PGC Workshops

This is a listing of upcoming workshops offered by PGC.

To see listings of professional and amateur productions of PGC members' plays, or to find an upcoming reading by a PGC member, use the sidebar menu.

 

BEYOND THE PREMIERE: Developing a Market for Your Play with Ken Cameron

“I might as well throw my script over the Rockies, as expect a director in Toronto to read it,” said an Anonymous Vancouver Playwright. This comment neatly summarizes how many playwrights (no matter where they live) feel about promoting their work.

When no one at Canada’s theatres returns your calls or seems able to read your script it sometimes seems easier to let that masterpiece languish in your bottom drawer …

When that first production is over and none the Regional Theatres across Canada come knocking, it seems enough to relish the praise of audiences, peers and critics in our hometown …

Or … Maybe you are different.

Maybe you are eager to go beyond the first production and see your work produced somewhere other than your hometown, but unsure where to begin.

If this is you, or someone you know, we can help.

REGISTER NOW to join Beyond The Première: Developing a Market for Your Play with Ken Cameron

Prairie Theater Exchange in Winnipeg

June 3, 2012 | 9:30am to Noon

Learn to pitch your play like a pro, analyze the market and ask hard questions about the future of your own work.

Participants will be asked to submit the following information 2 weeks prior to the workshop:

  1. A one-page Plot Synopsis of their play
  2. Its current stage of development
  3. Outreach or Promotion efforts taken to date
  4. Playwright’s Resumé

Ken Cameron

Ken Cameron is a Calgary-based playwright and all-around arts administrator.  Ken is the author of more than fifteen plays, including Harvest, My Morocco and My One And Only, all three of which were published by Newest Press in the collection Harvest and Other Plays.

Ken is ideally situated to lead a workshop on play promotion. He was the Artistic Director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival from 2007-2010, a national festival co-produced with the National Arts Centre which showcases exceptional new Canadian work and acts as promotional marketplace for new canadian plays. 

Ken has experienced professional success as a playwright also: after its première at the Blyth Festival in 2009 Harvest has been in continual production around Canada, and has just received its 10th production at Chemainus Theatre, making it (possibly) the most frequently produced Alberta play of the past decade.

REGISTER TODAY - CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION FORM

Members $25 | Non-members $35

Email ed@playwrightsguild.ca for more information

 

 

Grant Writing Workshop for Playwrights

The Toronto Arts Council and Playwrights Guild of Canada will host a grant writing workshop to help writers apply to the Toronto Arts Council’s Playwrights’ Program. This is an information session for playwrights with very little grant writing experience and/or knowledge of Toronto Arts Council programs.

The Grants to Playwrights Program supports writers in the creation of new works or works-in-progress for stage or radio plays. Emerging, mid-career and senior playwrights can apply. The next deadline for applications is June15th, 2012.

Applications are available on line at: www.torontoartscouncil.org

The workshop is free but all participants must register in advance. Registration is limited.

When: Wednesday, May 16th, 5pm - 7pm
Where: Playwrights Guild of Canada
             210-215 Spadina Ave.
            (just north of Spadina and Queen)

To register email: michael@torontoartscouncil.org by May 10th

'Putting Female Characters at the Heart of Political Plays'

Workshop with Sarah Grochala, UK, award winning author of S-27

Aung San Suu Kyi stands at the head of revolution in Burma. Angela Merkel dictates what goes in Europe. Hilary Clinton is Obama's right hand man. While women in real world have made their mark in government, politics on stage remains very much the business of men. Playwright Sarah Grochala invites you to explore the hows, whys and wherefores of putting women at the heart of political plays.

WHEN: Thursday July 5 6-8pm
WHERE: 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 210
$25 for members $35 for non-members
To register contact: robin@playwrightsguild.ca

Sarah Grochala is a playwright and lecturer based in London, UK. Her play S-27 will be produced by Intersection Theatre at the Toronto Fringe Festival July 4-15. S-27 won the 2007 Protect the Human Playwriting Competition and was also shortlisted for The King¹s Cross Award and Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers. It was produced at the Finborough Theatre in London in 2009 and at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney in 2010. Her other plays include: WAITING FOR ROMEO (Pleasance Islington 2009; Edinburgh Festival 2006) and OPEN GROUND (Theatro Technis 2005). She has written short plays for The Miniaturists, Theatre 503 and Agent 160. In 2011, she won the OffWestEnd.com Adopt a Playwright Award for her play SMOLENSK, which focuses on the events surrounding the crash of Polish government plane in Russian in 2010. She is currently working on a commission for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Before turning to writing she worked as an actress for many years, playing roles in theWest End and in television drama.