The PTC Colony on Granville Island

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The PTC Colony on Granville Island

November 16-26, 2007

The PTC Colony is an annual play development intensive operated by Playwrights Theatre Centre in Vancouver, BC, open to professional Canadian playwrights. The 2006 Colony included Jason Bryden's The Dissemblers, slated for production by Touchstone Theatre in 2008, and Trina Davies'Waxworks, winner of the 41^st Annual Alberta Playwriting Competition. Entering its second year, the Colony will provide a group of five playwrights-in-residence with a dedicated creative context, dramaturgical resources and a company of actors to read their work at intervals throughout the seven day colony. The focus is on the individual development of each playwright's work as well as the creation of a unique supportive and productive community of playwrights, directors, dramaturgs and actors. Playwright/novelist Don Hannah ( Ragged Islands) joins PTC Executive Director Martin Kinch and Associate Dramaturg Heidi Taylor as Colony dramaturgs. Participating playwrights must be available for full-time residency during the Colony and will receive accommodation, a meal allowance and, where necessary, travel to and from Vancouver. See below for application guidelines and more information.

Application Guidelines:

Application Deadline: September 5, 2007

Notification Date: September 17, 2007

Applicants must submit:

1) A completed application form along with a cheque or money order payable to Playwrights Theatre Centre to cover the application fee:
$25 for PTC Members / $50 for Non-Members.
Please note: The $50 application fee for non-members includes a year-long PTC Membership.

2) A copy of the current draft of the play you propose to work on during the colony. Copies must be unbound on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Times or Courier 12-point font is preferred. Bound, three-hole punched or stapled scripts cannot be accepted.
Please note: Submissions by e-mail or fax will NOT be accepted. Hard copies only.

3) A letter outlining the developmental history of the play and what specific elements the playwright intends to focus on and develop through the colony.

4) A playwright's resume.

The successful plays will be selected based on recommendations from an advisory committee made up of Playwrights Theatre Centre artistic staff and Canadian theatre professionals.

Submit completed applications to:

PTC Colony on Granville Island
Playwrights Theatre Centre
#201 – 1398 Cartwright Street
Vancouver, BC V6H 3R8

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATION PACKAGES:

Wednesday, September 5, 2006, 5:00 PM,
Please allow enough time for your submission to reach the PTC office by the deadline. We will not accept applications submitted via e-mail.
For more information, contact Heidi Taylor at 604-685-6228 or heidi@playwrightstheatre.com.

The 30th Rhubarb Festival

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre announces a call for submissions for

THE 30^th RHUBARB FESTIVAL

February 20 – March 2, 2008

Festival Director Erika Hennebury

RISK RIOT REJUVINATION

Buddies is seeking submissions for the 30^th incarnation of the country’s oldest new works fest. Curated by Buddies’ Associate Producer, Erika Hennebury, Rhubarb is an annual festival of new, original, innovative contemporary performance.

DEADLINE: 5pm, Fri, Sept 14, 2007

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Rhubarb is a partially curated, but primarily submission-driven festival. Submissions are reviewed by a selection committee composed of Erika Hennebury, Festival Director, David Oiye, Artistic Director, Jim LeFrancois, Producer and Associate Artists Ed Roy and Moynan King. Criteria for this year’s festival are strongly in the realm of experimental, devised, innovative contemporary performance. Although script-based submissions will be accepted, Buddies strongly encourages submissions which are more experimental in nature. Rhubarb seeks submissions from contemporary theatre, conceptual dance, performance art, new media, installation art and welcomes new hybrids of live performance as well as cross-disciplinary experiments and collaborations.

THE 2008 RHUBARB FESTIVAL STAGES

The 2008 Rhubarb Festival seeks proposals for the following stages:

The Cabaret: performances up to 25 minutes in length, for a fixed, raised proscenium stage

The Chamber: performances up to 25 minutes in length, for the Buddies Mainspace

The Mini-Stage: 1-5 minute performances or installations for a small audience in a

*small space

The Solo-Stage: 1-2 minute performances or installations for a single audience member, in a *very small space

Environmental & Late-Night: happenings, interactive installations and other ancillary performances and 5-minute late-night Cabaret performances

* for venue specifications or further clarification, contact Erika Hennebury

Submissions may include (but are not limited to):

Short plays, collective creations, conceptual dance, performance art, new media, installation art, opera, music theatre, new hybrids of live performance as well as cross-disciplinary experiments and collaborations.

Submissions must include:

∙ a copy of the completed application form

∙ a copy of your project description (1 page)

∙ a copy of your script or performance synopsis (25 min max)

∙ a copy of bios for your artistic team

∙ a copy of a brief history of your work or a company history (1 page)

∙ a copy of any support materials

The Deadline:

The deadline for all submissions is:

5:00pm Friday, September 14^th 2007

late submissions may not be considered

submissions post-marked up to Sept 14 will be accepted

The Details:

2008 Rhubarb Festival Application is available on our website: www.buddiesinbadtimestheatre.com

Proposed performances may be no longer than 25 minutes in length.

Proposals submitted in a format longer than 25 minutes may not be considered.

Works submitted must be new, never previously produced and original.

Submissions must submitted in hard copy only and must be accompanied by and 2008 Rhubarb Festival Application form (available online).

Please keep a copy of your submission.

Fax or email submissions will not be accepted.

Please mail or drop off submissions to:

Erika Hennebury, Rhubarb! Festival Director

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

12 Alexander Street, Toronto ON M4Y 1B4

For further information please contact

Erika Hennebury, 416-975-9130 x40

erika@buddiesinbadtimestheatre.com

Canada Denies Visas to Burmese Groups

By The Irrawaddy

August 17, 2007

Burmese living in Bangladesh, Japan, India and Thailand are facing difficulties obtaining temporary visas to attend a Burmese policy conference in Ottawa, according to the conference organizer.

The Burma policy consultation conference which will be held August 29 to 30 in Ottawa is in jeopardy as many Burmese working on human rights, democracy, labor and women's issues in countries in Asia were invited to attend but might be denied entry to the country.

Around 25 prominent Burmese working to restore democracy in Burma were invited. Two Burmese who are former members of the Communist Party of Burma and who now reside in China were also invited. It is unknown whether they will be allowed to leave China.

The conference organizer told The Irrawaddy that Canadian members of parliament, officials from Foreign Affairs Canada, ambassadors to Canada, representatives of Canadian civil society organizations, representatives from Canadian Burmese communities and pro-democracy organizations in Canada will also attend the conference.

Conference organizers have sent appeal letters to Canadian officials to intervene. So far only two Burmese have been granted visa.

Tin Maung Htoo, the conference organizer and executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma based in Ottawa, told The Irrawaddy that Canada’s visa application process is extremely inflexible and difficult.

The process is "unreasonably stringent for some applicants, in this case Burmese citizens and other citizens we invited," he said. "Even compared to the United States, Australia and European countries."

"This is very unfortunate and an apparent contradiction to what Canada proudly claims to be strong support of the Burmese democratic movement.”

Canadian aid organizations such as Canada Fund and the Canadian International Development Agency support Burmese refugees and Burmese groups along the Thai-Burmese border.

Last year, Dr Cynthia Maung, a Karen doctor who has won international humanitarian awards and was featured as an "Asia Hero" in Time magazine, was denied a visa at the Canadian embassy in America. Thanks to the intervention of Canada’s immigration minister, she was finally allowed in. Her Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot receives assistance from CIDA.

According to Tin Maung Htoo, when Burmese applied for visas at Canadian embassies in Asia, a number of impolite incidents occurred.

He said that he sent an appeal letter to Stockwell Day, the minister for public safety in Canada, on August 15.

In the letter obtained by The Irrawaddy, he said: “A number of our guests’ visa applications have been turned down by Canadian embassies in Thailand, Japan and Bangladesh. Such decisions made by immigration officers in Bangkok, Dhaka and Tokyo are in contradiction to the Government of Canada's stance in support of the Burmese democratic movement since 1988. Immigration officers do not seem to understand the complexity of the ongoing people’s struggle in Burma, as well as Canada’s staunch support.”

Similar appeals and requests for intervention were also sent to Diane Finley, Canada’s minister for immigration and citizenship.

According to senior members of CFOB and Burmese who were not granted visas in the past, Canadian immigration officials have stated that visas could not be issued to an individual who lived in another country without lawful permission. It is considered too high of a risk for Canada to issue visas to such applicants.

Tin Maung Htoo’s said the incident has offended the applicants. He said the CFOB repeatedly assured the embassies that the applicants' expenses and return tickets were taken care of, but the embassy staffs did not take the assurances seriously.

A CFOB member said Canadian immigration officials are concerned that Burmese who visit Canada will overstay in the country and won’t return to Burma or the countries where they are currently living.

A Burmese activist who lives in Mae Sot said he did not want to complain about the visa restrictions. However, he felt that his rights were violated.

“They (immigration officers) were not satisfied with many things, including my financial status and my travel history and background," he said.

In a related issue, an international women's conference scheduled to meet in September in Montreal has invited Burmese and Karen women to attend. They are also having problems obtaining visas.

CAHOOTS WELCOMES TARA BEAGAN AS PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE

On August 1, Tara Beagan joins Cahoots Theatre Projects as its Playwright-in-Residence for the 2007/2008 season.

Tara is an accomplished actor and playwright. Her first play, Thy Neighbour's Wife, was nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning one for Outstanding New Play. Her second play, Dreary and Izzy was produced by Native Earth Performing Arts in 2005. She was part of Tarragon Theatre Playwright's Unit 2006, as well as Nightwood Theatre's Groundswell Festival 2006. She has begun work on a new collective at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre where she will be playwright-in-residence for the 2008/09 season. Much of her writing strives to bridge the two worlds she inhabits culturally—Thompson River Salish and Irish Canadian.

With Cahoots, Tara will be developing her play Quilchena which is based on harrowing, real-life events that took place in the B.C. Interior in 1978. In the Nicola Valley, Monica Jack went missing thirteen days shy of her thirteenth birthday. In Quilchena, Tara writes of a community mourning Monica as they imagine her into adulthood. Seventeen years later, Monica returns to her people as they sleep, to bid them goodbye.

Tara joins a list of distinguished writers who have worked with Cahoots over its twenty-year history. Playwrights such as Marjorie Chan, Rahul Varma, Daniel David Moses, Betty Quan, Florence Gibson, and Guillermo Verdecchia have all had works developed or produced by Cahoots. Cahoots is committed to nurturing artists and plays that reflect the rich cultural diversity of this country.

“We’ve all been huge fans of Tara’s remarkable voice,” says Cahoots Artistic Director Jovanni Sy. “I am delighted to welcome Tara to the Cahoots family and I look forward to exploring Quilchena with her.”

Cahoots extends its gratitude to the Ontario Arts Council for supporting Tara’s term through its Playwright Residency Grant.

For more information please contact:

Ulla Laidlaw

Communications & Outreach Coordinator

Cahoots Theatre Projects

(416) 203-9000

ulla@cahoots.ca