Musical Theatre Workshop

And Then They Sing: Musical Theatre Bookwriting

• Instructor – Nick Green

June 6, 2026
10:00am – 1:00pm
Citadel Boardroom
Ticketed Event: $50 + GST

There’s a lot more to musicals than jazz hands. Beneath the belting is a finely-tuned machine in which every beat, lyric, and transition must earn it’s place. This workshop explores the craft of writing the book for a musical: how to structure a story that demands music, how to collaborate with composers and lyricists, and how to build scenes that explode into song. Through discussions and practical exercises on musical theatre structure, song spotting, and world building, participants will learn how to shape compelling, singable narratives from the ground up.

This workshop is sponsored by Theatre Alberta as part of Workshops by Request: Hometown Series.

Playwrights Mixer

June 6, 2026
6:00pm –  7:00pm
Zeidler Hall Lobby
Free to attend.

Join us to meet and mingle with fellow playwrights, artists and theatre lovers who are passionate about new play development.

An Agatha Christie Mystery A Comedy

• By Col Cseke

June 6, 2026
7:00pm
Zeidler Hall
Free to attend. Donations accepted at the door.

Did you know Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared for 11 days in 1926?

That’s a true story. This play however… With the famed author missing hapless Constable Fitzwilliams is stationed at her home with strict orders to direct any potential witnesses to the real detectives, but Agatha’s ever-capable secretary Charlotte is not content to sit idle. Her attempt to interview a witness herself unleashes a parade of Christie caricatures: nosey neighbours, faux sleuths, and false confessors all clamouring to be a part of this great mystery come to life. When Arthur Conan Doyle offers to “help” by leading a seance it becomes clear the only person who can shed any light on the disappearance may just be Agatha herself. This new Canadian farce is a loving and deeply unserious tribute to the Queen of Mystery.

Playwriting Workshop

The Fornes Workshop

• Instructor – Mariló Núñez

June 7, 2026
10:00am – 1:00pm
David D. Bentley Salon
Ticketed Event: $50 + GST

The Fornes Workshop, led by Mariló Núñez, is a decentralized playwriting workshop that employs Maria Irene Fornes’ anti-Aristotelian approach to dramatic writing. In this method, a writer comes to the workshop with a blank slate; there are no preconceptions about what the play will be, as the process is intuitive and improvisational. Through centering movement, visualization, drawing, found objects/words, sense memory, and collective writing, participants will explore unique ways of developing characters and stories for the stage. Wear comfortable clothes you can move in, indoor runners, and bring 1-2 of your favorite plays in hard copy, as well as paper, notebooks and writing utensils.

Maria Irene Fornes (1930-2018) was a Cuban-American playwright, director, and teacher. She wrote over 40 plays and won nine Obie Awards. She taught her playwriting method at INTAR, where she founded the Hispanic Playwrights Lab in New York City.

This workshop is sponsored by Theatre Alberta as part of Workshops by Request: Hometown Series

Chula

• by Alexandra Lainfiesta

June 7, 2026
2:00pm
Zeidler Hall
Free to attend. Donations accepted at the door.

Chula is a bold, music-infused solo performance that begins in a striking black-and-white backstage world in 2008, where Aria prepares to premiere the first mariachi opera in Canada. As the haunting strains of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” begin – a song that has followed her like a ghost since childhood – we are swept back to the neon and fluorescent world of 1980s Guatemala and mid 90s Edmonton, tracing a life shaped by migration, survival, and the pressure to assimilate. Performed by a single actor in both English and Spanish, Chula brings to life a chorus of characters – some who understand each other, and many who don’t – capturing the humour, tension, and heartbreak of living between languages. Blending music, storytelling, and theatrical transformation, the piece asks: what is your voice when you no longer know which language is the one truest to who you are?

Playwrights Mixer

June 7, 2026
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Zeidler Hall Lobby
Free to attend.

Join us to meet and mingle with fellow playwrights, artists and theatre lovers who are passionate about new play development.

Darcy & Wickham

• By Belinda Cornish
• Based On The Novel Follies Past, By Melanie Kerr

June 7, 2026
7:00pm
Zeidler Hall
Free to attend. Donations accepted at the door.

For shy, demure Georgiana Darcy, the prospect of her first London season is intimidating beyond words. That is, until her childhood friend, George Wickham, reappears in her life, igniting a spark of passion which promises to bloom into the match made in heaven of which she has always dreamed. Ah, but the path of love never did run smooth… Based on the backstory so tantalizingly hinted at in Pride and Prejudice, Darcy & Wickham explores the true source of the enmity between one of literature’s most renowned romantic heroes, Mr. Darcy, and his nemesis, the dashing Mr. Wickham. From these seeds flourishes a sweeping new romantic comedy, featuring many familiar characters beloved of Austen fans, as well as a host of hilarious fresh faces. Darcy & Wickham is a fleet-footed carriage ride, from gracious gatherings in Grosvenor Square to a deathbed vigil in a country inn, from the first flush of blushing love to the brink of a perilous elopement. Passion rails against propriety, and duplicity disrupts decorum, in a tempest of intrigues and affairs barely contained by the corsetry of Regency England.

Tonight’s reading is co-presented with Script Salon