About the Plays:

Breakout contains five plays by young emerging playwrights who tackle themes of forgiveness, teen suicide, self-image, cultural assimilation, and rum running on the prairies.

The plays that came to the attention of Winnipeg-based playwright and actor Brian Drader either through the Young Emerging Playwrights Program run by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights (MAP) and Prairie Theatre Exchange; a high school program called PlayBlitz; or the Winnipeg Fringe.

To Forgive, Divine is a drama by Joseph Aragon that challenges the Christian principal of redemption. A Catholic mother and daughter suffer from a crisis of faith when the jailed killer of their son/brother requests to meet them. (Staged at the Ontario Drama Festival; Cast: 2 women, 1 man).

Shades of Brown is a drama by Primrose Madayag Knazan that uses the Filipino immigration experience to explore cultural assumptions, interracial dating, racism, and that elusive sense of belonging that we call home. (Staged twice at the Winnipeg Fringe; Cast: 3 women).

The Good Daughter is a one-act drama by Ginny Collins that dives deep into the delicious genre of black comedy, exposing a highly dysfunctional family of three women running rum in 1930s Saskatchewan, as two sisters battle their hilariously malevolent mother. (Staged at the Winnipeg Fringe; Cast: 3 women, 1 man).

PACT is a drama by David Ferber about five teens who all have a reason to commit suicide. Painfully truthful, PACT dares to expose teenage angst and all its terrifying, frustrating and awkward moments with a darkly hilarious, disturbing, and ultimately hopeful effect. The play becomes a powerful insight into young minds and relationships. (Staged at the Winnipeg Fringe; Cast: 3 woman, 2 men).

pyg is a short, one-woman show by Rose Condo that tells the funny and touching story of one woman's struggle with loneliness. It follows the dating tribulations of its Bridget Jones-like heroine, who concludes that she is better off being herself than trying to live up to the relentlessly inauthentic feminine ideals our culture's media imposes on us. (Staged at the Winnipeg Fringe; Cast: 1 woman).

Breakout takes you on a journey through the minds of five young and vibrant voices, capturing the angst and humour and heart of a generation of playwrights grappling with that precipice between the teen years and adulthood.

About the Editor:

Brian Drader is a Canadian actor, writer, dramaturg and artistic administrator. He has acted in over seventy professional theatre productions across Canada, as well as numerous films, television projects, and radio dramas. His plays have been produced in Canada, the United States, and Europe. He served as the Director of Playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montréal from 2004 to 2017, and is presently the Executive Director of the Manitoba Association of Playwrights.