2021-2022 Season

We are proud to announce our 43rd season, DARING GREATLY, which includes programming featuring stories by Canadians about Canadians. We find ourselves in exceptional times. Demanding times. Times that require us to examine ourselves, dig deep, push beyond what has become comfortable, and to ‘DARE GREATLY.’ Workshop West’s 2021-2022 Season is about taking the risks we need to take, to grow, and to evolve.

Metronome by Darrin Hagen

A NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL JOURNEY BY EDMONTON LEGEND, DARRIN HAGEN

Produced by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre.

Dates: November 11 - 21, 2021 | PG 13: Parental Guidance — some mature content.

Location: Backstage Theatre.

The WORLD PREMIERE of an autobiographical origin-story by award-winning Edmonton playwright/performer/historian Darrin Hagen. Metronome is about falling in love with music, and the very special Ennis & Sons piano which changed Darrin’s life. From growing up queer in small town Alberta, through his move to the ‘big city’, the play follows Darrin’s journey through discovery, loss, and heartbreak as he recounts the story one of the most beautiful and influential loves of his life: his piano. This brand-new, home-grown work by an Edmonton tour-de-force affirms the importance and power of music and storytelling to unite and transform us, making it an ideal antidote to the trials of all things pandemic.

Creative Team:

Darrin Hagen - Playwright

Heather Inglis - Director

Beyata Hackborn - Set & Costume Design

Adam Turnbull - Lighting Design

Ian Jackson - Multi-Media design

Jason Kodie - Sound Design

Gina Moe - Stage Management

Chris Hicks - Production Management & Technical Direction

Press:

“Metronome is music to the ears.” - Sarah Dussome, Broadwayworld.com

“Metronome also makes clear what any kid involved in the arts, whether small town or big city, knows instinctively: that music can save lives.” - Tom Murray, Edmonton Journal

“It’s Hagen’s poetic coda to a lively first-hand account of how art can be a life-changer. He himself, actor and playwright, is the tangible proof. It feels earned, and it’s moving.” - Liz Nicholls, 12thNight.

Edmonton Journal Preview.

Liz Nicholls / 12thNight Preview.

Radio Active Preview.

Poster Design / Season Graphic Design by DB Photography.

Production photos by: Ian Jackson / Epic Photography

Video by: Ian Jackson / Epic Photography

Poster Design / Season Graphic Design by DB Photography.

Press:

“The festival, an inspiration of the 1990s, has a storied history at Workshop West. And it’s played a tangible part in expanding the Canadian theatre repertoire. Plays by such premium Canadian playwrights as Conni Massing, Brad Fraser, Collin Doyle, Kenneth Brown, can trace their roots back to Springboards past.” - Liz Nicholls, 12thNight.ca

“Featuring 23 Edmonton playwrights and 33 Edmonton actors, this play festival centres Edmonton creators.” - Jin He, Gateway Online.

“Be in the audience when Edmonton playwrights show off their new works. After over a decade, the Springboards New Play Festival is back for six days, and welcomes audiences to view staged readings of plays that are still works-in-progress.” - Katrina Turchin, EDIFY Magazine.

Springboards New Play Festival - IT’S ALIVE

Produced by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre

Dates: March 22 - 27, 2022

Location: The Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd, NW)

NOT-TO-BE-MISSED READINGS OFFERING A PEEK INTO THE HEART OF A PLAYWRIGHT’S CREATION PROCESS

Workshop West is excited to relaunch the popular Springboards New Play Festival this March inviting Edmonton audiences to play a vital part in the creation of Edmonton’s hot up-and-coming works in progress. This 6-day, small-scale festival, will feature staged readings of plays in development in a welcoming cabaret setting, showcasing Edmonton’s playwrights in a series of not-to-be-missed readings, and workshops which offer audiences a peek behind-the-curtain into the heart of a playwright’s creation process.

FESTIVAL STAFF:

Heather Inglis - Festival Programmer

Darrin Hagen - Festival Dramaturg

Brian Bast - Festival Design Facilitator

Festival Lighting - Roy Jackson Design

Paul Morgan Donald - Festival Sound Designer

Betty Huslak - Festival Stage Manager

Chris Hicks, Max & Erin Birkenbergs- Festival Technicians

Galen Hite & Bevin Dooley - Production Assistants

Betty Huslak - Festival Administrator

(Click the images below for show-specific teams)

Tell Us What Happened

World Premiere by Michelle Robb.

Produced by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and Theatre Yes.

Dates: May 11 -22,

Location: The Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd, NW)

A FAST-PACED DRAMA ABOUT FRIENDS, THE INTERNET, AND HOW WE CAN BOTH KNOW AND NOT KNOW THE PEOPLE WE LOVE

We are pleased to present the WORLD PREMIERE of one of the Alberta Playwriting Competition’s Novitiate Prize winning plays in 2020, by Michelle Robb. Tell Us What Happened is a fast-paced drama about friends, the internet and how we can both know and not know the people we love. Charlie and her two roommates have been running a secret online girl group: ‘Tell Us What Happened’, which boasts over 400 members. Tensions rise when members realize they have all been sexually mistreated by the same young man — and Josh happens to be Charlie’s best friend.

‘TELL US WHAT HAPPENED’ - SOMETIMES THAT’S THE HARDEST ASK

Creative Team:

Michelle Robb - Playwright

Heather Inglis - Director

Featuring - Gabby Bernard, Matt Dejanovic, Michelle Diaz, Bonnie Ings, and Jameela McNeil.

Brian Bast - Set Design

Ian Jackson - Multimedia Design

Whittyn Jason - Costume & Lighting Design

Kiidra Duhault - Sound Design

Murray Farnell - Fight Coach

Lora Brovold - Assistant Director

Betty Huslak - Stage Management

Chris Hicks - Production Management & Technical Direction

Db Photography - Poster and Photo Design

Dramaturgical Consultants - Lora Brovold, Darrin Hagen, Mukonzi wa Musyoki, Liam Salmon and Colleen Murphy.

Poster Design / Season Graphic Design by DB Photography.

Press:

"By the end I found I’d been clutching my reading glasses so hard in one hand I’d bent them out of shape."

"This new play is impressively fearless."

Read the Review by Liz Nichols, 12night.ca

“Tell Us What Happened artfully fits in enough to keep us talking for the next 10 years.”

Read the Review by Tom Murray, Edmonton Journal.

“Everyone agrees that we need balance, complexity and nuance. We all know it in person, and we all forget about it online."

Read the preview by Liz Nicholls!

“That’s the kicker for the internet, it’s able to immortalize the past.”

Read the Preview by Liane Faulder.

“They’re from Afghanistan, Chile, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Vietnam, Ukraine. They’ve had major journeys to find a life in Canada. And they’re part of what it means to be Canadian.”- Preview by Liz Nichols, 12thNight.ca

The Shoe Project

Produced by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre in Association with the National Shoe Project.

Dates: June 18 & 19

Location: The Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd, NW)

AN EDMONTON CHAPTER OF A NATIONAL INITIATIVE AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF IMMIGRANT AND REfugee women

Whether selected by choice or imposed by circumstance, the shoes we wear can make or break a journey, shape our experiences, and open doors to the future. The Shoe Project is a national initiative that amplifies the voices of Canadian immigrant and refugee women through storytelling. Workshop West brings the second installation of the Edmonton Shoe Project chapter live to Edmonton audiences.

The Shoe Project is a very special two-evening performance event which enables women learning or improving their English to tell their stories of their arrival and adaptation to Canada, with writing mentorship, voice and performance coaching provided by a team of theatre professionals.