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Jonathan welcomes playwright Wren Brian to the podcast to discuss the challenges of writing for the stage.

Wren Brian is a playwright who started her career in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (territory of the Kwanlin Dün & Ta’an Kwäch’än) where she was born and raised. Currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on Treaty 1 territory, she is a graduate from the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre & Film Honours Program specializing in acting, directing and filmmaking. In addition to playwriting she also works as an arts administrator and producer.

In her writing she is dedicated to creating characters that can be played by actors of any gender, ancestry, ability, and/or age. By writing characters like this she hopes to contribute to equity in the industry while exploring themes and questions important to a wide range of humanity.

Since 2009 Brian has been consistently researching atrocities (particularly the Holocaust) both in academic settings and on her own time. This varied and in-depth research influences most of her plays as she firmly believes the more we understand how atrocities happen from all angles, the more likely we are to prevent them.

Her play Anomie won the 2017 Harry S. Rintoul Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and her play Bystander was one of three plays shortlisted for the Playwrights Guild of Canada Emerging Playwright Award in 2015. Bystander had its world premiere at Gwaandak Theatre in October 2018 directed by Clare Preuss.

Recently Brian wrote a short play, called Situation, with Gwaandak Theatre and the Yukon Human Rights Commission that was featured at their conference KNOW MORE on workplace sexual harassment in March 2021. She also wrote a 5-minute play for Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 which has been shown at their events around the world, including Austria, Canada, Italy, Serbia, the UK, and the US.

She is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s The Sandbox and Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Emerging Playwrights Unit.

Check out Brian’s work at wrenbrian.com

CREDITS
Opening song is “We Got the Poison” by Electric Candles
Podcast production by Dan Vadeboncoeur

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    Author of stranger fiction. Advocate of writing the wrong way. Poet laureate of Hell.

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