Annoncing winner of 2008 WRITE-ON-Q Playwrighting contest

Write-on-Q Contest and The Pipeline Reading Series Collide in an Explosion of Quˆ©bec-Grown Creativity

Montrˆ©al, November 2008 ’Äì The Pipeline, Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre's series of free public readings, returns with one jam-packed weekend of dramaturgy November 28^th through 30^th, at the Bain St-Michel (5300, St-Dominique), featuring three new Quˆ©bec plays. Added to the mix this year is the first winner of the annual Write-on-Q playwriting contest.

In its ongoing mandate to discover new Quˆ©bec works to bring to the stage, Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre initiated an annual writing contest this past spring, garnering scripts from all corners of the province. A jury of Emma Tibaldo (Artistic Director of Playwrights' Workshop Montreal) Carolyn Guillet (Associate Artist of Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre) and Kent Stetson (Governor General award-winning playwright) chose the winning play from a short list of seven plays, garnered from close to fifty submissions. Although the initial purpose was to single out one exceptional play as the winner, the calibre of writing was so impressive Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre decided to award two runner ups as well. Ms Pam Dunn, a steadfast supporter of Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre as well as several other worthy organizations, recently passed away, and in honour of her boundless enthusiasm for the arts, the inaugural Write-On-Q contest award will be given in her name.

The winner of the 2008 Pamela Dunn Write-On-Q playwrighting contest is screenwriter and actor Arthur Holden for his play (his first stage script), Father Land. Besides receiving a public reading of his script in The Pipeline series, he will receive a one thousand dollar honorarium. The other two scripts in this year's reading series are Daily Miracle by Gazette feature writer and copy editor David Sherman and Rabbit Rabbit by Amy Lee Lavoie a National Theatre School student currently in the playwrighting stream. Please see below for details about each play and its author.

Talkback discussions take place following each reading, allowing the audience to address questions or issues that the text generates in an open forum with the playwrights and actors. THE PIPELINE gives the public a unique opportunity to voice their opinion on Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre's future programming and directly influence Montrˆ©al's cultural landscape.

This contest is a huge opportunity for aspiring Quˆ©bec playwrights as well as established writers to receive a kick-start for new work. Just as the 2007 production of The Elephant Song by Nicholas Billon and last year's production of Jason Maghanoy's GAS were first given public readings in The Pipeline, so some of this year's works may be given full productions in future Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre seasons and elsewhere. Scripts can be submitted to the Infinithˆ©ˆ¢tre offices between April and August 2009 at 5413, boul. St-Laurent, Suite 302, Montreal, (Quˆ©bec) H2T 1S5. For more information log on to www.infinihteatre.com or call (514) 987 ’Äì 1774.

Friday November 28^th ’Äì 7 PM

DAILY MIRACLE

by David Sherman

SYNOPSIS: Marty's back to work after suffering a nervous breakdown; Elizabeth's daughter is sick at home with a babysitter; Carrie uses all her charms to impress as she dreams of a job in television while Benjamin is just trying to get the paper out, all overseen by the ghosts of an industry that used to be. It's another night on the news desk, where a few battle-scarred, overworked copy editors wrestle with fractured syntax and crushed ideals to get the next edition out in the shadow of a marathon corporate management meeting. Tempers frayed from layoffs, cutbacks and corroded ambitions; it's a miracle they can get the paper out at all. A miracle that happens every day.

BIO: David Sherman is a journalist, screenwriter and playwright and former playwright in residence at the Centaur Theatre. He has worked at The Montreal Star and The Gazette as a copy boy, music critic, feature writer, reporter and lastly, as a copy editor. He began writing the Daily Miracle a few years ago while he was working as an editor on the news desk at The Gazette. The play The Daily Miracle is a work of fiction, as are the characters, but the true strains and stress of working the desk in today's deteriorating newspaper industry are stranger than fiction.

Saturday November 29^th ’Äì 7 PM

FATHER LAND

(Pam Dunn Write-On-Q winner)

by Arthur Holden

SYNOPSIS: Sunday morning in Westmount. Fifteen-year-old Eric Brook is writing a history essay about Uday and Qusay, the sons of Saddam Hussein. His father Joe, a successful accountant, is about to take Eric's reformed drug-addict uncle Victor to see their elderly father at the seniors' residence. It's a quiet, uneventful day... which turns suddenly menacing when Victor reveals that he owes money to a local mobster ’Äì money he doesn't have ’Äì and the mobster is on his way over to collect. The irresistible force of Victor's desperation confronts the immoveable object of Joe's outrage as young Eric, excluded from the conflict by his father, finds himself drawn to the bright flame of his uncle's recklessness. In the boy's imagination his uncle and father become Uday and Qusay Hussein in the fateful aftermath of the American invasion: two men trapped in a sumptuous house as a mortal enemy approaches. Alternating between the Brook home and the Iraqi villa in which the Hussein brothers have taken refuge, Father Land advances toward twin resolutions: one decreed by history, both by loyalty shot through with spite. It is a story of the debt owed by sons to fathers, by fathers to sons, by blood to blood.

BIO: Born in Montreal, Arthur Holden has made his living as an actor and screenwriter in this city for two decades. Onscreen, he has appeared in various film and TV productions including The Aviator, Renˆ© Lˆ©vesque, and the upcoming Quˆ©bec 1759. Screenwriting credits include the English remake of the hit Quebec series Rumeurs and a made-for-TV movie, Out of Control, due for release in early 2009. Father Land is his first stage play.

Sunday November 30^th ’Äì 2 PM

RABBIT RABBIT

by Amy Lee Lavoie

SYNOPSIS: Larry, a paedophilic birthday clown, is on a "date" with Britney, a sixteen-year-old prostitute working for a fetish escort service. If Britney gets another shitty score from a client - she's had a string of bad-luck fours lately - her pimp will put her out on the street. Larry asked for his usual girl, twelve-year-old Sabrina, who wasn't available. He really wanted his regular fix, as he has his sights set on a young girl who he will be seeing next week at a birthday party, his next clown job. He knows what he will do if he doesn't get some relief. It is D-Day in the hotel room. Through embarrassing, traumatic attempts at having sex, and in spite of Britney's nerves and Larry's broken routine, the two characters form a unique bond. The hotel room becomes a confessional for dark secrets and future dreams.

BIO: Amy Lee Lavoie is a graduate of the Bishop's University Drama Program and is currently in her second year of the Playwriting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Rabbit Rabbit was conceived in her first year at NTS with Brian Drader as dramaturge.