Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Something to chew over
By LOUIS B. HOBSON - CALGARY SUN

For five weeks beginning Saturday, Lunchbox’s Suncor Energy Stage One Festival will be work shopping 10 new plays.

“We have 12 playwrights, eight directors and 13 actors who are working on these eight plays and two musicals. Each new work will get one public reading beginning with In Flanders Field on June 5 at noon,” says Pamela Halstead, directing this first workshop herself.

In Flanders Fields, a musical based on the life of John McRae who wrote the famous poem, will get its world premiere as part of Lunchbox’s 2010-2011 season. “The composer Nicky Phillips is here with us in Calgary, but the playwright Robert Gontier is in England so he joins us via the Internet through Skype. This is theatre in the 21st century.”

Halstead says public readings are essential to creating new works, all of which are being considered for the next two seasons at Lunchbox.

“Until you have audience feedback, you really don’t know if the play is as clear as you think it is.

“These feedback readings are free and we encourage people to attend as many as they can to help us out. Lunchbox Theatre is the leading developer of one-act plays in Canada, so we want to make sure what we are creating is the best we can make it.” The full schedule is at lunchboxtheatre.com.

Calgary plays in development through the Suncor Energy Stage One Festival include Dave Kelly’s Dad’s Piano, Ethan Cole’s musical Peril in Paris, Glenda Stirling’s Shopaholic Husband Hunt, AJ Demes’ The Whimsy State and Charles Netto and Mark Hopkins’ Super 8.

— Louis B. Hobson