Master Playwright Festival Attracts Over 11,000 Attendees

The 2009 Master Playwright festival offered theatre and film enthusiasts the chance to experience the hard-hitting socio-political analogies and moving family dramas of one of the greatest playwrights of all time, Arthur Miller. Highly anticipated from the beginning, the festival started off with a bang, selling out of MillerPasses prior to opening. The momentum didn't slow down after that, with the lecture series attracting an impressive 333 people.  Overall paid attendance reached 11,264, up from 10,249 at last year's MametFest. MillerFest is the second best attended Master Playwright Festival after BrechtFest in 2002, which had a ticketed attendance of 11,779.

"Arthur Miller is widely considered to be one of the greatest playwrights, and we were really excited to have the opportunity to dedicate an entire festival to his works. MillerFest gave theatre-goers the chance to experience a wide variety of Miller's plays, which gets to the heart of what the Master Playwright Festival is all about," said Executive Producer Chuck McEwen.  "We would like to give a special thanks to the participating companies for all of the excellent productions during MillerFest – their invaluable contributions are vital to the festival's success."

On behalf of the participating companies, we thank Festival Sponsor Manitoba Blue Cross, as well as Canadian Heritage, Winnipeg Free Press, Uptown Magazine, The Fairmont Winnipeg, Industry Images and the King's Head Pub for their support of MillerFest.

The 2010 Master Playwright is Caryl Churchill.

Considered one of the greatest female playwrights of all time, Caryl Churchill's prolific and award-winning career has spanned over three decades. Her list of works includes 24 full-length plays, a number of radio and screenplays for BBC, and a collection of highly regarded translations. Owners, her first professional stage production, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1972. Two years later, she became the first female Resident Dramatist for the Royal Court. Churchill garnered critical success for a number of plays, including the Obie Award-winning Cloud Nine, Far Away and Serious Money, which received the Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play. One of her most notable works is Top Girls, winner of an Obie Award for Playwriting, which brings together five historical female characters at a dinner party in a London restaurant. The play was first staged at the Royal Court in 1982 and transferred to New York later that year. Recent works include A Number and Drunk Enough to say I Love You?. Known for playing with form, Churchill's works betray an unrelenting political inquiry into a variety of issues, such as feminism, capitalism and colonialism.

For more information, please visit www.masterplaywrightfest.com.