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Kitchener Ontario
Celebrates International Womens Day 2007
with She SpeaksStaged readings of short plays and excerpts from longer plays Thursday March 8 8pm The Registry Theatre 122 Frederick St. Kitchener, Ontario The evening features the writing of: Shirley Barrie Lea Daniel Francine Dick Paddy Gillard-Bentley Grace Kary Tamara Knezic Jenny Mundy Entrance is by donation. Donations will be divided between the ICWP and Anselma House which provides emergency shelter and services for abused women and their children. For more information contact Paddy Gillard-Bentley paddy@skyedragon.com or visit the She Speaks web site. Thursday, March 8th Report by Paddy Gillard-Bentley Jenni Mundy and I had our "She Speaks" event, celebrating International Women's Day. It took place at The Registry Theatre, a lovely 160 seat theatre. The turnout wasn't what we had hoped, but the people that were there, could not have been better. We presented seven pieces in various stages of production. They were all written by women. Some were short plays, complete. Some, were pieces that will grow into maybe a one-act, or a full length play, but are yet to be written. Others were scenes or fragments from full length plays. All rough. All new. All unproduced. |  |
| We had fourteen actors
involved, some reading several roles. It was wonderful, as always, to
see the actors push themselves, but wonderful also, to see the
playwrights to direct. I challenged the playwrights to stage their
reading the way they wanted. The only thing I asked was the scripts
remained in hands. I told the actors, even if you learn your lines,
hold the script. Without the script, expectations become too high for
this kind of event. So there were props and costumes and some blocking. After the plays, there was a talk-back session with five of the playwrights present, and the other two, having someone sit for them. Although the audience didn't ask a lot of questions, I may have scared them with my 'rules', the playwrights were thrust into a lively discussion about process, and what the reading did for them. The audience were very enthusiastic. There were some quintessential local theatre people in the audience, so good for playwrights and actors. And the comment I think I heard most was, when are you going to do this again? Seems, like me, the audience likes all stages of the process. The talkback was good, but I might have frightened some people out of asking anything with my 'guidelines', so it turned more into a playwright's discussion, which was very interesting. It was a blast working with Jenni, by the way, the most gracious trip I've ever witnessed, and the entire thing was loads of fun. Theatre people who attended where handing out business cards to actors, and I was approached by a director to see the remainder of my play, so the net-working was great. Here is a line-up of the show. |  Downtown Kitchener  Registry Theatre- Kitchener |
Brianna's Quest (Act 1, Scenes I & II) Are women the gentler sex? The spirit of a Viking warrior is trapped in the body of a struggling actress who gets a job impersonating a futuristic computer game heroine.
To stay or to go - images of obsession. An innocent gift and a woman confronts a dark secret from her past. |  Arlene Thomas and Kris Bowman run through a scene before the Readings. |
| Opaque ( Act: I Scene: I) by Paddy Gillard-Bentley performed by Arlene Thomas, David Antscherl & Carol Lewis Coping with life badly.
A great poet, Federico Garcia Lorca, and a great city, New York, share a breakdown on their first date.
Two ordinary guys struggling with everyday sacrifices. |  |
 Nicholas Cumming and Carolina Miranda discuss, previous to the readings. In the back ground, left to right, is Paddy Gillard- Bentley, half of Carol Lewis and Shirley Barrie. |  Shelagh Ranelli read in Lea Daniel's, Colour Me Fushcia. |