Now in its 16th year, ReACT: New Plays in Progress showcases new works by Canadian playwrights, read aloud by a company of actors.
After each reading, audience members are invited to take part in a discussion with Bill Millerd (Artistic Managing Director) and/or Rachel Ditor (Literary Manager), and the artists. This year’s notable playwrights are Marjorie Chan, Raul Inglis, Kevin Loring, Tracey Power, Deborah Williams, and Sherry Yoon.
Though the public readings are free of charge, RSVPs are required as this popular event typically sells out. Tickets can be secured at artsclub.com/new-works/react.
SCHEDULE OF FREE READINGS AT ARTS CLUB’S GOLDCORP STAGE AT THE BMO THEATRE CENTRE
• Monday, October 24, 4 PM (by invitation only)
Glory, by Tracey Power
The year is 1931 and Canada is in the middle of a full-blown depression. For a group of small-town softball players, the end of a successful season only makes matters worse. At the old Lowther Street Arena, the Schmuck and Ranscombe sisters fear the impending winter months… unless, they were to fill them with a different sport. The Preston Rivulettes Hockey Club is born and the team embarks on a journey that would change their lives, and women’s hockey, forever.
• Thursday, October 27, 7:30 PM
The Stranger, by Raul Inglis
Based on the Orson Welles film of the same name, The Stranger is a tense film noir set in 1946. A United Nations war crimes investigator, Mr. Wilson, tracks down Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler, who is hiding in plain sight in an idyllic New England town. Can Wilson expose Kindler’s identity as a murderous monster before his true nature reveals itself?
• Friday, October 28, 7:30 PM
You Are It, by Deborah Williams and Sherry Yoon
What does friendship mean, and what is it worth? How do we construct our relationships, and do they serve us? In this reading, women come together and explore such questions, exposing the drama and comedy inherent in all our relationships.
• Saturday, October 29, 7:30PM
Thanks for Giving, by Kevin Loring
John and Marie-Anne are twins but they couldn’t be more dissimilar. Not intending to steal each other’s thunder, they’ve chosen this Thanksgiving to disclose their personal truths to the family, but old wounds endure even as new ones are inflicted. The table is set and the main course is historical trauma, but the dessert is pumpkin pie. Let the war begin!
• Sunday, October 30, 4 PM
Lady Sunrise, by Marjorie Chan
Inspired by the classic 1935 play Sunrise, by Cao Yu, a pioneer of Western-style naturalistic drama in China, Lady Sunrise is a contemporary re-visioning that imagines the women of the original in a Canadian context, tightening the lens on the female characters and recasting them as diasporic Asians in Vancouver who struggle to survive at all costs.
