To register for any or all of these events go here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PGCconfAGM
PGC Women's Caucus Cocktail Party & Meeting
Friday May 31st
PGC’s Office
401 Richmond St. Suite 350
6pm to 8pm
FREE event
Chaired by Rosie Fernandez
PGC 2013 Conference - Theatre of Disapproval
Saturday June 1st
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle, Toronto
10am to 7pm
$65 for PGC members $100 for non-members
Lunch is provided
Keynote speaker: David Henry Hwang
Censorship vs. Self-Censorship, moderated by Mark Leiren Young
Panelists: Carmen Aguirre and Catherine Frid
Censorship. Self-censorship. Chill. What can you write? What can't you write? What are you afraid to write? And what are theatres afraid to stage? News outlets have long been scared off controversial stories because of libel chill, are theatres backing off controversial plays because of funding chill? Two writers who've lived at the centre of a storm -- Carmen Aguirre and Catherine Frid -- discuss surviving censorship and the challenges of writing on the edge in today's Canada.
The Cultural Experience: Mine vs. Ours, moderated by Ravi Jain
Panelists: Tara Beagan, Anusree Roy, and Marcus Youssef
What are the challenges when representing one's own culture for a larger audience? What responsibility does an artist have when speaking about a community in the theatre? Whether it’s our own community or that of another’s, what rules should we follow and what should we shun and avoid?
This panel answers all these questions by delving into three illuminating case studies. We will be examining Brothel #9, Ali vs. Ali Axis of Evil and free as injuns.
Exploitation vs. Exploration, moderated by Catherine Hernandez
Panelists: Lyle Victor Albert, Audrey Dwyer, and Spy Dénommé-Welch
Christopher Columbus: trailblazer or mass murderer? Abraham Lincoln: Hero or opportunist? Playwright: visionary or thief? In our panel featuring Audrey Dwyer, Spy Dénommé-Welch and Lyle Victor Albert we discuss exploration vs. exploitation in our work as playwrights. When, if at all, is it appropriate to use the story of others -- be it people of cultures, abilities and sexualities that are not our own?
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During the lunch hour PGC will be coordinating a speed dating event for playwrights, providing them opportunity to talk to six theatres. To sign up for this lunchtime event go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PGCconfAGM
The speed dating session is open only to individuals who have registered for the conference.
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PGC in partnership with Theatre Museum Canada will exhibit the Playwrights’ Legends Library Project throughout June 1st and June 2nd.
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After-Party
Saturday June 1st
Flying Beaver
488 Parliament St
7:30pm -
FREE event
Join us for Dinner and Drinks in celebration of Canadian playwrights
Readings by David Henry Hwang & Judith Thompson.
Professional Theatre Contract Workshop
Facilitated by David Craig
June 2nd
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle, Toronto
10am to 12pm
FREE event
PGC and PACT met this fall to negotiate the PGC/PACT contracts. Learn more about the changes that have been made and take this opportunity to ask general questions about our professional contracts.
PGC Annual General Meeting
June 2nd
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle, Toronto
1pm to 4pm
We will begin our annual meeting with a reading by Rahul Varma.
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About our Keynote & moderators
David Henry Hwang
Few writers have turned issues around ethnicity and identity into a widely acclaimed and award-winning career like David Henry Hwang. This Chinese American playwright, described by the New York Times as "a true original" and by TIME magazine as "the first important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller," is best known as the author of M. Butterfly. That enduring 1988 work, which won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, John Gassner Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award, was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. To date, M. Butterfly has been staged in over four dozen countries and was the basis for a major motion picture.
To describe Hwang as a major American dramatist is something of an understatement. His play, Golden Child, premiered Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, received an Obie Award, and subsequently played on Broadway, where it received three Tony nominations. Yellow Face, which premiered at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum and New York's Public Theater, also won an Obie Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Other plays from his 30 year career include FOB (Obie Award), The Dance & the Railroad (Drama Desk Nomination, CINE Golden Eagle Award), and Family Devotions (Drama Desk Nomination).
Hwang's most recent play, Chinglish, a hit comedy about an American businessman in China, premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre before moving to Broadway, where it received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding New Play. In 2011, it was named Best New American Play by TIME magazine.
According to Opera News, Hwang is America’s most-produced living opera librettist. He has written four works with composer Philip Glass, including 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, while other of his libretti have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival USA and elsewhere. The Deutsche Grammofone recording of his libretto for Ainadamar won two Grammy Awards after having spent time at the top of Billboard magazine’s classical music charts.
Hwang's Broadway musicals include a new book for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, which earned a Tony nomination. Hwang also co-wrote the book for the international hit Disney's Aida, with music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice. It won four Tony Awards and ran over four years on Broadway. Currently, Hwang is writing The Forgotten Arm with singer/songwriter Aimee Mann and Paul Bryant, based on her album, for the Public Theatre.
Hwang's screen work is just as notable. He penned the screenplay for M. Butterfly, a Warner Brothers release directed by David Cronenberg; Golden Gate, directed by John Madden; The Lost Empire, a four-hour NBC television miniseries; and co-authored Possession, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. He is currently writing Bob's Gang for Dreamworks Animation, as well as the movie adaptation of Chinglish, to be directed by Justin Lin (Fast and Furious).
A native of Los Angeles, Hwang attended Stanford University and the Yale University School of Drama. From 1994–2001, he served by appointment of President Bill Clinton on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. In 2012, Hwang received the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre, the Asia Society Cultural Achievement Award, as well as the Steinberg Award for playwriting, the largest monetary prize in the American theater. Recently, the Signature Theatre in New York City announced Hwang will be the Residency One Playwright for the 2012-13 season. Hwang succeeds Athol Fugard, and over the course of the year, will enjoy a season-long showcase of his distinguished body of work.
Hwang lives in Brooklyn with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng, and their two children.
Mark Leiren-Young has written extensively about censorship as a playwright, journalist and satirist. His play, Shylock, about a Jewish actor accused of anti-Semitism for his portrayal of Shakespeare's notorious moneylender has been produced throughout North America. As a journalist he has written extensively about the battles between Canada's gay and lesbian bookstores and Canada Customs. In 2008, he spoke before a Senate committee to argue against the implementation of a bill that would have created a new censoring system Canadian film and TV. http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2008/04/14/BillC-10/ Mark has represented the Playwrights Guild and/or Pen Canada on the BC Book and Periodical Council's Freedom of Expression Committee since the dawn of time. For more on Mark visit www.leiren-young.com
Ravi Jain's play, Brimful of Asha, shares his own personal story. His play struggles between his experience of arranged marriage versus the larger story of arranged marriages and their association with “South Asian-ness” in society.
Ravi's comprehension of this issue, coupled with his strong facilitating skills, will shed light on the challenges a writer faces when trying to represent culture to an audience with totally different experiences.
Catherine Hernandez is a proud queer woman of colour and a single mom. As the daughter of Cecille Estioko Hernandez, a pioneer of Filipino Folk Arts education in Canada, Catherine is dedicated to the development of the Filipino-Canadian artistic community.
In 2007, her first play, Singkil, was directed by Nina Lee Aquino, produced by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company in association with Factory Theatre and garnered seven Dora Mavor Moore nominations including Outstanding New Play, Independent Division. The play was subsequently published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2008. She recently wrote and performed the critically acclaimed one-woman puppet show, Eating with Lola (Sulong Theatre and Next Stage Festival) directed by Puppetmongers’ Ann Powell. The show was a major hit, having been first developed by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre and then toured North Carolina’s Duke University and Bogota, Colombia for the Festival de Mujeres en Enscena in Spanish (translation by Mexican puppeteer, Amaranta Leyva). She was Theatre Passe Muraille’s 08/09 playwright in residence and was the theatre’s Associate Producer in 2009/2010. She has recently launched Sulong Theatre, a company dedicated to producing theatre by and about women of colour. The creative wing of the company, the Sulong Theatre Collective was proud to be Carlos Bulosan Theatre’s 09/10 playwrights in residence. The Collective’s inaugural creation, Future Folk, was produced by Theatre Passe Muraille as part of its 09/10 season. Catherine as an individual was named Carlos Bulosan Theatre’s Ontario Arts Council Playwright in Residence in 10/11 to develop Eating with Lola. Kilt Pins, produced by Sulong Theatre in November of 2011 in partnership with Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture has been published by Playwrights Canada Press.
On September 21 2012, Catherine immersed herself in a lifeboat filled with filthy water for 24 hours without access to food. The event, named Operation Lifeboat, raised money and awareness for the UN-Natural recurring disasters in the Philippines. It involved more than 45 artists worldwide who performed each hour of the event and resulted in over 30 hours of watched video footage and more than 1100 viewers worldwide.
She has facilitated workshops -- on everything from basic playwriting to creating choreography -- with Humber Theatre School, Duke University, Toronto District School Board, District School Board of Niagara, OISE and countless other organizations. Her most memorable workshop was with Aluna Theatre in Medellin Colombia where she taught chorus work, harmonies and movement to ex-child soldiers alongside her 5-year old daughter.
