Montréal, November 2009 – The Pipeline, Infinithéâtre’s yearly series of free public readings, returns with another jam-packed weekend of dramaturgy December 11th through 13th at the Bain St-Michel (5300, rue St-Dominique), featuring three new Québec plays, one of which is the winner of the second annual Pam Dunn Write-On-Q playwriting contest.
In its ongoing mandate to discover and develop new Québec works to bring to the Montréal stage, Infinithéâtre inaugurated the Write-On-Q contest in 2008. This contest provides aspiring Québec playwrights as well as established Québecois writers a chance to receive a kick-start with public feedback for a new work and comes with a purse of $1,000. Just as the 2007 productions of The Elephant Song by Nicholas Billon and Jason Maghanoy’s Gas were first given public readings through The Pipeline, so some of this year's works will very likely be awarded full productions in future Infinithéâtre seasons and/or elsewhere.
As a result of the first Write-On-Q contest last fall, The Pipeline attendance quadrupled and the top three scripts went on to become Infinithéâtre’s 2009 – 10 season. This year’s contest attracted an even bigger mountain of scripts for jury members Marianne Ackerman (journalist, playwright, co-founder of Theatre 1774 and current publisher of the online arts magazine Rover Arts), Carolyn Guillet (playwright, actor and Associate Artist at Infinithéâtre), and Kent Stetson (Order of Canada recipient and Governor General award-winning playwright), to consider. Arthur Holden, winner of last year’s contest, opens the series Friday the 11th of December with his zany KENNEDY: THE MUSICAL. Saturday the 12th showcases the winner of this year’s Pam Dunn award, Life Here After, picked from a short list of six and written by Montréal playwright and actor, Alexandria Haber. Nick Carpenter completes the trio on Sunday December 13th with a matinee reading of THE RETURN OF CORPORAL MAZENET. (Synopses and author biographies follow.)
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 playwright and actors. With THE PIPELINE playing a major role in future programming, the series gives the public a unique opportunity to influence Infinithéâtre’s upcoming seasons as well as Montréal’s cultural landscape.
Prospective scripts for the 2010 Write-On-Q can be submitted to the Infinithéâtre offices between April and August 2010 at 5413, boul. St-Laurent, Suite 302, Montreal, (Québec) H2T 1S5.
For more information log on to http://www.infinihteatre.com or call (514) 987 – 1774.
Friday December 11th – 7 PM
KENNEDY: THE MUSICAL
by Arthur Holden
SYNOPSIS: Kennedy: the Musical is about the 35th American president, tracing John F. Kennedy’s presidency through the historical events that remade the United States in the early 1960’s. An American story that touches universal themes in its portrayal of an impulsive man struggling to be wise; a womanizer learning to be a good husband, even as fate awaits him in the gun sights of a crazed 23-year-old. With the White House once again occupied by a young, eloquent man, Kennedy: the Musical offers us sights and sounds that resonate strongly in today’s world.
BIO: Arthur Holden is an actor and writer. Notable screen credits include Battlefield Quebec, Barney's Version and the cartoon series Arthur. His most recent stage credit was the role of James in Four Minutes If You Bleed at the 2009 ZooFest; and his own play Father Land, winner of the 2008 Pam Dunn Write-On-W contest will be the final production of Infinitheatre's 2009-2010 season. Arthur lives in Montreal with his wife, novelist Claire Holden Rothman, and their two sons.
Saturday December 12th – 7 PM
LIFE HERE AFTER
(Pam Dunn Write-On-Q winner)
by Alexandria Haber
SYNOPSIS: When 16-year-old Carmen sets out to uncover the truth about her family’s dark past and the events surrounding her sister’s murder, she unravels much more than she had bargained for. Life Here After is a play about addiction, redemption, and playing the hand that life deals you.
BIO: Alexandria Haber is a playwright and actor. Her plays include: Four Minutes If You Bleed (ZooFest 2009), Housekeeping & Homewrecking (Theatre St. Catherine), Ordinary Times (Centaur Theatre, Fem Fest, Winnipeg) and Birthmarks (Playwrights Canada Press, 2000, produced by Theatre 1774 in the November to Remember Festival 1997, Montreal Fringe 1995). She has written several radio plays which were broadcast on CBC Radio, including The Very Little Girl, winner of the CBC Radio New Voices Competition, which aired on Outfront and Monday Night Playhouse and Washing Day, winner of the CBC Radio Sound FX contest and was broadcast on CBC Radio in March 1998. Her short story, Loved, was the winner of the QWF/CBC short story contest and was published in Short Stuff: New English Stories (Montreal, QC 2005, Vehicule Press, edited by Claude Lalumiere).
Sunday December 12th – 2 PM
The Return of Corporal Mazenet
by Nick Carpenter
SYNOPSIS: The Soldier, the Songwriter, the Fiancé and her Daughter. Only one of them actually remembers Corporal Leonore Mazenet. But the course of each of their lives is fundamentally altered by her death in Afghanistan. The Major, the Children, the Singers and the Ghost. Only one of them actually loved Corporal Leonore Mazenet. But all are drawn into a story that will not rest until a full turn of the wheel has been made and we find ourselves at the
frontier of another un-winnable war.
BIO: Since graduating from the National Theatre School Playwriting Progam, Nick has split his creative life between writing words (for stage and radio) and music. His work has been heard and seen across Canada and on stages in the US and Germany. His play Stained Glass won the 2008 Canadian Peace Play Competition. Some recent music (composition and/or direction): The Children's Republic (GCTC), Liliom (National Theatre School), The Book of Judith (Theatre Centre, Toronto), Peer Gynt and Medea (Third Wall, Ottawa), The Tempest and Les Fourberies de Scapin (Repercussion Theatre), Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill (Concordia University), Radio Gals (Theatre Lac Brome), Johnny Canuck and the Last Burlesque (Mainline Theatre), Henry IV Part One (Concordia University) and In Flagrante (National Theatre School).Labels: Infinithéâtre
