Part of our 47th season: THE VILE AND THE VIGILANT

MARCH 24TH - 29TH, 2026

SPRINGBOARDS:

A NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

Workshop West’s signature yearly new play festival celebrates playwrights and their plays, inviting audiences to get up close and personal with the creative process. The festival features readings of plays in development with just enough sound, light, and staging to spark audiences’ imaginations.

Springboards is an exciting convergence of local and national theatre artists, with readings, talk-backs, discussions, classes, and cabarets that hot-spot the electrifying Canadian theatre of tomorrow.

THE SPRINGBOARDS NEW PLAY FESTIVAL LINE UP!

All shows start at 7:30pm and take place at
The Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd)

  • By The Women’s Script Writing Circle
    An evening with some of the most provocative, funny, talented and delightful women in E-town! Grab a glass of vino and be the first to hear an array of tasty bits from new works by Ellen Chorley,  Linda Grass, Sue Huff, Sandy Paddick, Amanda Samuelson, Heather D. Swain, Michelle Todd, and Linda Wood Edwards, read by the women themselves! Directed by Heather Inglis.

  • Alberta Playwrights’ Network and Workshop West are joining forces again this year to bring you the winners of this year’s EDMONten playwriting competition. Selected by a blind jury of Edmonton notables, these five new scripts will hit the stage for the first time in a tantalizing evening of the unexpected… The event is a Springboard's favourite celebrating the rich buffet of talent our city offers. Watch for the upcoming announcement of this year’s winners! Directed by Charlie Peters.

  • By Elyse Roszell & Josh Greyvenstein

    We’re always on the hunt for who will write the next big Canadian hit, and these two new writers could just be the ticket. Join us for a double of the works by Elyse Roszell and Josh Greyvenstein and boast you saw their work first.  Meet Brijesh Nagarathinam the Artistic Director, University of Alberta’s New Works Festival and get the skinny on two of the most promising up and coming playwrights from the 2026 festival. 

  • By Ramneek Singh
    What started as a “dumb food project” from Edmonton-born Punjabi food writer, Ramneek Singh, exploded into a two-year, and fifty-restaurant expedition across the city in search of the best butter chicken, attracting media attention and a cult following in its wake. From epic restaurant disasters, to finding the beating heart of the dish, this one-man show is fun, flavourful, and will leave you hungry for more! Dramaturged by Collin Doyle.

  • By The Edmonton Playwrights’ Circle
    The annual Springboards Cabaret explodes out of bounds and behind the scenes. Get up close and personal with a series of short plays written for and performed in the nooks, crannies and hidden spaces of the The Gateway Theatre. Written by the participants in the Edmonton Playwrights’ Circle, you won’t want to miss this one of a kind theatrical adventure. Directed by Ron Jenkins.

  • Co-created by Lauren Boyd & Michael Clark
    Opera, drama, and Shakespeare meet in this daring new work from the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. If there was a monster in your house, would you know? That is the question when tragedy strikes and a mother’s shock and grief force her to ask if she knows her own home. In a swirl of warnings, rumours, and mistakes the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Co-created by Lauren Boyd and Edmonton composer/musical director Michael Clark, this scintillating evening will be directed by David Horak.

Write Here, Write Now!

And write on March 22nd! We’re calling all writers to join The Writers’ Guild of Alberta and Workshop West in an all-day writers’ retreat to ignite your imagination and get those words flowing. Led by award-winning writer Conni Massing, you’ll explore creative prompts, and exercises to shake loose stubborn drafts, discover new ideas, and play with possibilities! Bring your poems, novels, or scripts - this playground is for everyone!
Price: Sliding scale from $20-$40
Deadline: March 20, 2026

The workshop will be held at The Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd) from 10am - 4:30pm with lunch provided.

Have a look at last year’s festival HERE!

Why Heather choses Springboards: A New Play Festival

“The Springboards New Play Festival is a small but mighty force in the cultural life of our city and our province. It is the perfect expression of Workshop West’s raison d’être, and it is one of our key platforms to develop new plays towards production while implicating our audiences in the process. At Springboards, audiences are given a backstage pass into the world of playmaking, linking them to creators and their creative processes. Edmonton’s exciting and robust theatre community rallies around playwrights and their plays in an exciting week of the best new plays you’ll hear anywhere..”

-Heather Inglis
Artistic Producer, WWPT