Gailey Road: Women-Centred Research-Informed Theatre

Staging Harriet's House Book Launch Feb. 2, 2012

2012-02-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

February 2012

Hello Everyone:

Gailey Road has two great events coming this week!

Book launch of Staging Harriet's House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre
The 12th Floor Community Lounge, OISE (252 Bloor Street West, Toronto)
Hosted by the Centre for Media and Culture in Education and the Centre for Urban Schooling

Harriet’s House and Ana’s Shadow Reading @ F.O.O.T 2012
Festival of Original Theatre
University of Toronto
February 5, 2012

Please join us!

All the best,
Tara

New Year Update from Gailey Road Productions

2012-01-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all our Gailey Road friends and supporters. We wish all the very best in all your endeavours in 2012.

Gailey Road has a number of fundraising events and readings planned in 2012. If you're in Toronto or Vancouver, we'd love to see you there!

January 2012

Women Writing Letters Fundraiser @ the 12th Floor Community Lounge, OISE (252 Bloor Street West, Toronto)
A Letter to my _________ Birthday Ever
In honour of Gailey Road’s 5th Birthday Party
January 22, 2012

Featuring:

Marianne Fedunkiw, actor
Grace Feuerverger, writer and educator
Marisa Gelfusa, fiction writer
Jackie Laidlaw, actor
Supinder Wraich, actor

February 2012

Book launch of Staging Harriet's House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre
The 12th Floor Community Lounge, OISE (252 Bloor Street West, Toronto)
Hosted by the Centre for Media and Culture in Education and the Centre for Urban Schooling

Harriet’s House and Ana’s Shadow Reading @ F.O.O.T 2012
Festival of Original Theatre
University of Toronto
February 5, 2012

April 2012

Harriet’s House and Ana’s Shadow Community Reading @ Little Sisters
Little Sisters Bookstore
Vancouver, British Columbia
Saturday April 14, 2012, 5-7 pm.
Presented in affiliation with the Queer SIG at the 2012 AERA Conference April 13-17, 2012.

Women Writing Letters Fundraiser @ the 12th Floor Community Lounge, OISE (252 Bloor Street West, Toronto)

A Letter to The Things I Never Told My Mother
Launch of Gailey Road’s new Online Professional Journal Women in Theatre (WIT)
April 22, 2012

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road Fundraiser Sunday October 30, 2011

2011-10-28T11:45:00.001-07:00

Join Gailey Road for an afternoon of letter reading to raise funds for Gailey Road's next production: Ana's Shadow.

A panel of established and up-and-coming women artists and writers will be reading their letters to "The Night I'd Rather Forget!"

NISHA AHUJA, Theatre artist, creator of Cycle of a Sari and The Besetting of Reena Virk
JULIA GRAY, Playwright, author of After the Crash
MARCIA JOHNSON, Playwright, actor, author of Courting Joanna
HOLLY LUHNING, Novelist, author of Quiver
MELISSA MAJOR, Theatre artist, creator of Infinitim

Date: Sunday, October 30, 2011
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Place: MAJORspace @ The Art Triangle Lofts
30 Abell Street (south of Queen, west of Dovercourt on Abell)

Admission: $10.00

Reservations: gaileyroad@gmail.com Space is limited, reservations are a must!

Gailey Road 2011 Fall Update and Women Writing Letters Event

2011-09-23T09:09:00.001-07:00

Gailey Road Fall Update

The public work-in-progress reading of Ana's Shadow. directed by Jocelyn Wickett and stage managed by Gillian Lewis went very well and was attended by about 70 people. The discussion following the reading was lively and informative with audience members saying how happy they were to hear the original cast from Harriet's House reprise their roles in Ana's Shadow.

September finds me back at the University of Toronto teaching two undergraduate courses: one on Equity, Activism and Education for third and fourth year Equity Studies students and one on Sexualities and Schooling for Bachelor of Education students at OISE. I am using several of my research-informed plays in my classes, including Snakes and Ladders, Harriet's House, and Ana's Shadow (which is still a work-in-progress).

Tomorrow, Saturday September 24, 2011, I am doing a reading of Zero Tolerance with BEd students at OISE's Safe Schools Conference.

Harriet's House, Snakes and Ladders and Zero Tolerance are all available on T-space, the University of Toronto's Research Repository, which can be accessed on web with the following address: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/

September finds Jocelyn Wickett teaching English and drama at Jarvis Collegiate and writing up her MA thesis study on her social justice drama education practice. Gillian Lewis is busy as the production manager for Melissa Major's show Infinitum, a stage piece that mixes poetry, dance, and aerial silks.

Infinitum is a great production which runs Sept. 29-Oct. 16, 2011 at the Annex Theatre, 740 Bathurst Street in Toronto.

Women Writing Letters

This fall, Gailey Road is beginning a new set of events called "Women Writing Letters", which has been inspired by an event that is popular in Australia called “Women of Letters".

At each event, four or five established or up-and-coming women artists (one of whom has worked with Gailey Road Productions in the last five years) will be part of a panel who have written a letter based on a theme.

The panelists will each read their letters aloud, we’ll take a short break and then the audience will either ask questions of the panelists or share their own letters on the theme.

The first Women Writing Letters event will take place on

Sunday October 30, 2011
2:30-4:00
MAJORspace at the Artscape Triangle Lofts on Queen West (2 streets west of Dovercourt).

We have room for 35 audience members and reservations are highly recommended. Reserve at gaileyroad@gmail.com

The theme of the first event will be:

A Letter To The Night I'd Rather Forget

Confirmed panelists include:

Marcia Johnson (actor/playwright, author of Say Gingerale)
Holly Luning (novelist, author of Quiver)
Melissa Majors (actor/playwright/director, director of Infinitum)

The second Women Writing Letters event will be held on Sunday January 22, 2012 and will be followed by a celebration of Gailey Road’s fifth birthday.

And the third WWL event will be on Sunday April 22, 2012.

We hope to see you there!

All the best,

Tara

Work-in-progress reading of Ana's Shadow

2011-07-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

A work-in-progress reading of Ana's Shadow, the sequel to Harriet's House, will take place at:

The 519 Church Street Community Centre
519 Church Street (Wellesley subway station)
Toronto

Friday August 26, 2011
5-7 pm.

Featuring original music and a performance by Chantelle Pike and Hannah Dean from Eyes of Gertrude.

Admission is free.

Join us for the continuing story of Harriet and her daughters Luisa, Ana and Marty.

Gailey Road Productions: Summer 2011

2011-07-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

Ana's Shadow

This week Gailey Road begins planning for the August workshop of Ana's Shadow, which is the sequel to my play Harriet's House.. The workshop will take place August 22-26, 2011 and conclude with a public reading of the latest draft of the script on Friday August 26, 2011. Details on the public reading will be available very soon.

Ana’s Shadow continues the story of Harriet, and her three daughters: Luisa and Ana, and Clare. Luisa is back in Toronto and planning to study medicine. Ana is an emerging singer songwriter. Clare is in high school and excited about her upcoming trip to Colombia with Luisa to start building the health clinic the family has raised money for. However, the breast cancer that Harriet was diagnosed with three years ago is back, and Ana’s reaction is pure panic. To her family’s dismay, she drops out of university to take care of Harriet. Ana’s world becomes smaller and increasingly wrapped up with Harriet’s care until an opportunity to compete in Canadian Idol falls her way. Ana is reluctant to leave Harriet and join the competition until Marty, Harriet’s partner, helps her find a way to give it a go. When Ana is cut from the competition, her sister Luisa starts pressuring her to go to Colombia for the summer to reconnect with their birth family. However, Ana refuses to anywhere until Harriet is finished chemotherapy and is angry that Luisa is leaving when she is needed at home. She asks Luisa to postpone the trip. When Luisa refuses, the two sisters stop talking. Luisa and Clare leave for Colombia and Ana stays in Toronto. When the chemotherapy stops working, however, Harriet needs to find a way to help Luisa and Ana reconcile. Quickly.

Ana' Shadow features two original songs composed by British singer songwriters Chantelle Pike and Hannah Dean: Absent Impact and Chanting. To read more about Chantelle and Hannah's work and to listen to their music visit: www.myspace.com/eyesforgertrude and http://www.myspace.com/chantellepike.

Chantelle and Hannah will also be playing at the Silver Dollar in Toronto on August 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm.

Staging Harriet's House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre

Staging Harriet's House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre, the book I've working on for the last six months, is now completed and is in the process of being typeset at Peter Lang Publishers. Staging Harriet's House tells a set of stories of how I wrote and produced Harriet’s House, a research-informed play about transnational adoption in a same-sex family, for the 2010 Toronto Pride Festival. In doing so, it offers some practical advice to others who want to write and produce research-informed theatre. The book begins with a story of how I became part of the world of research-informed playwriting and why researchers, playwrights and theatre artists choose to write and stage research-informed theatre. It then moves on to a set of stories of how I wrote and work shopped the play, found a venue, put together an artistic team, created a budget, pursued funding, publicized the production, and assessed the quality of the project. In writing about research-informed theatre, I draw on the experiences of other writers and theatre artists as well as my own. Readers will find references to work by American, Australian, British, and other Canadian research-informed theatre artists. The last chapter of the book lists ten questions I have been asked about Harriet’s House, research-informed theatre and arts-based research and provides answers to these questions. This last chapter is followed by three appendices that include a copy of the performance script, biographies of the artistic team and a selected bibliography on research-informed theatre for readers who would like to read more.

It's great to be home in Toronto and to begin working on Ana's Shadow, Gailey Road's next project. Details about our public reading will be available soon!

All the best
Tara

Alternative Chances: Exploring Barriers to Student Success

2011-05-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

May 29, 2011

Gailey Road Artistic Director Jocelyn Wickett's latest project, Alternative Chances: Exploring the Barriers to Student Success will be presented on

Tuesday May 31st @ 2:00pm
The Lower Ossington Theatre
100 Ossington Avenue
Free admission

Alternative Chances is a research informed play created through discussion, interviews, questionnaires, letters and scene writing. Join the students of Oasis for a dramatic dialogue about the issues that have gotten in the way of school, and the meaning of second chances in an alternative setting.

Presented in partnership with the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Alternative Chances is written and performed by: Kevin Andrews, David Lemus, Oshay Martinez, Bridgett Mulhall, Hilary Prashad, Jah Reign Sutherland-Taylor, Jordan Weir-Ellsworth, Megan Nykolaiszyn, Joseph Reisman and PJ Weinert and will feature special guest appearances by Toronto artists: David Delisca, Rebecca Applebaum, Supinder Wraich, Sedina Fiati and Greg Thomas.

For more information, contact Jocelyn Wickett at Jocelyn.Wickett@tdsb.on.ca

You can also check student's work at the Alternative School Art Show, Alternative Tentacle at Xpace Gallery, 58 Ossington Ave.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: Spring 2011

2011-05-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

Spring 2011 finds me on sabbatical in Australia (where it is fall) and Jocelyn Wickett and Gillian Lewis in Toronto. Jocelyn is teaching the last eight weeks of the school year at OASIS Alternative High School and working on her MA thesis. Gillian is busy with a variety of interesting stage and production management projects.

Harriet’s House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre

My book Staging Harriet’s House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre is now in its second draft and has been sent to editor Shirley Steinberg at Peter Lang Publishers for her feedback and approval.

At the centre of the book is a personal narrative on how I researched, wrote and produced Harriet’s House, a research-informed theatre project that I’ve written about extensively in past blogs. The book has five chapters and three appendices:

Chapter 1: The World of Research-Informed Theatre
Chapter 2: Writing and Workshopping Harriet’s House
Chapter 3: Assessing Research-Informed Theatre
Chapter 4: Producing Harriet’s House
Chapter 5: Questions and Answers About Harriet’s House, Research-Informed Theatre and Arts-based Research

Appendix A: Harriet’s House (the script used in the 2010 production at Hart House Theatre)
Appendix B: Biographies of the cast and artistic team of HH
Appendix C: A Selected Bibliography on Research-Informed Theatre.

Staging Harriet’s House looks at the subject of research-informed theatre from the viewpoints of two different worlds, social science research and theatre arts. The book has been written for two audiences. The first audience is made up of social science researchers who are interested in designing, writing and producing their research in alternative, post-foundational ways. The second audience is made up of theatre artists interested in how to create and produce a research-informed theatre.

Harriet’s House @ The Mothers at the Margins Conference

Last week, Harriet’s House was given a public reading at the Mothers at the Margins conference, the sixth international conference on motherhood sponsored by the Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (AMIRCI). The cast was made up of my colleagues and friends at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) as well as my partner Margot and our Brisbane friend Tori Hadley. The QUT cast members were Catherine Doherty, Sue Grieshaber, Cushla Kaptizke, and Jo Lampert. The cast did an excellent job. A spirited, engaged discussion followed the reading covering such topics as the challenges of coming out in mid-life and of being out in rural Australia, the politics of transnational adoption, and decisions of guardianship when adopted parents become ill. My colleagues from QUT were excited by the response research-informed theatre evoked from the audience and two of them (Catherine and Sue) have decided that they would like to experiment with writing performance scripts from their own research.

Ana’s Shadow: A Sequel to Harriet’s House

In addition to working on my on staging Harriet’s House, I have also begun to work on a sequel to the play which is tentatively titled, Ana’s Shadow. The script is now in its second draft and will be read next month by a reading group of Melbourne actors organized by Australian actor, writer and director Maureen Andrew. Feedback from this reading as well as feedback from Gailey Road’s Artistic Director Jocelyn Wickett will help me work towards a third draft of the play which we will use in the four-day workshop we are planning for Ana’s Shadow this coming August.

Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Funding for the Harriet’s House Project

Finally, I received the exciting news this spring that I been granted research funding for continued research on the Harriet’s House project. The funding will be used for continued development of Ana’s Shadow and for researching the impact of both plays when read by teacher education students studying at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education where I work as a Professor of education.

The next Gailey Road blog will appear in mid-July after my return to Toronto from Australia. It will include news about Gailey Road’s August workshop for Ana’s Shadow and an update on the progress of my book Staging Harriet’s House.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: Update Winter 2011

2011-03-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been busy months for Gailey Road. I have been on sabbatical in Broachbeach, Australia, where I've been working on my book Staging Harriet's House: Producing-Research Informed Theatre, working on the next play in the Harriet's House Trilogy and writing the Playwrights Guild of Canada Women's Caucus biweekly newsletter. I've taken advantage of my time in Australia to follow and report on the work of Australian women playwrights and theatre artists in Sydney, at the Brisbane World Theatre Festival and at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. To become a member of the PGC Women's Caucus and receive copies of the newsletter contact Robin Sokoloski at the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Back in Canada, production manager Gillian Lewis has been touring out west and director Jocelyn Wickett has just finished up an exciting theatre project with Toronto high school students from Oasis Arts and Social Change Program, SEE School, Subway 1 Academy and Bloor Collegiate. For several weeks, Oasis Alternative students learned, rehearsed and taught other schools the choreography to a mashup of songs. Inspired by the international flashmob phenomenon, and the TV series GLEE, Oasis decided to work towards creating a flashmob of inner city schools. The skills gained in such a project connect to curriculum expectations in drama, dance and physical education and support the building of community within and across multiple school sites as well as the local community. The project’s goal was to build community through shared experience, foster an appreciation for the arts, and encourage physical activity and community arts projects as a way of staying happy and healthy. See their performances at: www.youtube.com/DaFlashMob.

Finally, Gailey Road's new Playwriting Unit began working together in November 2010 and its members have been meeting regularly to discuss their work-in progress.

Gailey Road's next blog, containing a spring update of our activities will be published in May 2011.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: December Update

2010-12-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Strategic Planning for Gailey Road Productions

The last few months were important months for Gailey Road Productions. Director Jocelyn Wickett and Production Manager Gillian Lewis and I (Tara Goldstein, Founder) have been working on a five-year strategic plan for the company and will hold the company's first Board of Directors meeting on December 13, 2010.

Over the last four years, Gailey Road Productions has matured in a number of ways. The company has moved from producing plays in Bring Your Own Venues at the Toronto Fringe Festival to self-producing its most recent play Harriet’s House in a professional theatre run by IATSE technicians. It has moved from seeking Fringe Festival waivers for its Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA) members to hiring CAEA actors on guest artist contracts. In the fall of 2009, Gailey Road took on an intern, Monica Nunes, who was mentored into the role of Assistant Producer for the staged reading of Zero Tolerance (February 2010) and then took on the role of Assistant Producer for the production of Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre (July 2010).

After three successful staged productions and three staged readings Gailey Road Productions is ready to develop as an organization and move from its four-year start-phase on the Ground Floor (its first production Pound Predators was actually performed on the Ground Floor of the OISE/UT library) to its next five-year development phase at the Mezzanine level.

Current Organizational Development Goal

The primary development goal for Gailey Road in the next five years is to establish a strong financial base so the company can continue to develop, produce and tour its current project The Harriet’s House Trilogy.

The Harriet’s House Trilogy

The writing and development of The Harriet’s House Trilogy began in 2007 with a series of 10-minute plays I wrote on the topic of transnational adoption in both heterosexual and same-sex families. Building from the 10-minute play series, the first play in the trilogy, Harriet’s House, focuses on the themes of love, loss and adoption in a same-sex family. Given the ongoing issues of bullying, harassment and prejudice that face lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (lgbtq) communities both locally and internationally, I felt it was important to write and stage the experiences of lgbtq adoptive families. The Harriet’s House Trilogy will provide opportunities for playwrights, actors, audiences and readers of the play to engage in discussion about these issues.

The Women's Caucus Six-Week Cyberwritng Challenge

The First Six-Week Cyberwriting Challenge that I ran this past fall is now over (see my last blog entry for more details) and the feedback about the Challenge has been enthusiastic. Here is a sample of the feedback.

• I have 2/3 of a rough draft of a play done as a result of this process.
• I have gained tools from this I know I will use again.
• The challenge was helpful at reminding me to make room for my writing every day.
• I think one of my plays is now taking a turn toward being clearer and more effective thanks to your suggestions.
• I like the warm up exercises. I don’t use them every time, only when needed. Perfect.
• I was surprised to discover the warm-up exercises really helped my writing.
• I loved the ‘compile everything you have so far’ exercise.
• It's made me do more writing than I would otherwise have done.
• I plan to go through them again as I'll soon be doing a rewrite of a play.
• I didn’t write much as I wanted, but certainly more than I would've done without the challenge.

Given the positive feedback, I plan to run the Challenge again next fall. If you are a Canadian woman playwright and would like to participate in the Challenge, contact Robin Sokoloski at the Playwrights Guild of Canada to become a member of the Guild's Women's Caucus: robin@playwrightsguild.ca

As this will be my last blog entry for the year, I want to take this opportunity to wish all the visitors to my blog a healthy, happy and successful new year.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: October Update

2010-10-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

October has been a busy month for Gailey Road Productions and its artistic team.

The Harriet House Trilogy
I've been working on the first draft of the second play of my Harriet's House trilogy by participating in the six-week cyberwriting challenge offered through the Women's Caucus at the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Each week participants receive five writing activities that are intended to spark writing for a new play or help them continue to develop a play they are working on. We are now at the end of the fourth week of the six-week cyberwriting challenge and have two weeks to go.

Performative Writing Workshop
Three members of the Gailey Road artistic team, Jocelyn Wickett, Monica Nunes and I, participated in one-day workshop on performative writing facilitated by Professor Ron Pelias from the University of Southern Illinois in Carbondale. Ron designed the workshop so they each of the participants would have an experience of writing a personal narrative, an autoethnography piece and a performative writing piece on the same topic. It was a wonderful way to learn about the differences about these three types of writing. Four graduate students in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute of Education, University of Toronto, all of whom are interested in performed ethnography and performative writing joined the workshop as well.

The Annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne
Readers who are interested in taking a workshop in performative writing can find Ron Pelias at the annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne each May. For the past several years Ron has facilitated a half day workshop on performative writing at the conference.

The conference attracts a number of academics who identify with the "alternative ethnography movement" in the field of qualitative research. These researchers write, publish and stage personal narratives, autoethnographies, performed ethnographies (also known as performance ethnographies and ethnodramas) and other kinds of performance pieces. For more information see: http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=891300.

Staging Harriet's House: Producing Performed Ethnography
Finally, i received the excellent news that my proposal for writing a book on producing performed ethnography has been accepted by Series Editor Shirley Steinberg at Peter Lang. Staging Harriet's House: Producing Performed Ethnography will tell the story of staging my performed ethnography Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre last July as part of the 2010 Toronto Pride Festival. I'll be working on the book this coming winter.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: Upcoming Activities this fall

2010-09-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

Happy September to you all.

After an extremely successful run of Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre this past July and a terrific staged reading of the play at the Queer West Festival in August, I have decided to continue writing the story of Harriet's transnational/transracial same-sex family. The second play in the Harriet's House trilogy will focus on Ana, Harriet's middle adopted from Colombia and the third play will focus on Clare, Harriet's youngest, biological daughter.

I began to work on Ana's play in August and plan to continue working on it this fall with the support of the six-week cyberwriting challenge I am running for the Women's Caucus of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. If you are a Canadian woman playwright you can join PCG's Women's Caucus and take part in the cyberwriting challenge which begins on September 27, 2010. Contact Robin Sokoloski for information on joining the PCG and the Women's Caucus.

September also brings grant proposal deadlines and I've spent the last several weeks working on a Canada Council theatre projects grant to fund the development and production of Ana's play . I'm also working on a three-year SSHRC grant proposal to fund the research component of the Harriet's House trilogy.

At the end of month, I'll be hosting a reading of my play Zero Tolerance at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education's Educating for Peace and Justice: Action for Safe and Equitable Classrooms, Schools and Communities Conference. The goal of the conference is to enable participants to share best practices related to the building of safe and equitable classrooms, schools and communities.

Julian Falconer LLB, human rights lawyer and Chair of the School Community Safety Panel, will be the keynote speaker. Zero Tolerance is adapted from Julian Falconer's report on school safety The Road to Health. The report was commissioned by the Toronto District School Board after the 2007 shooting of Jordan Manner in the hallway of his Toronto high school.

For more information about Zero Tolerance see www.gaileyroad.com. For more information about the conference, which takes place on Saturday, September 25th, 2010 from 8:30am -4:30pm, contact peaceandjustice.oise.@utoronto.ca

All the best,
Tara

The Toronto Summerworks Festival and a staged reading of Harriet's House on August 10, 2010

2010-08-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

It's August and in Toronto, the Summerworks Festival is in full-swing. Productions by women playwrights that are playing at Summerworks include:

Cassie Beecham and Director Melissa Major’s The Saddest Girl in the World
Marion de Vries’ big face,
Jordan Hall’s Kayak
Marcia Johnson’s Say Ginger Ale (on which I am a consulting producer)
Celia McBride’s Anatomy of a Broken Love Affair
Elyne Quan’s Souvenirs of Home

Also playing next week is a staged reading of Harriet's House at Levack Block Restaurant on August 10, 2010 at 8 pm. If you missed our production of the play at Hart House Theatre, here's an opportunity to hear the play read by the same cast. We hope to see you there!

All the best,
Tara

Harriet's House: Staged Reading at LeVack Block Restaurant: August 10, 2010

2010-07-30T14:20:00.001-07:00

Gailey Road Productions will remount Harriet’s House in conjunction with the Toronto Queer West Arts Festival on August 10, 2010 at LeVack Block Restaurant in Toronto.

Harriet’s House at the Queer West Arts Festival (queerwest.org/queerwestfest.php) follows the recent premiere of the production which took place at Hart House Theatre in July during the 30th Toronto Pride Festival. Over its three-performance run in July, Harriet’s House drew an appreciative audience of 450, was named a “Best Bet” by Eye Weekly, and was featured in an article by Jon Kaplan in Now Magazine.

If you missed Gailey Road's production of Harriet's House earlier this month, here's an opportunity to hear the play read by the same cast who performed the show at Hart House Theatre.

In telling the stories of the six women in Harriet’s House, played by a cross generational and cross cultural “family” of Toronto theatre artists, audiences will be called to question and reflect upon the complexities of identity, the roles of mother, daughter, sister, and partner, and what it means to be different.

Date & Time:
August 10 at 8 pm

Venue:
LeVack Block
88 Ossington Avenue (Dinner at LeVack Block available from 5:30-8:00)Ticket Information:

Admission:
$5.00
Tickets will be available at the door.

Two upcoming conferences for women playwrights

2010-07-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

There are two upcoming conferences which will be of interest to women playwrights.

The first is the Women's Playwright International Conference which is going to be held in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2012.

The host of WPIC 2012 is Riksteatern (Sweden’s National Theatre).
The dates of the conference are August 15-21, 2012.
The theme of the conference is The Democratic Stage.

Applications will be available in September 2010 on the Riksteatern WPIC website:
www.riksteatern.se/wpic

For more information you can e-mail: wpic@rksteatern.se

The second conference is called TED Women which is going to be held in Washington, DC, USA in December 2010.
The conference focuses on sharing ideas of women and girls from all over the world, including theatre artists.

For more information go to the TED website:
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDWomen/program/

All the best,
Tara

Harriet's House: After the show is over

2010-07-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

In the week since Harriet's House was performed at Hart House Theatre, the artistic team has been busy with taking stock on what worked to make the production successful and what could be done differently next time.

In the week since Harriet's House was performed I also began to send the play out to other theatres who might be interested in co-producing a second production of the play with Gailey Road Productions. Over the last year or so, I've been collecting names of Canadian and American theatres who produce women-centred and LGBTQ work. Including the NOW Magazine profile of the play and the comments made by audience members who attended the premiere of the play at Hart House Theatre, I sent out five letters of inquiry to five different theatres.

Finally, director Jocelyn Wickett and I met with Jaclyn Isen of Toronto's Queer West Arts Festival and LeVack Block restaurant in Little Italiy this week to discuss the possibility of producing a reading of Harriet's House in the festival (http://queerwest.org/queerwestfest_official_events.php). The Festival will take place from August 7-15, 2010.

Jocelyn and I are happy to announce that a reading of Harriet's House with the Hart House Theatre cast will take place on August 10, 2010 at 8 pm in the back room of LeVack Block. Tickets will be about $5.00 and all proceeds will go to the cast and director. Levack Block will be serving dinner that night so folks going to the reading can arrive early, have dinner, and then make their way to the reading at 8:00 pm.

LeVack Block is located at 88 Ossington Avenue between Dundas and Queen.

All the best,
Tara

Harriet's House: Audience Response

2010-07-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Harriet’s House was performed this past weekend and drew 450 people over its three-run performance. The response we got back from the audience was warm, supportive and exciting. We had an standing ovation on Friday night and two curtain calls on Sunday night. People were engaged by the story, resonated with the characters' experiences and wanted to know what happens to Harriet's family . They were also impressed by the cast's performances Here's a sample of what our audience wrote in our guest book:

"Excellent performance by all!"

"Very moving story."

"Lovely to see a play with an all female cast!"

"Hope to see many more."

I want to thank all the members of the artistic team for their commitment to the production and their professionalism.

A special thank you needs to go out Jocelyn Wickett whose directorial vision and work with the actors was a major force behind the warmth and heart of Harriet’s House.

A second special thank you needs to go out to Louise Cowin who hosted our opening night reception in the glamorous Hart House Theatre lobby. The reception gave us all an opportunity to connect with our audience and to celebrate our accomplishment with them.

A third special thank you goes out to Carl Goldstein who became the publicist of Harriet’s House at the end of June and helped Monica Nunes and I promote our production in ways we hadn't thought of before.

Finally, a fourth special thank goes out to Mark and Alix Feldman and Richard Goldstein for their generous contributions to this production of Harriet’s House.

It takes many, many people to mount a play and Gailey Road Productions has been blessed with supporters.

All the best,
Tara

Harriet's House Opens Tonight

2010-07-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

After weeks of auditions, rehearsals, rescheduling due to the G20, Harriet's House is set to open tonight! The play has received coverage in NOW Magazine from Jon Kaplan and was selected as one of EYE Weekly's Best Bets for this weekend.

Check out:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=175732

And:

http://www.eyeweekly.com/bestbets/article/96215

In celebration of Pride Weekend, folks wanting to see Harriet's House this weekend can quote the promotion code PRIDE and buy their tickets for $10.00. Promotion code tickets are available by phone or in-person at the Hart House box office only. There are plenty of tickets left for all three performances at Hart House Theatre:

FRIDAY JULY 2, 8 PM (opening reception)
SATURDAY JULY 3, 8 PM (talk back night)
SUNDAY JULY 4, 8 PM

The show is only 70 minutes long so you can come to the show and continue to celebrate Pride Weekend afterwards.

To purchase tickets on-line go to: www.uofttix.ca
To purchase tickets by phone call: 416-978-8849

All the best,
Tara

Harriet’s House-Opening night in 12 days and The Playwrights Guild of Canada

2010-06-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

The cast and artistic team of Harriet's House are beginning to count down the days until opening night. Rehearsals are going extremely well. Director Jocelyn Wickett tells me that it is an honour to watch each of the actors develop their character and find their voice, movement and journey in the show. Everyone’s creative process has been different. Some of our actors have found their ‘path’ quickly and then within that performance are working in nuances. Others are exploring a variety of different paths to find the one that they feel most connected to. While watching our rehearsals, I can see what Jocelyn means when she says that there are an infinite number of ways to realize a character.

In other news, I am coming to the end of my term as Chair of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto, and have accepted the role as Chair of the Playwrights Guild of Canada Women's Caucus. This is a position that Marcia Johnson has held for four years. One of Marcia's greatest achievements as Chair of the Women's Caucus was to create a cyber community among the women members of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. It is an achievement I hope to carry on. If you are a Canadian playwright and have not yet joined the Playwrights Guild of Canada, I strongly recommend you do. It's a professional organization that provides regular news on writing, production and professional development opportunities for playwrights across Canada. For more information see: http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/pgc/

All the best,
Tara

Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre-Pride Guide Out Soon

2010-05-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

As an Affiliated Pride Event, Harriet's House will be featured in the 2010 Toronto Pride Guide which will be out very soon. Look for our beautiful ad designed by Lisa Rupchand and order your tickets to our re-scheduled shows on July 2, 3, 4, 2010 at 8 pm.

My reading of scenes from Harriet's House last week at the Representing Motherhood conference at Ryerson went very well and we had an interesting discussion on the challenges of adoptive mothering. I was asked for the name of a good resource on adoptive mothering. One of my favorite books is a memoir called Beyond Good Intentions: A Mother Reflects on Raising Internationally Adopted Children by Cheri Register. Cheri's book is published by Yeong & Yeong Book Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Exciting news this week: Harriet's House has been awarded a $700.00 grant from the 2010 Pride Access & Diversity Grants Program, which is supported by Pride Toronto and the Community One Foundatio.

Harriet's House has also found two patrons. Our deepest thanks and appreciation to Mark and Alix Feldman (actor Estée Feldman's parents) for the generous contribution to our show.

All the best,
Tara

New dates for Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre

2010-05-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Due to the closure of the University of Toronto during the G20 summit, Harriet's House will now be performed the following week at Hart House Theatre:

FRIDAY JULY 2, 2010, 8 PM
SATURDAY JULY 3, 2010, 8 PM
SUNDAY JULY 4, 2010, 8 PM

All tickets that have been sold will be exchanged for tickets on one of the new performance nights or refunded.

Contact uofttix.ca or 416-978-8849 for more information.

All the best,
Tara

G20 summit postpones Harriet's House

2010-05-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, just as the long weekend was about to begin, the University of Toronto announced that is was going to close for several days during the G20 summit as a security precaution. The University is going to close during the run for Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre.

At our rehearsal yesterday, the artistic team decided that we should try to postpone our production at Hart House Theatre until the following weekend. As soon as folks are back at work on Tuesday, I will talk to Doug Floyd and see if this is possible. If not, we'll see if we can find another theatre that can host the show on the second Pride Weekend: July 2, 3, and 4.

As soon as we are able to reschedule the production I will post our new production dates.

All the best,
Tara

Representing Motherhood:  Mothers in the Arts, Literature, Media and Popular Culture

2010-05-09T07:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the Saturday Toronto Star published an article on the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI), which is holding a conference entitled Representing Motherhood:  Mothers in the Arts, Literature, Media and Popular Culture  on May 21 - 22, 2010 at Ryerson University in Toronto. The conference of may be of interest for those readers who have been following the development of Harriet’s House and are interested in issues of mothering and daughtering. I hope to be there myself. For more information go to http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org/representingmotherhood.html

All the best,
Tara

Last Minute Mother's Day's Gifts for Toronto Mothers

2010-05-09T05:14:00.001-07:00

If you're looking for a unique gift for mothers in your life, tickets to Harriet's House, a play about mothering and daughtering in a contemporary Canadian family, may be just for the gift you are looking for!

WHAT: Harriet's House
WHEN: June 24, 25, and 26, 2010, 8 PM
WHERE: Hart House Theatre, University of Toronto
HOW MUCH: $18.00 a ticket

THE PLAY:
In this contemporary drama a mother and her three daughters negotiate the challenges and politics of international adoption in a same-sex family. Harriet reluctantly gives 17-year old Luísa permission to return to the Catholic orphanage in Bogotá where she spent three years of her childhood. But when she falls seriously ill, Harriet travels to Bogotá with her new partner Marty to bring Luísa home.

TICKETS: www.utofttix.ca

Happy Mother's Day.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 15: Our First Rehearsal

2010-05-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

The entire cast and artistic team met this week for our first rehearsal of Harriet's House. Director Jocelyn Wickett took us through a reading of the script, a preliminary discussion of how each of the team members were responding to the script, and then did some team building and character building activities. It was fascinating for me as a playwright to sit and listen to the ways the actors described their characters' objectives in the play. Some were similar to the objectives I had in mind when I wrote the play, and some were articulated just a little differently than I would have articulated them and in their difference, layered the objectives in very interesting ways. It was also interesting to hear how each of the actors talked about what was standing in the way of their objectives.

While the cast continues rehearsing the design team is busy creating the set, costumes and lighting. A particular design challenge for set designer Esther Kim and lighting designer Wade Gamble is bringing the scenes staged in Colombia to life on the apron of the stage.

This week our application to become an official Affiliated Event with Toronto Pride was accepted which is great news for the production. Being part of a cultural festival will help get the word about Harriet's House out in new ways. Connected to our desire to to be part of the Toronto Pride Festival is our decision to advertise in the Pride Guide which will come out in early June. Like most independent theatres, Gailey Road had to make some careful decisions about where to put its advertising dollars for Harriet's House. Spending money on an ad in the Pride Guide, which is included in one of the June editions of Now Magazine, was a way to reach out to potential audience members who are looking for ways to celebrate Pride this year. We want people to celebrate Pride with us, at Harriet's House.

This coming week graphic designer Lisa Rupchand, photographer Jake Goldstein and I will be working to complete the press kits for Harriet's House and sending them off to various newspapers, radio stations, and blog sites in town. Since Harriet's House is only running for three performances, pre-peformance publicity will be very important to us.

If you have any suggestions about where we might send our e-press kits, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 14: We found Harriet!

2010-05-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

This week we found the actor to play the lead role of Harriet. Her name is Joanne Latimer and she joins five other terrific women and young women who will perform in our production of Harriet's House this coming June. Our cast and artistic team are:

Harriet: Joanne Latimer
Luísa: Supinder Wraich
Ana: Rebecca Applebaum
Anita: Jorie Morrow
Marty: Julie Burris
Clare: Estée Feldman

Producer: Tara Goldstein
Assistant Producer: Monica Nunes
Production Manager: Gillian Lewis
Stage Manager: Tara Mohan

Graphic Designer: Lisa Rupchand
Photography: Jake Goldstein
Lighting Designer: Wade Gamble
Production Designer: Esther Kim
Sound Designer: Dan Parker

We are thrilled that casting is now complete. Rehearsals begin this week.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 13: One More Round of Auditions

2010-04-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

This week saw another round of auditions for the lead role of Harriet and a decision to extend our search for one more week. Director Jocelyn Wickett, Production Manager Gillian Lewis, Assistant Producer Monica Nunes and I will hold a final set of auditions for the lead role of Harriet next Tuesday April 27, 2010. For an opportunity to audition, please e-mail: gaileyroad@gmail.com

This week I also met with my colleague Marcia Johnson, playwright and producer of Say Ginger Ale and her director Sue Miner to discuss a production and publicity plan for Say Ginger Ale. Say Ginger Ale will be performed at Summerworks this coming August.

The play tells the story of Nadia who was born in Jamaica and was raised in Canada. She's a girl who becomes irked and offended when people assume that she pines for her homeland. She insists that she is happier in Canada and that there is more to a country than its weather. When Nadia makes an unexpected trip back to Jamaica, however, she discovers some long forgotten feelings about the country of her birth. This journey helps her to rediscover Jamaica while still appreciating all that her adopted country has to offer. There may even be a shot at love. Look for Say Ginger Ale this August at Summerworks.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 12: Last Round of Auditions

2010-04-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been focused on casting the play. We have had three different casting calls so far and are planning to hold a fourth next Tuesday April 20,2010. We have cast almost all of the roles in the play and are currently casting for the leading role of Harriet

HARRIET: A school teacher and mother of three daughters, the first two adopted from Colombia. During the
course of the play she comes out as a lesbian. She ages from 44 to 46.

Show Information:
Harriet’s House will be staged at Hart House Theatre in Toronto from June 24 – 26 2010. (Full availability of actors cast will be required from June 23 – 26 2010). Actors cast in the production will be provided with an honorarium.

Rehearsals
Rehearsals begin in April on Thursday evenings and Sundays at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto.

Audition Information and Requirements
If you are interested in auditioning for the role of Harriet, please email a head shot and resume to gaileyroad@gmail.com to arrange an audition time.

Auditions will be held on TUESDAY APRIL 20th (in the evening) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. For the audition, actors are asked to prepare a one minute contemporary monologue. Actors may also be requested to do a cold read from the play at the audition.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 11: Our publicity posters and postcardsare ready

2010-04-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

This week the publicity posters and postcards designed by Lisa Rupchand were printed and have begun to be posted and distributed around the city. As well, this week saw our first group of community supporters begin to circulate our e-posters to their social networking sites.

Thanks to the Sexual Diversity Studies Program, University of Toronto; the Women’s Studies and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto; Tim McCaskell; OASIS Alternative School, Toronto District School Board and The Office of LGBTQ Resources & Programs for their support of Harriet's House.

If you would like to become a community supporter by distributing our e-poster to your social networking sites, or if you would like to post our fabulous new poster in your office, workplace or community centre, please contact: gaileyroad@gmail.com

As always, information about Harriet's House @ Hart House is available at gaileyroad. com

Tickets are available at uofttix.ca

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 10: First set of auditions

2010-03-30T05:50:00.001-07:00

This past weekend Jocelyn Wickett and I held our first set of auditions for Harriet's House at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. We had two excellent days of monologues and cold readings from the play and were delighted to hear what wonderful talent we have here in Toronto. We are going to hold another set of auditions on Monday April 12, 2010. Here is the second audition call. If you're interested in auditioning on Monday April 12, 2010 please contact: gaileyroad@gmail.com

All the best,
Tara

***
Harriet’s House: Hart House 2010

Second Audition Call

Director: Jocelyn Wickett
Playwright: Tara Goldstein
Produced by: Tara Goldstein/ Gailey Road Productions

Synopsis

Harriet’s House dramatizes the story of a Toronto mother with three daughters, two adopted from Colombia and the challenges they face as they negotiate three family worlds: the world of their own “global family” in Toronto, the world of the daughters’ birth country, Colombia, and the new world Harriet, finds herself in when she comes out as a lesbian. Gailey Road is planning to produce Harriet House as an affiliated event with the 2010 Toronto Pride Festival.
The play opens with Harriet reluctantly giving her 17-year old adopted daughter Luísa permission to visit the orphanage in Bogotá where she spent three years of her childhood so that she can find out what happened to her birth mother. While Luísa is in Bogotá, Harriet comes out as a lesbian and introduces her new partner Marty to her two other daughters: 14-year old Ana, also adopted from Colombia, and 7-year old Clare, Harriet’s birth daughter. Afraid of Luísa’s rejection of her new relationship, Harriet doesn’t tell her about Marty until Luísa returns home from her visit to the orphanage. Heartbroken that she still hasn’t found out what happened to her birth mother, and angry that Harriet didn’t tell her about Marty sooner, Luísa returns to Bogotá to continue her search. When Harriet falls seriously ill, however, she decides to travel to Bogotá with Marty, Ana and Clare to bring Luísa back to Toronto.

Characters

HARRIET: A school teacher and mother of three daughters, the first two adopted from Colombia. During the
course of the play she comes out as a lesbian. She ages from 44 to 46.

LUÍSA: Harriet’s eldest daughter, adopted from Colombia at the age of 10. She ages from 17 to 19. *We are
seeking an actor who identifies as Latina or Latin Canadian*

ANA: Harriet’s middle daughter, adopted from Colombia at the age of 7. She ages from 14 to 16 .*We are
seeking an actor who identifies as Latina or Latin Canadian*

CLARE: Harriet’s youngest daughter, not adopted. She ages from 9 to 11. *For Clare, we are seeking a girl who
is at minimum between the ages of 12 and 14, but can play younger. Previous acting experience is not
required*

Show Information:

Harriet’s House will be staged at Hart House Theatre in Toronto from June 24 – 26 2010. (Full availability of actors cast will be required from June 23 – 26 2010). Actors cast in the production will be provided with an honorarium (amount TBA).

Rehearsal:

Rehearsals begin in April on Thursday evenings and Sundays at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto.

Audition Information and Requirements:

Please email a head shot and resume to gaileyroad@gmail.com to arrange an audition time. Auditions will occur within the next two weeks at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. For the audition, actors are asked to prepare a one minute contemporary monologue. Actors may also be requested to do a cold read from the play at the audition. For girls that are auditioning for Clare, no preparation is required in advance of the audition.

Thank you for your interest! Please do not resubmit if you have already submitted for this production.

For more information about Harriet’s House and Gailey Road Productions please visit www.gaileyroad.com.

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 9: Our Image for Harriet's House

2010-03-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

This week Harriet's House graphic designer Lisa Rupchand completed the image that will grace our publicity poster, postcards and ad in the Pride Guide. The double tree image speaks to the multiple roots that ground Harriet's transnational adopted family and the vibrant colours speak to the vibrancy of their family. Look for the double tree image on our website: www.gaileyroad.com Our posters, postcards and ad in the Pride Guide are set to appear soon!

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 8: Our Community Support Campaign

2010-03-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

Last week was a busy week for Gailey Road Productions. As mentioned in my March 1 blog, the audition call for Harriet's House is now out. To view the call and express your interest in setting up an audition visit Work in Culture (www.workinculture.ca).

Last week the Sound Designer for Harriet's House, Dan Parker, came to town for a week to compose the sound track for Harriet's House. Jocelyn, Gillian and I had an opportunity to hear some early samples of what Dan was working on and were delighted with the music he composed and performed. Dan finished his work on Friday and he and I went to Hart House to hear what it would sound like in the theatre. We were really pleased with the results. We want to extend our thanks to Hart House Theatre General Manager Doug Floyd and technician Christopher Wilson for their assistance on Friday.

Our community support campaign begins this week. There are three ways to support our production of Harriet's House:

Become a Community Supporter! As a Community Supporter you will be able to promote the presentation of Harriet’s House through your organization’s social networks. This may mean passing on information about the play to members on your listserves or other social networking sites. In exchange for their promotion of Harriet House, all Community Supporters will be recognized in the program.

Become a Community Sponsor! As a Community Sponsor you will be able to support the presentation of Harriet’s House with discounted tickets to the show. Specifically, Community Sponsors will have the option of purchasing blocks of 15 tickets for $150. This represents a discount of $8.00 from each regularly priced ticket. In exchange for their support, Community Sponsors will also be recognized in the program.

Become a Community Partner! As a Community Partner you will have the opportunity to make a great contribution to the production of Harriet’s House. Community Partners are invited to support Harriet’s House with the purchase of a quarter of possible house sales (100 seats), a third of house sales (150 seats), or half of possible house sales (225 seats) at the price of $10.00 a ticket, also a discount of $8.00 from each regularly priced ticket . In return for their support, Community Partners will be recognized in the program and given space for a half/third/quarter page advertisement of their organization in our program.

If you are interested in supporting Harriet’s House please contact Monica Nunes, Assistant Producer at: monica.nunes@utoronto.ca

All the best,
Tara

Audition call for Harriet's House is now posted

2010-03-01T14:33:00.001-08:00

The audition call for Harriet's House is now posted on the websites of the following organizations: Theatre Ontario, Equity Showcase, and Work in Culture. Audition applications will be accepted until the end of March.

All the best,
Tara

Zero Tolerance Performance a Great Success

2010-03-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Our rehearsed reading of Zero Tolerance at Hart House last week was a great success. About 125 people attending the reading which was followed by an address by University of Toronto PhD candidate and Vice-Principal Dean Barnes. Topics that came up for discussion included how zero tolerance polices lead to the creation of a culture of fear in schools, the role of police officers or liaison officers in schools, and engaging students through critically relevant and responsive pedagogy. Our rehearsed reading of Zero Tolerance launched a new course in the Equity Studies program at New College at the University of Toronto, which is called Equity and Activism in Education. The course is intended to provide third and fourth year students enrolled in the Equity Studies Program an opportunity to spend some time in Toronto classrooms and learn about the ways teachers can be advocates and activists in schooling. The course will be taught by me next year and will include other guest teachers from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, including Lance McCready, Jeff Kugler and Nicole West-Burn.

All the best,
Tara

Zero Tolerance: A Performance on Safe Schools

2010-02-24T04:55:00.000-08:00

On Thursday February 25, 2010, from 3-5 pm at Hart House (The Great Hall), a group of University of Toronto students will perform a rehearsed reading my play Zero Tolerance for their classmates and the general public. The students are from three different programs at the University: the Equity Studies program at New College, the Public Health program and the Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development program at OISE (the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education).

Zero Tolerance is a research-informed play about creating safe schools in Toronto. The play is an adaptation of a task-force report called The Road to Health which was commissioned by the Toronto District School Board in 2007 following the shooting of CW Jeffreys student Jordan Manners. The rehearsed reading will be followed by a brief talk given by OISE graduate student Dean Barnes who is a vice principal at the Halton District School Board. Dean's doctoral work focuses on the use of peacebuilding programs to create safer schools. A Question and Answer discussion will follow Dean's talk.

Please join us at Hart House tomorrow, Thursday February 25, 2010 for the reading of Zero Tolerance. Admission is free.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 7: Getting our audition call ready

2010-02-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

Last week we had our second monthly production meeting of the year and focused on three main projects: the design of the image that will grace our poster and publicity materials, the writing up our audition call and our sponsorship/partnership fundraising campaign. Production and stage manager Gillian Lewis, intern Monica Nunes and I will meet later this month to finalize the wording of our call which will go out on March 1, 2010.

At the moment we're planning to post our audition call on the Canadian Actors' Equity Association website and with Theatre Ontario. We'll get in touch with Aluna theatre company and various local university and college theatre programs and ask them to post the call as well.

Plans for our sponsorship/partnership campaign will also be finalized at our next meeting. Details of this campaign will be described in a future blog entry.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 6: Arrangements with Hart House Theatre

2010-02-01T07:28:00.001-08:00

Arranging to produce Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre began with a visit to Doug Floyd, General Manager. Doug spent an hour and a half with me discussing the contract I was about to sign and explaining how things would work during our tech run and performance nights. Doug also reviewed how much different services would cost and helped me make good decisions about what I might need for the production and what I could do without.

Doug and I also spent a good deal of time talking about box office services, how Hart House Theatre charges the production company two dollars a ticket for selling their tickets, and what I could/be should be charging for our production of Harriet’s House. Here, Doug’s experience in theatre production at Hart House Theatre was very, very helpful. I settled on $18.00 a ticket (which would give us $16.00 a ticket) with a group rate of $15.00 for 10 or more tickets.

Tickets for Harriet’s House are now are sale and can be obtained at Hart House Theatre: uofttix.ca or 416-978-8849.

One of the advantages of producing Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre is that information about our play is now up on the Hart House Theatre website. We will continue to update our information as it becomes available. For example, we plan to put out a casting call at the beginning of March and hold auditions at the end of March. Once we cast the production, the names and biographies of the cast will be added to Gailey Road’s own website as well as the Hart House Website.

The Gailey Road production for Harriet’s House is meeting later this week to discuss budget, publicity poster design and auditions. I’ll report on our meeting in my next blog.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 5: Applying for funding

2010-01-22T06:51:00.001-08:00

There are two grants, with due dates of February 1, 2010, that we are applying for. The first is the Toronto Arts Council Theatre Projects Grant and the second is the Ontario Arts Council Project Grant. Both grants provide a small independent theatre like Gailey Road Productions with support to mount individual productions. The process of applying for the grants has helped crystallize our production plans making the task valuable to us even if we aren’t successful in securing funding. But, of course, we hope we are!

In my next blog, I will talk about the arrangements we’ve made with Hart House Theatre to produce our three-performance run of Harriet’s House.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 4: Creating a Publicity Plan-First Steps

2010-01-15T06:58:00.001-08:00

Website and blog site design
The first step of our publicity plan began with the design of the Gailey Road website (www.gaileyroad.com) and this blog site in October 2009. I designed the website myself on my Mac laptop with their software program iweb. I kept the design simple, and focused on having the website clearly describe the mandate of Gailey Road Productions, the founders of the company, and our productions. The blog was created to help Gailey Road reach out to other artists interested in women-centred, research-informed theatre and keep connected to the artists we’ve already worked with. The content of the blog site evolved organically and now focuses on five themes that move from the generation of new writing to professional development and networking opportunities to independent theatre production (see the entry on January 5, 2010 for a more detailed description of these five themes).

Step 2: Graphic Design work
Once I had the website and blog site up, the production team was ready to focus on the graphic art and design work for the publicity materials for Harriet’s House. We are currently working on coming up with an image that will attract audiences to the production and inform the design of the set. Once we have designed this image, we will design and print a set of posters and postcards to publicize the production. Meanwhile we have printed a set of “coming soon” postcards that we can used be used immediately.

The next steps of our publicity plan will be discussed in future blogs. In my next blog, however, I will turn to the process of applying for government funding for Harriet’s House.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House Episode 3: Becoming Part of the Toronto Pride Festival

2010-01-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

As a new Canadian play being produced by a small independent theatre company, I wanted Harriet’s House to be part of a larger arts festival to help build an audience. The play’s interest in international adoption in a same-sex family (see the blog entry on November 16, 2009 for a synopsis of the play) made the Toronto Pride Festival being held from June 26 to July 4, 2010 an excellent choice.

Acting on the advice of Doug Floyd, the General Manager of Hart House Theatre, Jocelyn Wickett (the Director of Harriet’s House) and I decided to choose the first weekend of the Pride Festival to perform Harriet’s House. The second weekend is the first long weekend of the summer, the weekend of the Dyke March and the Parade, and the first weekend of the Toronto Fringe festival. With that kind of competition for an audience’s attention, the first weekend seemed to be a better choice.

Our next step is to apply to the Toronto Pride Festival to become an affiliated festival event. Application forms are expected to be out in a week or two and I will describe the process of becoming part of the Toronto Pride Festival in future entries. However, in my next blog, I will continue the story of producing Harriet’s House with Episode 4: Creating a Publicity Plan.

All the best,
Tara

The Evolution of the Gailey Road blog site

2010-01-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

The Gailey Road blog site, which was launched in October 2008 and has been up for almost three months, has evolved to focus on five themes:

1. News about the theatre company itself, for example, last Monday’s introduction of Gailey Road’s new intern Monica Nunes.
2. The story of producing Harriet’s House which will be performed at Hart House Theatre this coming June, for example, next Monday’s story of becoming part of the Toronto Pride Festival.
3. News about professional development and networking opportunities for theatre artists and enthusiasts, for example, the theatre classes and workshops at Hart House listed in the December 28, 2009 entry.
4. Ideas about generating new writing for the theatre, for example, the November 26, 2009 entry on a playwriting group developed in Michigan.
5. Information and descriptions about contemporary research-informed theatre, for example, the entry on the Pastor Phelps project on December 8, 2009.

The blog also lists current women-centred, research-informed plays and productions I’m following.

The blog site has attracted an audience of theatre artists and playwrights interested in independent theatre production, professional development and networking opportunities, the generation of new writing and women-centre, research-informed theatre, both within and outside of Canada.

In my next blog, I will continue the story of producing Harriet’s House with Episode 3: Becoming Part of the Toronto Pride Festival.

All the best,
Tara

Introducing Gailey Road’s new intern Monica Nunes

2010-01-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

Gailey Road is continuing to mature as an independent theatre company and we are delighted to welcome its new Intern Monica Nunes to the company. Monica is a Masters of Public Health candidate at the University of Toronto specializing in Health Promotion and Community Development. She is very interested in using theatre and performance to disseminate research in the area of health education and will use her internship with Gailey Road to learn more about the creation and production of research-informed theatre. As a performer, Monica has been involved with productions for V-Day
Toronto, the Toronto Fringe, the Montreal Fringe, and the Toronto
Centre for the Arts.

In my next blog, I describe the evolution of the Gailey Road blog site and the audience it is beginning to attract.

All the best,
Tara

Theatre Classes and Workshops at Hart House

2009-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

In my last blog I wrote about Hart House Theatre, the theatre where we are going to produce Harriet's House in June 2010. I also mentioned that Hart House offers reasonably priced theatre classes and workshops for theatre artists and enthusiasts. Here is a list of theatre classes and workshops being offered this winter.

Theatre Dramatic Scene Study
The Art of Acting
The Art of Being Professional in Any Career
Improvisation
The Art of Giving a Speech or Presentation
Introduction to Voice and Speech
The Actor's Audition Technique
Clowning Around
The Shakespeare Experience
Musical Theatre and Opera
Creation - an Acting Class
The Organics of Acting for the Camera
Movement and Text

On-Set Experience For Actors & Directors
Actor's Introduction to Filmmaking
Director's Introduction to Filmmaking

For further information see: www.harthouse.ca/classes

All the best,
Tara

Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre

2009-12-18T10:39:00.001-08:00

It is very exciting that Gailey Road’s first production outside the Toronto Fringe Festival will take place at Hart House Theatre. The theatre opened in November of 1919 and became a leader in the Canadian “Little Theatre” movement of the 1920's and 1930's. During that time, Hart House Theatre cultivated and featured some of the country’s finest actors, directors, playwrights and designers of the Pre-World War II era, including Raymond Massey, Dora Mavor Moore, Lloyd Bochner, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Wayne and Shuster and Merrill Denison.  After the war, Hart House Theatre, under the direction of Robert Gill, became an extracurricular student theatre and for twenty years turned out a new generation of stage professionals. William Hutt, Don Harron, Kate Reid, David Gardner, Arthur Hiller, Donald Sutherland, Norman Jewison and Lorne Michaels all got their start treading the boards on the Hart House stage. I can’t think of a better theatre from which to launch Gailey Road’s Harriet’s House.

In addition to putting on its own full season each year (this year marks the theatre’s 90th anniversary) Hart House Theatre also offers a range of theatre classes and workshops (www.harthouse.ca/classes). In my next blog, I will provide of list of these. Registration for the winter courses starting in January is now open.

Producing Harriet’s House: Episode 2-Finding a Venue at Hart House Theatre

2009-12-14T06:32:00.001-08:00

My first attempt to find a venue began with the Al Green Theatre at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (JCC). I had produced Lost Daughter there during the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival and had a wonderful experience. Director Jocelyn Wickett and I already knew that we wanted to produce Harriet’s House during the Toronto Pride Festival and because the play featured a Jewish same-sex family, we thought that the Al Green Theatre would be an ideal theatre to approach. Although the cultural programmers at the JCC liked the play and wanted to discuss a partnership with us, the Al Green Theatre was not affordable for a small independent theatre company like Gailey Road. We had to look somewhere else.

I work at the University of Toronto as a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and decided to talk to Louise Cowin, the Warden of Hart House. Hart House is the Student Centre for the St. George Campus at the University of Toronto and a place that welcomes U of T faculty, staff and alumni as well as students. Hart House is also the home of Hart House Theatre, which is a focal point for the performing arts at the University of Toronto. Over a thousand students participate each year in its extra-curricular season of drama, dance, music and film.
Louise was pleased to discuss a partnership between Hart House and Gailey Road theatre and I am thrilled to announce that Harriet’s House, will take place at Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto on Thursday June 24, Friday June 25, and Saturday June 26, 2010. I am currently working with the General Manager of the Hart House Theatre, Doug Floyd, on setting up a contract. In my next blog, I will tell you a little bit about Hart House Theatre and its history.

All the best,
Tara

Research-informed theatre: The Pastor Phelps Project and Archival Theatre

2009-12-08T06:46:00.001-08:00

Last week I attended a performance of The Pastor Phelps Project: a fundamentalist cabaret, which was presented by The Centre for Urban Schooling in co-sponsorship with The Graduate Department for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. Written by director/playwright Alistair Newton from “found text”, the play is an example of “archival theatre”. Archival theatre, a term created by Newton, uses found text to create political theatre. The text of The Pastor Phelps Project was created from news reports, on-line material from Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, press releases, biblical passages, and quotations and transcriptions from Jerry Falwell, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, and The Tyra Banks Show. The piece also includeed religious spirituals and hymns, as well as song parodies such as “This Land is Fag Land”, and “God Hates the World”. Combined with music, dance, design and strong socio-political context, as it was in The Pastor Phelps Project, the use of found text created a powerful example of the potential to research-informed theatre to provoke dialogue and entertain at the same time.

All the best,
Tara

Research-informed theatre: Zero Tolerance

2009-12-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

In May 2007, 15-year old Jordan Manners was shot and killed in the hallway of his Toronto school. In early June 2007, the Toronto District School Board (2008) commissioned an investigation into school safety, which resulted in a four-volume 595-page report entitled The Road to Health.

In an attempt to provoke discussion about the report and its recommendations among teacher candidates and teacher educators at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education of University of Toronto (OISE/UT) where I work as a teacher educator, playwright and performed ethnographer, I adapted The Road to Health into a performance script entitled Zero Tolerance

In September 2008 Zero Tolerance was performed as a rehearsed reading for 500 teacher candidates at OISE’s Safe Schools Conference. The performers included a group of teacher candidates, a teacher educator, and three researcher and development staff members from OISE’s Centre for Urban Schooling. The performance was followed by a set of prepared responses from a panel that featured Vice-Principal and Ph.D candidate Dean Barnes from the Halton District School Board, one of OISE’s partner school boards; Bev Caswell, an OISE teacher educator; Jeff Kugler, the Executive Director of the Centre for Urban Schooling, and Charis Lo, a teacher candidate who had participated in the reading. A further two-hour discussion for audience members who wanted to discuss the report in some detail followed the performance. About 30 teacher candidates attended this discussion. The other teacher candidates attended workshops on peace building, conflict resolution, and peer mediation that provided opportunities to discuss practical strategies for dealing with some of the issues raised in the performance.

Zero Tolerance will be read again at the University of Toronto on February 25, 2010, from 3-5 pm at Hart House.

All the best,
Tara

Research-informed theatre: The Laramie Project Ten Years Later

2009-11-30T06:15:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite research-informed theatre pieces is The Laramie Project a docudrama written and performed by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Company in 2000. The Laramie Project tells the story of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old, in Laramie, Wyoming (US). Ten years after the murder, the Tectonic Theatre Company returned to Laramie to conduct new interviews with the subjects from the first play. The interviews focus on how Laramie has changed politically, socially, religiously, educationally and have been used to create a follow-up play to The Laramie Project called The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.

On Oct. 12, 2009, theatres throughout all 50 of the United States of America presented a reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. My friend and colleague Jeanne Haggard from Spalding University directed the stage reading at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where she is a doctoral student in the Fine Arts program. In her own blog entries about her experience directing Ten Years Later, Jeanne writes, “It was so humbling to know that we were reading the script at the same time Tectonic was reading it in New York, and [that] other theatres, universities, and high schools were also reading it all across the world. We were connected to the live pre-show feed from NY and saw Glenn Close, Judy Shepard, and Moisés Kaufman. Then everyone did their reading and hooked back up with NY after for the post-show discussion. All in all it was very exciting to be a part of theatre history because Tectonic accomplished something that had never been done in live theatre before. There were 150 locations participating in this event. It still gives me chills thinking about it - we rocked!”

In my next blog I will write about my own research-informed theatre project Zero Tolerance, which will be performed as a rehearsed reading at the University of Toronto in February. More entries on other research-informed theatre projects will appear regularly on my blog site.

All the best,
Tara

A playwriting group from Michigan (USA)

2009-11-26T07:58:00.001-08:00

In my last blog, I began writing on the topic of writing groups. Playwright Ann Eskridge, a colleague of mine from the MFA Playwriting program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky is founding member of a new playwriting group in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. “The Extra-Mile Playwrights Group”. Ann’s group meets regularly and in each session the members of the group take turns reading from the latest work and receive feedback from the rest of the group. The group members take turns facilitating the feedback sessions. Recently, taking its lead from award-winning playwright and Spalding faculty member Sheila Callaghan’s group 13P “The Extra-Mile Playwrights’ Group decided to develop staged readings and performances of their own works. You can follow “The Extra-Mile Playwrights Group” on Facebook.

All the best,
Tara

Generating new writing

2009-11-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

One of the most difficult things I face as a playwright is finding time to write each week. Having a submission deadline helps as does having an ongoing writing project to return to or a reading/production deadline. Generating new writing is particularly challenging. Last May, I joined a “writing practice” group in Toronto called The Moving Pen.

The group meets weekly and is run by writer Sharon Singer. Each week, Sharon provides the group with a prompt and we write to the prompt for a designated period of time, keeping our pens moving. Then, without editing our work, we read our writing to one another. Sharon believes that the process of writing, reading, listening, and being heard creates a “powerful alchemy” that supports both the creative process of writing and personal growth. The process allows us to uncover our uncensored inner voices, away from the restrictive demands of ego.

Sometimes my writing produces an interesting phrase or idea or dialogue that I can use in a piece I am currently writing. Sometimes it produces the beginnings of a new story or a new character or tells me something new about a character I’m developing. Sometimes my writing allows me to write out something that is bothering me, freeing up more psychic and emotional space for creative writing. Most importantly, writing each week with my Moving Pen group keeps me writing weekly. No matter what else I’m able to accomplish or not accomplish in a given week, I know that I’ve spent some time that week writing. For more information on Sharon Singer’s Moving Pen groups see www.sharonsinger.ca

In my next blog, I’ll continue writing on the topic of writing groups and tell you about my colleague Ann Eskridge’s playwriting group.

The International Centre for Women Playwrights: A Resource

2009-11-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

While I was at the International Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai at the beginning of November (see past blog entries for more information on the conference), I found out about a “virtual centre” for women playwrights that links playwrights to resources, professional development opportunities and publishing opportunities. The virtual centre is called the International Women Playwrights Centre (ICWP) and it can be visited at: www.womenplaywrights.org.

ICWP has members in: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, England, Iran, Israel, Germany, Mongolia, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Romania, Scotland, Serbia & Montenegro, South Africa, Uruguay and the USA. Playwrights interested in finding out what women around the world are writing about can use the link “find a playwright” and access biographies of over 500 women playwrights.

The Centre’s homepage includes information on its 2009 face-to-face retreat in Ohio (the USA); a list of ICWP members’ current productions and a call for submissions for 2010 publication of  an anthology entitled "Scenes from a Diverse World” (the deadline for submissions is November 30, 2009).

After reading the call, I submitted three scenes from my play Harriet’s House to the call. “Scenes from a Diverse World" will be published by ICWP in 2010 and marketed to an audience of teenage and adult student actors. Proceeds of the publication will go to ICWP, but feature playwrights will receive a complimentary hard copy of the anthology.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about my writing group, Moving Pen.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet’s House: Episode 1

2009-11-16T06:28:00.000-08:00

Harriet’s House, a play which Gailey Road plans to produce in June 2010 during the Toronto Pride Festival, is a contemporary drama that tells the story of two internationally adopted girls growing up in a same-sex family.

Synopsis of the play

Harriet has given her 17-year old adopted daughter Luísa permission to return to the orphanage where she spent three years of her childhood so that she can find out what happened to her birth mother. While Luísa works in the orphanage in Bogotá, back in Toronto Harriet comes out as a lesbian and introduces her new partner Marty to her two other daughters: 14-year old Ana who was also adopted from Colombia and 7-year old Clare who is Harriet’s birth daughter. Afraid that Luísa will reject her, Harriet doesn’t tell Luísa about Marty until Luísa returns home from Colombia to go to university. Heartbroken that she still hasn’t found out what happened to her birth mother, and angry that Harriet didn’t tell her about Marty, Luísa returns to Bogotá to continue her search. When Harriet falls seriously ill, however, she decides to take Marty, Ana and Clare to Bogotá to bring Luísa home. A meditation on mothering and daughtering, Harriet’s House examines how a mother and her three daughters negotiate the challenges and politics of international adoption.

Beginnings

Harriet’s House grew out of a series of 10-minute plays I wrote dramatizing moments or snapshots in the lives of two North American families who have adopted children from Colombia. The series is called Global Family and it spans a period of 7 years. The series portrays the challenges the two families face as they negotiate three family worlds: the world of their “Global Family” in North America, the world of the children’s birth country, Colombia, and the gay and lesbian worlds of two family members.

While each of the 10-minute plays explores an interesting moment in the world of transnational adoption in both straight and queer families, I decided that I wanted to explore some the themes that had emerged in the 10-minute play series more deeply than the genre of 10-minute playwriting allows. Using the language of the visual arts, I saw my 10-minute play series as set of sketches that were now able to inform a bigger painting I wanted to create. The sketches gave me a set of characters I could bring to life in a full-length play.

In August 2008, my partner Margot and I spent a week in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was the week after Family Week and there were still lots of same-sex families in town. Lots of these same-sex families were also mixed race families. White American parents were walking up and down Commercial Street with children who were adopted from Central America, Asia, or who were African-American or mixed-raced children. Most parents spoke English with their kids but once, while we were at the public library standing in line waiting for the bathroom, a mother with a daughter adopted from Central America asks us if she could go to the front of the line because it was “an emergency”. When we say yes, the mother spoke to the little girl in Spanish.

Later that night, Jennie McNulty, a lesbian comic from Los Angeles made the following joke: “There are a lot of Asians in Provincetown this week. They’re looking for their children.” The crowd was surprised. A few people laughed quietly, but most were silent, stunned that Jennie would go there. One man yelled out, “Oh, nasty.”

The politics of race and language and sexuality embodied in the mixed-race, same-sex families vacationing in Provincetown that week were alive and in our face. It was at this moment that I decided to write a full-length play about a same-sex, mixed-race family. That play became Harriet’s House.

Workshopping

About a year later, after a first draft of the play was completed, Gailey Road produced a four-day workshop that allowed me to explore the characters, themes and politics of Harriet’s House. The workshop was facilitated by Toronto Director Jocelyn Wickett, stage managed by Gillian Lewis, and archived by Amy Gullage. Collaborating Toronto artists were: Lara Arabian, Clair Alcott, Sochi Fried, Jorie Morrow and Sora Olah.

International feedback

As described in my blog entry on Thursday, November, 12, 2009, I had the opportunity to read several scenes from my play Harriet’s House at the International Women’s Playwright Conference in Mumbai, India. The feedback I received from my colleagues inspired a new set of revisions of the play.

Next steps
The next steps in producing the play involve finding a venue. The story of this step of the process will appear in Producing Harriet’s House: Episode 2.

All the best,
Tara

Highlights from the International Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai

2009-11-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve just returned from the IWP conference in Mumbai, India, where I had the opportunity to read several scenes from my play Harriet’s House. Harriet’s House, which Gailey Road is planning to produce in June 2010, is still a work in progress and the reading in Mumbai gave me the opportunity to solicit feedback from women playwrights working in Norway (Kristin Bjorn), India (Hina Siddiqui), New Zealand (Denise Walsh), Australia (Fiona Wheeler), the United States (Vanessa Adams-Harris), as well as Canada (Beverly Cooper, Marcia Johnson, Gaily Nyoka, Sally Stubbs, Margot Huycke).

Inspired by what I learned about my characters and my story from the feedback I got from reading, I’ve begun revisions of the play and look forward to developing the work further when it goes into rehearsal for its production in June. An on-going, report of my journey of producing Harriet’s House for the Toronto Pride Festival will begin on this blog next week.

Here are some of the highlights I experienced at the IWP Conference in Mumbai:

• Meeting the other Canadian delegates, reading the plays they brought to the conference, and hearing about their latest projects. See the list of the “Productions I’m Following” and the “Plays I’m Reading” for more information on some of the terrific work being done by Canadian women playwrights.

• Meeting other women playwrights who are also running their own theatre companies. I spent several breakfasts talking to Anne Bertram who is the Managing Director of Theatre Unbound in St. Paul, Minnesota (www.theatreunbound.com). I also spent some time during dinner talking to Suzy Messerole, who along with Amir Siddiqui, is running Exposed Brick Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota (www.exposedbricktheatre@yahoo.com).

• Meeting women playwrights from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Phillipines and hearing about the ways that they have integrated their work as playwrights and theatre artists with their activism to improve the lives of women their communities. The panel discussions on “Theatre of Social Change” and “The Pain and Pleasure of Women Directors” were particularly rich.

• Finding out about an organization called the International Centre of Women Playwrights (ICWP) (www.womenplaywrights.org) which is a social and professional network and support group for women playwrights around the world.

• Hearing Katherine Thomson’s keynote entitled “Politics in Theatre” in which she discussed the way she embeds political issues into her plays by focusing on the creation of characters that have freewill and can provide multiple sides of a political arguments. A “dramatist first, and activist second”, Katherine spoke about wanting to write great roles for great actors. “With the right actor, we get more than we can ever imagine.”

In my next posting I will begin the first of an ongoing set of postings on the journey of producing Harriet’s House.

All the best,
Tara

The International Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai

2009-10-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

The International Women Playwrights Conference which takes place once every three years is being hosted this year by Stree Mukti Sanghatana, a women's issues organization in collaboration with the University of Mumbai, who is providing its three theatre spaces for a variety of playreadings, workshops and performances.

The conference, which begins November 1, 2009 and runs until November 7, 2009, has a delegation of 11 Canadian women playwrights attending: Beverley Cooper, Trina Davies, Christine Estima, Tara Goldstein, Jordan Hall, Robyn Israel, Marcia Johnson (The Playwrights Guild of Canada's Chair of the Women's Caucus), Melissa Major, Gail Nyoka, Carol Sinclair, and Sally Stubb. All of the Canadian playwrights will be reading from one of their recent or new plays. Beverley Cooper will be reading from her play Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott, which was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award.

I'll be reading from my newest play Harriet's House, a play about international adoption in a same-sex family. The play was workshopped this past July with five Toronto women theatre artists and Gailey Road is planning to produce the play this summer at the Toronto Pride Festival.

I am very excited about attending the conference which will include a number of performances by Indian women theatre artists. My next posting will appear after my return from Mumbai and will report on some of my experiences there. I anticipate being able to share a wealth of information about women-centred, research-informed theatre that is going on in India and other parts of the world.

All the best,
Tara

Gailey Road: What we do

2009-10-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Gailey Road is interested in social issues that impact on the lives of women. We work to ensure our work attracts women from a wide variety of communities in Toronto. Our first Fringe production Pound Predators was a satirical parody about the “war against weight” and featured a multicultural cast. Our second Fringe production Lost Daughter was a historical drama about antisemitism and xenophobia in 1933 Toronto. Lost Daughter won the 2005 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Award. Our current project Harriet’s House is a play about transnationally adopted children growing up in a same-sex family. It will be performed during the Toronto Pride Festival in June 2010.

I am taking the latest draft of Harriet's House to the 2009 International Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai, India. Some 300 Indian delegates will meet 100 of their international colleagues at this meeting of women playwrights. There are 11 Canadian delegates going to the conference to present play readings of their latest work and I am doing a play reading of Harriet's House on November 5, 2009.

About 150 theatre artists will also attend the the conference to stage more than a dozen scripts written by women. The conference will take place from November 1-7, 2009. For more information on the International Women Playwrights Conference and the organization behind it, Women Playwrights International, go to: http://www.wpinternational.net

In my next blog I will write about the Canadian group of playwrights who are going to the International Women Playwrights Conference and when I get back from the conference I will post a set of entries about the conference itself.

All the best,
Tara

What is Gailey Road?

2009-10-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Gailey Road Productions was founded in January 2007 by Toronto playwright and educator Tara Goldstein and currently involves Toronto director Jocelyn Wickett and Toronto Production and Stage Manager Gillian Lewis. Our company produces women-centred, research-informed theatre on issues of pluralism, social identity, violence and oppression in Canadian society.

My next post will tell you about our productions.

All the best, Tara