Infinithéâtre Presents Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room

Infinithéâtre Artistic Director Guy Sprung is delighted with the response to the first three plays in the series, The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room, where members of the public across Canada are invited to participate online in the development of exciting new plays. Once a week, a different script of a work-in-progress from Québec playwrights is released.

If the synopsis of the play intrigues you or you enjoy the chance to have a sneak-peek read of an early work in order to be part of the process, they are looking for your input to help develop the next draft. The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room runs Thursdays until June 11.

Coming up are Marianne Ackerman's Black Dog (June 4) and David Sherman's Nickey's Café: Stories of Lost Valley (June 11); please see play descriptions below. This is a genuine dramaturgical process. If interested, people read the play and think about feedback; questions, observations and suggestions they'd like to offer. These comments from diverse readers help the writer make decisions about the next version. During a live Zoom session people's suggestions will be put forth, providing the playwright with fresh inspiration for their next phase of development.

As audience members, the general public is welcome to audit the event via Zoom and add comments in the Q&A session. If you would like to participate live in the discussion with the playwright, moderator and other select creatives, just let Infinithéâtre know when you email your comments. You could also be invited as a guest into the room. The Chats can also be watched live on Infinithéâtre's Facebook page or streamed at any time.

Over a thousand people have participated in and/or watched The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room discussions, offering input and remarks. This from Evan Alderson, retired Dean of Fine Arts at SFU in Vancouver, "I really enjoyed reading the draft of Oren Safdie's Imminent Domain and the online chat that followed. As a non-theatre person it was so interesting to watch theatre professionals participate in the script development process. The online chat Infinithéâtre has developed is both an imaginative response to this latest closing of the theatres and a creative way to engage and enhance the experience of theatre audiences going forward."

From Guy Sprung, Infinithéâtre Artistic Director: "Times are dark for all of us, but for live theatre, the times are literally dark. Infinithéâtre is using this time to develop work for the future. Theatre will return and we will need inspired new plays; you can add your voice to the play-development process."

The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room's first three play discussions, for Paul Van Dyck's King of Canada, Oren Safdie's Imminent Domain, and Alexandria Haber and Ned Cox' The Silent Woman are available on Infinithéâtre's YouTube channel, along with archival videos of the company's productions of Endgame/Fin de partie, Shakespeare's Sonnets: Transforming the Voices of Montréal and Kafka's Ape (Beijing).

Infinithéâtre is the sole theatre in Québec (in French or English) whose mission is to develop, promote, produce and broker only plays written or adapted by Québec and Indigenous Canadian writers, including play development programs The Unit , Write-on-Q, and The Pipeline.

To read Marianne Ackerman's Black Dog and/or David Sherman's Nickey's Café: Stories of Lost Valley so you can offer your feedback, or for more information, please contact: ATD@infinitheatre.com

Infinithéâtre's The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room

Black Dog by Marianne Ackerman, Thursday, June 4

Nickey's Café: Stories of Lost Valley by David Sherman, Thursday, June 11

Zoom/Facebook conversations at 5pm

To register for the webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vfrpajZ5SouT0KcAMvKKUw

Or watch live on Infinithéâtre's Facebook page

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