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SUMMERWORKS WEB REPORT - August 12, 2003
by Jon Kaplan
This year's SummerWorks marks several firsts. The most obvious is the fact that the festival is fully juried by a selection committee that included the fest's artistic producer Franco Boni , associate artist Ruth Madoc-Jones, playwright Adam Pettle and director Diane Roberts.
The result, after my seeing more than half the festival entries? A series of high-quality shows, more satisfying than in the past. That doesn't mean that every production's a winner, but just about every script that's been staged has at least some worthwhile qualities. And some are shows where writing, acting and directing come together to create theatrical magic.
Also new this year is the Contra Guys Award, a $1,000 prize given to an author for her or his new script. The money's been donated by two of the five people who co-founded SummerWorks back in 1991, Benj Gallander and Ben Stadelmann.
The award recipient's are chosen by a trio of theatre professionals, who also are responsible for selecting the winner of the SummerWorks Prize, given to a company for best new play. The winning group gets a slot in SummerWorks 2004. Theatre SKAM's The Wedding Pool, one of the strong works in this year's festival, copped the prize last year.
There's another story that comes out of this year's SummerWorks, and that's the jury's choice of two shows by the same company. The company's history, though, is an unusual one.
What began as an informal meeting of actors who also wanted to write has led to Absit Omen Theatre, whose Latin title means "avoid your fate." Maybe the title is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that actors can move with facility – and talent – into other areas of theatre.
Among those who get together every couple of weeks to read and listen to their new scripts are Hannah Moscovitch, Michael Rubenfeld, Matthew MacFadzean (richardthesecond, Moon Stories), director Rebecca Brown, Maev Beaty, Alan Dilworth (Ma Jolie), Dov Mickelson (Kyke Kabaret), Ian Carpenter (Easy), Rosa Laborde (Sugar) and director Nicole Stamp. Also dropping by occasionally are Bobby del Rio, Sunday Muse and Kevin Rees-Cummings.
When Moscovitch's Giving It Up and Rubenfeld's Present Tense were chosen independently by the jury for SummerWorks, the group of writer/actors decided to set up a formal company, and Absit Omen was born.
The group's mentor is playwright Sheldon Rosen, who formerly ran the playwrights program at the National Theatre School and is now on the faculty of the Ryerson Theatre School. Moscovitch – the source of this info – says Rosen attends when he has time and brings his own work to read.
There are other actors who show up only to read the scripts, including Tova Smith and Charlotte Gowdy, who are in Moscovitch's show.
The group decides in advance who wants to have works read and in what order they'll be presented. Then, on the night, casting happens on the spot and the writer is asked where she or he is in the process and what the audience should listen for. A discussion follows the reading and then the group moves on to someone else's work.
Since the authors brings rewrites of scripts to later sessions, the group can also track the progress of a project.
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