Alberta Theatre Projects Announces PLAYWRIGHTS PROJECTS 2020

Alberta Theatre Projects is thrilled to announce Playwrights Projects 2020, two weeks of concurrent digital workshops of three new Canadian plays, from June 8 to June 20, 2020. The initiative features Undressed by Louise Casemore, Boom Baby by Natalie Meisner, and a new adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan by Andrew Scanlon.

"New Play Development has long been the heart and soul of Alberta Theatre Projects," explains Darcy Evans, Alberta Theatre Projects' Executive & Artistic Director. "In the midst of this unprecedented time, after so many weeks of our stage being dark, it will be a joy to roll up our sleeves and get back to work on these exciting new plays. I am particularly thrilled to be able to invite our audiences to join with our talented artists, from the comfort of their home, in this exciting development process. Despite the fact we are separated physically, these digital workshops will provide a unique forum to celebrate and explore our shared passion for contemporary theatre."

Playwrights Projects 2020 kicks off with a workshop of Alberta theatre artist Louise Casemore's Undressed from June 8-13. This hilarious, heartfelt solo show explores a simple but confounding question: What do you do with a used wedding dress? What follows is a real-time zero waste auction, as Casemore embodies each of the brides who have chosen to let their wedding gown go. Each woman has a unique, moving story to tell as Casemore morphs from character to character. Undressed is a world premiere, commissioned and developed by Alberta Theatre Projects, and is scheduled to receive its World Premiere at Alberta Theatre Projects in March 2021 as part of the 2020-2021 Season.

The Undressed workshop will culminate in an exciting one-night-only online event on Saturday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m. Alberta Theatre Projects and Deane House have teamed up to create a special viewing and dining experience, featuring a live online reading of Undressed and a three-course meal and sommelier selected wine, specially curated by Chef Christopher Barton. The reading will be followed by a twentyminute Q&A with Casemore moderated by Alberta Theatre Projects Executive & Artistic Director Darcy Evans. Tickets are $150 each and are available on albertatheatreprojects.com/playwrights-projects.

Next up from June 16-18, Alberta Theatre Projects is proud to host a development workshop of Boom Baby by Natalie Meisner. Meisner is a writer from Lockeport, Nova Scotia, and has recently been named Calgary's fifth Poet Laureate. Her plays have been produced across the country, won numerous awards, been collected in book form, and appear in numerous Canadian Anthologies.

Boom Baby tells the story of a young Maritimer, Iona, who is drawn out west for work in the mining camps. She is a loader operator, a strong young woman and fits into the working environment without complaint, striving to be "one of the guys." That is, until she becomes pregnant after a casual sexual encounter with a friend. Unwilling to have an abortion, and not seeing a way out of her situation, she considers carrying the baby to term and giving the baby to a couple who are experiencing infertility. In Canada, surrogate mothers cannot be paid, but operate under the assumption of altruism. Yet everything in a work camp environment is measured in dollars and cents. What can and can't be given a dollar value, after all? Shared resources? A river? A water table? The future?

Closing out Playwrights Projects 2020, Alberta Theatre Projects is excited to workshop a brand new adaptation of J.M. Barrie's classic fantasy tale Peter Pan on June 15, 19, and 20. This adaptation by Andrew Scanlon is scheduled to fly into the Martha Cohen Theatre this upcoming holiday season. With a touch of pixie dust, Peter Pan takes the three Darling children on a daring adventure filled with mischievous lost kids, blood-thirsty crocodiles and a crew of snarling pirates - led by the legendary Captain Hook. Peter Pan is set to feature the same creative team that brought Narnia gloriously to life in last season's record-breaking The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, including Daniel Fong as the titular Peter Pan, Anna Dalgleish as Wendy, and Hanne Loosen once again taking on set and costume design.

More information about Playwrights Projects 2020 can be found at albertatheatreprojects.com/playwrights-projects.

About Alberta Theatre Projects:

We create world-class contemporary theatre in Calgary from our home in the Martha Cohen Theatre. We are a national leader in new play development. Programming is selected from the finest Canadian and international plays driven by the collision of diverging ideas, points of view, class, gender or cultural perspectives. Our productions radically explore our space, blurring the line between the audience and the artist through multiple seating configurations each season.

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