“I don’t like kayaks. They’re unstable. One second you’re sitting there, the next you’re upside down and underwater.”
Synopsis: Alone on a vast stretch of water, Annie Iversen recounts the strange chain of events that left her stranded in her son’s old kayak. A doting suburban mother, Annie is blindsided when her son, Peter, falls in love with Julie, a passionate environmental activist. Unable to reconcile herself to Julie’s radical worldview, Annie struggles desperately to keep Peter from falling further into the young woman’s dangerous world. Climate change, S’mores, SUVs, and Noah’s Ark are all onstage as Annie sets out to save her son, and unwittingly throws herself into the path of events larger than she ever could have imagined. Touching and provocative, Kayak invites us all to confront our choices in the landscape of the growing environmental crisis.
Winner of the 2010 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest
“Gripping, heartbreaking.” -Lynn Slotkin, CBC Radio
“A trio of vivid, memorable characters.” – Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
“Stellar, insightful writing.” – Dave Deveau, Plank Magazine
Performances: 2010 Summerworks Festival, Toronto Ontario; Femfest 2010, Winnipeg Manitoba
Readings: Women Playwrights International 2009, Mumbai India; Tableau d’Hôte Theatre’s New Canadian Works 2009, Montreal Quebec; Canada Council Reading Series, Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver British Columbia
Awards & Distinctions: 2009 Kernodle Playwrighting Prize (Shortlisted); 2010 Playwrights Guild of Canada & Canadian Drama Foundation’s National Post-Secondary Playwrighting Competition (First Prize); NOW Magazine Critic’s Pick 2010; Contra Guys Award for New Work (Honourable Mention); Spotlight Award: Rosemary Dunsmore in Kayak (Honourable Mention); 2010 Samuel French Canadian Playwright’s Competition (First Prize)
Available online from www.samuelfrench.com.
The Possible Lives of Dolores Garcia Rodriguez (with Zoe Green)
“Every time you look at the stars, they are that much further away. Some of them are dead already. When something is that far gone, what were you supposed to do about it anyway?”
Synopsis: Co-created with ACTvist Theatre Collective’s Zoe Green, Possible Lives explores the 2006 repeal of therapeutic abortion rights in Nicaragua and their effects on the lives of three different women: PJ, a photojournalist hoping to re-establish her reputation by breaking the story; Marisol, a doctor in Managua faced with the loss of her license and jail time if she’s perceived as having assisted in an abortion; and Dolores, a young hotel maid grappling with the decision to either carry to term a child she cannot support, or risk an illegal abortion without any medical assistance. Lyrical and darkly humourous, Possible Lives combines elements of narrative, documentary, movement and magical realism to examine the relationship of Western artists and activists to action in developing nations. What do we want to believe of our identities as activists and artists? When do we decide to create change, and when do we decide to ignore the issues?
“A complicated, moving tale.” – Johnathon Narvey, Plank Magazine
“Smart and passionate.” – Lucia Frangione, Playwright
Performances: Vancouver Fringe Festival 2011, Vancouver, British Columbia
“If you’re a woman, you’re gonna bleed.”
Synopsis: Trapped inside the belly of a wolf, Rose contemplates the twisted tale that led her there, and the terrible things she may have to do to escape. Little Red Riding Hood is turned inside out in this visceral post-modern fable.
Performances: Brave New Play Rites Festival 2010, Vancouver British Columbia; Walking Fish Festival 2010, Vancouver British Columbia
Available online from www.signature-editions.com.
The Second Last Man on Earth
“I always thought this kind of scenario would stop occurring after highschool ended. Life was supposed to turn around. You’d become this smart, successful guy- CEO of your own company devoted to saving the world- and that girl- y’know- the girl- she’d finally see that you were sweet and funny and infinitely superior as a dating choice to some six-foot asshole whose only good feature is his torso.”
Synopsis: Unappreciated accountant Andrew has been in love with Maddy since the day that she was hired at his office, but the time was never right to ask her out. First she was getting over a break up. Then her friend Susan wouldn’t leave them alone on a coffee break. And finally, of course, there was the Apocalypse. It wouldn’t have been so bad- except for Jackson. Tall, dark and “wizard with a fire-axe,” Jackson saves them both from certain doom, and it’s just natural that Maddy should fall into the big lummox’s arms. Now they’re trapped together in an incredibly awkward post-Doomsday version of Three’s Company, and the guy who never got to the top of the rope at gym class is going to have to tell the girl of his dreams how he feels… before time runs out.
Performances: Banana Festival 2010, Toronto Ontario
Asleep at the Wheel
“Everyone wants to believe they deserve a happy ending.”
Synopsis: Trapped in a tower and threatened with death, Stella and Arabella have made a pact to save each other’s lives. But with Arabella’s sixteenth birthday fast approaching, a prince in the balance, and happily ever after just a spindle’s throw away: It’s every princess and miller’s daughter for herself in this postmodern fable.
Performances: New Ideas Festival 2009, Toronto Ontario
Readings: The Alumnae Theatre’s New Play Development Group 2008, Toronto Ontario; PlayLab 2008, Toronto, Ontario
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Twenty-One Rants About Working in a Drugstore
“I’m not a person. I’m a supervisor.”
Synopsis: Numbers has been drudging nights Tweedmuir’s Drugstore for six-and-a-half years to pay for school. Her boss is crooked, her co-workers are inept, and the customers range from cantankerous to skin-crawling. While she struggles with insomnia and applies chaos theory to the paperwork, her head cashier is staging music videos; the trainee won’t stop speaking in Shakespearean verse; and a clairvoyant telemarketer keeps leaving sinister messages. The tipping point comes when Jack, drunk, miserable and fired from his third job in as many months, decides he’s going to rob the place. Jack’s as terrible at robbery as he is at everything else, but his bungled attempt quickly reveals the unexpected: Numbers is. She’s been ripping the place off for years. With romantic sparks flying, co-workers panicking and the police closing in, she makes Jack an unwilling accomplice in her bid to escape from the police, her job, and maybe even capitalism itself.
Performances: Toronto Fringe Festival 2004, Toronto Ontario
From Grace
“Do you mind? You’re wasting my eternal damnation.”
Synopsis: With the world about to end, Lucifer — exiled forever from Heaven after a really nasty breakup with the Archangel Michael — is hanging out in a convenience store looking to score some twinkies; not to mention giving Tracy, the night-clerk who just happens to be a direct female-line descendant of Eve, a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. When Michael descends to Earth to demand her help in stopping the coming Apocalypse, Luci makes herself a devil’s bargain: She’ll help him save the world if it gets her back into Heaven. While they wrangle over original sin as a relationship deal-breaker, live angel-wrestling, and miracles in the chip aisle, a seemingly innocuous series of events in the store spirals the world closer and closer to doom.
Performances: McMaster Original Works Festival 2002, Hamilton Ontario
Readings: Theatre Aquarius: Brave New Works 2002, Hamilton Ontario
Run Dry
“You’re too good for your own good.”
Synopsis: In a future Vancouver where pollution has left even the rainwater toxic, Billie, a young woman working in the city’s Filtration and Treatment plant, makes a last, desperate attempt to secure an Exit Visa so she can escape the city’s environmental crisis with Jay, her privileged boyfriend. When an attempt at bribery fails, Billie discovers she can obtain forged papers if she’s willing to steal chemicals used in the water purification process. With time running out, Billie must choose between her responsibility to the people that depend on her and her chance for a future with Jay.
Winner of the 2011 Crazy8s Film Competition
Screenings: 2011 Crazy8s Gala, Vancouver British Columbia; VWIFF 2012, Vancouver British Columbia; Female Eye Film Festival 2012, Toronto Ontario
The Belle of Winnipeg (Keystone Theatre)
An innovative production that melds a newly developed style of physical performance with film projection and live musical accompaniment, The Belle of Winnipeg is a new original play inspired by the silent film era. The culmination of over four years of collective creation this production presents a group of physically engaging characters and introduces a new vocabulary of theatrical expression in silence – save for the live accompaniment of a piano.
Synopsis: The Belle of Winnipeg tells the story of a young woman named Belle (Ginette Mohr). It is 1882 and our heroine has been shipped off from her comfortable life in France to an arranged marriage in the wilds of Canada. Unimpressed with her new life in Montreal, Belle escapes her wedding only to find herself stranded smack dab in the middle of the dangerous and foreboding frontier town of Winnipeg. From the old CP railways and drunken bar room brawls, to a well-intentioned tramp lousing up simple jobs and a damsel in distress being tied to the train tracks, Belle is a hilarious, exciting and often touching production.
Performances: Keystone Theatre 2009, Toronto Ontario
Awards & Distinctions: 2010 Dora Awards Nominations: Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Principle Role (Ginette Mohr), Outstanding Original Costume Design (Lorie Brown) and Outstanding Original Sound Design / Composition (David Atkinson: Winner)
Talk Sixty to Me (Oyster Productions)
Talk Sixty To Me is a shocking and hilarious play based on over 100 hours of recorded interviews with Toronto-area sixty-year-olds. From CEOs to refugees, cougars and ladies who lunch, the boomers reveal the truth about sex, suicide, cyber dating, the circle of life, and the surprise of suddenly being…sixty. Every word in Talk Sixty To Me is verbatim, proving that the truth is stranger-and funnier-than fiction.
A part of the 2008 Summerworks Festival, Talk Sixty To Me is a much anticipated follow-up to the cult hit Talk Thirty To Me , and was created by Oonagh Duncan (featured by THIS magazine as a leader in Canada ‘s verbatim theatre movement), with dramaturgy by Jordan Hall. Three-time Aurora-award winner Philip Adams directs an exceptional cast with Cayle Chernin (Little Mosque on the Prairie), Allan Price (Queer as Folk), Andrew Scorer (Due South ) and Bonnie McDougall (CBC’s ‘A Christmas Carol’)
Performances: Summerworks 2008, Toronto Ontario
Talk Thirty to Me (Oyster Productions)
Over fifty Toronto-area 29 year olds, from fashionistas to refugees, were interviewed for this unique project. They discussed cellulite, sex on the web, boomers, babies, debt and death. Every word in Talk Thirty to Me is verbatim , proving that the truth is stranger-and funnier-than fiction.
Talk Thirty to Me was created by Oonagh Duncan, and includes multi-media design by Joshua Hind (CanStage’s HAIR ). Matt Murray (performer: Mamma Mia, The Full Monty ) directs an exceptional cast with Rishma Malik (Deepa Mehta’s Water ), Magdalena Alexander (Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man ), David Schokking (winner of the 2006 ‘On The Rise’ Acting competition) and introducing Matt Drappel.
Performances: Toronto Fringe Festival 2007, Toronto Ontario
Available online from www.playwrightscanada.com.