The Citadel is a home for the development of new large-scale Canadian and Albertan plays and musicals. In recent seasons our audiences have had an opportunity to experience fantastic new work, written by playwrights from Edmonton and beyond. Some of the premieres have come out of our Playwrights Lab (The Garneau Block), others through commissions (Prison Dancer, Almost A Full Moon, The Party & The Candidate and The Silver Arrow), others homegrown from local playwrights (The Fiancée and Made in Italy). Our 2024/25 Season features Heist by Alberta playwright Arun Lakra, which was developed through our Playwright’s Lab. Our 2025/26 Season will include Burning Mom by Edmonton’s Mieko Ouchi, which was originally read as part of our Collider Festival of New Work, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmonton’s Jessy Ardern and Runaways, (performed by the Citadel Young Company), by Edmonton’s Mac Brock, both of whom were a part of our Playwright’s Lab in 2021/22.
We are thrilled to share some of the amazing activity happening in New Play Development and give audiences and artists a sneak peek into what is being incubated and supported at the company, right now! We currently have six different large-scale commissions in process:
Vinyl Cafe: The Musical
This musical adaptation of The Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean will premiere as part of our 2025/26 Anniversary Season. Envisioned as a large-scale holiday musical for the whole family, featuring Dave and Morley and many of Stuart McLean’s beloved characters, the script includes McLean’s most popular holiday stories, such as: “Dave Cooks the Turkey” and “Rashida, Amir and the Great Gift-Giving”. The musical adaptation is written by Georgina Escobar with Jess Milton, with music by Colleen Dauncey and lyrics by Akiva Romer-Segal. Developed in partnership with Jess Milton, producer of The Vinyl Cafe radio show.
Cyrano de Bergerac
The Citadel has commissioned local playwright, Jessy Ardern to adapt Edmond Rostand’s classic, romantic, adventure story. This new adaptation embraces the traditional time period, language and sword play, with a fresh, smart contemporary theatricality and urgency. We are very excited to be working with Jessy, a past participant in our Playwrights Lab, who is well known to Edmonton audiences for her work as a performer and as part of the Fox Den Collective. Cyrano de Bergerac will premiere as part of our 2025/26 Anniversary Season.
Runaways
We are so happy to be supporting a commission of a new large-scale play for our Young Company for the first time in Citadel history! This new play is written by local Edmonton playwright and producer Mac Brock and supported by dramaturg Elena Eli Belyea. Intended to be performed by young artists as part of our year-long training program, Runaways is a larger-than-life ensemble play about coming of age on the prairies. Supported by the Edmonton Arts Council Connections and Exchanges Program, this script will be produced by the Citadel Young Company in our 2025/26 Anniversary Season.
You Don't Know Jack
You Don’t Know Jack is a visceral and dynamic new play by celebrated playwright and screenwriter Andrea Scott that explores the story of iconic athlete, Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball. Set during Robinson’s pivotal years playing for the Montreal Royals, You Don’t Know Jack aims to shine a light of humanity on who Jack Robinson really was as a man.
And Then There Was One
An exciting new play by local playwright Farren Timoteo, builds on the success of his mega-hit Made in Italy. When the world’s most elite murder mystery writers gather at a secluded French château in 1929 for their annual retreat, they find themselves at the center of a real-life murder mystery of their own. Now, the so-called Detection Club must become the very detectives they so famously created in order to solve the case and survive the night. In this one-man murder mystery musical, golden age whodunnit tropes collide with contemporary pop songs reimagined as 1920s jazz hits, as a single performer plays every suspect, sleuth, servant (and dead body) himself.
The Great Gatsby
Acclaimed playwright Erin Shields is adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American classic. Millionaire Jay Gatsby’s mansion is always filled with eccentric New Yorkers who party into the wee hours of the morning. Their mysterious host, however, is often nowhere to be found as he pines for Daisy, the one that got away. A compelling, dramatic story of characters who are reaching out for illusions of happiness only to be confronted with the stark reality of the cards they’ve been dealt, this imaginative adaptation will feature a live jazz band. Shields’ imaginative adaptation of Jane Eyre remains a Citadel favourite and we are thrilled to partner with her reimagining another classic.