Since 2000, The University of Alberta has been hosting the New Works Festival, held in February. The festival encourages the development of new plays written by both graduate and undergraduate students, and gives them a taste of the professional world by teaming them up with a full cast, a designer, and dramaturge, and a director, and helping them work towards a final production.
Putting the Power in the Students’ Hands
One of the most exciting and unique aspects of the New Works Festival is that almost every element of the five-day event is planned and run by students at the U of A. Everyone who is involved is still learning, which makes for a safe and comfortable atmosphere, and everyone also has professional mentors to whom they can go for help when they need it.
Student directors work with their casts (made up of drama students) to prepare these new scripts, which come to life with the help of student designers and dramaturges. They even fundraise for their own event, which as of now has a small budget shared by all productions (courtesy of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts).
How Can You Get Involved?
The festival accepts play submissions in the autumn, which are reviewed by a panel of judges. After the selections have been made, playwrights are paired with directors and dramaturges (also hired via the submission of resumes) to help them develop their scripts from the first draft to the production draft. And after pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into their work for a number of months, each play gets three performances to show off their skills to an eager audience.
The Events of New Works
This year, everything begins on February 10, with the New Works opening night gala. From February 10-15, you can check out a number of plays, ranging from Pamplemoussy by Elena Belyea and City Tensei by Evan Smith to a new adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra by Morgan Smith, directed my MFA directing candidate Jeff Page.
The New Works Festival takes place in the Second Playing Space at the Timms Centre for the Arts (on the University of Alberta campus). All events cost $5 – at that price, there is no excuse to miss out! Check out the New Works Festival webpage for more information. They also have a group page on Facebook, where you can stay up to date on submission deadlines, casting calls, and festival scheduling.
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