felt limited or excluded in that context because of my gender.

What is your most effective marketing tool?
Producing my own work and getting as many people out to see that work as possible. If We Were Birds was first produced at the Summerworks Theatre Festival by my company Groundwater Productions.

What upcoming projects are you working on?
I’m mid-process on many pieces: an adaptation of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening; a multi-disciplinary, bilingual (English and American Sign Language) Victorian Gothic Horror; a two-hander about sex tourism; a vaudevillian ensemble piece about Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel; and an adaptation of The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Details:
Saturday, January 28, 2012
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
The Button Factory
25 Regina St. South
Waterloo, ON N2J 1R8

Admission:
Pay What You Can. Suggested donation $10.
Seating is limited. First-come, first served.

About the Play
Betrayal, trickery and embalming fluid are no laughing matter, unless you’re playwright Vern Thiessen. He turned the true-life story of two scientists charged with keeping Lenin’s corpse preserved forever into the crowd-pleasing and critically acclaimed play Lenin’s Embalmers. Described in the New York Times as “a spunky dark comedy with wit and verve,” Lenin’s Embalmers earned Theissen rave reviews and a Governor General’s Award nomination.

About the Author
Thiessen, who is based in both New York and Canada, won the Governor General’s Award in 2003 for Einstein’s Gift. His play Shakespeare’s Will played to sold-out houses at the Stratford Festival last summer and has been produced in Germany, Wales, Italy and the United States. Vimy received rave reviews at the Blyth Festival and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa last year. Thiessen will be in Waterloo workshopping his latest play, Do Not Disturb, with Pat the Dog Playwright Centre. This new play, a saucy farce, will see its world premiere in August at Theatre Collingwood.

This project is made possible in part by the generous support of Canada Council.

Pat the Dog Playwright Centre continues its popular piece/meal reading series with an exciting, expanded
version.

We’ll  be serving up a light meal and four new, full-length theatre pieces — all of which originated from our
playwright centre. The smorgasbord of plays includes a mix of works from playwrights across the province and is accompanied by food and the launch of a visual arts installation in the historic Button Factory. Attendees to the
November 16 session will be the first to see Gareth Lichty’s newest creation.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Gods and Calvin Brewer by Jessica Anderson, who won 3rd place in 2010 24-Hour Playwriting contest.
Ancient gods and Greek food make for a classic-themed start to the series.

Wednesday February 8, 2012

Neighbours by Allie Bell, winner of the 2011 24-Hour Playwriting contest.

Wednesday March 7, 2012

First Dance by Trevor Copp. Two gay men set about creating a dance for a ritual that has no history. Wedding
cake will accompany this intriguing physical movement piece.

Wednesday April 11, 2012

The Barrel Project – a collective piece that answers the question, “Whatever happened to all those
Seagram barrels?” Whisky-soaked food accompanies this multi-media event.

For all piece/meal sessions

Admission:

Seating is limited, so reservations are required. Book your ticket through the Button Factory 519-886-4577.

This project is made possible in part by the generous support of the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation.

Writing a play in 24 hours sounds like an impossible task that would appeal to only a few people. Yet this year we had as many people on the waiting list as taking part in the contest itself. Why would any one do it? How do you get through the process? Is it really worth doing?

To learn the answers, we asked this year’s first-, second- and third-place winners –Allie Bell, Cody Sears and Evan Bawtinheimer — to share their experience and tips. Their approaches are as diverse and the scripts they produced. The only response in common is they’d all do it again.

What was your goal in taking part? Did you achieve this goal?

Allie: I wanted to take part in another 24-hour theatre writing extravaganza. I participated in the Toronto Fringe Festival 24-hour writing contest, and I wasn’t happy with the results. I didn’t feel I was true to myself as a writer in that process, and I wanted to enter another contest of the same style, to grow from the results of the first contest. Whether or not I achieved my goal is up to the audience.

Cody: I’d have to say one of my biggest goals, besides actually finishing the play, was to maybe get a little recognition and a chance to move forward with my writing. I’d say I achieved that goal. Both of them, actually.

Evan: My goal was to learn more about how plays are structured to deliver information to the reader/audience. When I write a play, before I write anything down, I listen to characters for months, understanding why they use certain phrases, tones, attitudes. This time is difficult to condense into 24 hours. It was the excitement of the freedom to choose a form, or a combination of multiple forms, and extend it to an unknown theatrical end that draws me to competitions such as this. Did I achieve that goal? I wrote a play following the journey of a rock. (I’m quite happy.)

What aspect(s) of the 24-hour format appealed to you?

Allie: I really enjoy the quick turnaround, because so many contests have you waiting months for results. There is an appealing immediacy about this format, and I feel my work benefits from strict deadlines.

Cody: The deadline. Work, for me, can be a bit crazy, and finding the time to sit down and write has been a struggle, so the fact that I only had 24 hours as opposed to 3 weeks really helped.

Evan: The impulses. My creative impulses are always stronger than my pre-planned thoughts. Once you give over to the Theatre Gods, your impulses reward you with pitch-perfect theatre. Also, the little bits of humour that come from complete exhaustion. When they blend with the story, they’re pure gold.

How did you prepare for the contest? Or did you?

Allie: I had an idea of what I wanted to write about, so I was mentally prepared, and really I was looking for an excuse to lock myself away and write it.

Cody: Once I decided on my idea for a play, I looked up some quotes that I felt hit at the heart of what I wanted to write, and made a little playlist of music that evoked my ideal mood for the piece, just things that would keep me on track. Then I just thought about it. A little bit everyday, made the conscious effort to take a few minutes to let my imagination go and dream up all kinds of things that might make their way into the play.

Evan: I read plays. And I read plays. (And I read plays.) I read anything. I read dozens of plays, mostly Canadian ones, and analyzed their structures. Afterwards, I picked my favourites and explored. The three plays that I could not forget during the competition were Robert LePage’s Polygraph, Guillermo Verdecchia’s Fronteras Americanas, and Hroswitha of Gandershiem’s The Conversion of Thais the Whore. These three plays took theatrical leaps and bounds higher than a living-room or courtroom drama play structure. I combined the forms, found some wonderful people to explore, and after drafting a simple plot-line, I began writing.

I did not have a story before I entered the contest. I’m currently studying at Brock University and knew that I would write a play on an idea that I learned in class. It would have either been a play involving rocks or cultural anthropology. I wrote a play about a rock.

How the 3 secret words play into your writing process? Did they help or hinder you?

Allie: My primary goal with the three words was to get them out in the first twenty pages, mostly so I wouldn’t forget to include them in a sleepy stupor. But, I also didn’t want the words to dominate my writing and thought process, so I waited until there was a natural fit in script. I’m not the type to cram things into a sentence because I have to, which is why I appreciated the unobtrusive nature of this particular contest, and the words themselves. I truly felt it was a control for the contest and not a hindrance for my writing.

Cody: The 3 words were more just a means to an end. They had to be there, so I put them in. I didn’t shrug them off, mind you, I tried my best to work them in as a part of my actual writing, and not just add 3 stand-alone lines for the sake of having them there. They were neither a help nor a hindrance, mostly because I kept my focus on what I wanted to achieve with the play, and didn’t let the other 11,023 words in the play get held back by 3.

Evan: Oh, I loved the words. Loved them. Loved them. Loved them. I spent thirty minutes learning their definitions, synonyms, antonyms, anything that could inspire the work, including pictures of water, diagrams of perpendicular lines and letting the word shift melt on my tongue as I repeated it ominously. (I haven’t done that in ages.)

The secret words helped me narrow down the very general topic of “rocks” to specific concepts of erosion, change, and connection. I felt that those concepts can be connected to minerals as well as to family, friends, and lovers. Like rocks, don’t all relationships change, erode, and connect over time?

What tricks did you employ to stay focused?

Allie: I think I’m a little crazy because I willingly write for 12 or 14 hours, so adding a few more hours was no big deal… even though by 2 in the morning there were little dots where my computer screen once was, so I took a two-hour nap. I think it is important to allow a brief period of incubation before editing, so the writer is able to remain critical about the piece.

Cody: I don’t know if these were tricks or not, but I just set up a little workstation on our dinner table and setup everything I might need — snacks, pillows, water _- so then I didn’t have to let myself procrastinate by looking for things I didn’t really need. Yeah, I guess it’s a trick.

Evan: I wasn’t able to take one foot out of my room without thousands of thoughts continuing the story, cutting and pasting, and keeping my mind active. I kept thinking and watching the characters move about on the stage in my mind, asking questions and not taking any idea for granted. The more you think and ask the more focus you achieve. If I was silent and still on the outside, you better believe I was buzzing and talking on the inside.

What surprised you the most about the process?

Allie: Winning. I wasn’t expecting it. In fact, I almost passed out when I read the website.

Cody: I wasn’t surprised that at about the 6 hour mark I hated what I was writing, but I was surprised that at the end of it all I had a product that I felt fairly comfortable with. It’s not perfect or even that good yet, but I feel it’s definitely the outline of something that might come to life someday, and I can’t help but feel surprised about it.

Evan: I was able to take a small nap, wake up, and still know precisely what I wanted to write and where I wanted to write it. I don’t imply that I had dreams about the play (I should be so fortunate); rather, that I quickly became familiar with the story and my choices that I had to guide their pursuit and not back down until every character in the play was exhausted from trying too hard to achieve their wants.

Would you do it again?

Allie: With Pat the Dog Playwright Centre, YES! Absolutely!! I recommend this process to anyone. It was, and continues to be, an amazing experience.

Cody: With my schedule, It might be the only way I force myself to sit down and write anything. I’d do it every week if I could.

Evan: If you aren’t offering it, I’ll do it again purely for the spark. If you are, then yes. Hell yes.

Photo © alexkerhead. Published under a Creative Commons License.

What do you look for in a script?
A good story. Something that excites my imagination and starts me thinking “theatrically”. Can I see it on stage? And I have to look at the logistics as well — how many characters, what are the technical /production demands, and do I think our audience in Sudbury will enjoy it?

How important is the workshop process in developing a new script? And how many is too many?
STC’s original mandate, created 40 years ago, didn’t include a focus on new work or play creation. In 1972, Canadian playwriting was in its infancy and as Regional theatres were created across the country, their focus was on bringing the world theatre repertoire to Canadian audiences, acted, directing, and designed by Canadians. STC was created during that first wave of Regional Theatres and shared that original focus. As a freelance director though, and as an audience member, I have encountered a great deal of new work that has gone through the workshop process. What distresses me is how many works I see or read that have gone through an expensive workshop process but remain deeply flawed or unfocused.

I think it is less about the number of workshops and more about how the workshops are used in structures. I had a meeting with a writer who was a Literary Adviser at the Royal Court Theatre in London. There, workshops were the LAST part of the process and only entered into when the writer and the adviser (or dramaturg) agreed that the play was nearly ready for production. They had a philosophy that writers should write and not rely on actors to do the writing for them. Is that better? A good topic for discussion (and probably heated debate).

From a practical standpoint is there an ideal number of characters or script length?
As a basic rule of thumb, our dramas have a shorter run than our comedies, so we have fewer performances to generate revenue. Sadly, anything over 4 characters would really have to have a strong story that we felt would strongly resonate with our audience, A play with a lot of characters may be considered if there was a way that a small cast could bring all the characters to life (we are in rehearsals for The 39 Steps, which has over 100 characters, but is performed by 4 actors.)

Does script formatting matter or can it get in the way?
As long as it is easy to read, the format is not that important. But if it is jumbled, hard to follow, and doesn’t give me a clear idea or vision of how it may be realized — which is not to say it has to be over burdened with staged directions — it would be a tough slog to get through. And don’t use a font that is too small — some of us have less than perfect eyes! Sending a hard copy is better than an electronic version, but that may just be me.

How do you feel about detailed stage directions?
Only use what you need to tell the story. A  lot of writers submit scripts that almost read like a film — telling which way a character’s head should turn, or where there eyes should be focused. Keep it simple, and let the actors and the director do their job, which is to bring your script to life.

What turns you off a script?
A script that doesn’t live up to its “billing” — a mystery that is not mysterious or suspenseful, comedies that aren’t funny. I am not a fan of material that is mean-spirited. It can be strongly opinionated or have a forceful argument, but I am not a fan of things that are just mean.

Does the topic matter as much as the delivery? Or are there topics so important any discussion is worthy of staging?
Being an Artistic Director in a smaller community is a tricky balancing act. My job is to provide the BEST theatrical experience for our audience, which is not always on the same wave length as me, and often sees things very differently than an audience in a large urban centre. Our job as ADs is to take the pulse of our communities and try and make the best match between their interests and the desire to expand horizons and visions of the world.

What bad habits from television / movie scripts does a playwright need to break?
Multiple locations are certainly possible in the theatre, but it can run into technical and financial hurdles. The way people talk in movies and films is different than the voices of the theatre, so dialogue is different.

What is the most important play of the past 100 years and why?
Hmmm. That’s a tough one. I am about to start rehearsals for Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which is credited with being the first ‘absurdist’ play, and I think set the pattern for a way of presenting a story that is not completely linear or immediately understandable. Nearly 60 years after its premier I think it still keeps us interested and asking questions. What is it about? Who is Godot? Why are we here?

Fill in the blank. I wish people would stop telling playwrights to ___.
Write what you know. It’s great advice, but I would rather tell a writer to write what excites them, what fires their imagination.

What do you think about the state of new plays in Canada at the moment? Are you excited by it?
There are great plays being written and produced across the country, which is a nice contrast to when I was young, when new work was the exception rather than the rule. We are a big and diverse country so the range of voices is equally wide and diverse. I just wish there was more money around so the element of “risk” for a theatre like STC doing new work could be cushioned. Sadly, economics has taken the element of risk further and further from what a theatre like ours can attempt.

If you could give emerging playwrights three pieces of advice, what would they be?

1. Read and read and then read some more.
2. Do your homework. Learn what types of work a theatre does, learn something about the communities the theatres live in. Get some idea of the budget of the theatre and see if your vision can be created at a particular theatre.
3. And keep writing!

Armed with only a page of notes, a computer and their imaginations, playwrights from across Ontario spent 24 non-stop hours this past weekend fighting off sleep and pounding out an original play.

The third annual competition proved to be the most challenging yet. “The breadth of submissions was impressive, which made our job very difficult,” says Lisa O’Connell, Pat the Dog Playwright Centre’s Artistic Director.

But we have our winners:

• Grand Prize: Allie Bell of Toronto for Neighbours
• Second Place: Cody Sears of Toronto for How Soon we Fall
• Third Place: Evan Bawtinheimer of St. Catharines for The Volcanic Bomb
• Honourable Mention: Monica Fuentes of Burlington for The Inconsolible Blueness of Jeans

Wendy Philpott, one of the contest’s judges describes the winning play. “Through language and character this play achieves a sense of familiarity by alluding to the current issues of national security, extraordinary rendition and interrogation. Full of light and dark – it’s both ridiculous and serious.”

As our Grand Prize winner, Bell receives:

• $500
• A public staged reading
• A playwright Q&A published on our site

Sears and Bawtinheimer will also receive a reading.

Congratulations to our winners and everyone who took part. We know how gruelling this challenge can be.

They’re writing in coffee shops, on the bus, in the park — and they’ve been doing it for 23 hours straight.

Join Pat the Dog Playwright Centre’s Artistic Director Lisa O’Connell as we wind down the last hour of our Annual 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. How do they do it? Why do they do it? How can I do it?

Come to Pat the Dog’s international headquarters in Waterloo’s heritage Button Factory as Lisa counts down the last 60 minutes of this intense contest while discussing the format in an hour-long seminar. She’ll look at how to survive the contest, how to write under pressure, why artificial deadlines can be important and why even acclaimed playwrights still enter these contests.

Saturday, October 1, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
Button Factory
25 Regina Street South
Waterloo, ON N2J 1R8

Stock up on coffee and dust off your lucky mug. Pat the Dog Playwright Centre is thrilled to announce we are hosting our third annual 24-hour playwriting contest. This means 30 adrenaline-pumped writers from across Ontario will be hitting the keyboards from 4:00 PM on Friday, September 30, 2011 to 4:00 PM Saturday, October 1, 2010.

All contestants write off-site, so you can write at home, in a coffee shop, on a bus… the location is up to you. There’s no entry fee and no restriction on final script length. All you have to do is write an original play using three secret words — in 24 hours. How easy it that?

Not very. But the rewards could be great. Our winning playwrights are everywhere!

• Last year’s winning script, Receiver of Wreck by Matthew Heiti, received a workshop with Pat the Dog Playwright Centre and is slated for a public presentation in Sudbury this fall. Heiti is also the winner of RBC Tarragon Under 30 National Playwriting Competition and has been appointed Playwright in Residence at Sudbury Theatre Centre for 2011-12.
• Second-place winner, Evan Tsitsias, is completing his participation in Tarragon’s 2010-11 playwright unit, and had a Summerworks’ hit with Strange, Mary Strange, which received 4 Ns and a coveted Critic’s Pick with NOW Magazine.
• Jessica Anderson’s The Gods and Calvin Brewer, not only placed third in our contest and will be part of our upcoming piece/meal performance series, but was first runner-up in the Hamilton Fringe Playwriting Contest (2011) and received an honourable mention in Ottawa Little Theatre’s One-Act Playwriting Competition (2011).  Anderson’s full-length play, My Purple Wig, received the Special Merit Award in Theatre BC’s National Playwriting Contest (2010) and was short-listed for RBC Tarragon’s Under 30 National Playwriting Competition.

Rules & Regulations:

1. The contest is open to anyone living in Ontario, except contest Jurors. Space is limited to the first 30 entrants, accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To enter, just fill out our online form here.
2. Entrants can work from a page of prepared notes, but all plays are to be original works.
3. The script must include, in some form, the three secret words we select. These words will be emailed to the participants at 4:00 PM on Friday, September 30, 2011.
4. Participants must email their play to the designated email address no later than 4:00 PM on Saturday, October 1, 2011.
5. Scripts must be in electronic format (acceptable extensions include .doc, .docx, rtf, .pdf, or .txt), written in 12 point Arial, Courier or Times Roman, double-spaced between speaking parts, and formatted for 8 1/2” X 11” paper.
6. The title page should contain the title of the play, your name, contact number and email. The play itself must NOT contain your name, but have a header with the play title and page numbers.

Prizes & Notification:
Winners will be announced on our website on Monday, October 4 at 4:00 PM. Prizes will be awarded as follows:

• First place will receive $500, a public staged reading of the winning script and full bragging rights. We’ll also feature you on our website in a Q&A.
• Second place: a reading.
• Third place: a reading.