George Johnson's "Still Life With Nudes"

When Betty Dilliwick’s paintings are rejected, she and fellow pensioners storm the offending bastion of contemporary art, the Blotchley Leisure Centre and Art Gallery.

"Still Life with Nudes makes an important statement about how our perceptions of older people need to change—and it does this in a way that creates entertaining drama for all ages." - Mary Blackstone

"This warm and charming comedy makes important points about art, seniors, and life " - Richard Harvey

"This play is a winning combination of engaging characters, smart dialogue, witty interaction, very solid dramatic structure and, most importantly, a lot of heart.  Congratulations to the author!" - Colleen Murphy

“A boisterous, cheeky, spicy comedy that is exceptionally well written…” -  Ottawa Little Theatre

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George hails from Waterdown, Ontario and now lives in Kamloops, B.C., where the Art Gallery looks like a water treatment plant and vice versa: inspiration for “Still Life With Nudes,” his second play. It received the Gladys Cameron Watt Award in the Ottawa Little Theatre’s 67^th Canadian Playwriting Competition. His first play, “Unfit to Lift,” co-authored with his wife Nina, is a farce set at a book sale in Wales. It received Honourable mention in the 2005 Playwriting Competition sponsored by Theatre Publicus in Santa Clara, California. He has also written a number of articles and books on Modern British literature, which he teaches, along with creative writing, at Thompson Rivers University. He and his wife Nina (originally from Saskatchewan) have two toddlers, who also provide inspiration and the sleep deprivation helpful in writing farce.

Jean Freeman's "Smother Love"

Smother Love" is a contemporary love story where a young couple face challenges from well-meaning friends and a not-so-blithe spirit.

"An original and witty premise that is wildly funny but psychologically accurate around the sometimes sticky relationship of a daughter and her deceased but still hovering mother.  Wonderful ending!" - Colleen Murphy

"With Smother Love the play’s strength is in its characters; it’s a classic struggle between a daughter and a mother who wants to maintain control over her daughter even from the grave." - Mary Blackstone

"A kooky contemporary twist on Coward's Blithe Spirit, but with a domineering mother interfering in her daughter's life, which leads to a surprising and amusing conclusion." - Richard Harvey

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Jean Freeman is a writer/performer/director/stage hand whose first act when she moved to Regina from Weyburn half a century ago was to join RLT!  She has acted in many productions (a favorite was "Steel Magnolias"), worked backstage (shows too numerous to mention) and wrote and directed such epics as "Regina Revisited: or What's a Nice City Like You Doing In a Place Like This?" and the ongoing "Radio Rides ..." fundraisers.  In the real world, she has been a broadcaster, TV/Radio writer & producer, and PR practitioner. Recently, she has enjoyed appearing as the mayor’s grandmother on Corner Gas and she continues to perform as a public speaker and M.C delighting audiences with her warmth and humour. 

David Sealy's "Runaway Barbies"

It’s 1 a.m. in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but DD Sharp and Jocinda Hart aren’t sleeping. The two not-so-friendly neighbours have the bad luck to run into each other just when they’re both intent on blowing town. But sometimes bad luck is the best kind…

"Two women bridge a generation gap as they compare notes on parenting, relationships and other contemporary matters." - Richard Harvey

"Runaway Barbies features two strong roles for women—one a young woman planning to run away and settle down with her boyfriend and the other a middle aged woman planning to run away from her husband with another man." - Mary Blackstone

"Beautifully drawn play about how two very different people are drawn together by the things that they unexpectedly share.  Some very funny lines and a little bit heartbreaking." - Colleen Murphy

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David Sealy lives, writes, copy edits, proofreads, and desktop publishes in Regina, Sask.

Marion Young's "The Quilting Cure for a Lonely Friday Night"

It is a Friday night, and Anne is home alone, digging through a collection of T-shirts amassed in the past year and a half.  The T-shirts are both souvenir of and metaphor for a relationship that has just ended.  Each shirt tells us something about Anne, or something about the ex-boyfriend, or something about their relationship.

"The Quilting Cure for a Lonely Friday Night offers us a quirky but insightful way of summing up a relationship." - Mary Blackstone

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I started out as a poet.  Well, I'm still a poet; I'm always in search of the perfect word, the perfect turn of phrase, the perfect line.  it was a rejection that stated, "This is not a poem, but the beginning of a short story." that made the light bulb come on.  Or the beginning of a short play, I thought, and started to entertain the idea that I could be both poet and playwright.  I've had some small success as a playwright, with a few plays work-shopped at Globe Theatre as part of the (now discontinued) On the Line series. I am delighted to have an honourable mention in the RLT playwriting contest.  I bankroll my literary, photographic and other creative pursuits with a job in the federal government.

Dr. Mary Blackstone is Professor in the Department of Theatre and Director of the Centre for the Study of Script Development at the University of Regina.  Coming from the position of Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta, she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Regina in 1990.  Her doctoral work focusing on Shakespeare and Early Modern theatre history was completed in the English Department at the University of New Brunswick, and her SSHRC-funded postdoctoral work was undertaken in conjunction with the Records of Early English Drama project at the University of Toronto.  Currently her primary teaching and research endeavours involve Early Modern cultural and performance studies as well as applied dramaturgical work with playwrights and screenwriters in the development of new dramatic scripts.  An overriding interest connecting both of these research interests is the role of public performance and dramatic narratives in the construction of communities.  Her scholarly research draws heavily from public records and archival materials as well as printed dramatic texts and engages an eclectic and interdisciplinary range of theoretical approaches from disciplines such as geography, political science, sociology and anthropology as well as theatre.  She has contributed numerous papers to scholarly conferences and journals.  She has also contributed chapters to Lancastrian Shakespeare—Religion, Patronage and Region (2 vols., Manchester UP), Shakespeare and Theatrical Patronage in Early Modern England (Cambridge UP), and Reading Early Women:  Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1500-1700 (Routledge).  As a dramaturg she has also published a performance text of Robin Hood and the Friar and an introductory production notebook for the play Dancing in Poppies by Gail Bowen and Ron Marken.  Currently, she is working on a book entitled The Performance of Commonwealth in Early Modern England.  She recently begun to work in the area of research ethics as applied to art practice in the fine and performing arts in conjunction with committee work for the federal Panel on Research Ethics.

Rick Harvey was born in Montreal but migrated to Regina in 1968 to teach at the University of Regina, where he still gives classes in English drama and literature. He has been involved with RLT since 1974, mostly as set designer and decorator, but  he has done occasional stints as director and actor, though he (modestly ) prefers the backstage role.  He has also worked for a number of other local companies. His contributions to local theatre over the years have been recognized by awards from RLT, Theatre Saskatchewan, and the Lieutenant Governor.  Though "marooned" in Saskatchewan, travel and a large library have enabled him to keep up-to-date with contemporary theatre, which is one of his principal interests.