The Realities of Being a Playwright in Alberta

Oct 15, 2010
Toby Welch

Theatre Seating - Crpyjajoe

Alberta has a history of playwriting excellence. People in the industry share why they believe playwrighting in Alberta rocks.

As I dug deep to find out why playwrighting is top-notch in Alberta, the answers from those in the know were as varied as the food options at the Calgary Stampede. Some playwrights attribute it to the marvellously supportive institutions Alberta has, others to the entrepreneurial playwrights who plough ahead, refusing to give up. Here’s why Alberta playwriting dominates:

"Because there's not much out here, we have learned to invent things for ourselves. Also, there is a maverick spirit. Although Alberta is quite conservative in many ways, the support of new work, new plays, is very liberal and by and large unobtrusive." (Eugene Stickland, past President of APN, the Alberta Playwrights’ Network)
"We've had a long running playwriting competition (the Alberta Playwriting Competition) which offers one of the largest cash prizes in an annual competition for a new play. We have institutions like the University of Alberta and The Banff Centre of the Arts. People in Alberta tend to work around the province and collaborate a lot so there is a lot of cross pollination and the sharing of techniques and ideas.” (Elyne Quan, a playwright from Edmonton who now lives in Toronto and sits on the Playwrights Guild of Canada board)
"There’s a real attitude of not waiting around for somebody to do something for you. In Edmonton, if you want to bring a group of actors together, you can do it. With the most recent play I am working on, I’ve managed to organize some funding and have a production coming up and it’s all people that just gave up their time because I couldn’t get the financial support but ploughed ahead anyway.” (Jan Taylor, an Edmonton-based playwright)
"Theatre professionals go and see each other’s work. There is a real support for development of new work within the theatre community." (Trina Davies, a playwright who started her career in Alberta)
"The Edmonton Fringe Festival; a lot of the playwrights that are working today, the new generation of playwrights or even the previous generation, all started out at the fringe. The fringe, because it is a non-juried system, is a wide open door of opportunity to do what you want.” (David Belke, the Edmonton liaison for the APN and the resident playwright and an artistic associate at Edmonton’s Shadow Theatre)

Alberta Versus Canada

Looking west, Trina Davies, an Alberta playwright who moved to Vancouver in 2007, explains that the Vancouver scene is mostly film and theatre with a focus on the performing side of theatre. Alberta, on the other hand, is text focused and writing is the centre of attention. But Davies proves she did not abandon the Alberta spirit when she moved, “The writer has a tendency to not play as big a role out here but I am hoping to get involved and change some of that!”

Looking east we find Elyne Quan, a past artistic associate at Workshop West Theatre in Edmonton where she ran the playwriting unit before moving to Toronto to attend the Canadian Film Centre in 2007. Quan explains, “I'd have to say, generally, that the "scene" is much more tight knit in both Calgary and Edmonton (I can't speak for the rest of Alberta) than in Ontario. I think this is due to the relative size of the community in both Edmonton and Calgary.”

Calgary Versus Edmonton

What are the differences between playwriting in Calgary and Edmonton? Quan shares her thoughts, “Playwriting in Calgary and Edmonton is very different from each other. Calgary has two major festivals: ATP's playRites and the High Performance Rodeo at One Yellow Rabbit. The former brings in playwrights from all over the country and develops their work over a period of months. This intimate involvement has resulted in plays, both from local playwrights and from around the country, of high quality that often go on to further productions around the country and beyond. The latter has trained audiences to expect and welcome experimental performance pieces and has resulted in encouraging creators to think outside traditional theatre boundaries.”

Quan continues, “In Edmonton, the playwriting community hit its stride based on the work of three mid-sized companies (Workshop West, Theatre Network, and Northern Light Theatre) and the Edmonton Fringe Festival. The three theatre companies historically helped launch the careers of many playwrights and their mandates included development of new Canadian work.

At some point, when money was becoming increasingly scarce for these companies and/or artists wanted to create their own work outside the established theatres, artists began to write plays of their own for the Fringe Festival. These days, most playwrights in Edmonton get their start in either the Fringe Festival or, if they're young, the Next Fest at Theatre Network. There are also playwrights who create work exclusively for their respective companies and these include Catalyst and Teatro La Quindicina.”

Jan Taylor shares her opinion, “Edmonton is really cool grass-roots theatre. There’s a real ground level theatre community so people are writing for the fringe and those kind of opportunities. But it seems like Calgary is active in terms of playwriting. I don’t know about the production of it but the folks that are members of the APN in Calgary seem to have lots of that kind of stuff is going on.”

Alberta Playwrighting in the Future

While no one has a crystal ball, certainly not one that works with any accuracy anyway, David Belke is hopeful, “It’s heartening to see the growth that was initially stimulated by the history of our province which continues to grow and develop. It seems to have taken on a life of its own despite the desperate times and thin funding from government to culture. People are out there supporting it and there is an energy and a vitality to the artistic community that refuses to be stamped out.”