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Pat the Dog Playwright Centre is proud to be taking part in this year’s Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, “the premiere destination for Canada’s scholarly community.” The theme for this year is Crossroads: Scholarship for an Uncertain World.

Lisa O’Connell, Pat the Dog’s Artistic Director, will be joining forces with University of Waterloo Drama Professor Andy Houston as Keynote speakers at this prestigious event. They’ll be speaking to the Canadian Association of Theatre Research (CATR). The topic is Emerging Voices and Forgotten Landscapes:  The Dramaturgy of Society.

Click here for details of CATR’s schedule.

Click here to see the entire Congress program.

Emerging Voices and Forgotten Landscapes:  The Dramaturgy of Society
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
2:45 PM, Douglas Wright Engineering Building
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON

This Is My Drum is the culmination of a personal journey taken through the female experience of blood and spirit. It confronts a deeply contradictory encounter with identity while breathing through this moment in time called Canada.

The stories we don’t tell revealed in an intimate solo sharing becoming and knowing. It honours the thundering silence and the dancing through that connects to prayer when there is little left to say about anything.

This performance constructs the body as drum and the drum as vessel, a vessel that holds the voice of our own remembering, while the body stands at the crossroads of renewal and decay.

WARNING | MATURE CONTENT, STRONG LANGUAGE & SEXUAL THEMES

Come join us for This Is My Drum by Heather Majaury. Traditional food including Bison Chili, scones and strawberry drink, created and provided by Rachel Wilson.

Wednesday, April 11, 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.
Cash bar.

Allie Bell is an emerging playwright, with a passion for the disturbed. Her fingers dance across the keyboard producing the worse possible scenario. She is searching for a length of letters leading to an evocative end. Although, her first works were written for large casts, since her studies have advanced, her pieces have become more realistic for modern productions. But, the onstage historic epic, with a huge cast, is still something that appeals to her soul. Right now, her writing is philandering among social issues like pedophilia, lesbianism, and AIDS (not in the musical sense).

Allie has worked as a stage manager in Halifax and Toronto, but her passion is playwriting. She has seen her work produced in Halifax and Ottawa and is currently casting for the full production of Neighbours in the 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival, but for now she is enjoying her time as a theatre production student at Humber college.

In October, she won Pat the Dog’s 24-Hour Playwriting Contest for her script, Neighbours. It was recently workshopped and presented as part of our piece/meal series. Here’s what she had to say about the workshop experience.

Name of play: Neighbours

Setting: A world not unlike our own but still completely different.

Can you give a one or two line summary of the piece?
An absurdest view into the government’s freedom to accuse an innocent of cavorting with The Plums.

Where did the idea for Neighbours come from?
I am always flabbergasted at the government’s willing to bend the rules in order to succeed in what they see as protecting a country from terrorist threats,or any threats. I think the government needs to be held accountable for all the innocent people who are a perceived threat without doing anything wrong in the first place. I think it’s a little ridiculous, so I created a piece that should make people think and make people laugh.

Neighbours was written as part of Pat the Dog’s 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. How did this artificial time limit help or hinder the process?
The time limit gave me an excuse to do nothing but write for 24 hours and that’s really the fun part. I don’t think it hindered my process at all, in fact having deadlines makes my work stronger.

What aspects of the play were you looking to explore during the workshop?
I wanted to see what a director could do with my work without me saying what was right or what was wrong. I allowed the people involved to play with my work because something interesting will always come when people are allowed to explore without judgement. I was hoping to see a vision different than what was in my head.

What did you discover about your script or yourself during the workshop?
I discovered that I have to allow myself to just write and not concern myself with how the piece will be mounted or where, I just need to write and let others figure out how to make my words leap from the page.

What was the greatest benefit of the workshop?
Having dramaturgical support for the further development of this piece. I have a slot in Toronto Fringe so this play has a stage, and the dramaturgical influence will take this piece to a whole new level.

What advice would you give a playwright going into his/her first workshop?
Be open! Don’t be upset if what you see is not what you plan to do the future, just enjoy a different perspective and be willing to watch your words develop.

Any final comments you’d like to add?
Working with Pat The Dog has been one of the most rewarding opportunities of my life and I have grown as a writer because of this centre. Pat The Dog fills a great void in the Ontario playwriting community and I am so lucky to be a part of it all.

Three months after gay marriage becomes legal in Canada, two gay men set about creating a dance for a ritual that has no history. This intriguing physical movement piece explores love, buttercream icing and the hard-to-master feather finish.

Come join us for First Dance by Trevor Copp, Jeff Fox and Lisa O’Connell.

Wednesday, March 7, 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.
Free cake. Cash bar.

During his 3-day stay in Kitchener-Waterloo, Vern met with members of Pat the Dog to discuss the business of playwriting. In the comfortable yet informal setting of the Seven Shores Urban Cafe, Vern shared his expertise on a variety of topics ranging from how to survive the workshop process to successful marketing practices.

Here is an edited podcast of the evening’s conversation. Grab a coffee and turn off the phone.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Foto:RE, in association with Pat the Dog and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, is proud to bring renowned photographer Dimitry Chatrov, his vast experience and breathtaking photography collection to K-W. No stranger to exotic locales, Chatrov has photographed people and landscapes throughout the world, leading expeditions in Ecuador, India and to the vanishing cultures of remote Upper Mustang in Nepal’s Himalayas. An experienced climber, he has reached the summits of Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Mount Ararat, and Mount Elbrus — and has the photographs to prove it.

Although Chatrov is Canadian, he spends much of his time abroad. This is a unique opportunity to hear Chatrov recount his adventures and share his photographic expertise. Making full use of the Christie Digital projection system at the Hub, Chatrov’s already dramatic photographs will become larger than life.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012,
7:00 PM
The Hub Theatre at The Tannery
151 Charles Street West
Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 1H6

Tickets: $29.00. Go to www.foto.re/tickets.
Tickets also available at the door. But be warned, seating is limited.

About Dimitry Chatrov
Chatrov is recognized in Europe as a major influence in travel photography. His LiveJournal blog has more than 15,000 subscribers and draws 90,000 readers a month from around the world. He has been associated with the prestigious Leica brand, acting as official photographer for Leica-sponsored expeditions and having an exhibition at the Leica Gallery in Frankfurt. Chatrov was also the face of Epson Printers in Russia, and chaired the jury of the Annual All-Russian “Epson” Nature Photography Competition in 2010.

The founder of Photoplanet Club, Chatrov holds memberships in the Photo-Artists Union of Russia and the Caucasian Mountain Society. Closer to home, he is a founding member of Foto:RE.

About Foto:RE
Foto:RE is a non-profit photographic collective and media centre based in KW. With members from across North America and around the world, Foto:RE is dedicated to the reclamation of photography as fine art, and the re-establishment of the photographer as artist.

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"

Erin Sheilds won the 2011 Governor General’s Award for her play If We Were Birds. Her first play, If We Were Birds had a strong trajectory. Before winning Canada’s most prestigious playwriting honour, it premiered at SummerWorks 2008 and was part of Tarragon’s 2009/10 season. We caught up with Erin recently. She generously offered a peek into her creative process.

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

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 and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.