Empowering the next generation of self-producing women

URBAN CURVZ has put HEROINES on hiatus for a year. We’re using feedback from 2008-2009 to make the Series an even more valuable experience when it is re-launched in 2010.

Read on to learn about our inaugural Series, and check back in 2010 for Submission Information.

In 2008, URBAN CURVZ launched HEROINES, a series of three brand new works co-produced with emerging women artists. These pieces were presented over the course of the 2008-2009 season at the intimate birds & stone theatre in NW Calgary.

This opportunity was intended to guide the selected emerging artists through all elements of production so that they came out of the process with the knowledge, confidence and abilities they need to produce their own plays.

There were three shows produced in the inaugural Heroines Series:

Amber Lights
November 12th-22nd, 2008

Written and Produced by
Simone Saunders
Directed by
Jennifer Roberts
Featuring
Alison Murray, Michelle Warkentin, and David Haysom

Based on true events occurring in Northern British Columbia, Amber Lights is the story of a Stepmother’s endless search for her estranged daughter who went missing on a stretch of road named “The Highway of Tears” situated off the Yellowhead Highway 16. A road where numerous other young women have been abducted…

This riveting three-hander takes audiences simultaneously into the world of the lost girl’s family on a Native reserve, coping with the tragic loss of their daughter, and into the dark and obscure world of her abductor.

Written as an homage to true events occurring in Northern British Columbia, this play won second place in the 24 hour Playwrighting Competition (Alberta Theatre Projects, 2007)

Tree Hugger
March 4th – 14th, 2009

Written and Performed by
Ayla Stephen
Produced by
Elaine Weryshko
Directed by
Jamie Dunsdon
Music by
Dan Perry
Design by
Derek Paulich

Protesting at the top of a tree is the newest form of grief therapy in Tree Hugger. The show stars the playwright herself as a woman mourning the loss of her lover to cancer all the while taking a stand against pollution and overdevelopment.

Media Attention for Tree Hugger
Grief and the environment Published in Entertainment:March 5, 2009 by Amanda Hu

The Venus of Basin Street
June 18th – 20th, 2009

Written by
Melanee Murray Hunt
Produced by
Carla Richie
Directed by
Kathryn Waters
Dramaturgy
Michelle Kneale
Costume Design
Paisley Sim
Set & Lighting Design
Kalyna Conrad
Music & Sound Design
Janelle Cooper
Stage Management
Leigh Stanton
Graphic Design
Snow Conrad
Featuring
Melanee Murray Hunt, Janelle Cooper, Gregory Spielman, Aaron Edelstein, Monice Peter, Richard Sixto,Andrea O’Brien, and Michelle Kneale

A Workshop Presentation
The Venus of Basin Street is the story of Ida, an educated Canadian woman, searching for her sister in the brothels of New Orleans, 1857. On her search, Ida comes face-to-face with the realities of a society riddled with corruption, racism, slavery, and incest, and must learn to embrace her own unique power if she is to find her sister’s soul… and herself.