...The Black Voice...

 

THE OBSIDIAN THEATRE COMPANY 

International Playwrights Forum

 

Oct. 31, Nov. 1 & 2, 2008
$5 Registration Fee
 
In collaboration with Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage, The International Festival of Authors and Theatre Passe Muraille.
Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts Equity Office Stand Firm Creative Capacity Program and TD Bank Financial Group
 
The Obsidian blog is named Nsaa after an Adrinka symbol that represents excellence and authenticity. The symbol evokes a stylized weaving of fabric and through these separate threads we can create a new whole. As we move away from the old classifications of race and culture we now have the opportunity to knit together different strands to create a new cultural cloth.

The International Playwrights Forum will bring together playwrights of many cultures to share their experiences and their art. During this three day event, through a series of talks, master classes and play readings playwrights from Toronto will build bridges with playwrights from the United Kingdom and the USA.
 
The IPF is a unique opportunity, to not only learn from different cultural perspectives but to be inspired and challenged as artists.
 
Confirmed Playwrights:

Velina Hasu Houston {USA}
Dr. Houston is of Japanese, Blackfoot Pikuni Native American Indian, and African American heritage and is Professor of Theatre, Director of Dramatic Writing, Associate Dean of Faculty, and Resident Playwright at the School of Theatre, University of Southern California, where she founded the graduate playwriting program in 1990.  Her play Tea, has become a hallmark of her work with numerous productions around the globe including U.S. nationwide, Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, nationwide radio in Japan, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.


 
Kwame Kwei-Armah {UK}
Kwame Kwei-Armah is a member of the advisory board for the MA in Creative Writing (plays and scripts) at the City University London. Kwame was writer in residence at the Bristol Old Vic, 1999-2001 where they produced his drama A Bitter Herb (awarded a Peggy Ramsey Bursary). His play 'Elmina's Kitchen' premiered at the National Theatre in May 2003, and won him the London Evening Standard Charles Wintour award for 'Most Promising Playwright' in November 2003 and was also nominated for the 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards for Best New Play of 2003.


 
Migdalia Cruz {USA}
Migdalia Cruz has written more than forty plays, operas, screenplays, and musicals including: Salt, Featherless Angels, Miriam’s Flowers, Another Part of the House, and Frida: The Story of Frida Kahlo.  Her work has been produced across the U.S. and abroad in venues as diverse as Houston Grand Opera, National Theater of Greece’s Experimental Wing (Athens), Old Red Lion (London.), Latino Chicago Theater Company, INTAR & Playwrights’ Horizons (NY), Foro Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz/Centro Hellenico (Mexico City), and Cornerstone (L.A.).  Among her awards: a Kennedy Center New American Plays award, a PEW/TCG Residency, three Sundance residencies, a McKnight Fellowship, and two NEAs.