News: (Gananoque) Thousand Islands Playhouse announces participants in Playwrights' Unit (press release)

GANANOQUE, ON – Now in its second year, the Thousand Islands Playhouse is excited to introduce the 2014 Playwrights’ Unit participants. After a rigorous selection process reviewing applications from across the province, five outstanding playwrights have been invited to be part of this exclusive initiative.

The 2014 Playwrights’ Unit consists of:
Attila Clemann (Ottawa) works both on and off the stage as a performer, set and sound
designer, playwright and physical theatre teacher.

Jodi Essery (Ottawa) has worked in theatre as a playwright, director, dramaturge, company general manager and administrator. Her work has been seen on stages in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia and Dublin.

Rona Waddington (Toronto) is a director, actor and playwright who has also worked as Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary and the Port Stanley Festival Theatre in Ontario. Rona directed Hamlet at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Prescott, ON in 2013.

Mark Crawford (Toronto) has acted at the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Mary’s Wedding and Cost of Living. His first play as a writer, Stag and Doe, will premiere in the summer of 2014 at the Blythe Festival.

Paul Van Dyck (Montreal) is an actor, director and playwright. The Montreal English Critics Circle presented Paul with the prestigious Revelation of the Year Award, while Nightlife Magazine named him one of Montreal’s top emerging artists.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with the successes we saw with our inaugural Playwrights’ Unit last year,” says Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran. “This year, we received nearly three times as many applications than previously, attracting accomplished playwrights from Ontario and Quebec, and therefore making our selection process very difficult!”

The Playwrights’ Unit, sponsored by Henderson Printing, is a year-long residency program in which the playwrights meet monthly to challenge and expand their individual projects. With dramaturgical support from Thousand Islands Playhouse artistic leadership, each will be developed into full plays. In December 2014, the community will be invited to a free week-long PlayReading series to showcase each playwright’s work with professional actors which also offer an opportunity for discussion with the artists.