Donald Woo: playwright, auteur dramatique.

My name is Donald Woo and I’m a playwright who lives and works in Toronto, a city that I now love but that I feel I was naturally born to hate as a Quebecker and (former) Montrealer.

After more than a decade of working professionally in the theatre industry —— as a playwright, arts admin person, dramaturg, playwriting coach, translator, workshop-reading actor, workshop facilitator, artistic jury member —— I needed to take time off, take a step back, and distance myself from the difficult (and sometimes downright impossible) working conditions that a playwright in Toronto needs to work around, work with, or overcome to get their stuff done.

By taking this much needed break, I’ve developed a new outlook and a new, and adapted, approach to my writing that is true to me and to my passion for the artform.

I decided to stop partaking in the culture of zero-sum hyper-competition, as well as to reject the idea that I must constantly work in a frenetic, overstretched, ‘to the bone’ ‘cramming in as much stuff as I can, up until the last second’, manner – where I am expendable in the name of Economy and Efficiency. Beyond this being a dehumanizing way to work in the long term, it is also unsustainable and not conducive towards creating art that is extensive in its exploration or profoundly moving in its interpretation.

Fear can inspire one to create better work, but I’ve found that fear can also turn my mind off and have me make very stupid choices in my art-making and in my relationship to this industry.

When I was a 17-year-old kid, I remember taking a drama class in my first year of Dawson College in Montreal with an instructor named Frederick ‘Fred’ Ward. For those of you who’ve had the good fortune of knowing Fred, you’ll know how wise, insightful, passionate, gentle, and kind he was. You’ll also know how this man with his large physique, deep booming voice that could shake the walls (when he so wished to make the things around him tremble), could physically and morally intimidate and entrance you as he’d make you peer into the depths of human suffering, joy, violence, of love that drama can evoke, reveal, and explore —— in so many shapes, possibilities and expressions.
(I miss you Fred and thank you.)

This ‘peering into the depths’ is what inspired me to pursue a life of theatre-making and it’s also one of my guiding principles as I endeavour, during this time of COVID, to re-establish my body of work by re-imagining and re-expressing the universes, multiverses, and thought-worlds of the plays I’ve attempted, sometimes failed terribly, sometimes partially succeeded, to write to my taste and my satisfaction over the past twelve years —— but none of which I’ve ever quite felt were ‘mine’… until now.

Et certaines pièces que j’ai une fois conçues en anglais se feront récréer dans des versions flambantes neuves dans le contexte de l’autre langue maternelle que je partage avec la langue de Shakespeare. (Il reste à vous de deviner de quelle langue il s’agit.)

Good health and COVID-permitting, I will launch a theatre company in the latter half of 2021 here in Toronto called:

DRAGONBLANC THEATRE

Yes, this is the company under which I will produce my works but for those of you who’ve ever made dinner for one, you’ll know how making dinner for two, or more, can be so much more satisfying. That’s how I see this company for which the ethos will be to put the playwright at the centre of their own play development process as they explore the possibilities of their work. For the playwright this means freedom to create whatever it is they want, freedom to set their own benchmarks of excellence, freedom to choose which dramaturg —— or other play development professional —— they wish to work with (or whether they wish to work with one at all), and freedom from having to please someone in power —— all the freedoms that I believe are absolutely necessary to grow and amplify the voice of original artists in their efforts to create original work.

If anything I’ve written resonates with you and you wish to find out more about DRAGONBLANC THEATRE once it’s good and ready to go, you can sign up for the hardcopy (that means Canada Post delivered, ‘snail mail’) newsletters that we will be sending out around the time of launch, by dropping us a line and providing your return postal-mail address to:

DRAGONBLANC THEATRE
PO BOX 559 STN C
TORONTO ON M6J 3P6
CANADA

We will have no electronic, e-mail, version of our newsletter, it will be hard-copy only… because that’s how someone who typewrites their website does things.

We are planning on having this company be national and bilingual (French/English) in scope, so we hope to hear from you wherever you are —— autant en français qu’en anglais.

We will also launch a website with the domain DRGNBLNC.COM once the company starts up, so you can keep checking that.

You can also stay tuned for more updates here.

Alors à la prochaine —— et comme Édouard Carpentier nous disait sur les ondes télévisuelles dans les années 80 à la fin de chaque émission des ‘Super Etoiles de la lutte’ : SI DIEU LE VEUT.

love,
Donald

LAST UPDATED : 2020-10-12