#TA150CDNPlays:
Theatre Alberta Library’s 150 Canadian Plays Challenge on Drama Online
Theatre Alberta Library is participating in Outside the Lines for the third year! Outside the Lines is a weeklong celebration demonstrating the creativity and innovation happening in libraries around the world. More than 200 organizations from all over the world are participating from September 10-16, 2017. You can learn more about Outside the Lines here: www.getoutsidethelines.org.
The last two years we had the Blue Bag Book Club and the Purple Play Club, where we mailed surprise plays to enthusiastic participating members. We were even mentioned by the Outside the Lines coordinators at conferences and in Library Journal!
This year we’re trying something a little different, using our new online play database Drama Online. Because it’s the 150th anniversary of Canada, we want to celebrate by having our members read 150 Canadian plays during Outside the Lines!
Through Drama Online, Theatre Alberta Library has a subscription to the online Playwrights Canada Press database, which has over 170 Canadian plays available for our members to read for free online. Playwrights Canada Press is a publisher of new plays, theatre history, criticism, and biography. Through this they endeavour to raise the profile of Canadian theatre and theatre practitioners, promote dramatic literature, and contribute to the Canadian theatrical canon. Playwrights Canada Press strives to publish diverse and engaging Canadian plays and dramatic criticism of literary merit. They are also a proud sponsor of Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek, supplying 300 copies of Vern Thiessen’s Vimy for our 2017 students.
To be a part of this year’s Outside The Lines event, here’s what you have to do:
- Be a Theatre Alberta member! Only members have access to the Drama Online database.
- Email us at library @ theatrealberta.com to tell us that you’d like to participate and how many plays you want to read (remember: you have to read them and post on social media within the dates September 10-16 for it to count!).
- Instead of receiving physical plays from the library, we’ll send you a link to a Playwrights Canada Press play available on Drama Online for you to read.
- When you finish reading a play, click the “Share” button to post it on Twitter or Facebook! Make sure to add the hashtag so that we can find your post: #TA150CDNPlays
If you want to get creative, you can also take a photo of yourself reading a play or a screencap of the play, maybe of your favourite scene or quote, and post it on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, using the hashtag: #TA150CDNPlays
If you don’t use social media, you can “Share” the play with us through email.
When the week is done, we’ll pick a random winner from those who shared what they were reading on social media to receive copies of two new Playwrights Canada Press plays!
See more information about Playwright’s Canada Press on Drama Online and help with accessing the plays here: www.theatrealberta.com/online-databases/
#GoReadAPlay and have fun!
~ Elise, Library Assistant
