Daniel is an award winning playwright as well as an actor, director, and teacher. His plays include MacGregor’s Hard Ice Cream and Gas (Playwrights Canada Press), Velocity (Oberon Books, UK), A History of Breathing (Playwrights Canada Press). He has also written several plays with and for high school students and his devised play Blind Love was performed by high school students at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Other plays include Johnny Zed! The Musical! (The musical), Mercy, and Radiant Boy. His play, Bang – which he is also directing – will premiere at Persephone Theatre in Spring 2016. His plays have been produced across Canada and in the United States. Recently his play Velocity received its American and European premiere in New York and London, England. He has been short-listed for the National Carol Bolt Award for Drama, twice short-listed for Regina and Saskatchewan Book of the year, is a two-time recipient of the City of Regina Writing Award and winner of the Enbridge PlayRites Award. Daniel is also an award-winning improv coach and teacher. He has acted in numerous films and TV series over the years and is a two-time recipient of the SYMPIA Award for acting.  He was also co-creator and director of the independent film series Redemption, SK. He is current president of Playwrights Canada Press and serves on the national forum of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. He is currently Artistic Associate at Persephone Theatre.

The NotaBle Acts Theatre Company invites current and aspiring playwrights and directors to take part in a free workshop on playwriting and directing with our 2015 Playwright/Dramaturge in Residence, Daniel Macdonald. The workshop will take place on Saturday, July 18 from 10-4 (with lunch break) at Carleton Hall, UNB. To register and for more information, email Daniel at macdan@sasktel.net

Read on for a full description of the workshop.

 

NotaBle Acts Playwright in Residence        Playwriting/Directing workshop

NotaBle Acts is pleased to be able to offer a workshop in playwriting, directing, and devising by Playwright in Residence, Daniel Macdonald.

In this rapidly changing world of art and theatre, a theatre artist must be versatile, malleable, and willing to adapt and thrive in the truly multi-disciplinary world that is theatre. This means that aspiring theatre artists should consider the notion that play creation does not exist in one discipline but in several.

Daniel’s talk/workshop will look at all facets of theatre creation and will explore the very question of why we are compelled to do theatre and what good theatre actually is. It will explore the essence of strong, dramatic playwriting and the increasing role directors play in the final product. Finally, it will examine the nature of devising and present ideas on how to devise a work of theatre using a collaborative model of exploration and play-building without a script.

Questions for discussion and exploration:

Playwriting

• Why write a play?
• What is “dramatic structure”? Does it matter?
• What does a playwright’s career look like?
• What does it take to be a really good playwright?
• How do you publish? Why do you publish?
• Playwrights will also be encouraged to ask specific questions about their own work and struggles.

Director

• What is the role of a director?
• What are the challenges a director faces?
• How does a director work with a new play and playwright?
• How do you direct a play in rehearsal? What techniques can you use to illicit better performance from actors?

Devising

• What is devising?
• When/how does it work?
• Why devise a play rather than just write it?
• What are some techniques you can use to begin devising?
• Why is devising such a current hot technique/method for new play creation?

Several practical exercises will also used to give concrete examples of some of these techniques and concepts.