Infinitheatre Encourages and Celebrates Quebec Playwrights

Every year Infinithéâtre proudly presents Québec's newest discoveries in THE PIPELINE, the annual, popular series of free public play readings where the audience takes centre stage. Guy Sprung, Infinithéâtre's artistic director, invites the public to be part of the excitement of The Pipeline's 11th year, and to share their views from Friday, December 2 - Sunday, December 4 at the beautiful Rialto Theatre's Infinite Studio. On offer will be the three winning plays from the 9th annual Write-On-Q! playwriting competition, which boasts the largest English literary prize in Québec.

In its ongoing mandate to discover new Québec works to bring to the stage, Infinithéâtre initiated an annual play writing contest, Write-On-Q!, which accepts submissions of scripts from all corners of the province. New for the 2016 competition, all First Nations writers whose unceded territory falls within the outline of Canada were eligible to submit plays. First Nations (Ojibway, Curve Lake) writer Drew HayDon Taylor's short-listed play, Heat Lighting, made the final round of jury selections.

Joining produced playwrights are unknown writers, including students in writing programs at universities and theatre schools, along with plays coming from CEGEP & university professors, journalists, editors, actors, screenwriters, directors, novelists and various literary award-winners. The winning and runner-up scripts are selected by an independent jury, chaired this year by Governor General award-winning playwright Kent Stetson, along with Montreal English Theatre Awarded actor Anana Rydvald, and long-time theatre supporter Gerry Lipnowski. The 40 submissions this year were deemed the best overall quality since the competition's inception.

The Pipeline readings include the winner of the first place Write-On-Q! $3000 Pam Dunn Prize: Michael Milech for The Nutritional Value of Anger; Second Place Prize, $1500: Alexandria Haber for Alice and The World We Live In; and Third Place Prize, $500: Alyson Grant for Conversion. Please see below for details about each play and its author.

Artistic Director Guy Sprung is thrilled that English language playwrights of Québec have set their creative writing clocks to Infinithéâtre's Write-On-Q! playwriting competition's September deadline. He asserts, "It all starts on the page. Infinithéâtre aims to provoke and nurture the best in contemporary Québec playwriting, challenging writers to push their craft to its highest level. Our intent is that the plays are produced and celebrated in theatres across Canada and internationally. The Pipeline audience feedback is a vital step towards making that a reality."

The Pipeline gives the public a unique opportunity to voice their opinion and directly influence Montréal's cultural landscape through lively talkback discussions- an important part of any play development- following each reading. Providing invaluable input for the playwrights, talkbacks allow the audience to address questions or issues that the script generates, in a relaxed, open forum with the authors, directors and actors. The Pipeline successes include Battered and Book of Bob by Arthur Holden; Oren Safdie's Unseamly (New York Times critics' pick) and Mr. Goldberg Goes to Tel Aviv (playing at Théâtre St-James this February); and MariAnne Ackerman's Triplex Nervosa. Infinithéâtre is Québec's premiere play development and producing company, encouraging and celebrating original Québec plays. In addition to The Pipeline, Infinithéâtre heads up a year-long play development program for Québec writers, with support from the English-language theatre community, called The Unit.

THE PIPELINE 2016 at the Rialto

Fri. Dec. 2, 7pm (Write-On-Q! third place prize)
Directed by Guy Sprung
Conversion- Conversion's four family members get together for what is supposed to be a straightforward supper, but familiar patter and patterns quickly devolve into a collision course of identities-race, class, gender and religion. This is the night that secrets explode, ugliness gets to its ugliest and the bonds of love and blood get twisted and tested. Though all four are left standing at the end of the action, each is left more alone. Some dark laughs help get you through...

Alyson Grant
Alyson Grant is a native Montréaler and long-time Dawson College English literature teacher whose first two plays, Trench Patterns and Progress!, were part of previous The Pipeline series, going on to full productions. She has also written for the Montreal Gazette. "The commitment of Infinithéâtre to providing a vehicle for writers is truly a gift; the seriousness and level of the competitors make me try to do the best I can. With Conversion, I'd like the audience to feel immediately pulled into a family drama that echoes the drama our national families are having about different identities crashing into each other."

Sat. December 3, 7pm (Write-On-Q! Pam Dunn Prize winner)
Directed by Howard Rosenstein
the nutritional value of anger - On a cold January night, a young woman pitches her sleeping bag outside a small grocery store and harangues passersby who don't give her change. The Iranian immigrant who owns the store harasses the young woman for hassling her customers. A young man chats on his cell phone and shops for soup. As the night gets colder and darker, The Nutritional Value of Anger examines anger's beneficial side, as well as the effort involved in repressing it, and the effortlessness of walking right past it.

Michael Milech
Michael Milech lives in Gatineau, works in Ottawa, and plays back home in Montréal. He has a Creative Writing MA from the University of New Brunswick, where he's had works produced as part of the NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival. His play Honesty Rents by the Hour was a finalist in last year's Write-on-Q! contest, and has since received the Frankie Award for Best English Text at the Montreal Fringe Festival. It will be produced by Infinithéâtre and Giant Productions in March. "Infinithéâtre is an oasis of committed, artistically gutsy people; it's not easy for Quebec playwrights writing in English to get new work seen and produced. I also really appreciate The Pipeline as an audience member; it's a place to find local stories with some bite- the kind of theatre that I used to think only existed in Montreal in French. I hope this play exercises empathy muscles that people didn't realize had gone flabby."

Sun. December 4, 2pm (Write-On-Q! second place prize)
Directed by Dean Fleming
Alice and the world we live in - Alice and The World We Live In is a non-linear play that follows the lives of Alice and several other characters who have been affected by the random bombing of a neighborhood grocery store. The play explores the unique ways in which each of the characters cope with the aftermath of the event as they attempt to move on with their lives.

Alexandria Haber
Alexandria Haber is a graduate of Concordia's Theatre Performance Program. Her plays include: On This Day, recently premiered at Centaur Theatre, Life Here After (previous winner of Infinithéâtre's Write-On-Q!, produced by Imago Theatre, Centaur Wildside) Closed for Urgent and Extraordinary Work (Theatre Yes, The National Elevator Play Project), I Don't like Mondays, A Christmas Carol (adaptation) and Game Changers (Geordie Productions); Four Minutes if You Bleed (Centaur's Brave New Works, with Ned Cox); and Housekeeping & Homewrecking. "It cannot be overstated how effective having a deadline, like that of Infinithéâtre's Write-On-Q!, is in getting writers to write! For this play, I was thinking a lot about acts of terrorism and the effect they have on us as individuals and communities. I was moved by loss, and how we might not only lose a loved one, but also lose the potential of every possible future with that person."

Infinithéâtre: developing, producing and brokering new Québec work

Infinithéâtre presents
THE PIPELINE 2016 AT THE RIALTO
Friday, Dec. 2- Sunday, Dec. 4, Fri. and Sat. at 7:00 pm, Sunday at 2:00 pm
At Rialto Infinite Studio, 5711 Parc Ave.
Admission is donate-what-you-can ($10 suggested donation), limited seating, reservations highly recommended

For more information about Infinithéâtre's playwrights' programs, their line-up of plays or the 6Pack season pass, visit www.infinitheatre.com or call 514 987-1774.

Scripts for Write-On-Q! 2017 can be submitted to the Infinithéâtre offices from now until Tues., Sept. 5 at 5413, boul. St-Laurent, Suite 302, Montreal QC H2T 1S5.

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