Solo Chicken Productions and The NotaBle Acts Theatre Company are excited to announce that they will be partnering to present the coop’s inaugural work, A Record of Us, as the feature mainstage production of the 2016 NotaBle Acts Summer Theatre Festival. Performances will take place at The Fredericton Playhouse, July 20-23 2016. This co-production marks an exciting opportunity for both companies, whose mandates share the common goal of supporting the work of New Brunswick artists.

A Record of Us, which was created and directed by Lesandra Dodson and Lisa Anne Ross and features a cast of five emerging New Brunswick artists, is a physical exploration of what it means to be a New Brunswicker that fuses text and movement together in a series of living snap-shots. Using the text of celebrated New Brunswick author David Adams Richards as the catalyst, the company has built a performance that evokes the raw beauty, the enduring humour and the hardscrabble realities of this province.

The NotaBle Acts Theatre Company has been staging a festival of new plays by emerging and established New Brunswick playwrights annually since 2002. When NotaBle Acts Artistic Director Len Falkenstein proposed the co-production, Solo Chicken’s Lesandra Dodson & Lisa Anne Ross jumped at the opportunity. Ross shared that; ‘The artistic aim of NotaBle Acts is perfectly in line with the mandate of the coop and provides us with the wonderful opportunity to premiere our inaugural work at one of New Brunswick’s most esteemed festivals.’ In turn, Falkenstein noted that ‘NotaBle Acts exists to stage exciting new work by New Brunswick theatre artists that speaks to the condition of our province, and we’re especially thrilled to work with Solo Chicken to help produce a play that takes the innovative form of physical theatre as part of that exploration.’

the coop, launched in the spring of 2015 by Solo Chicken Productions, is a performance collective for professional artists to research, develop and perform original works of physical theatre that supports the artistic growth of emerging NB artists through training and performance opportunities. Coop company members Jean-Michel Cliche, Alex Donovan, Ian Goff, Alexa Higgins and Lexi McCrae, led by Dodson and Ross, began creation of A Record of Us in May 2015 through residencies at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre and St. Thomas University. The company will begin a technical residency at The Fredericton Playhouse this spring that will afford them not only the time and space needed to continue to develop the work in the space where it will be performed, but also the opportunity to utilize the theatrical expertise the Playhouse and their technicians have to offer.

For more information, contact: Lesandra Dodson – the coop Co-Artistic Director – lesandra@solochickenproductions.com / 506.238.5205
Lisa Anne Ross – Solo Chicken Artistic Producer –   lisa@solochickenproductions.com / 506.238.5440

www.solochickenproductions.com

NotaBle Acts Theatre Company

Len Falkenstein – Artistic Director – lfalken@unb.ca / 506.458.7406

In 2014 NotaBle Acts introduced its high school playwriting competition. Inspired by the quality and quantity of submissions we’ve received to our high school competition, NotaBle Acts is now launching an Elementary School Competition as well. Outlines of both are featured below:

High School Competition

Maximum # of winners to be selected: 1

The winning playwright will receive:

• $200 cash prize
• Free tickets to the 2016 NotaBle Acts Summer Theatre Festival
• Script support (dramaturgy) from an established Canadian playwright; previous dramaturges have included Don Hannah, Colleen Murphy, Jenny Munday, and Ryan Griffith.
• Active involvement in the production process (mandatory—see note below)*
• A workshopped reading* of the play at the 2016 summer festival: this includes dramaturgy, venue space, publicity, director, and actors
• A full production of the play at a later date.

Length of plays: 30-50 minutes

Maximum # of actors: 4

Elementry School Competition

Maximum # of winners to be selected: 1

The winning playwright’s class will receive:

• $300 cash prize
• Script support (dramaturgy) from an established Canadian playwright; previous dramaturges have included Don Hannah, Colleen Murphy, Jenny Munday, and Ryan Griffith
• Active involvement in the production process (mandatory—see note below)*
• A workshopped reading* of the play at the 2016 summer festival: this includes dramaturgy, venue space, publicity, director, and actors.

The Runners up’s class will receive:

• Classroom Book Bundles

Length of plays: 20-30 minutes

Maximum # of actors: 4

Staging Comments: The content in the winning plays must be school appropriate and cannot feature any copyrighted material such as full songs, etc. Preference given to plays about a social justice issue. The winning plays will be produced as workshopped readings as part of the festival’s main stage offerings: the play will be assigned a dramaturge and director and will be cast for a full in-character reading with minimal stage directions and lighting effects.

* In the case of every play chosen for presentation at the festival, it is essential that the winning playwright be accessible in May and June for early revisions and able to attend rehearsals and productions in July. The winning playwrights need not be in Fredericton for this entire time period but should be accessible via phone or email when they are not.