New Play Development at Theatre Orangeville
Theatre Orangeville is now one of Canada’s outstanding regional theatre companies, thanks to our patrons and the many dedicated arts supporters in this community. What makes us particularly proud is that this has been achieved almost exclusively using works by Canadian playwrights.
World Premiere Productions
In achieving this status, Theatre Orangeville has been proud to mount several world premiere productions. In most cases, these were plays by established playwrights and we provided little or no pre-production assistance. Such works included: The Last Resort, Little Women – The Musical, Jake and The Kid- Prairie Season and Norm Foster plays such as Kiss the Moon Kiss the Sun, Dear Santa and Outlaw.
However, to really contribute to the development of theatre in Canada, it is incumbent on us to actively foster new plays from emerging playwrights and to act as an incubator for new works.
Scriptease
We started this process about three years ago by hosting “Scriptease” events, where professional actors perform a script read-through in front of a limited audience, followed by a discussion of the merits & weaknesses of the script, and suggestions for improvement. A Matter of Time, by Robert More, performed in our 2004/05 season, was a script nurtured by this process.
However, to fully commit to the play development process, Theatre Orangeville had to secure firm financing for a complete play development process including:
- commissioning new works
- hiring professionals to read and provide feedback on new scripts
- continuing Scriptease performances
- holding week-long intensive workshops, typically ending with a read-through performance
New Play Development Fund
It is with a great pride that Theatre Orangeville has now established its New Play Development Fund (NPD Fund). A significant donation from a long-time Theatre Orangeville member, plus additional support from other member-donors, has provided initial capital for the Fund. So far, the NPD Fund has financed the development of our amazing Christmas play in 2007 The Giant's Garden with book and lyrics by Peter Fenton and Scott White, music by Scott White, the incredible Could You Wait? written by W.J. Matheson with music and lyrics by Louise Pitre and Diane Leah, our opening play in 2006, and ‘Twas, 2006's highly successful Christmas play by a young and very talented Canadian playwright, Eric Woolfe. In addition, it supported the development of Your Roots Are Showing, a Young Company production, by Jane Ohland Cameron, written to commemorate the Dufferin 125 celebrations. If you would like to support the New Play Development Fund, David Nairn or Marilyn Logan would be happy to explain more about this exciting new program.
