10-minute plays create a meeting of the minds
Many students dream of having their creative writing brought to life onstage, and Céleste Parr was one of them.
Last year she entered the 10-Minute Play Contest. Her dream came true when Wake, a dark drama that takes place in a funeral home, was chosen as one of the four winning plays to be produced by the Theatre Department.
“There was something enticing about the novelty of this contest, and I wanted to be a part of it,” Parr said. “I was especially thrilled because Wake was my first 10-minute play.”
Now in its second year, the contest is Creative Writing professor Patrick Leroux's brainchild. He created it with hopes of providing opportunities for Creative Writing and Theatre students to work together.
"No matter how talented a playwright is, no matter how much he or she has mastered technique, contacts are what get you produced. Most creative Writing students don't know theatre folk,” Leroux said.
“A play-writing contest seemed to me an interesting idea, especially if the plays were to be produced, directed, and acted out by theatre students.” As a bonus, the directors and actors can receive academic credit for their work on the plays.
The contest is a unique collaboration at the faculty level between Arts and Science and Fine Arts. Arts and Science’s’ English/Creative Writing Department funds the production, while Fine Arts' Theatre Department supplies the production space, rehearsal facilities, faculty supervision, directors, actors and designers.
“It's really a match made in heaven. Who would have thought that two departments in two faculties on two [separate] campuses could have collaborated so closely?” Leroux said.
Sarah Stanley, from the Theatre Department, is supervising student directors and actors for the production of the winning plays. She agrees that it is a great initiative.
“It is an exciting and vibrant part of the Canadian theatre ecology. [It] provides opportunities for student directors, dramaturges, actors, designers and production personnel to work with new plays in development.”
For Parr, the collaborative aspect has been the most enriching part of the whole experience. “The seed of this play came from me. The script came from me. And there's something really fulfilling in letting it go and seeing so many other creative people come together and bring it to life.”
Parr's play, Wake, along with last year's other winning plays, The Presentation, 7:35, and How to Hire Your Own Assassin, will be presented in a program called The New Student Works Collective. It will be put on by the Theatre Department as part of the Short Works Festival during Concordia's Art Matters Festival, which runs March 1 to 4.
For this year's contest, students from all faculties are invited to submit 10-minute plays in any genre of drama. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 8. For more information, please visit artsandscience1.concordia.ca/english/AwardsUndergraduate.html