WORLDPLAY 2012
February 5 @ 8 pm: The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway
Directed by Kate Rubin
February 12 @ 8pm: Paz by Alicia Payne
Directed by Ana de Lara
February 19 @ 8pm: Nocturnal by Juan Mayorga, Translated by David Johnston
Directed by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét
February 26 @ 8 pm: How Can I Explain a Thing so Beautiful by Elizabeth Pringle
Directed by Will Weigler
Where:
The BELFRY ARTS CENTRE, Studio A, 1291 Gladstone Ave. Victoria, BC.
Entrance by donation
February 5 @ 8 pm: The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway
Directed by Kate Rubin
The Rez Sisters spans a summer in 1986, when seven women, all related by birth or marriage, decide to travel to Toronto to participate in "THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD." Each woman offers the audience a different attitude toward life on the reservation, as well as their individual dreams of escaping it.
Tomson Highway is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's book author. His plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway has also published a novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway's death of AIDS. He also has the distinction of being the librettist of the first Cree language opera, The Journey of Pimooteewin.
Kate Rubin has lived and worked professionally as an actor and drama teacher in Victoria for the past 25 years. Having performed and taught with many local theatre companies including Giggling Iguana Productions, Puente Theatre, Theatre Inconnu, and The Belfry Theatre; she is presently co-directing Gina McIntosh in WAVE Theatre's production of Rosie at Intrepid Theatre Studio in mid February. Kate runs her own drama studio where she administrates, teaches, directs and coaches youth and adults. She thanks everyone involved in the reading for their time and effort, and to the unifying spirit that brought this wonderful play back to life once again.
CAST
Pelejia: Gail Roach-Leforte
Philomena: Gerry Ambers
Veronique: Asma Antoine
Marie-Adele Starblanket: Krystal Cook
Annie Cook: Renee Livernoche
Emily Dictionary: Kim Harvey
Zhaboonigan: Caitlinn O'Leary
Nanabush (Seagull, Bingo Master, Night Hawk): Rob Hunter
Narrator: Erin Macklem
February 12 @ 8pm: Paz by Alicia Payne
Directed by Ana de Lara
Paz A child goes missing after her nanny is fired. The missing child’s mother confronts the nanny in a park. Featuring an ethnically diverse cast, the answer to the question “Who’s child is this?” takes on expanded meaning. In many Canadian communities, nannies and live-in-care-givers abound. Many of them have left their homes and work in foreign lands. They’re more than an employee but not a relative so when it comes to their employer’s family structure, where do they fit in?
Development History:
In 2011, PAZ was accepted for a one-on-one session at the Black Theatre Workshop conference “Since Mama Done Got Off the Couch” in Montreal. It was a finalist in the 2010 and 2011 Doorway Arts Ensemble Play Reading Series in Washington, DC. Before that, PAZ received a workshop presentation at b current’s rock. paper. sistahz 7 festival in May 2008. b current subsequently recommended an Ontario Arts Council Theatre Creator’s Reserve grant that enabled the playwright to rework the script and incorporate feedback provided by a group of Filipina live-in caregivers at a private reading. Excerpts from PAZ were first read at a Salon Luncheon during the 2006 AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival.
Alicia Payne is a Toronto-based performer, writer and artist educator. Born to West Indian parents, she immigrated to Canada from England as a child. The inspiration for PAZ comes from Alicia’s time as an au pair (live-in-care-giver) in France and an article she read about a nanny who kidnapped a child.
Ana de Lara (Born Ana Bartulabac) immigrated to Canada from the Philippines at the age of seven. She grew up in Victoria, BC and studied acting at Presentation House Film and Theatre School in Vancouver, under the direction of Catherine Caines and Anthony Holland. De Lara's films have screened internationally at numerous festivals including the Rhode Island International Independent Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival. She has received funding and support from the BC Arts Council and the National Film Board, and is a Women in the Director's Chair alumnae. She has also worked as an acting instructor for numerous schools, including the Screen Actors Studio, the Victoria Motion Picture School, and the Pacific Film and New Media Academy.
CAST
Paz - Ana de Lara
Mrs. Knowles - Tracey Roath
Kim - Natalie Pepin
Narrator - Joane Wannan
February 19 @ 8 pm: Nocturnal by Juan Mayorga, Translated by David Johnston
Directed by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét
Nocturnal (Animales Nocturnos) When you're alone in a big city, how far would you go to make a new friend?
Two men meet in a restaurant. The smaller of the two blackmails the other into becoming his friend. Unless the one does what the other says, he will be turned into the authorities as an illegal immigrant. Nocturnal is a brilliant new satire about obsession, insomnia, and blackmail by one of the most important Spanish playwrights working today.
Juan Mayorga is one of the most important Spanish playwrights of his generation. His first play, Siete hombres Buenos (Seven Good Men), was awarded second place in the Marques de Bradomin Prize in 1989. Since this first accolade, Mayorga has won a series of national awards, most prominently, Spain’s National Theatre Prize, which he was awarded in 2007 for services to Spanish theatre. Mayorga’s work has been translated into many languages and performed widely throughout the world. In addition to his role as playwright, Juan Mayorga has adapted versions of classical dramas for the Spanish stage. In January, 2007 he provided a version of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for Madrid’s Centro Dramatico Nacional (CDN), for which he also adapted King Lear in February, 2008. He was a founding member of – and continues to collaborate with – the El Astillero theatre company that was established in 1993. In 1998 he began teaching dramaturgy, history of thought, and sociology at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramatico in Madrid.
Mercedes Bátiz-Benét is a multi-diciplinary artist and writer. She was born and raised in Mexico and in 1997 she moved to Canada. Productions of her work include Faust: Ignis Fatuus, at the international festival "Faustfest," Shining Through, Lágrimas Crueles, With Open Arms, and as co-writer, The Secret Sorrow of Hatchet Jack Macphee for The Caravan Farm Theatre, and The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Her latest film credit, camera and cinematography, is for the feature-length documentary about the singer/songwriter Feist, Look At What The Light Did Now (Revolver Films 2010). Mercedes is the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction editor at Bayeux Arts, and the Artistic Director of PUENTE Theatre.
February 26 @ 8 pm: How Can I Explain a Thing so Beautiful by Elizabeth Pringle
Directed by Will Weigler
How Can I Explain a Thing so Beautiful is an encounter with the 16th-century Spanish mystic Carmelite nun Teresa of Ávila as she talks to herself, to a fish she's eating for supper, to a mouse who has moved into her convent, and (in her imagination) to her imprisoned friend Juan de la Cruz, her mother, her Inquisitors, and God. It is a wonderfully funny, touching and spiritual one-woman play that is rich with hope.
Elizabeth Pringle is a playwright, director, actor, and arts & media producer/educator. She has written plays, musicals, opera and zarzuela adaptations, operettas, articles, poems, websites, grants, a film and more. She loves working with language and image to discover meaning and hopefully make art. She has taught emerging playwrights and actors in DC (Theatre Lab, Kennedy Center, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Young Playwrights) and beyond. Elizabeth is also the creator/director of The Shortie Awards: International Film and News Festival, celebrating and promoting youth-made media.
Will Weigler has been a community-based director, teacher, and playwright for over twenty-five years. He is the author of the award-wining book Strategies for Playbuilding: Helping Groups Translate Issues into Theatre, and has been seen around Victoria in role as the 19th century political reformer Amor de Cosmos. Will recently completed his PhD in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria, where he now teaches. For his doctoral dissertation, he analyzed hundreds of descriptions of people’s most unforgettable moments as audience members so that he could develop a theory about what made those moments so astonishing. Based on his analysis, he developed a vocabulary of staging strategies that offers community participants and theatre artists a way to collaboratively engage the power of the theatrical event. Just prior to immigrating to Canada from the US, Will wrote, produced, and directed Common Wealth, a large-scale intergenerational musical play created in collaboration with the Settler community of Darrington, Washington, and the nearby members of the Sauk-Suiattle First Nations tribe.
WORLDPLAY
PUENTE has presented staged readings of over 50 plays from around the world, from countries such as China, Japan, Chile, Kenya, Nigeria, Italy, Holland, Russia, Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, USA, Lithuania, Russia, South Africa, India, Cameroon, Syria, the Philippines and Barbados, as well as several plays with multicultural content by Canadian writers.
Many members of the immigrant community and from a wide variety of cultures have been included in WORLDPLAY as performers or as presenters, giving information about the play and its cultural background. For some of them, it was the first time they were able to see, on stage, an example of the valuable contributions their countries have made to world theatre.
A large number of these plays have never before been presented in Canada. Some of these were Letters for Tomas by Chilean Malucha Pinto, Happy New Century Dr. Freud by Mexican Sabina Berman, Boxcar by Mexican-American Silvia Gonzalez, Harvest by Manjula Padmanabathan from India, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom by Gillian Slovo and Victoria Brittain from England, and The Woman who Fell From the Sky by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda from Mexico.
Plays such as Letters for Tomas, The Dark Night of Marguerite de Roberval, Three Marias and a Rose, Pereira Declares, The Pilgrimage of the Nuns of Concepción, etc. were translated from the Spanish specially to be presented at WORLDPLAY.
We are lucky to have been in touch with two excellent translators from Japanese into English: Cody Poulton (Victoria) and Yoshi Yoshihara (Vancouver). It is thanks to them that we have been able to present 6 plays from Japan.
Because of WORLDPLAY, we have been in e-mail contact with writers from India, Japan, Chile, United States, England, Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and more. All have been thrilled to have their plays presented in Canada.
PUENTE was able to send US $300 to the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York gathered during a benefit performance of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, a play about the people detained without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
PUENTE has been able to produce and present three WORLDPLAY plays: Letters for Tomas by Malucha Pinto, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, and The Pilgrimage of the Nuns of Concepción by Jaime Silva.
Members of our audiences have expressed that attending WORLDPLAY gives them a unique, special experience of theatre, not only because of the cultural diversity but also because of the particular style of performance a staged reading demands.
All participants in WORLDPLAY, actors, directors, managers, translators, musicians and presenters, are volunteers. PUENTE pays only the playwrights, who receive their royalties. Donations at the door contribute to the space rental costs. Thank you!
We can truly say WORLDPLAY is a community effort.
All WORLDPLAY staged readings of plays from around the world are performed at the
BELFRY ARTS CENTRE, Studio A, 1291 Gladstone Ave. Victoria
WORLDPLAY 2012
February 5: The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway
Directed by Kate Rubin
February 12: Paz by Alicia Payne
Directed by Ana de Lara
February 19: Nocturnal by Juan Mayorga, Translated by David Johnston
Directed by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét
February 26: How Can I Explain a Thing so Beautiful by Elizabeth Pringle
Directed by Will Weigler
WORLDPLAY 2011
Sunday, January 30, 8 PM
When Smiles Are Done, by Singaporean Goh Poh seng (1936-2010) Directed by Lina de Guevara.
Full of humour and incisive dialogue, this play tells a story of family conflicts. Goh is among the pioneer Singaporean writers and one of the first to use "Singlish", the characteristic Singaporean popular language.
Sunday, February 6, 8 PM
Geez!, by Indonesian Putu Wijaya, directed by Lina de Guevara.
A man comes back to life and the reactions of his family and friends really surprise him! Engaging and quirky, Geez! is a wonderful example of avant-garde Indonesian theatre.
Sunday, February 13, 8 PM
Girls Shouldn't Play Soccer, by Catalonian Marta Buchaca, translated by Elisabet Ráfols and Tom Bentley-Fisher, directed by Lina de Guevara.
Apparently simple, there's a dark mystery in this play set in a waiting room of a hospital after a car crash.
Sunday, February 20, 8 PM
Dreary and Izzy, by First Nations playwright Tara Beagan, directed by Erin Macklem.
Of Ntlaka'pamux (Thompson River Salish) and Irish Canadian heritage, born and raised in Alberta, Tara has become well known by her outstanding plays, one of which, Thy Neighbour's Wife, won the 2005 Dora Mavor Moore Award.
WORLDPLAY 2010
The Pilgrimage of the Nuns of Concepción by Jaime Silva (Chile)
Translated by Rosa Stewart
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Aurash by Bahram Beyza’ie (Iran)
Translated and adapted by Soheil Parsa & Brian Quirt
Directed by Will Weigler
The Person by Alfred Farag (Egypt)
Directed by Erin Macklem
The reading was followed by a presentation of the participants in a workshop inspired on The Person, conducted by visiting director Majdi Bou-Matar.
Living Memories: Kenya’s Untold Stories by Al Kags (Kenya)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2009
Tara by Mahesh Dattani
Directed by Lina de Guevara
My Rabbi by Joel Bernbaum & Kayvon Khoshkam
Directed by Kayvon Khoshkam
Bus Stop by Gao Xingjian
Directed by Lina de Guevara
The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda (Mexico)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2008
King Kong Palace or Tarzan’s Exile by Marco Antonio de la Parra (Chile)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Two Men at Play with Life by Kishida Kunio (Japan)
Directed by Judith MacDowell
Mama by Tanaka Chikao (Japan)
Directed by Judith MacDowell
Bay the Moon by Mahmoud El-Lozy (Egypt)
Directed by Yasmine Kandil
The Good Hope by Herman Heijermans (Netherlands)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2007
The Dark Night of Marguerite de Roberval by Jaime Silva (Chile)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Shine, My Dear Planet Earth by Soh Kuramoto (Japan)
Translated by Yoshi Yoshihara
Directed by Judith MacDowell
Boss Kanduz’s Apartment Building and War and Peace by Tawfik Al-Hakim (Egypt)
Directed by Yasmine Kandil
The Victim by Chicano Teatro de la Esperanza (USA)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2006
Three Marias and a Rose by David Benavente (Chile)
Translated and directed by Lina de Guevara
Mum, Dad, I’m Living with a White Girl by Marty Cham
Directed by Lina de Guevara
The Trial by Laurel Smith & Mathew Behrens
Directed by Judith McDowell
The Striped Leopard by Oby Obyerodhyambo (Kenya)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2005
Happy New Century, Dr. Freud by Sabina Berman (Mexico)
Translated by Kisten Nigro
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Godzilla by Yasuhiko Ohashi
Translated by Cody Poulton
Directed by Judith MacDowell
Boxcar by Silvia González (USA, Mexico)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom by Gillian Slovo & Victoria Brittain (England)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2004
Happy New Century, Dr. Freud by Sabina Berman (Mexico)
Translated by Kirsten Nigro
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Where the Power Lies by Yusuf Al-‘Ani (Iraq)
Directed by Judith McDowell
The King’s Elephant by Sa’Dallah Wannous (Syria)
Directed by Judith McDowell
The Happy Lads by Tsuchida Hideo (Japan)
Translated by Cody Poulton
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Playwright and translator were in attendance.
Life Letters by Mel Tobias (Philippines)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Stories of a wanderer, written by a Vancouver resident formerly of Manila, Hong Kong, Cannes, San Francisco, and other cities, based on abundant correspondence with relatives and friends. Playwright was in attendance.
WORLDPLAY 2003
The Pillar Clock by Manami Hara (Japan, Canada)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
D.P.’s Colonial Cabaret by Laura Cranmer (Canada)
Directed by Frank Maher
Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons’ by Wajdi Mouawad (Lebanon)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
House of Sacred Cows by Padma Viswanathan (India, Canada)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Assitant director - Raji Basi
WORLPLAY 2002
Three Suitors: One Husband by Guillaume Oyono-Mbia (Cameroun)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Mindaugas by Justinas Marcinkevicius (Lithuania)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
The Wedlock of the Gods by Zulu Sofola (Nigeria)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
No one’s died laughing by Pieter-Dirk Uys (South Africa)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2001
The Dark Night of Marguerite de Roberval by Jaime Silva (Chile)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Theatrical Adaptation of Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (Russia)
Directed by Kate Wilkinson
The Gods are not to Blame by Ola Rotimi (Nigeria)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
The Surrogate Mother by Comfort Ero (Nigeria)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 2000
The Dybbuk by S. Anski ( Russia)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Letters for Tomas by Malucha Pinto (Chile)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Kanasibetsu by Soh Kuramoto (Japan)
Directed by Kate Wilkinson
Something in the Air by ICTUS (Chile)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
WORLDPLAY 1999
Mirad: A Boy From Bosnia by Ad de Bon (Holland)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi (Italy)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
Harvest by Manjula Padmanabhan (India)
Directed by Lina de Guevara
