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Banff Playwrights Lab - Online 2021

Performing Arts - Theatre

Program Information

Playwright Hiro Kanagawa with performer Patricia Cerra. Photo by Jessica Wittman

Playwright Hiro Kanagawa with performer Patricia Cerra. Photo by Jessica Wittman

Overview

Experience an inspiring, interdisciplinary, and inclusive environment to work on your play while surrounded by performing artists from across the country and around the world. The Lab supports challenging, multi-disciplinary, provocative approaches to telling stories. The Lab supports challenging, multi-disciplinary, provocative approaches to telling stories. We will gather virtually in 2021, and look forward to future Lab events returning to Treaty 7 territory to create, share, and explore theatrical storytelling.

In 2021, the Playwrights Lab will investigate projects that incorporate multiple languages, and the strategies playwrights use to tell stories across language and culture. We will foster a conversation about how languages are used, methods of conveying multi-lingual content to audiences, and the power of languages to uniquely capture the voices of communities less frequently seen on Canadian stages.

We are inviting Canadian participants from the cancelled 2020 Playwrights Lab to come together virtually in May 2021 to develop new works through a dynamic conversation about storytelling and contemporary performance as we push Canadian theatre into the future.

What does the program offer?

Canadian writers accepted into the 2020 Playwrights Lab will be offered a digital residency during the Lab period. The Lab’s dramaturgical staff comprised of the Lab Director, Dramaturg, Associate Dramaturg, Senior Playwright-in-Residence, and Creator-in-Residence will support these residencies through a range of online events and activities designed to bring artists together across distance, including one-on-one dramaturgy meetings, panel discussions, and writing sessions.

 

International writers who were invited to the 2020 Lab will be invited to attend 2021 panel discussions to provide their perspective on theatrical creation beyond Canada.

 

This Lab is by invitation only.

Itinerary

The 2021 Playwrights Lab will focus on an intensive virtual residency from April 28 to May 14, 2021. Sessions will be held weekdays during this period. The residency period will be followed with a series of weekly Lab gatherings in June and July to offer extended opportunities for writers to engage with the Lab’s dramaturgical team, and for writers to continue to come together to explore ideas, issues and current topics that arise during the May residency period.

Faculty

What's Included

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Group Seminars/WorkshopsRead MoreClose

Join in group seminars/workshops.

Materials AllowanceRead MoreClose

Materials Allowance of $250 per week.

Fees & Financial Assistance

Program fees
$611.15
+GST
Program Fee with Financial Aid
$0.00

Application fee: $25.00

*Lab participants will receive 100% scholarship to cover the program fees.

*Lab participants will receive a materials allowance of $250.00 per week .

 

How to Apply

Learn more about the steps to Complete Your Application.

Artistic Statement

No more than two pages outlining:

•    Your project status, what you would like to accomplish at the Lab, what you are striving to achieve with the story, relationship to the Lab focus on scale (if any; it is not mandatory), list of readings and workshops, and relationship with play development centres and/or producing companies or collaborators (if any).
•    Whether you are available to be considered for the Retreat (February 16 - 27, 2021)
•    Whether there is a collaborator you wish to attend the Lab, and their name, relationship to the project, and availability.

Draft Script/Text

Pages must be numbered with the title and your name clearly indicated at the top of each page.

Resume

Please include a resume or bio for playwright and collaborator (if any).

Artistic statement, script, and resume/bio must be submitted as one PDF document, in that order. If you are including any materials for which you are not the writer/creator, you must obtain the rights prior to applying, otherwise we cannot accept your project.
 

Acknowledging the Banff Playwrights Lab

In recognition of the Lab’s contribution to the development of each writers’ work, writers are required to include Banff Centre’s logo and credit on the title page of all future readings, workshops, productions, recordings, and publications of their projects.

Adjudication

All applications will be reviewed by the Playwrights Lab Director, Dramaturg, Assistant Dramaturg and Senior Writer-in-Residence, and additional adjudicators as required. The Lab does not provide feedback on applications.

Invitations to attend the Lab will be extended by mid-December 2020, and the selected writers announced in February 2021. Final decisions are made by the Lab Director.

Eligibility

  • Applications are open to Canadians and Permanent Residents only.
  • We do accept plays that are commissioned by other theatres or producers; however, you must obtain written permission from the commissioning organization stating that they support your application.
  • We will consider projects that have been produced. The writer, however, must make a compelling case for a process of revising the project based on what they gleaned from the production, with the goal of making the play more prepared for future productions. A produced project is defined as a project that has been reviewed by critics. We do consider plays that have had a previous workshop, or developmental opportunities.
  • We will consider plays that are already scheduled for a production. Please include information on the production, including dates and creative team. In your artistic statement, please articulate your developmental goals for the project prior to rehearsal.
  • The Lab is unable to accept applications for projects that have been declined in previous years.

Please ensure that you have reviewed these important FAQs about Banff Centre before applying.

All programs, faculty, dates, fees, and offers of financial assistance are subject to change. Program fee is subject to applicable taxes. Non-refundable fees and deposits will be retained upon cancellation. Any other fees are refunded at the discretion of the Banff Centre. The application deadline is 11:59 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

Contact Admissions

For questions on preparing your application, please contact Admissions:

Toll Free Number (Canada + USA)
1.800.565.9989