Yukon theatre hopes national playwright search picks up Northern and Indigenous talent
CBC
Ten Canadian theatre companies have come together to create the country's first queer and transgender playwriting unit, and Colin Wolf is hoping the project has a significant Northern and Indigenous voice.
Wolf is the artistic director of Whitehorse-based Gwaandak Theatre, one of the companies that has signed on to the project.
"It's really important that these cross-national projects, that claim to be national, actually include people from everywhere in the nation," said Wolf.
The project is intended to close a gap in queer and trans stories in Canadian theatre. Zee Zee Theatre, a company based in Vancouver, will be leading the project.
"Art has the power to elevate voices and ideas that can change the world," said Cameron Mackenzie, Zee Zee Theatre's artistic and executive director in a press release. "Now, more than ever, the arts sector needs to prioritize those who have been systematically left out of the conversation."
The project is targeted at emerging or mid-career playwrights, though Wolf emphasized anyone who identifies as 2SLGBTQ+ and has an interest in the idea should put their name forward.
The 10 theatre companies involved will then select five finalists, who will be paid a living wage for the 10 months the program runs, and get creative support and direction.
"Gwaandak is really hoping we can get some Northern, Indigenous, queer and trans submissions so that we can take a brand new Northern queer and Indigenous play all the way through the development process and into a full production," said Wolf.
"The impacts of this project will be far reaching and numerous," said Wolf.
"For the playwrights, it offers growth, stability, and a national platform for their voice and stories to be heard," said Mackenzie.
"For the consortium companies, it creates a new body of work and connects them with vital queer and trans communities. For our sector as a whole, it offers new representation and reflection in ways that are meaningful and non-tokenizing."
The companies involved in the project include Frank Theatre (Vancouver), Theatre Outré (Lethbridge), Persephone Theatre (Saskatoon), Theatre Projects Manitoba (Winnipeg), Buddies In Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto), Imago Théâtre (Montreal) and Neptune Theatre (Halifax).
The deadline to apply is July 5, and more information can be found at zeezeetheatre.ca
A Saskatoon judge has now heard about the hours just before and after Taya Sinclair's death.
Two people were taken to hospital after a fire tore through a unit in an apartment building just west of downtown Edmonton Wednesday evening.
B.C. Premier David Eby, who is on a trade mission to India, says that finding new trade partners is critical to ensure British Columbians' standard of living doesn't deteriorate amid the U.S. trade war.
A program aimed at preventing homelessness on Prince Edward Island that was halted last year due to funding issues is back up and running again with support from the provincial and federal governments.
Large crowds of people lined up around the block outside a pair of packed community halls in central Alberta on Wednesday night, to attend town halls focused on the idea of the province seeking independence from Canada.
The sight of a cyclist in January in the Yukon can prompt confusion from some onlookers — but historians say bicycles were being used to get around the territory in winter long before cars.
On Prime Minister Mark Carney's first day of talks in Beijing, the government agreed to co-operate with China more on clean and conventional energy after years of difficult relations between the two countries.
The city says it is one step away from returning the Bearspaw feeder main to full service, with a final water pump scheduled to be turned on Friday morning — if the pipe continues to remain stable.
When David St-Pierre saw the snow outside his window in Brossard, Que., south of Montreal, he decided to chance the metropolitan region's shiny light-rail transit system once more.
A Calgary lawyer who falsified court documents and repeatedly lied to a client, causing the man to miss out on parenting time with his youngest child, pleaded guilty to forgery on Thursday.
The Crown has stayed an assault charge against Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jeremy Tunraluk.
Alberta’s minister of hospitals says a province-wide strategy has begun to ease the strain on the acute care system as frontline doctors continue to declare that provincial hospitals are dangerously overcrowded.
As snow squalls continue to blanket southwestern Ontario, school boards in the London region announced the closure of all schools Thursday morning, and police are reporting closures and collisions across the area roads.