Infinitheatre's THE PIPELINE Reading Series Set for 12/4-8

Every year Infinithéâtre proudly presents Québec's newest discoveries in The Pipeline, an annual series of free public play readings where the audience takes centre stage. Guy Sprung, Infinithéâtre's Artistic Director, invites the public to catch the excitement and share their views from Wednesday, December 4 - Sunday, December 8 at Bain St-Michel. The theatre will feature two new plays, including the two prize winners of the Write-On-Q! playwriting competition, two works in development originally introduced at Infinithéâtre including a musical with top-notch Montreal musicians, as well as a guest reading from young company, Brave New Productions.

In its ongoing mandate to discover new Québec works to bring to the stage, six years ago Infinithéâtre initiated an annual writing contest, Write-On-Q!, which garners scripts from all corners of the province. The winning and runner-up scripts are selected by an independent jury, chaired this year by the respected Maureen Labonté (Co-Director of the Banff Playwrights Colony and a highly respected dramaturge, teacher and translator who is the Jury Chair for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre).

The now popular writing competition draws submissions from first-time playwrights, students and established writers, including the cream of the crop of Québec playwrights. Artistic Director Guy Sprung is delighted with the over forty entries this year and invites audiences to hear some of Montreal's finest actors read scripts that could become future local productions. For Sprung, all four plays deserve to be produced, "Infinithéâtre has some hard choices to make in the coming months." The company hopes to broker the plays to other theatres and line up valuable co-productions. Sprung continues, "Because new Québec work is our focus, The Pipeline reading series has become a vital step in the process of developing new plays and making programming choices for upcoming seasons. Audience reaction is absolutely key to this event. Where else can Montréalers participate in the creative process as we continue to produce relevant, Québécois theatre?"

The Pipeline readings this year include the winner of the first place Write-On-Q! $3000 Pam Dunn Prize; Andrea Boyd for For the Love of Gracie Gray, and $2000 runner-up prize winner; Oren Safdie for Boycott This! (the jury deemed the play so noteworthy that it received the added $500 originally allocated for the third-place prize). The other three scripts in this year's five-day reading marathon are: Joel Fishbane's A Place in the Country, and David Sherman & Nancy Lee's musical, Lost and Found. Both A Place in the Country (which merited second place in last year's competition) and Lost and Found (after a two-day run in April) are being presented for the second time after considerable script development. Brave New Productions' guest reading of Fear Liath by Michael Mitchell rounds out the series.

Please see below for details about each play and its author.

The Pipeline gives the public a unique opportunity to voice their opinions and directly influence Montréal's cultural landscape through lively talkback discussions- an important part of any play development- following each reading. Providing invaluable input for the playwrights, talkbacks allow the audience to address questions or issues that the texts generated in a relaxed, open forum with the authors, directors and actors.

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