Posted March 15, 2024

Behind the Scenes – Scirocco Drama HS Playwriting Program

Brian, I’m wondering if you might like to give an overview of the program for people who are not familiar with it.

Brian Drader: Yeah, for sure! The program is now in its 24th year. It started in 2001, as an initiative to give our young people an opportunity to explore writing for theatre, and it sort of took off in that first year. It has evolved over the years, but at its core, it’s remained the same, which is supporting high school playwrights through a development process, towards a share with an audience. It gives participants an opportunity to explore what it means to rewrite. We all know writing is rewriting, but this program allows them to explore what it means to rewrite and to continue developing their plays. And then the playwrights discover how it influences their relationship to the work when it actually has that final, vitally important component, which is, “Oh, here’s the audience!”

In its present incarnation, each of the playwrights is assigned individual dramaturgical support. This year, Will is working with Scott Douglas, a local professional playwright. Last year, he worked with Katie German, also a local professional theatre artist. The playwrights in the program work from draft to draft. At the midpoint, we do a little workshop so that they can actually hear it and then get back in there, continue with their dramaturgs. Now—and this is a very important element for me—peers work with peers, which means that the student playwright is working with student actors. Not to be ageist, but it gives the playwrights freedom in talking to their peers about their work as opposed to talking to old people like us. There’s so much more freedom when you take the power structure out of it so that they’re not surrounded completely by older professional people. We were connected with Prairie Theatre Exchange for many years, but they have since moved on from their school programming, so this will be our second year working with Manitoba Theatre for Young People. It’s a terrific relationship, and of course, they have a huge school and young company. So we work with them on the casting of the workshop, and then we also work with them on the final share; we present at the MTYP Theatre with MTYP students and the share is open to parents, friends, anyone that wants to come.

So that’s somewhat of an historical overview, focusing on where we’re presently at with the program. And I would offer that I think one of the reasons the program has survived and thrived for 24 years is that it is adaptable. We are constantly, every year, looking at what serves the young playwrights best; they’re always at the centre of it and the focus of it. That adaptability has provided the engine for not only sustaining the program, but sustaining it in a really healthy and very contemporary and current way.

Thank you very much, Brian; that’s great. Daniel, I wanted to ask you about your role as coordinator. Can you tell us some specifics about the program?

Daniel Thau-Eleff: Let me first pick up on what I thought Brian was going to say. I agree that those are all reasons that the program has survived. And this program has also survived thanks to Scirocco’s support. You’ve been sponsoring us for 24 years! And I know that Brian has a list of the artists who came through this program as high school students who are now established theatre professionals in Winnipeg. So thank you, always, for your support. It is very welcome.

It’s our pleasure—we’re very proud to sponsor the program!

Daniel: I’m the associate managing director here at MAP. That’s a new role, but I’ve been program coordinator for a number of years. We take submissions from all over the province; some teachers make this part of their curriculum, and some give the students bonus marks for entering. Some teachers just say, “Hey, this is an opportunity,” and students like Will apply. We have a panel here: khBrian and I, and we bring in one external person, and the three of us go through all the scripts and evaluate them just like the Manitoba Arts Council or other assessment panels would. We evaluate which scripts are showing promise, which scripts are going to benefit from what this program has to offer. And then I have the wonderful job of contacting the students to tell them they’re in and to describe what the program is. As Brian was saying, it mirrors a professional play development process. When I’m developing a play of my own, it can be developed over many years, but with this program we fit the process into one year. It makes sense to make it a small and manageable process where they write their first drafts and are accepted into the program based on that. We usually have 3 or 4 playwrights per year. This year we have three; last year we had four—it varies a little bit from year to year just depending on what gets submitted. When I started, we had one dramaturg to work with everyone, and we’ve moved towards matching a dramaturg to the play and playwright. (We have two in the program this year; that also varies a little from year to year.) The playwrights and the dramaturgs have an initial meeting to talk about their script, then they go back and rewrite their second draft. And that’s when we bring in the MTYP students to do a table read, a reading and discussion of the script with the playwright and the dramaturg and Brian and/or myself there. And then based on that, they go into another rewrite for their third draft. And then we do a presentation towards the end of the school year, where they invite their friends and family, and the student actors can invite people as well. We of course shifted onto virtual presentations for a few years, but last year we were back in the theatre, and we’re looking forward to that again.

Can you give us an idea of the timeline, Daniel? When do you invite submissions?

Daniel: The call for scripts goes out in the fall, November, with a deadline of mid-January. We get all the scripts mid-January, and we notify the playwrights mid-February. The first orientation meeting is in March, then the workshops are mid-April. And then the final presentation is in May or June. This year it’s going to be a little earlier in May.

I have lots of questions for you, Will. The first one is: why do you like to write for the theatre?

Will Green: Basically, I’ve always had a passion towards writing; I love English and writing is something that has always really connected with me. And I find I’m just really connected to the intimacy of the theatre. With films, I find often it can get a little too perfect, whereas I’m really drawn towards the one long stream, the one production. Everyone knows their lines. They’re all together putting this on, it’s an event. Theatre allows for such great spectacle, like in MTC’s [Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s] Clue, but also such intimacy, like in The First Métis Man of Odessa in the Warehouse. It’s such a broad medium that it really connects with me personally a lot.

Do you have a favourite play or a favourite playwright?

Will: I’ve really only started playwriting seriously, like the past 2 or 3 years when I found out it was a possibility, around the same time that I submitted my first play to the Scirocco program. And since then I’ve read a bunch of plays. I’ve really, really enjoyed classics like A Streetcar Named Desire. But also I’ve read Ian Ross’s Bereav’d of Light recently. That was really awesome, just like, the different approach. I really enjoyed Twelve Angry Men; it’s twelve characters, one room; never cuts, never changes. It’s one conversation about the life of someone and what it means in the justice system. In Bereav’d of Light, it’s just four characters and it’s such a simple encounter…I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but I find it’s often those ones that are sort of adjacent to the mainstream, not quite absurdist, but those are the ones I like. I also really loved The Waltz, at PTE [Prairie Theatre Exchange] this year.

Now I want to ask you about your plays, Will. You had one that went through the program last year. Can you tell us a little about it?

Will: Yeah. Some time ago, I got the opportunity to interview my grandmother about her life story. And then the idea came up of how to write it down, how to make it into a play. My drama teacher suggested that. And so I interviewed my grandmother over a couple of summers. And after the first summer, I wrote up the first act of this play and I put it into the Scirocco/MAP program.

It’s a way of honoring the family parts of me that I haven’t been able to otherwise. I’ve also been able to actually record these interviews, so I can maintain them for longer. Also, the more I go into it, the more I find how much it’s changed my life. Because my grandmother, she’s Indigenous, and she really separated herself from the Indigenous life for what she saw was more advantageous, better for the family. But now I don’t know anything about it really. My dad, for as long as he has been around, he thought he was Cree, but apparently he’s Oji-Cree! Like, oh wow. So it’s also a way of trying to reconnect to that, to try to shed light on that aspect of it. Over this last summer, I’ve been expanding it to a full play, which now I’m going to have the opportunity of performing in my school and directing.

Were your family members able to come to see the performance last year of the play?

Will: They did, actually, yeah. My grandma came and along with some cousins and other people, it was really awesome.

What are you working on this year? Is it similar or different to last year’s play?

Will: It’s quite different. Something that I’ve found in my writing that is a kind of a hole I’ve been trying to address is comedy. I feel like if I want to write a joke, I don’t know quite how to do it. I’ve been watching comedies and reading comedic plays, trying to understand how to write a joke. So this year, I’ve written an absurdist comedy of sorts. It’s about a prison where it’s better than everywhere else just because you get free food, you get free showers, you get all your free time to yourself. I find it really funny, but it is largely because it’s my sense of humor, I guess.

Will, what is it like for you, handing over your work to a group of actors?

Will: I find it doesn’t really click into place until the actors are in the room because when I’m sending out the script I’m just sending another email. But I remember last year, getting to the table and my play was printed out—like, wow. And the actors all come in and they’re all here specifically to perform my play. And I’m not entirely sure the reason, but for the final presentation, some of the original actors at the table read weren’t able to make it, so MAP hired professional actors to do it instead. So that was really special. But also, it’s a really good place to plug up holes. I know what the dialogue means, but then suddenly someone else is reading it and it’s not so clear, or the wording is clunky, and I just never heard it because so much of writing is a solitary process.

It’s really cool, but also really nerve-wracking in a really kind of fun way. Overall, I really like it, just because it really feels like something. It’s real. You can feel like, “I’m a writer. This is the real thing happening.”

Could you talk a little bit about your relationship with the dramaturg?

Will: Last year I had Katie German, who was really quite excellent; I couldn’t have asked for a better dramaturg. She was so invested and so helpful. She’s just such a positive force for giving criticism in the most light way: “What about this?” Just asking the questions. And it was absolutely invaluable. She was incredible to work with. And this year it’s Scott Douglas. I’ve really found the dramaturgy process just invaluable; to have someone, a pro, right there to give you feedback, to validate the things you’re writing, to push you into the right direction. It’s been incredible.

Does anyone want to add some final thoughts?

Brian: What I would like to say is: Will, you’re awesome. Thank you. I just love hearing you talk about your process and talk about your relationship to your own writing. And you’re just so articulate and so heart-centred and you’re awesome.

Will: Brian, you’re awesome. I should also state how helpful Brian has been throughout the process of me getting advice about where I wanted to go for post-secondary, and then how to approach different aspects of writing my play. He has been incredible as well.

Daniel: Question for Will: So the play that you developed with the program last year, and that you’re now putting on through your school. Is that what you’re holding auditions for today?

Will: Yeah. Yeah. Auditions today and tomorrow. We’re planning for it to be onstage sometime in May, at the school’s improv stage; it’s a smaller room but I think that’ll be really good for the play I’ve written.

Which school, Will?

Will: Vincent Massey Collegiate.

Brian: From the program perspective, there’s not really anything else to add. Our focus is so much about the student playwrights and Will has spoken so eloquently about that. As Daniel mentioned before, there are quite a number of past participants over the years who have gone on to careers in the arts. I know Will’s passion and intent is to continue to pursue this. Fantastic. We have a past participant from the Scirocco Drama High School Playwriting Program in the PTE/MAP professional Playwrights Unit right now. And so there’s all of that. But of course, the student doesn’t have to go on to a career in the arts to benefit from the program. I think any young person who is encouraged to tell their own story and is supported in that will benefit and grow from the experience. And so there’s that great wide umbrella that keeps our passion for the program going. It is completely, utterly lovely when past participants actually do go on to careers in the arts. But the intent behind it is broader and deeper than that, in terms of giving young people a chance to tell their own stories.