By Spencer Sterritt

Aspiring playwrights get the chance to peek behind the curtain

Mar 16, 2018 | 5:16 PM

NANAIMO — Amateur playwrights in Nanaimo have the chance to see their plays come to life.

Western Edge Theatre opened the call for short play scripts, the best of which will be produced for later this year.

Artistic director Brian March told NanaimoNewsNOW it’s about showing the larger complexities of staging a show.

“I think a lot of writers write something, maybe submit it and that’s the end of it. But we want to help them learn what it takes to actually produce a play.”

As a playwright himself, March said it’s weird and surreal to see the images you had in your head become something very different on stage, after the words are interpreted by actors and the scenes are guided under the direction of someone else.

CONCENTRATED HOUSING

Single-family builds down in Nanaimo while denser housing units increase

4h ago

HOUSING TARGETS

Nanaimo named in new group of communities for provincial housing targets

17h ago

unprovoked attack

Vulnerable man blasted with bear spray in quiet Nanaimo neighbourhood

19h ago

It’s an experience he and the theatre company want more to have, “rather than just write a script and hope somebody will pick it up and produce it. (The) percentage of that happening is pretty low, to be quite honest.”

The goal is to have at least two plays performed twice over a weekend after the plays are selected this summer.

March said while there is a limit of an hour on the scripts they’ll consider, there’s no minimum. There’s no rules about subject matter or style, as long as they could be reasonably produced given the resources available to the Western Edge Theatres.

The call for scripts is open until April 30.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit