Opera Briefs at Tapestry New Opera

As a result of participation in Tapestry New Opera’s Composer-Librettist Laboratory (LibLab), three mini-libretti by Katherine Koller were performed September 21, 22 and 23, 2012, at Opera Briefs. Featured in the program were: “Where is Ava?” (Katherine Koller, librettist; Ivan Barbotin, composer), Andrea Ludwig as Chloe, Keith Klassen as Eddie, Geoffrey Sirett as Matt and accompanied by...

Abby’s Place wins Sussex Radio Competition

Abby’s Place was read in June 2012 at the Sussex Playwrights’ Club, U.K., as an award winner in the 2011 Radio Play Competition.  The judge for the competition was Paul Moriarty, who praised the sparse dialogue in the script. Readers’ notes said “the dialogue was often witty” and the script was “well structured.” The piece was “given an excellent reading, with Giles...

Damsels of the Night

In its annual tradition, Citie Ballet winds-up its season with a delightfully original story ballet. Damsels of the Night (Les Demoiselles de la Nuit) is inspired by Jean Anouilh’s original idea from the 1948 ballet of the same name, and features excerpts of the original score by stage and film composer Jean Francais. But the formerly tragic tale been completely re-imagined as a comedy. Citie Ballet’s production...

Short Plays on Health Ethics

On Feb 2, 2012, Katherine Koller gives a talk on her Short Plays on Health Ethics at the Arts-Based Research Studio, University of Alberta.

Voices of the Land: The Seed Savers and Other Plays

Voices of the Land: The Seed Savers and Other Plays are plays about transformation in the western Canadian landscape:  prairie, lake and woods. An element of the natural world is present in each play, not only as setting, but as character, sometimes voiced by the human characters, sometimes not, but always present.  These plays, which range from romantic comedy to drama, and from one-act to full-length, show...

Magpie at FemFest

Nan Fewchuk, Karl Thordarson and Adam Charbonneau in Magpie; Photo by Janet Shum “Magpie” is my third play to be produced at FemFest, following ”Cowboy Boots and a Corsage” in 2003 and “Abby’s Place” in 2006. These three plays share roots as original radio drama scripts for the CBC, which I later adapted for the stage. An audio clip from the 1995 CBC national broadcast of “Magpie” featuring Valerie Pearson is...

Art Lessons

“Art Lessons” is a short story first published in Alberta Views, Sept 2011.  It is one of a cycle of stories tentatively titled Kaleidoscope about the development of a young girl, from childhood to adulthood, as an artist.  Her first fiction, “Art Lessons” is featured in the September issue...

FemFest 2011: Staging Inspiration

A stellar line-up of work has just been announced for FemFest 2011, our ninth annual festival celebrating female playwrights. We are particularly excited to be welcoming international guest artist Zena Edwards from England. She will perform her new work Traveling Light, conduct a workshop exploring the intersection of poetry and drama, and meet with emerging artists. In addition we will be welcoming touring shows...