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2002 Winners Photos & Bios
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2002
Winner -
Gordon Portman |
Gordon
Portman - fury Formerly a resident of Edmonton, Gordon's work ranges from adaptations (A Christmas Carol, commissioned by and premiered at the Grande Prairie Regional College Theatre in Grande Prairie Alberta) to children's theatre (Just In Time, commissioned by the City of Edmonton and premiered by Leave it to Jane Theatre) to full length comedy (Summer People, Workshop West Theatre, Edmonton Alberta; Whistle Stop, Port Hope Festival Theatre, Port Hope Ontario) to family drama (Fireworks, The Blyth Festival, Blyth Ontario). He has participated in a number of professional playwrights' circles (Workshop West Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille); is a two time winner of the Alberta Culture Playwriting Competition, and a three time winner of the Alberta Television and Film Institute’s Screenwriting Competition; last year was a winner of Grain Magazine’s monologue competition; and in April of 2002 was one of a dozen playwrights (selected from applicants from all over the country) attending the Banff Centre Playwrights Colony. His play The Watch For Sunrise is scheduled to be part of the 25th Anniversary Season at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, where he is the 2002 Ontario Arts Council Playwright in Residence, developing a theatrical portrait of novelist EM Forster, and working as a dramaturge on the notorious Rhubarb! Festival. A perennial entrant, Gordon is the National Playwriting Competition's most successful competitor to date. He won the Special Merit category in the inaugural competition in 1989, making him only the second two-time winner, and has been named a Finalist four times (1990, 1991, 1993, 1995) and received an Honorable Mention in 1997. |
2002
Winner -
Corrina Hodgson |
Corrina
Hodgson - Catherine's Pillow Corrina is a Master’s candidate in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. This past summer, she was one of three visiting playwrights-in-residence at the University of Lethbridge. Her resulting script, Privilege, will be part of Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival this coming June. Other credits include an Off-Off Broadway production of her play Recess in September 2002 with Manhattan Theatre Source , and the World Premiere of Quietly Overwhelmed - a script she wrote as a member of the Antechamber Series at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre - with Teatro Berdache in October 2002. Catherine’s Pillow will be included in this year’s Rhubarb! Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. |
2002
Winner -
Catherine Banks |
Catherine
Banks - Bone Cage Catherine has been writing plays for 20 years. Her first play ULA'S OFFER received a honorable mention in the Ottawa Little Theatre's One Act Play Competition and second prize in the Kings Theatre One Act Play Competition. Her second play THE SUMMER OF THE PIPING PLOVER (dir. John Dunsworth) was produced in Halifax by UpStart Theatre in 1991. In 1995, Catherine was invited to the Banff Playwright Colony where she worked with dramaturge Marina Endicott on her play THREE STOREY, OCEAN VIEW, which was awarded the Silver Medal in the du Maurier National Play Competition in 1995. In 1997, Catherine was invited to participate in the Trinity Bay Moveable Feast Workshop, dramaturge Janis Spence, where she completed her one-woman play BITTER ROSE. In 1998, (dir. Janis Spence) and 1999 (dir. Michael Chiasson) she was guest artist at the LSPU HALL in St. John's. BITTER ROSE had its first production on the stage of the LSPU Hall (where so many incredible Canadian writers got their start) which Catherine considers one of the highlights of her writing career. Her work has received workshops at Playwrights Workshop Montreal (Marie Irene Fornes), Mulgrave Road Theatre (Yvette Nolan), Neptune Theatre (Paula Danckert), Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (Janis Spence, Tessa Mendel) and the Atlantic Film Script Workshop (Alan McGee). In 2000, she was invited to read BITTER ROSE at the Women's Playwright Conference in Greece. Jest In Time Theatre commissioned LOVE MATCH (1998) for their collective show LOVE BYTES dir. Mary-Colin Chisholm. It has toured extensively as part of their BEST OF JEST show. In 2000 Mulgrave Road Theatre commissioned a full-length script. Catherine had two plays produced in 2000, THREE STOREY, OCEAN VIEW (Mulgrave Road Theatre) dir. Philip Adams and BITTER ROSE (the Women's Theatre and Creativity Centre) dir. Tessa Mendel. TSOV was nominated for a Merrit Award (best play written by a Nova Scotia playwright). THREE STOREY, OCEAN VIEW is being considered for a Toronto production in the fall of 2003 as an Equity Showcase. Catherine is the president of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre and has served on the Board of Playwrights Union of Canada. She lives with her family Peter, Rilla and Simon in Truro, Nova Scotia. |
| 2002 Finalists (in random order) | |
| 2002 -
Finalist
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Bob
Armstrong - Penetration Bob Armstrong is a jack-of-all-trades, freelance writer who makes a living writing speeches, news stories, press releases, video scripts, trade magazine articles, government reports and whatever else will pay. He does that to feed his habit: making stuff up for stage or page. In addition to writing and producing plays at the Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe Festivals ("Schlepping Yuri", "A Maze in Greys", "Flyoverville"), he has had a pair of plays workshopped professionally ("Fred Turner Tames the Last Frontier" at Workshop West Theatre, Edmonton, and "Penetration" at Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary) and has just completed a 150,000-word first draft of a novel, tentatively titled "The Epic of Gilgamesh". A grad school drop-out, Bob almost became an historian, but instead he ended up exploring historical questions in several of his plays. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife Rosemary and son Sam. This is the second year in a row that Bob has placed as a Finalist in Theatre BC's Canadian National Playwriting Competition. |
| 2002
Finalist
Christopher Grignard |
Christopher
Grignard - The Orchard Drive Christopher was born and raised in Kelowna, BC. He moved to Vancouver to study theatre at Capilano College, where he was in several productions. His most memorable role there, however, was playing Christopher Wren in "The Moustrap", which opened their new theatre. He studied a year abroad at the University of East Anglia in England, where he played Fedotik in "Three Sisters". There he also directed his first play, "Chamber Music". Returning to Vancouver, he completed an Honours BA at Simon Fraser University in both Theatre and English. His most recent role was Lucentio in Shakespeare Kelowna's summer production of "The Taming of the Shrew". Moving to Ontario, he completed his MA in Drama at the University of Guelph, studying under Judith Thompson. In addition, he was awarded a Leslie Nielsen Dramatic Arts Scholarship that recognized both the writing and the research of "The Orchard Drive". Christopher is currently enrolled at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he is pursuing his PhD in Theatre studies. |
| 2002
Finalist
Laurie Hill |
Laurie
Hill - Wrack and Rescue Two Laurie Hill plays for adults have been produced. A one-act play, "Making Music", was chosen to go to the Eastern Ontario Drama Festival in the Ottawa region, where it was an award winner. Reborn as a full-length play, "Making Music" was produced in Cobourg. "Burying Mr. West" has received workshopping and public reading. Laurie Hill has taught drama, and written, directed and produced many plays and other theatrical presentations for and with children. She has also been a weekly newspaper drama critic. She teaches creative writing for Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario, and has just completed her first novel . Her most recent theatre piece was written for The Northumberland Orchestra, to be performed as part of its gala 25th anniversary Christmas celebration in December, 2002. |
| 2002
Finalist
M. Akira Klippenstein |
Matthew
Akira Klippenstein - The Middle Path Matthew Klippenstein was born in Vancouver in 1975 and graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1999. He resides in Burnaby, where he works as a fuel cell engineer. This is his first play. Matthew has no background in theatre, although he did serve as a volunteer for the Bard on the Beach this past summer. The urge to verse evolved to equilibrate against the efforts Matthew was spending on a university engineering degree. The root of the story of "The Middle Path" was an attempt, in 1997, to abstract several themes from the Star Wars movies, and place them in a feudal Japanese setting, in the same way that George Lucas had adapted themes from Akira Kurosawa. |
| 2002
Finalist
Michael McLauglin |
Michael
C. McLaughlin - Quid Pro Quo Michael C. McLaughlin was raised in Toronto and Los Angeles. His first career was as a professional forester and his first collection of short stories, for which he won a Canada Council Explorer's Grant, describes life in a remote town in Northern Ontario. His second career was as a Professor of Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies. He is currently Economic Development Officer for the town of Tumbler Ridge, BC. Michael has written fiction his entire life and teaches creative writing. In Los Angeles, as a teenager, he was a member of a young person's theatre where he was trained in the Actor's Method. He has performed in or directed numerous plays. Quid Pro Quo is the first play he has written. |
| 2002
Finalist
Victoria Maxwell |
Victoria
Maxwell - Crazy For Life Victoria is an award-winning actress and playwright who has worked alongside John Travolta, David Duchovny and Carol Burnett, and has appeared on theatre stages across Canada. Her film and television credits included The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Neon Rider, 21 Jump Street, and Look Who's Talking Too. Theatre appearances includes Dolores (Laughing B Productions), Steel Magnolias (Theatre NorthWest), Genesis Corps (Somerset Theatre) and The Loop (Pacific Theatre). Victoria holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia. Since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1992, Victoria has become one of BC's top educators on the lived experience of mental illness and recovery, using theatre and comedy to raise public awareness and break down the stigma attached to depression and other psychiatric illnesses. In the past few months, she has performed her one-woman show, Crazy For Life, for enthusiastic audiences around the Lower Mainland and has appeared on radio and television as a mental health advocate. She has been invited to perform Crazy For Life at the Madness and Arts Festival in England (September 2003). |
| 2002
Finalist
Peter Zednik |
Peter
Zednik - Beggars Would Ride Peter joined Green Thumb as General Manager in 1990, after five years with Young People’s Theatre in Toronto where he served as Administrator. Prior to that, he was a freelance artist with professional engagements as an actor, musician and playwright. He has represented Green Thumb Theatre on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, Vancouver Cultural Alliance and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (including one year as President). Peter has an MA in Drama from the University of Toronto. In '99-2000,
Peter won a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre
Alliance) for playwriting for his script "Time After Time". He had received a
Jessie nomination in '97-98 for "Brainstorm". Peter was a Finalist (1996) in
Theatre BC's Canadian National Playwriting Competition for his script "Room".
The year prior he had received an Honorable Mention for "Dressing Room 6". |
PlayComp Home / Results 2002 / Jurors / New Play Festival |
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