Mini Conference on Dramaturgy

Cahoots attended the Mini Conference on Dramaturgy this week! The conference was put on at the Theatre Centre in Toronto by Brian Quirt.

The speakers ......

Rosa Laborde discussed her Tarragon hit Leo, about three Chilean youths in the midst of a revolution.

Sarah Stanley described the creation process for her new work, Press.­

Nina Lee Aquino talked about her work as artistic director of fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company. In particular she discussed dramaturg-ing Leon Aureus' process of adapting Terry Woo's Banana Boys from novel to play.

Linda Griffiths outlined her extraordinary improvisational writing process - much less "tap tap tap" on the keyboard, and much more live creation in front of an audience. She performed a section of Baby Finger.

Alisa Palmer discussed her role as assistant director for Lord of the Rings. A unique process!! This stemmed much conversation on what happens when there is no dramaturg.

Trey Anthony discussed the international success of her play Da Kink in My Hair. She took us through the differences of producing it for Fringe, for Passe-Muraille, and for Mirvish.
Trey also read us an excerpt from her new play: I am Not A Dinner Mint about "The crap women swallow to stay in a relationship!" It runs beginning July 21 at theHarbourfront Centre Theatre. Visit http://www.iamnotadinnermint.com/ for more information, or call the Box Office at 416.973.4000.

In fact, the great thing about the way that Brian put this event together, was the emphasis on making sure everybody had a chance to get to know each other. The morning of the first day of the conference was spent with public introductions so that we could all gain a sense of everybody else's particular theatre interests as well as their current work and projects. This stemmed lots of great conversations over the breaks! It was wonderful to have been given significant time during these breaks to really have good conversations with the speakers as well as the others attending the conference!