Gordon Pengilly has been an Alberta playwright since the mid-1970s and declared the '70s a time of great excitement in the theatre for playwrights across the country. “Look! We have playwrights! It was a common cry from coast to coast. Of course we’d had playwrights in Alberta since the 1930s with Gwen Pharis Ringwood and Elsie Park Gowan and with W.O. Mitchell in the '40s and '50s and Wilfred Watson in the 60s.”
Penguilly goes on, “Has the playwriting scene changed since the 1970s? It’s bigger, that’s for sure. More theatres, more opportunities, more diversity (and ironically more safety), but a lot more playwrights, too. And a lot more good ones. These days it’s much more competitive, even cutthroat at times, and a playwright has to be headstrong and versatile to make a living. Commissions from theatres and grants from funding agencies are harder and harder to get. It’s a dogfight.”
The Oil Boom and Premier Lougheed
David Belke has been a playwright in Alberta since the 1970s as well and explained that before the 70s, The Citadel was pretty much the only game in town (Edmonton). “Then, in the 70s, with the oil boom and Premier Lougheed’s much appreciated initiatives, money was pumped into culture and it has continued to pay dividends and be a legacy for the province ever since. Small theatre companies grew out of that and artistic investments continue to grow and give back to the people.
"What happened around the '80s and '90s is a growth which created a can-do sense toward theatre. You could create a show and find an audience and do it without the sponsorship or the commissioning of a major theatre or even a smaller theatre. If you were really driven and talented, you could find an audience all your own. That led to creation of smaller companies such as Shadow Theatre here in Edmonton and in Calgary organizations like Ghost River Theatre and Theatre Junction which grew out of a sense of artists wanting to produce and create and taking the responsibility and the initiative themselves.”
Belke goes on, “As a result, both Edmonton and Calgary especially are blessed with a proliferation of theatrical creation. The smaller centres as well, Red Deer and Fort McMurray and Lethbridge, all have resident theatre companies. Grande Prairie and even smaller centres have their own arts organizations. Sometimes community based, sometimes professional. What I’ve seen in the last 20 years is not only a growth in numbers but also a growth in confidence and a willingness to take on the work oneself. A kind of entrepreneurial spirit, I would say.”
Impact of Technology
You can’t consider the past two decades without contemplating the input of technology. Eugene Stickland, past President of APN, the Alberta Playwrights’ Network, elaborates, “Plays written 20 years ago were probably written on typewriters as opposed to word processors and computers. Typing a play is very hard work, and editing is a real chore compared to on a computer. This change in technology, in part, allowed for the rise of the dramaturg.
"Now most plays have a dramaturg or editor attached to them. Sometimes it is the director him or herself, quite often it's another person entirely. This means there is more support for the writer and the writing process isn't quite as lonely. We tend to rewrite a lot more - ten or twelve drafts is not uncommon. Along the way some of these drafts are read by actors, so there's a lot more hands on development than there used to be. Are our plays any better for all this? One would like to think so.”
Not Smooth Sailing
But the past two decades haven’t been easy. Elyne Quan, a playwright from Edmonton who now lives in Toronto and sits on the Playwrights Guild of Canada board, explains, “While there are still many playwrights out there, not enough plays written by Alberta playwrights are making it to production. In fact, more Alberta plays were produced on local stages in 1980 than in 2000. This has as much to do with theatre programming as it does with funding that has basically remained stagnant for the better part of 20 years.
"While budget revenue remained the same, everything else grew more expensive and theatres have been forced to cut publicity (limiting reach to new audiences), cut development (leading to fewer plays being ready for production), and program fewer productions (limiting the potential number of play slots available in any given season). As a result, the playwriting industry in Alberta has been eroded over time.”
But Quan is optimistic, “Albertans tend to look on the positive side and we're an enterprising bunch. Collectives, co-productions, independent productions, and self-production has led to some very interesting work getting out there. It's my hope that a new energy for Albertan plays will spark and spread.”
Toby Welch - Toby is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in magazine articles, online writing, e-books, and manuscript editing.
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