Nature / Writing

I'm pleased to announce that one of my works-in-progress has been chosen for an 'Individual - Playwrights' grant from the Toronto Arts Council. I'm particularly excited about this because "A Warmer World" brings together two of the things I care most about—writing for young audiences and the environment. As I described it in my grant application: "A Warmer World" is a versatile episodic play for young audiences about our current ecological crisis, which explores the issues, the potential impacts, and the personal actions we can take around climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. The play consists of monologues and short scenes featuring primarily teen and tween characters, and is designed to be suitable both for a professional TYA company to present as a full-length show with a small cast playing multiple roles, or for a school to perform itself with flexibility in cast size and length. If presented in full, "A Warmer World" is expecte...

Today I sent a brand new play out for some strangers to read. I had not read the lines out loud, or sent it to a trusted friend, or reviewed it any way. I hadn't even read the whole thing myself, start to finish. This is not, of course, the recommended way to do submissions. But such is the nature of entering 24-Hour Playwriting Contests, at least for me. It had been two years since I took on a play-in-a-day challenge, so at the last minute I decided to pay my fee and sign up for this year's Toronto Fringe contest.

Thanks to Brian T. Schultz and the Storybook Land Theatre 2016 company for putting on a fantastic production of The Knight's Errand, hosting me when I came out to South Dakota to see it, and letting me use the footage. :) The Knight's Errand - A Play for Young Audiences from Marilyn Anne Campbell on Vimeo . Learn  more about The Knight's Errand (The video is also on YouTube, if you prefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUGhj8m0cIw )

by Marilyn Anne Campbell Stageplay: Theatre for Young Audiences, 10 minute play, 1M/1W It's 1850 in Mimico, Upper Canada. Eleven-year old Janice needs to memorize a play for school, but her father doesn't agree with her choice of literature. Janice's only other option is to write a poem herself, which seems like an impossible idea until help comes from the skies. A Play in a Day Attending the Storm  was written for the 2017 "A Day, A Play" writing game hosted annually by Write Local Play Global to mark the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People (March 20th). Participants received instructions and elements that had to be included in the morning and had 24 hours to submit what was meant to be a 500 word play. Mine ran a little long (but since there are no winners in this game, they accepted it anyway). The Pigeons of Mimico The theme for 2017 was "Where do I come from?" which I decided to use as a prompt to set my play close t...

Sunday August 7th, 2016 I really thought my return to the blog was going to be to share the amazing time I had visiting with the talented and welcoming people of Storybook Land Theatre in Aberdeen, South Dakota and seeing their production of The Knight's Errand . And I WILL still post about that, because it really was fantastic. But I have to interrupt my own very loose editorial calendar with some exciting news... My long-in-development play Failing Hands was selected as one of three winners in Calgary-based StoryBook Theatre 's first ever National TYA Playwriting Competition! I'll be flown out to Calgary at some point over the Labour Day weekend to spend a week with SBT staff and artists and the other two winners, Jeremy Mason and Kiel Fredrickson, as the three scripts are developed for public readings on September 9th and 10th. The first draft of Failing Hands  was supported by the Toronto Arts Council and the script has been through two different writers ...

Sunday October 05, 2014 This weekend I took part in  Pat the Dog Theatre Creation 's annual 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. At 4 pm on Friday Pat the Dog sent out three prompt words that had to be included in the script and the 30 of us who pre-registered had 24 hours to write and submit a new play. This year's words were tattoo , dig,  and butter . I've read interviews with playwrights who enter these contests with a pretty solidly formed idea of what they're going to write about and then find a way to work the words in. I always do the exact opposite, not giving any thought to my play until the moment those words hit my inbox. On the one hand, that means I always end up with a fairly short one-act, but it also means it's a one-act that I never would have created otherwise. Not surprisingly, my super-short, unplanned plays have never placed in the various time-based contests I've entered, but participation has paid off in other ways. The 2011 Pat the D...

Monday July 15, 2013 Well, I didn't place in the Toronto Fringe Festival's 25 Hour Playwriting Contest, but hearty congratulations to the winners: Trevor Poelman with If It’s Not Too Much Trouble , Tia McGregor with Omniscient Ward , and Britta Johnson with Infinite Spirit. Unfortunately I couldn't be at last night's reading of Poelman's winning script, but I'm sure it was fantastic (if anyone reading this did attend, I'd love to hear about it!). Production News I do have some other somewhat-related news that I haven't written about properly yet: My one act play Flood Control will be produced this fall at Sarasvàti Production's FemFest 2013 festival in Winnipeg! The festival runs from Saturday September 14 to Saturday September 21, and there will be three performances of Flood Control during that time. FemFest showcases the work of female playwrights with no restrictions on subject matter; the shows are "Written by Women for E...

Friday July 5, 2013 At noon today I was in a panicked battle with Google Docs, being taunted by the site's astonishingly stubborn refusal to save any edits, even though everything on the wifi front was running perfectly. This could have easily been a blog post full of a sleep-deprived writer's regret, but by 1pm we'd settled the terms of our truce so I was able to send off my submission for the Toronto Fringe Festival's 25 Hour Playwriting Contest in time for the 2pm deadline. The Fringe holds this contest every year (it's usually 24 hours, but 2013 is the Fringe's 25th anniversary), and I've entered it and similar contests a handful of times. I never go in expecting to win; I simply like being motivated to hammer out a full draft of something brand new in a very short time. The way these things generally work is that writers register in advance and, at the designated start time, a list of things which much be included in the final script are announ...

Sunday May 1, 2011 Well, there it is: I admit, it wasn't the best case scenario for a Script Frenzy "win" - one of these years I still want to start the month of April with only an idea and end it with a complete first draft of a full-length stage, screen or radio play. But for now, I'll take this - the final few pages of a previous work in progress, 70+ pages of trial and error for a one act play that will be whittled down quite a bit, and 20+ working-it-out-on-the-page pages of a new idea. And yes, it was down to the wire. I think I started at 8am Saturday morning with over 60 pages to go, and I uploaded for verification at 11:56pm. I'm sure some of what I wrote in that time - okay, a lot of what I wrote in that time - won't be worth keeping.  But I can deal with that. Now, if only I wrote that fast every day... Congrats to everyone else who took part, and thanks to the Script Frenzy people for hosting the party!  (Now I shall go thank the...

Sunday April 17, 2011 Three weeks ago I wrote about my plans to finally participate in Script Frenzy . The challenge is to write 100 script pages in the month of April, and I was choosing to tackle it by: Finishing an in-progress stage play for kids Completing a full first draft of the new play for teens I've been researching for the past few months, and Writing another short play to make up whatever difference was left between those two projects and the 100 page goal So, it's several days past the half-way mark. If I were following the divide-the-work-up-evenly method (3.33 pages per day), by April 17th I should have around 57 pages done. I'm at page four. Now, this isn't actually as bad as it sounds. Those four pages have completed the first draft of the play for kids, and they certainly weren't all I wrote. Rather than diving headlong into new pages (as is the Script Frenzy way) I spent a lot of this month revising and refining - four pages is all I...

Sunday March 27, 2011 Just this morning I learned that today is World Theatre Day. To celebrate, I'm publicly announcing my ridiculous plan to write three plays in one month. April is when Script Frenzy takes place, inviting writers at any level to try to write 100 script pages in a single month. There's no fee to participate and no judging of your results - all it takes to "win" Script Frenzy is to be one of the many people to reach the goal. I've twice "won" NaNoWriMo , the partner challenge involving writing a novel during November, and really enjoyed the rush to finish. I first wanted to try the same thing with a screenplay years ago* and even registered at the Script Frenzy website, but the timing has never been right, with other projects mid-way through as March was ending. The (Almost) Perfect Time to Frenzy This March, I'm wrapping up months of research for a new play. Originally I planned to have written a first draft long before...

Saturday June 12, 2010 After enjoying taking part in the Toronto Fringe Festival's 24-Hour Playwriting Contest for the first time last year , I was planning to take another run at it in 2010.  But now details of the 2010 installment have been announced and it turns out most of the writing is scheduled to take place on Canada Day.  Last year the evening of Canada Day was when we learned what four items had to be included in the play, with most of the writing taking place on July 2nd. I know it should be a small difference, but with all the fun, free things to do in Toronto on Canada Day (which I'm well aware of due to About.com ) I just can't seem to get excited about spending that particular day sitting inside at the computer.  Of couse I may still change my mind before the sixty spots in the contest have been filled, but right now I'm definitely leaning towards a bit of off-the-page advenutre on July 1st. The strangest part is, I may very well do nothing speci...

Friday July 3, 2009 See earlier post Preparing for 24 Hours of Frantic Playwriting So yesterday I did indeed hand in my entry for the Toronto Fringe Festival 's 24 Hour Playwriting Contest. I was thinking of blogging throughout the contest, but decided against that pretty quick - a few Twitter updates were all I managed. But before the whole experience disappears into an even blurrier memory than it already is, I'll outline how the 24 hours played out for me (Since judging for the contest is done blind and is going on right now, I'll avoid making any actual reference to the content of my script). Besides the Twitter updates these times are all approximate, but roughly speaking here's how my day o' play went down: JULY 1st 6pm-7pm Arrived at the Fringe Beer Tent and asked a volunteer where the playwrights should be for the contest launch. Was told the launch would be inside the Fringe Club (which is not what the email said). Went inside, where a sign directed me b...

Friday June 26, 2009 I'm registered to take part in the Toronto Fringe Festival 's 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. I've thought about entering before, but this is the first year I've actually taken the plunge. On July 1st all participants (there's a maximum of 60) will be in the Fringe Club Beer Tent at 7pm to hear about four things which must be incorporated into their play. We'll then have until 7pm the next day to return with a hard copy of our shiny new script in hand. Because you can't submit by email, I'm actually thinking of this as more of a 20-Hour Playwriting Contest. I figure I'll need to be happy with the draft by about 3pm on Thursday to have ample time to check for typos and spelling faux-pas, fix any formatting I've ignored in the rush, print out and re-check a clean copy, and get me and it back downtown from Etobicoke. With time so very limited, I'm trying to get as ready as possible in advance. So far the list of things to...

Longing for Nostalgia By Marilyn Anne Campbell At RISE A large rectangular wooden box sits center stage with two plain chairs, one on either side. Upstage a few cardboard boxes have been stacked - the kind you would use to pack childhood keepsakes in your parents' basement. They are variously labeled "Brian", "Tasha" and "Corey". Standing downstage, TASHA and BRIAN don't acknowledge the presence of each other or of COREY, who is seated on the box behind them. TASHA: ( to audience ) If someone was ever like, 'what was your defining moment', you know, or 'what shaped you for the rest of your life?', I've always known what my answer would be. BRIAN: ( to audience )My sister gets melodramatic. TASHA: ( to audience ) Or at least I used to know. Until now. BRIAN: ( to audience ) I can’t remember if she was that way as a child or if it was a case of, once she had the material she decided to run with it. Chicken or the eg...

Stage play: Stylized comedy, one act (21 pages), 2M/1W When Brian and Tasha learn their brother Corey has been killed, they awkwardly reminisce about a past they remember differently. Corey meanwhile insists he isn't dead, but nobody seems to be listening. Longing for Nostalgia slips between past and present, forcing Corey to take on all the other roles from the siblings' past as they try to sort through the major events of their lives. Status:  Available for premiere production Read an  excerpt online now ;  contact the playwright  to obtain a full reading copy Members of the  New Play Exchange may download a full copy

"All the Light-Hearted Souls" was produced by Calgary's 8-0-8 Productions in November 2005 as part of their collaborative stage show "nigh". Six scenes by six different writers told individual stories of encounters with The Man, the gatekeeper between life and death. "All the Light-Hearted Souls" was directed by Meg Wilkie and starred Ted Lach as Alex, with Jed Tomlinson as The Man. This scene opened the show. All the Light-Hearted Souls By Marilyn Anne Campbell At RISE The MAN waits. Mid-40s ALEX ambles in from off stage. Dressed in dusty work clothes and a ball cap, ALEX peers around, casually checking out the sparse surroundings. MAN: Were you looking for something more? ALEX finally looks to the MAN ALEX: Uh, hey. ( ALEX pulls off his cap awkwardly, not sure if this is a formal affair. ) I guess I was expecting fancier. But you know, I like this. It’s simple. ( He tucks the cap in the back of his pants. ) I wish they still buried pe...

Into by Dave Carley I've never seen a single Dave Carley play staged, but I bought a book containing three of his plays on a whim. Ever since then "Into" has been one of my favourite plays and Dave Carley one of my favourite playwrights. Halo by Josh MacDonald Just like "Into", I've never seen "Halo" staged, but instead bought the book while browsing one day. Frankly, any plot involving a Tim Hortons coffee shop and a possible miracle is enough to catch my eye. In this case, what I found in those pages did not disappoint. Raised in Captivity by Nicky Silver After seeing a student production of this at York University I quickly bought myself a copy of the script. Something about the theme of the story and the strangeness of the telling grabbed me. I also love to use characters who are present on the stage without being present in the reality of the scene, which Silver makes great use of a letter-writing prisoner. Picasso at the Lapin A...