Cambium Playwrights Workshop
Led by Dramaturg Adam Corrigan Holowitz
APPLY HERE

Generate creative ideas and build technique with an eye to the sky!

Calling playwrights, aspiring playwrights and those with an interest in playwriting.

The Cambium Playwrights Workshop is returning for its second installment. In the first workshop twelve writers penned extraordinary short plays, including two of the plays being further developed and produced by AlvegoRoot Theatre. 

In this workshop playwrights will be given a research file on a wide range of birds. The playwrights will write a short play inspired, either directly or indirectly, by a bird in the file. This will serve as the creative focal point for the playwright from which a broad range of ideas can be generated. The play can be based on historical research, or drawn from personal connections, or be fictional.

Playwrights will have the option to write their play either as a monodrama or a dialogue for two voices. In the first session, idea generating techniques and the creative focal point will be shared. In the following sessions playwrights will share their works and progress. Adam will offer dramaturgical questions and facilitate the conversation between the playwrights. Playwrights will have the opportunity to explore writing monologue. and dialogue.  In all four sessions Adam will share playwriting concepts and techniques. 

We welcome participants with any level of experience in playwriting. In fact we believe the success of this workshop will come from having a group that includes everyone from experienced playwrights to people who have an interest in writing for the theatre but have yet to try it.

In this workshop we will focus on generating creative ideas and the multitude of ways a playwright can render those ideas into a dramatic work. This is a technique building workshop. Playwrights will write a short full dramatic work (as opposed to an isolated scene) so that the playwrights can apply techniques holistically.

We are hosting this workshop on Zoom to make it as accessible as possible to playwrights throughout Southwestern Ontario. Playwrights of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Artists living in Southwestern Ontario will be given priority, but playwrights from other regions are welcome to apply.    

If you are interested in participating please include in your application, why you are interested in being part of this workshop. Applications are due by June 20th at 11:59 PM. 

IMPORTANT DATES
To participate you will need to be available Monday evenings from 
7:00 - 9:30 pm to meet via Zoom on:
Monday July 7 
Monday July 14
Monday July 21 (half the playwrights will share works in progress) 
Monday July 28 (half the playwrights will share works in progress) 

Monday August 4th (last chance for playwrights to send drafts for dramaturgy)
Saturday September 13th at 2:00 PM (public presentation)

You should also be able to dedicate some time each week to writing and creating outside of the session time. 

MORE ABOUT THE PUBLIC PRESENTATION
The plays developed in this workshop will be read by members of the AlvegoRoot ensemble in a public presentation on Saturday September 13th at 2:00 PM at The Manor Park Memorial Hall in London Ontario. Admission is free with a donation to the Manor Park Food Bank. The venue is fully accessible.

ABOUT THE DRAMATURG 
This is a free of charge educational workshop, where you will be able to participate in writing workshops and receive dramaturgy from Adam Corrigan Holowitz. Adam is a graduate of the theatre department at York University where he studied new play dramaturgy with Professor Judith Rudakoff and received the Iris Turcott Memorial Award for Dramaturgy. As a dramaturg he has recently worked with Kydra Ryan on her plays County Fair (premiered 2024) and Of Gods and Machines (premiered 2021) and Patricia Nacamoto on her play The Fig Tree (premiered 2024). Adam teaches playwriting courses and workshops to theatre artists of all levels ranging from post-secondary institutions to elementary schools to professional and community artists.

Adam practices a deep commitment to non-prescriptive dramaturgy which he has learned through both formal training and practical work. This process begins with developing an understanding of the unique creative goals of each individual playwright and offering questions and provocations which open creative doors for the playwright. 

Adam is the founding artistic director of AlvegoRoot Theatre. AlvegoRoot is a professional theatre which for seventeen seasons has supported the development of local plays and playwrights; and presented local stories on stage.

Cambium:
The cambium is a growth layer of the tree making new cells during the growing season. The cambium is what makes the trunk, branches and roots grow thicker.

From Medieval Latin, meaning change or exchange.