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2006 Winners Photos & Bios Winners: Leo Orenstein / Ron Fromstein / Samantha Wright |
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2006 Winner - Leo Orenstein |
Leo
Orenstein - Homeless Hannah Leo was born in Montreal and is now living and writing in Toronto. In a varied career as a writer, a producer, and a director for stage, radio, film and television which began with the play Run Gabriel Run, written for Helen Hayes for her CBS radio drama series out of New York, he went on to write a radio essay To Think Straight for the then prestigious Columbia Workshop, and nightclub material for a theatrical group The Skeptics, that played clubs and hotels in New York State. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, where Orenstein was on contract for 12 years, he produced and directed over 150 Canadian, British and American television dramas, many of which were adaptations of works by such authors as Chekhov, Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw and Ionesco. His first original and professional stage play The Big Leap, which he also directed and produced, was performed at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre. It received a glowing review in Variety and came to the attention of two Broadway producers, Cheryl Crawford and John York. It was optioned to John York and subsequently performed in summer theatres in the U.S. and Canada. Many years after the initial production of The Big Leap, it was revived for a four year run at dinner theatre productions at the Brock Hotel and other venues in the Niagara Falls region. |
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2006 Winner -
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Ron
Fromstein - The Big Smoke Ron Fromstein started off as an improvisor training and performing with the now defunct All Canadian Theatresports (ACTS) . He then went on to playwriting where he's since won the Toronto Fringe 24 hour playwriting contest (2004) and been a finalist the last two years. Frequent collaborators include but are not limited to: Theatre Ste. Catherine (www.theatrestecatherine.com) in Montreal and the 24 hour theatre company in New York City (www.24hourplays.com) . For the present however, Ron is looking forward deeply to performing in the semi-finals of the Great Canadian Laugh Off. |
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2006 Winner -
Samantha Wright |
Samantha
Wright - The Fetch Sam has won several awards for excellence in playwriting in |
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| 2006 Finalists (in alphabetical order) |
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2006 - Finalist Sebastien Archibald |
Sebastien
Archibald- Death of a Clown A recent graduate from the Phoenix Theatre at the University of Victoria, Sebastien uses the angst and frustration of having an Acting Major, and thus no job, to fuel his passion for writing. Sebastien first caught the playwriting bug in his final year of high school. The infection has since grown into six one acts and two full-length plays. His third play, Casualties of Progress premiered at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre as part of their Festival ’04. A two hander by the name of Sex on the Beach followed. It was well received in Victoria but avoided like the plague at the UCFV Directors Festival in Chilliwack. Sebastien harbors no resentment. Really. In 2005 he wrote and directed a multimedia one-act, Dog Eat Man, which premiered at the Phoenix Theatre as part of SATCO. Death of a Clown began as an experimental one act two years ago and has since morphed into a full-length opus, which premiered at the 2006 Victoria Fringe Festival with Sebastien playing the title character. Sebastien is currently working on two new projects for ITSAZOO Productions, of which he is co-artistic director. The first is a fragmented, multi-charactered one-man show called The Will to Power. The second is a contemporary adaptation of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm in which the audience will be led through the lovely, deep, and dark woods of Victoria, BC. Sebastien would like to thank Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and Harold Pinter for their continued inspiration. Sebastien would in no way like to thank Tennessee Williams for anything. Although he wishes him well. |
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2006 Finalist Kerri Armstrong |
Kerri
Armstrong - The Feel Goods Kerri Armstrong is a writer and arts educator. Her work has received public readings in Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Carol Shield’s Festival of New Work, Alberta PlayRites Festival, Winnipeg Writer’s Festival and Sarasvati Production’s One Night Stands. Her play, The Apple Seed Girl was performed in FemFest 2005, by Sarasvati Productions. In addition to writing plays, Kerri has been teaching drama and puppetry to children at the |
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2006 Finalist Stephen Baetz |
Stephen
Baetz - Mahogany Row Stephen Baetz has spent the last 31 years as a management educator and consultant. His teaching style is remarkably like a storyteller who invites the audience to play a part or create different endings. In the past couple of years, he has written Patches, Forget Me Not (a Finalist in the 17th Annual Canadian National Playwriting Competition), Halfway, Left, No Good Reason, and Mahogany Row; all of these plays explore the tensions and dynamics of families and the possibilities in relationships. Within minutes, you care about his characters and you can no longer distinguish between you and them. As anticipated, for someone who has come to playwriting later in his career, the plays are layered and simple answers are not easy to come by. |
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2006 Finalist Pauline Carey |
Pauline
Carey- Reason Has Nothing To Do With It Pauline Carey's first playscript was a two-hander on the Canadian poet, Pauline Johnson, which she performed on tour along with her one-woman show on the writer, Anna Jameson. Of the several plays she has written about Mary Wollsonecraft, William Godwin and their daughter, Mary Shelley, Mary My Mother was shortlisted for Nightwood Theatre's Festival of New Works 2002, a one-act version was produced in the New Works Forum of Looking Glass Theatre in New York, and Mary Jane, a play about Mary Shelley and her friend Jane Williams, was read in Live Girls! 2004 Playwriting Festival in Seattle. A contemporary three-woman play, My Name Is Emma, won first prize in the 2005 One Act Play Competition of the Drama Association of Wales, and a children's variety show, Bugs, has played in two theatre festivals. Pauline is also the author of two children's picture books, various short fiction, song lyrics and memoirs; a novel about a Toronto actress in the 1970's still seeks a publisher. |
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2006 Finalist Keith Dorland |
Keith
Dorland - Care and Control Keith Dorland was raised in the Hamilton area and began writing plays at Queens University where his first piece was produced in 1969. He has been writing for the stage ever since. After a short stint teaching high school in Northern Ontario followed by six months wandering in Europe, he married and settled in London, England, where between 1974 and 1982 seven of his earlier works appeared on the London Fringe. Of these, Peaches and Cream (U.K.) and The Confession (U.K., U.S. and Canada) had later revivals between 1981 and the early 90's. Keith's work since his return to Canada in 1983 includes: The Child - Playwrights Workshop Montreal, 1988; True North - Magnus Theatre, 1990; Some Other Country - Page-to-Stage series, National Arts Centre, 1995. He as served play-writing residencies at Banff Centre in 1985, the Ontario Writers- in-Libraries Program in 1987, and was playwright-in-residence with Necessary Angel Theatre Company in 1990. What he has learned from the lives of students as a teacher and co-ordinator of an adult and alternative secondary school in Northern Ontario was essential to Keith's current work on Care and Control. |
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2006 Finalist Sally Stubbs |
Sally
Stubbs - Spinning Gold Sally is an award-winning playwright, teacher/director/producer of theatre and film with, by, and for young people; a performer who loves to clown; and co-artistic producer of Tightrope Productions. Two of Sally’s plays, She’ll to the Wars and Home Movies, were previously honoured in Theatre British Columbia’s National Theatre Competition, the former with the special Merit Award and the latter as a Finalist. She’ll to the Wars received an equity co-op production in Vancouver in 2000. In October 2005 Sally’s script Wreckage was produced professionally at New West Theatre in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was the recipient of an Honourable Mention in the 2005 Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition (Jurors’ ‘Top 5’), Queen’s University, A short independent film—Mother Cutter—was adapted from a section of Wreckage by Sally in cooperation with Christopher Cinnamon and Rick Gaudio; the film was honoured as one of the ‘Best of Alberta Shorts’ (Calgary International Film Festival 2005) and was nominated for the Alberta Centennial Award. It was also nominated by the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association for Best Short/Vignette 2005. Sally most recent work includes three play scripts: Spinning You Home (developed with dramaturgical support from playwright-mentor Colleen Murphy at the Sage Hill Writing Experience); Forever. More. (in development with the Playwrights Theatre Centre, Vancouver and workshopped at the Canadian Plays in Development Program, 2005); and I Choose, first draft underway. Next up Sally is directing Wreckage for Tightrope. |
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PlayComp Home / Results 2006 / Jurors / New Play Festival |
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