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Three timely and provocative plays by the award-winning, internationally produced Portuguese Canadian playwright Elaine Ávila.
About the author
Elaine Ávila's plays are produced in Central America, Europe, the US, Canada, and Australia. She is cofounder of the International Climate Change Theatre Action, involving 50 playwrights and 45,000 audience members worldwide. Some of her Best New Play Awards include:
Jane Austen, Action Figure (Festival de los Cocos, Panamá City),
Lieutenant Nun (Victoria Critics Circle), and
Café a Brasileira (Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon). Elaine has taught in universities from Portugal to Tasmania, China to Panamá. She has served as the playwright in residence at Pomona College in Los Angeles, Quest University Canada, and Western Washington University; as the Endowed Chair and Head of the MFA Program in Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico; and founder of the LEAP Playwriting Program at the Arts Club Theater in Vancouver. The 2019 Fulbright Scholar to the University of the Azores, Elaine lives in New Westminster with her musician-teacher husband and her artist-activist son.
Summary
Discover how Canada got the eight-hour workday! Visit the first town to vote on Big Oil! The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin recreates the events surrounding the mysterious death of Albert “Ginger” Goodwin, who led a strike at a Canadian zinc smelter in Trail, BC, that brought the WW I British war machine to a halt. In Kitimat, residents of an industry town in the glorious BC wilderness struggle to decide between economic prosperity and environmental protection when they must vote yes or no to a proposed oil pipeline.
The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin: Cast of 2 women and 3 men
Kitimat: Flexible casting, between 6 and 16 actors of different genders
Foreword
Reviews in national and local media
Paid premium placement in bookstores
Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements
Social media campaign: LibraryThing, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
Promotion on the Talon website (www.talonbooks.com)
Additional text
Elaine Avila’s writing is described as “bold, intelligent, forthright, spirited, compassionate, inviting, wide ranging” (Caridad Svich); “open, generous,” (Erik Ehn); “tremendously gifted, innovative,” (Suzan-Lori Parks) and “stunningly effective, poetic and insightful” (Kathleen Weiss).
On Elaine Avila’s plays:
“Subversive, full of surprises.”—Edmonton Journal
“Passionate, hyper-Canadian.”—National Post
“What I love about Ávila’s script is that she never takes the cheap and easy road … complex, nuanced characters … each forced into the re-examination of their core values.”–Vancouver Courier
On The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin: “It’s been nearly a century since Albert ‘Ginger’ Goodwin was shot and killed in the Cumberland bush on Canada’s Vancouver Island, but thanks to people such as playwright Elaine Avila, the legacy of the workers’ rights activist won’t soon be forgotten.”–Cascadia Weekly
On Lieutenant Nun: “You simply must see this show. Absolutely … the daring but true tale of a young 17th-century Spanish nun who trades a sheltered life in the cloisters for the murderous, gambling life of a soldier in the new world … touching, exciting, and surprisingly funny. Cancel whatever evening plans you may have to go see this show while you can. I guarantee people will be talking about it for years to come.”—Monday Magazine
On Kitimat: “It’s a story as familiar to people in the US as in Canada – a large corporation comes to a town where they want to develop or deliver resources and they promise work and money, a boom, if the citizens will let the corporation have its way.”—National Observer
