Play Readings

DaPoPo Theatre's Live-In Playreading Series (LIPS)

Every year we program 6-10 previously unproduced scripts for our Playreading Series, which is part of a unique professional development opportunity to support Canadian artists, as well as an endeavour to educate and develop audiences by inviting them to "live in" and witness the evolution of play scripts in various phases of their development and participate in the associated dramaturgical process. We provide professional readers and a mediated audience-driven discussion of each selected script. 

Several playwrights have used the Live In Playreading Series as an important step towards significant revision and/or production. 

The 2014 Live In Playreading Series

NEXT

Wednesday, Oct. 29th || 7:30 PM @ The Bus Stop Theatre

Still Far Still Wide, by Dan Bray

Still Far Still Wide is a gothic drama which explores addiction, loss, and the supernatural to tell the story of Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. Poetry (and a strange ghost) brings these two eccentric authors together in this haunting historical-fiction, allowing us to recognize the strange parallels and similarities in their respective careers.

PAST
 
Monday, Oct. 6th || 7:30 PM @ The Bus Stop Theatre

TreeGirl, by Meghan Hubley

TW: Suicide

TreeGirl was commissioned by Forerunner Playwright's Theatre in 2010. This will be its first public reading. It is a poignant and poetic glimpse into the buoyancy of depression, exploring family lineage and unexpected connections. This reading will help launch TreeGirl into a ‘workshopable’ draft, lifting it from pages to a living breathing story.

Wednesday, Oct. 8th || 7:30 PM @ The Living Room

Rendezvous, by Patrick Blenkarn 

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The Gun You Have, by Kristin Slaney

Rendezvous is story about a Canadian filmmaker in motion, from east to west. Adapted and re-written from a 1978 film by Chantal Akerman, this version explores conflicts between past, present, and future—between the love of antiquated art, relationships with family, friends, and strangers, and the dedication to aesthetic aspirations.

The Gun You Have is a funny, chilling, and thought-provoking monologue about a woman, a man, a gun, and an open house.

Wednesday, Oct. 15th || 7:30 PM @ The Living Room

A Harvest of Stars, by Liam Monaghan 
TW: Rape

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The Elements, by Nate Crawford

A Harvest of Stars is set on a third-generation Irish-Canadian farm in Southern Alberta and tells the story of the young Brigit Flavin and her parents and uncle. In this early rendition, only Act One will be read. Act Two is currently unfinished, in part because Liam is a (self proclaimed) lazier writer than he should be, but also because Brigit hasn’t yet decided everything she’s going to become.

The Elements is the middle part of a loosely-connected trilogy of “Cabin Plays”, which includes Table Mountain Cabin, produced in 2005, and Global Warming, currently being written. The Elements provides a keyhole glimpse at the lives of two siblings in middle age who face a mysterious family crisis.

Friday, Oct. 17th || 7:30 PM @ Location TBD

Candor is a Plus, by Kevin Hartford

Candor is a Plus is an evening in the life of Miriam, a 60-year-old artist at her latest gallery opening, where she struggles with feelings of mortality while trying to manage her three adult children - academic Tim, cartoonist Chip, and actress Juliet - who've arrived with their own set of problems in tow.

Monday, Oct. 20th || 7:30 PM @ The Bus Stop Theatre

The Unnatural Journey of St Valerie to Nova Scotia, 

by Kristin Slaney

Based on a real life human interest news story - the mysterious arrival of a broken relic on the doorstep of 2 Halifax artists - this madcap, fantastical and uber theatrical story imagines the possible journey of St Valerie of Limoges, as well as her effect on the lives she becomes part of in the present.

Wednesday, Oct. 22nd || 7:30 PM @ The Living Room

I Will Miss You When You're Gone, by Jessica Moss 
TW: Suicide

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Appearing Bowl of Rice, by Trevor Poole

Four women, a destroyed car, ghosts, and some young adult fiction. I Will Miss You When You're Gone is a lonesome country song about grief and connection amidst bureaucracy. Celeste tries to contact her dead mother Caroline, but instead is haunted by Evelyn. Evelyn jumped off the top of her office building, run by Erin. Erin just wants to get these files in order. Also, there is a robot.

Appearing Bowl of Rice is a surreal dinner table play where two parents are trying to find out what their 25 year old son wants to do with his life.

Monday, Oct. 27th || 7:30 PM @ The Bus Stop Theatre

Money, Men, & Me, by Clare Waqué 

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Chasing a Champion: The Sam Langford Story, 

by Jacob Sampson

Money, Men, & Me is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story, examining the proper recourse for our various childhood delusions: protection vs. destruction. "...the world I’m in does not match with the one I expected...when one’s expectations don’t match with reality they ask, did I miscalculate, am I dreaming, did I take some kind of drug, how can 2+2=5?" A new play by the (unpaid) Managing Director of the Bus Stop Theatre.

Chasing a Champion is a first play from local actor Jacob Sampson about Nova Scotia born boxer Sam Langford, a heavyweight champion who fought during the turn of the century at a time when the colour line was set in stone. This play explores the fight against poverty, an unjust society and the fight for recognition in sport that was newly legitimate.