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Two of the coolest play development festivals, Tarragon’s carnival-like Spring Arts Fair (May 31 and June 1) and the feminist theatre company Nightwood’s Groundswell (June 2-8), allow artists to do things they’ve never done before. Here are six who are shifting gears.
Tarragon spring arts fair May 31-June 1 at the Tarragon. groundswell June 2-8 at the Tapestry/Nightwood New Works Studio.
Kate Hennig
Playwright, More (June 6, Groundswell)
Better known asBetter known as
: Intense actor, just nominated for a Dora Award for The Danish Play
What she’s doing that she’s never done before: “Writing a play, goddammit!!! Who knew?”
What’s the show about? “Choices. Women. Men. Making babies. Things that go wrong.”
Why should audiences attend? “Cuz it’s a story that asks a heartfelt question many women face.”
Ready to change careers? “Nope, but I’m ready to ask questions in public.”
Theatre role model? “Zeami, a 14th-century Noh master who did what I love to do in theatre: act, teach and write.”
David Macfarlane
Playwright, The Prank (May 31 and June 1, Spring Arts Fair)
Better known asBetter known as
: Award-winning memoirist, novelist and Globe and Mail arts columnist
What he’s doing that he’s never done before:”Living in the present.”
What’s the show about? “Remembering the past.”
Why should audiences attend? “Because (I hope) it’s funny. And because (I know) Joe Ziegler is a terrific actor.”
Ready to change careers? “If I knew what my career was, I’d be in a better position to consider changing it.”
Theatre role model? “Harold Pinter.”
Marjorie Chan
Playwright, China Doll (June 5, Groundswell)
Better known asBetter known as
: Perennially young-looking actor, just nominated for a Dora for The Seven Ravens
What she’s doing that she’s never done before: “Writing My Big Fat Chinese play.”
What’s the show about? “Shanghai 1900s: bound feet, A Doll’s House, forbidden romance.”
Why should audiences attend? “Foot-effing!”
Ready to change careers? “Absolutely, but don’t tell my agent.”
Theatre role model? “Recently, Daniel MacIvor, Kelly Thornton, Chris Earle.”
Sarah Liss
Playwright, 5-minute play written on the spot (June 6, Groundswell Playwriting Slam)
Better known asBetter known as
: NOW Magazine music maven
What she’s doing that she’s never done before: “Playing well with others.”
What will the show be about? “Panic. I have 30 minutes to write this.”
Why should audiences attend? “You’ll be able to say you knew me when….”
Ready to change careers? “What? Give up my glamorous, chain-smoking freelance-writing hermit lifestyle for the glamorous chain-smoking playwriting lifestyle?”
Theatre role model? “Nightwood’s Kelly Thornton, who cast me as a rabid, blood-spitting dog in a Communist high school production of Animal Farm. Really.”
Don Hannah
Directing Daniel Karasik’s The Problem With Being A Pond, co-winner of the Under 20 for Under 20s contest (May 31 and June 1, Spring Arts Fair)
Better known asBetter known as
: One of Canada’s most acclaimed playwrights
What he’s doing that he’s never done before: “Directing very young actors.”
What’s the show about? “Obsession, voyeurism, the role of ducks in history and lovely writing.”
Why should audiences attend? “Because most plays for, by and about young people are written by old farts like me and are issue-oriented. Daniel’s written a smart play that shows kids can speak for themselves.”
Ready to change careers? “The concept of a career has always eluded me. Everything I find myself doing is related to everything else I do.”
Theatre role model? “Jenny Munday at Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.”
Ann-Marie Kerr
Writing/performing Flying Inside Herself at the Tarragon Box Office (May 31 and June 1, Spring Arts Fair)
Better known asBetter known as
: An engaging clown, seen in Chekhov Longs.
What she’s doing that she’s never done before: “Getting stuffed into a box office window all alone.”
What’s the show about? “The life cycle of a star.”
Why should audiences attend? “Their imaginations will be engaged with low-tech, terrifically naive physical theatre.”
Ready to change careers? “Sure, if it meant I could be a famous French chef and live in a tiny village in the south of France with a pied-à-terre in Paris. But only then.”
Theatre role model? Jacques Lecoq.
