It’s a long road to accidentally creating a new play reading series…….
Last month our funding manager Shayna and I went on a little road trip and came back with something really exciting. But let’s start at the beginning shall we?
Almost exactly a year ago I was sitting in a CCC staff meeting, trying not to be the newbie with nothing to contribute, when I off-handedly suggested a staged reading series of new plays as part of our upcoming programming. Lesson #1: Never ‘off-handedly suggest’ anything. Imagine my surprise when the idea received a warm reception and Marian Donnelly turned to me and said ‘You should just do that’.
So I did. Well, not exactly. I wrote up a call for submissions and sent it out to wherever and whomever I thought might find it relevant. Having just moved back to Canada after 8 years away, it was an admittedly short list that I didn’t hold much hope of hearing back from. Lesson #2: Have a little faith.
They say timing is everything and that certainly proved true for me. About a week after I sent out the original notice, the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre replied saying that they were currently looking to increase their presence in Regina and that creating this series in partnership with the CCC seemed like the right opportunity to do so. I promptly fell out of my chair.
It wasn’t the end of the road to be sure. It was just a push in the right direction. This original email lead to a dialogue between the SPC’s Gordon Portman and myself, several meetings with members of the Regina theatre community and a successful grant application to The Department of Canadian Heritage. Finally, after months of getting our ducks in a row, we had enough in place to start planning.
On May 18th, Shayna and I headed up to Saskatoon for the final day of the SPC’s spring festival. We had a planning meeting with Gordon (so neat to finally meet the person you’ve been tossing ideas around with for months!) and took in the final reading of the festival. I drove back to Regina that night feeling really excited. The Saskatoon reading was such a great combination of theatre and literary development and I knew I wanted to bring that kind of programming to Regina.
A few days later we finally had our green light. The SPC board had approved our plans and we were ready to move forward in partnership.
It’s coming Regina! A new staged reading series will premier at the Creative City Centre on October 5, 2013. Mark your Calendars! The series will feature four plays to be selected from the past two years of the SPC spring festival. We’ll feature one play for fall, winter, spring and summer while giving emerging playwrights the opportunity to workshop their plays at both the SPC in Saskatoon and at the CCC here in Regina. We’ll also be featuring some great Saskatchewan acting talent which you won’t want to miss. Lesson #3: Never underestimate the power of partnership. This is going to be awesome.
