There are so many exciting things to look forward to in the near future. From workshops, to festivals, we can’t wait to gather once again as a community and share our art. We would love for you to join us! We are currently accepting submissions for our One Night Stand playwright development series and applications for our Launchpad Project!
Every year, we host our One Night Stand reading series as a way for emerging and established playwrights to share their work and gain some feedback. We are seeking 10-minute scenes from Manitoban playwrights of all ages, genders, and backgrounds! Our first virtual, One Night Stand will take place in June, 2020. All submissions must be received by 11:59pm on May 8th, 2020. More details on how and what to submit HERE.
We are so excited to welcome former Launchpad participant Jonathan Mourant in helping to coordinate future ONS editions!
Jonathan Mourant in the 2019 Launchpad Project
Jonathan Mourant is a trans-disciplinary performer, producer, and also a robot learning how to be human. They have been improvising for just under a decade and have performed and learned at festivals and workshops across Canada, including the Winnipeg Improv Festival and Toronto SketchFest. This year, Jonathan wrote and directed Here Together for the 2019 Winnipeg Fringe Festival and created Jon After Hours, an experimental late night talk show featuring local personalities. Recently, they have begun performing drag as Nora Vision, and are thrilled at the opportunities to combine improv, theatre, and drag into their own unique performance.
You may recall our Launchpad Project from FemFest 2019. A group of emerging female and non-binary identifying artists gathered weekly for a series of workshops, before creating and performing their final work To Kill a Lizard during FemFest 2019. After a successful pilot project that supported ten young artists, we are excited to change it up this year with a new focus. This intensive residency will take place in August/September 2020. Participants will be working on performance pieces that explore climate change. They will perform them in site-specific locations in downtown Winnipeg during our fall festival of FemFest 2020. The best part is participants are paid – as all artists should be!. For more details on who, what and how to apply, click HERE.
We hope you will consider submitting for one (or both!) of these exciting initiatives. It is important to remember that there is still a lot of exciting things to look forward to and so much art and theatre still to create!
We are 100% committed to seeing the show through, but at this time cannot provide new dates as we are working with our venue to sort out what is realistic and feasible. We will continue to share all the inspiring work happening in the interim and cannot wait to celebrate when the time is ready! We are grateful for how the community is rallying at this time, thankful for all those working so hard to provide essential services, and for all our supporters, funders, partners for their belief in our work.![[Poster] Sarasvati - 7 Circles](https://sarasvatitransforms.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/poster-sarasvati-7-circles-e1587064558840.jpg?w=190)
We hosted the discussion online so panellists and workshop participants could participate from the comfort of their own home! We were even able to broadcast the discussion to or Facebook livestream so folks could choose to just watch and observe. It was nice just to do something beyond the usual quarantine routine and to have an important and valuable conversation pertaining to accessibility in the theatre industry. We were even able to have ASL interpretation for the Deaf.
Hailing from Poland, a University of Manitoba Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate, Joanna Hawkins has always felt a strong connection to the arts. She is a skilled artist (drawing & painting), graphic designer and photographer but her real dream had always been with acting. Joanna has performed as a lead in a children’s show for young deaf children and has been involved in several films in Manitoba as a featured extra as well as two television commercials. Joanna has been professionally trained in mime, physical comedy and storytelling by the award winning Hot Thespian Action’s Shannon Guile. Recently Joanna performed as Mrs. Peachum in Sick + Twisted/AA Battery production’s “The Threepenny Opera”. Joanna’s aim is not only to entertain audiences with her incredibly crisp and clean physical illusions but to reach-out with the beauty of Deaf Culture and build bridges between the hearing and Deaf worlds. Joanna continues enjoying working in theatre/film industry as an actor, ASL translator and ASL coach.
traditional myths. She has a fringe company, Chronically Ch(ill) Productions, entering its third year of existence. She is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film department. Hailley has two invisible illnesses, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (Classic) and Von Willebrand’s Disease. Quasi the tripod cat will likely be appearing in this live stream. She has yet to develop artistic passions, and mostly enjoys biting Hailley and chasing the laser pointer.
World Theatre Day was brought to life in 1961 by International Theatre Institute and occurs every year on March 27th by theatre communities around the world. This day is meant to celebrate the power of theatre as a bridge for international understanding and peace. Every year, this day brings together theatre lovers from around the globe to celebrate and appreciate the art.
Manitoba’s very own Geneviève Pelletier, is the author of this year’s Canadian message. Geneviève is an Actor, Director and Artistic and Executive Director of Winnipeg’s Cercle Molière Theatre. You can check out the full message in French or English on Playwright’s Guild of Canada’s website [https://playwrightsguild.ca/world-theatre-day/] For more inspiration, this year’s international message is by Pakistan’s leading Playwright Shahid Nadeem [https://www.world-theatre-day.org/messageauthor.html]. “In South Asia, the artists touch with reverence the floor of the stage before stepping onto it, an ancient tradition when the spiritual and the cultural were intertwined. It is time to regain that symbiotic relationship between the artist and the audience, the past and the future.”
“The show must go on…line.” 29 different playwrights will livestream 10-minute readings from their plays over the course of 7 hours! Running from 10am-5pm Central time. You can find the line-up of plays by clicking 
It’s important to keep our spirits lifted and theatre in motion. We hope you are all staying safe and healthy and wish everyone a Happy World Theatre Day! Don’t forget if you’re looking for more discussion on accessibility in theatre, we are hosting an online webinar/discussion through Zoom on accessibility on April 4th! Join in the conversation or simply watch and listen. Email 
If you are an artist put out of work, consider reaching out to folks who may be in need of childcare during the school and daycare closures. Take this time to reflect on past work and create new work! Lots of arts companies have created online systems to host virtual workshops, book clubs, classes and more to keep you busy, occupied and creative. Some examples can be found 
At this time, we have not cancelled or postponed our May 2020 performance of Songide’ewin. It is a huge initiative and we will wait to see how all the amazing action to flatten the curve pans out, then make an informed decision when and if it becomes necessary. In the meantime, you can support the work by purchasing tickets for the performance at The Forks. You can read more about the project through our website 
Rug Theatre Collective. Established in 2019, Out From Under The Rug Theatre Collective is focused on creating works by, for, and about people of colour. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Out From Under The Rug intends to highlight the experiences of those whose voices often go unheard – or more often told to stop talking. As a collective, their goal is to emphasize a dedication to safe and accessible spaces. They would like to acknowledge our privilege of living, working, and creating on the traditional lands of The Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples and the Homeland of the Metis Nation. Visit them on Facebook 
Panel discussions included topics such as, creating works of theatre with characters of colour where their ethnicity is not their entire personality. As well as how to create these characters and describe said characters when the playwright doesn’t share the same ethnicity. Panelists touched on the importance of representation in the arts and media, they specifically spoke on being a person of colour and how it feels to see yourself represented on the screen and on the stage. Out From Under the Rug’s member Sophie Smith-Dostmohamed described herself in childhood only ever wanting to watch the Disney film “Aladdin” as it was the only place she saw characters that looked like her, further emphasizing the need for representation.
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