November 18, 2004 -

Readings of five new plays by members of the 2003-04 NAC-GCTC Playwrights’ Unit
Nick Carpenter, John M. Richardson, John Ng, Catherine Cunningham-Huston and Julian Doucet
November 26-28, 2004
National Arts Centre Rehearsal Hall A

The National Arts Centre English Theatre and the Great Canadian Theatre Company are excited to invite you to come and hear professional readings of five new plays by playwrights from the nation’s capital.  The readings all take place in the NAC’s Rehearsal Hall A,* and are free.

The Pious Farce of the Passion of Father Puy
by Nick Carpenter
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26 AT 19:30

Part burlesque, part liturgical drama, The Pious Farce of the Passion of Father Puy is the strange confession of the parishioners of Durouy, New France. Probably performed in secret just before Lent, possibly every year between 1650 and 1850, The Pious Farce of the Passion of Father Puy is the lively, accumulated expression of several generations of Canadiens. The play seems to have rolled through Durouy's colonial history like a snowball, picking up shreds of lore, needles of satire, song, social comment and hard fact, all of which contribute to this mythic portrait of a community. 'Found and translated' from the French by Nick Carpenter.

Dirty Tricks
by John M. Richardson
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27 AT 14:00

A spin doctor struggles to salvage an election campaign when the Prime Minister falls hopelessly in love and vanishes from view. A naughty, hilarious look at the egos, misinformation and ‘dirty tricks’ that help decide who gets to form the government.

Lone Ranger
by John Ng
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27 AT 19:30

The year is 1948. The War is over. The Exclusion Act banning Chinese immigrants has been repealed. The right to vote granted. And at the fabled Montreal Forum, a wide-eyed kid from Vernon, B.C. is about to realize his childhood dream to play hockey with the big boys in the NHL. Only his name is Larry Kwong. And the entire hockey world is watching. A story about belonging...and a discovery of self.

Constance
by Catherine Cunningham-Huston
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28 AT 14:00

If family is where the most ridiculous and least respectable things in the world go on, welcome home! A windfall inheritance from a hated uncle sparks a feud between the Langevin sisters: the crusty Constance, hobbled by loss and disease, and the vain Annette, a three-time divorcée determined to claim “half the zeroes” for her facelift. An iffy Christian healer and a homeless halfwit are sucked into the fray, blurring the lines between laughter and tears, greed and happiness, sinner and saint.

You are Mine
by Julian Doucet
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28 AT 19:30
Only hours before his grandmother's wedding, Richard has yet to finish writing his toast to the Bride. But not his mother's marital meltdown, nor the groom's taste for spankings or even the nun in the bedroom will stop him from getting his gran to the church on time. You Are Mine is a two-act modern comedy of manners that explores or explodes the myth of marriage.

The NAC/GCTC Playwrights' Unit

In 1997-98, the National Arts Centre English Theatre and the Great Canadian Theatre Company joined together to create "The Unit," a much-needed forum for emerging local playwrights to meet and work together and with a dramaturg, to develop new scripts for the stage.

Since its inception, the project has developed and grown to include four essential elements: group meetings, one-on-one dramaturgy, workshops and a final public reading.

The group meetings, led by Unit dramaturge Janet Irwin, provide a supportive environment in which the writers can benefit from the encouragement and critical feedback of their peers in the Unit. The writers also meet individually with the Unit dramaturg to discuss their work.

The members of  the Playwrights’ Unit, have each had their play workshopped with professional actors to enable the writers to hear their work aloud.  The first workshops took place in May.

The programme is culminating in a final workshop, followed by a series of staged public readings.  For these readings, the writers have been given an opportunity to work with actors and an outside director/dramaturge.

The Playwright’s Unit activities have been supported in part by donations from The Laidlaw Foundation, from the Ottawa Community Foundation, and by the many supporters of both the NAC and the GCTC.

*Public admission to the readings is via the NAC Stage Door (located down the hill from the Box Office, near the loading dock). Please note that there is no advance ticketing, and access to readings will be on a first-come, first-served basis. ALL READINGS ARE FREE.

For more artists bios and any other information, please contact:
Laura Denker
Publicity and Media Relations Coordinator
National Arts Centre English Theatre
(613) 947 7000 ext. 389
fax: (613) 996 2828
ldenker@nac-cna.ca

Sean Fitzpatrick
Marketing & Publicity Coordinator
Great Canadian Theatre Company
(613) 236-5192 ext. 29