About the Plays:

Three on the Boards is a goldmine for actors seeking three-person plays. In plays for three actors, everyone is fighting their own battle in a sharp-cornered ring, which flings them together and then apart. Subtitled New Plays for Three Actors, these seven plays from writers across the country paint a dark and mainly urban picture of Canada in the first decade of the new millennium. Love is variously celebrated and thrown away – as is tolerance, as is hope. Many of the characters are running as hard as they can away from themselves. At the same time, they are endearing, caustic, funny, and very human.

Three on the Boards features full-length and one-act scripts for three actors written by Canadian playwrights. Selected by editor Kit Brennan, the plays in the volume represent various production options; they have appeared on the main stage, in alternative theatres or non-traditional theatre spaces, at the fringe, and as a scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops.

Three on the Boards includes:

• Curtsy by Brian Drader: Randolph Gitz is a Professor of Human Studies. His partner, Dillan Ramsey Delaney Azumu Thunderhoof LeFray Smith, is an inter-sexed crack addict obsessed with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Bart Fidel is a young male hustler who dreams of the perfect boyfriend, the elusive Danny Boy Kane, a bisexual biker who was responsible for bringing down an entire chapter of the Hell's Angels in the largest drug raid in Quebec's history. Life imitates art as Dillan's feverishly imagined reworking of "The Heart of Darkness" weaves itself in and around the real time story of three lonely people all at the mercy of their own self-destructive obsessions. Dark and comic in tone, at its heart, "Curtsy" is a love story. (First produced in 2005 at On the Verge Festival, Ottawa, Cast: 3 male)

• In the Yichud Room by Joel Fishbane: At a traditional Jewish wedding, the "yichud" occurs right after the ceremony, during which the bride and groom are isolated for a period of reflection and prayer. When Amy and Sutler are sequested in their yichud room, however, things go awry after the father of an old girlfriend arrives bearing news from Sutler's past. (First produced in 2004 Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival, Toronto; Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

• Suicide Notes by Kenneth T. Williams: The story of a homeless woman who writes suicide notes for random passers-by on the street, the play explores that intense need that writers possess to create; and questions the assumptions of what actually constitutes credible literature. (First produced in 2004 at Factory Theatre in Toronto; Cast: 2 female, 1 male)

• Canada House by J. Karol Korczynski: Deals with a trio of have-nots in the beverage room of the title. They find their lives intertwined in ways that ultimately don't do them any good. (First produced in 2004 at Theatre Pas Muraille in Toronto; Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

• Starter Home by Katherine Koller: Vanessa and Wayne are in love and want to move in together. They find the perfect starter home
for rent, but they're not so sure about the landlady. (First produced in 2001 at Jagged Edge Lunchbox Theatre in Edmonton; Cast: 2 female, 1 male)

• Three Dogs Barking by Frank Barry: A cop, a crook, and a shrink, walk into an interrogation room... So opens the file of 3 Dogs Barking; a 70-minute thriller that pivots on a false confession and the complex relationship between a cop and a criminal. The drama plays out as psychologist Dr. John St. John tries to unravel the hideous circumstances of Jim Larkin's past arrests and the link between him and his rival Constable "Big Ted" Coveyduck. (First produced in 2003 at The Masonic Temple in St. John's; Cast: 3 male)

• Purity Test by Scott Sharplin: Three people are trapped by the weather. Robin is looking for a story for a magazine. Maude for experience. Kat for love. (Cast: 2 female, 1 male)

About the Editor:

Kit Brennan was born in Vancouver and grew up in Kingston, Ontario. She currently lives in Montréal, where she co-ordinates the playwriting program for the Concordia University Theatre Department and was the playwright in residence at the Centaur Theatre. Her plays have won the Canadian National Playwrighting Award and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Literary Award.