Readings

PGC PlayConnect Reading: ​The Giant’s Garden 

Written by Peter Fenton and Scott White

​At Scotiabank Stage
Saturday, June 1 at 10:00am - FREE
Suitable for audiences of ALL ages.

This will be an entertaining, interactive, musical and fun 45min. 
 
There will be a short question and answer segment after the reading AND DOOR PRIZES!

Synopsis:
​Deep in The Deep Dark Forest, hidden beyond The Stream of Sorrows and Sinking Spirits lies The Giant’s Garden – a place forbidden to outsiders. But when Giant goes away, the children sneak in to play, and for seven years their idyllic world has been undisturbed ... until today. Today Giant is coming home. Today, a young boy's courage is going to be tested. And today a battle will take place which could lead to a world devoid of warmth. The Giant’s Garden is a tale of bravery, the importance of friendship, and the power of love, featuring a cast of 15 colourful characters, a score filled with memorable songs and a story that will warm the hearts of children and adults alike.

www.thegiantsgarden.com/
Door prizes for the reading have been generously donated by:
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Playwrights Unit Readings: Mary Irwin (excerpt) and Gum Drop Mountain

With apologies, we will be postponing these readings until later in the year.

Playwrights Unit Readings: Rock n Roll (excerpt) and Downed Hearts

At Scotiabank Stage
​Wednesday, June 5 at 8:30pm - PWYC
Excerpt from Rock n Roll Saved My Life by Sam Horak

Synopsis:
​Samurai Swordz, a self identified “rock star”, recounts her struggles through university with mental health issues and the moment during a breakdown where she nearly checks herself into a psych ward. As she struggles to present the show to the audience, her boyfriend, Rock 'N' Roll personified (a metaphor for the patriarchy) hijacks the show for his own amusement. Samurai Swordz must find confidence in herself and overcome the trauma from her youth to regain control of the show. Dealing with a sexual assault, a toxic relationship and misogyny in music, Samurai Swordz finds her voice by joining a feminist punk rock band and discovers how to use her past trauma to fuel her art.
Downed Hearts by Catherine Banks
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Synopsis:
​Ten days after an air-sea disaster, an island fisherman struggles to recover from the aftermath of his participation in the rescue-turned-recovery operation of a downed jetliner. Aaron’s mental fragility is compounded by his wife's recent decision to take their special needs son to live off island so that he will get better schooling. Aaron, determined to regain his mental equilibrium, boards his small boat and heads out to where he feels most at peace, on the ocean. When, hours later, he returns to shore with a young mute woman the question foremost in everyone’s mind is, who is she, but more disconcerting to Aaron’s mother, Pearl, and Amanda, could Aaron really believe he has found a lone survivor?

PGC PlayConnect Reading: For the Love of Gracie Gray by Andrea Boyd

​At Scotiabank Stage
Saturday, June 8 at 4pm - PWYC
Synopsis:
​For the Love of Gracie Gray is a tender and quirky love story. An early-middle-aged woman lives alone and is focused on her relationship with her younger brother, Tim, an odd fellow who struggles to understand the people around him. Gracie is vulnerable and overly generous, with an imagination that changes the reality of her world.

Gracie and Tim play board games twice a week. A tragic accident when they were children has placed the blame for their father’s death on Gracie, and her resulting lifelong dedication to caring for her brother has left her isolated. Despite her circumstances, magical things happen in her world: autumn leaves fall in her apartment, TV personalities crawl out of television sets, fur coats come to life and eat cookies...

Gracie has an overwhelming desire to save the world, and when a newly elected ultra right-wing government stops funding everything, Gracie’s need to help the poor, the marginalized and all the abused dogs in the city leads her into poverty and despair. Meanwhile, her neighbour, Frank, an unemployed factory worker, becomes entwined in their lives after accusing Gracie of stealing his internet. A relationship based on oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ensues, and ultimately their need to connect overcomes layers of secrets and fear.

Reading: ​The Gun Shop by TH Hatte

At Scotiabank Stage
Saturday, June 8 at 8:30pm - PWYC
Synopsis:
​“The Gun Shop” is about the power and the mystique of the gun. It is also about three characters at the crossroads between freedom and catastrophe. Each needs the gun to believe freedom is possible. But to choose the gun, is to choose, catastrophe.  

Jake the Gun shop owner; soldier, outlaw, and death whisperer has finished dictating his visionary book “The Law Of The Gun” as a way to face his fear of death, and justify the guilt he feels about his past. His meaningful death will prove that his understanding of life, death and the power of “the gun”, gained through paying the “ultimate price was not in vain.  

Mail handler Mike, Jake’s ‘last customer’, hasn’t made a personal decision since he was a kid. He desperately wants something different, than digital freight handling.  

Roxy, Jake’s reluctant heir, becomes the gun’s metaphysical agent, at the “crossroad,” between freedom and catastrophe. She has given up on men, love, and almost everything and ultimately, can only survive through becoming a living understanding of “The Law Of The Gun.”