Fredericton summer theatre festival NotaBle Acts is looking to support New Brunswick-based artists through new playwriting incubator.
Matt Carter
New play development has always been at the heart of Fredericton’s NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival. Each summer the two week festival celebrates the work of new and emerging New Brunswick playwrights through a range of productions that include everything from quick 10 minute plays performed outdoors to fully staged, fully produced works of theatre. All participating playwrights are also treated to one-on-one dramaturgy sessions and workshops to help strengthen their craft and their existing work.
While the winter months are usually left to planning and dreaming about the coming summer festival, organizers are breaking tradition this year by launching NotaBle Stories, a new playwriting project aimed at encouraging new voices to try their hand at writing a play.
Participating playwrights will be guided by NotaBle Acts Board member and playwriting instructor Anthony Bryan and through a combination of lectures, conversations with people in the community, and biweekly meetings, applicants will given the opportunity to connect, ask questions, and provide feedback on each other’s work.
NotaBle Acts aims to reflect the diversity of New Brunswick writers and particularly welcomes applications from artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, persons of colour, LGBTQ2IA+, and members of other marginalized communities.
Playwrights will receive an honorarium for their participation. The deadline to pitch your play idea is February 13.
Application Information
Application is informal – simply email nbacts@unb.ca by February 13 with an idea for a story that you think would be suited to developing into a play, along with some background information about yourself. Subject line should read “Your Name – Application.” The program aims to capture those with a degree of creative vision but with minimal-no prior experience in playwriting specifically. However, if applicants wish they may include samples of work from other mediums such as poetry, painting, or film.
The first meeting will be via Zoom on February 19, with the program running until April 30.
