The Dusty Owl Workshop Series

Dusty Owl's Workshop Series is a grass-roots, skill-sharing initiative in which we bring talented and motivated moderators into contact with people who want to learn and develop their skills. All of these workshops are nurturing and supportive spaces for adults and kids to explore their creativity, get inspired, and learn some valuable skills for writing, creating, and making change.

The Dusty Owl Play Date

Date: Every Tuesday evening
Time: 8:00-10:00 PM
Location: Mother Tongue Books, 1067 Bank St (at Sunnyside) (map)
Instructor: Sean Zio
Course Description: Workshop begins with a creative writing exercise led by Sean Zio in which the group writes for forty to sixty minutes. In the second hour we read what we've written to each other and give feedback. Friendly and supportive, this workshop is a great way to keep the writing muscles flexed, get yourself writing again like you've been promising, or try your first workshop situation.
Cost: $5 suggested donation or pay-what-you-can. Attendance is on a drop-in basis, no registration necessary.
For information, contact: Sean Zio

Spring Season 2010

3 workshops, $15 each or all three for $30
Registration fees required before first workshop
All workshops run from 1:00pm to 4:00pm at Sushi 88, 690 Somerset Street W, near
Bronson Avenue

Listen With Your Left Ear: Autobiography the Easy Way
Sunday, March 28, 2010

Instructor: Susan McMaster
Workshop Description: Where on earth to start? -- and who cares what a cute baby you were (except your mother)? Readers will, because every life is interesting and full of incident -- if you can find the thread to pull it together. This workshop will focus on understanding how to establish a structure and an approach, and then drafting enough material that you can take off down the writing road solo. Bring autobio material if you have it (printed out), plus pens and lots of paper (this will be a messy workshop). Based on her recent experiences publishing both a memoir and a unique poetic narrative about her mother, Susan will offer a short presentation followed by writing exercises, readings, and discussion. Take home the outline of your book!

Susan McMaster's eighth poetry collection, Crossing Arcs: Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (Black Moss 2009), is a unique pairing of her poems on this difficult subject with direct quotes -- angry, funny, outrageous -- from her mother, enriched with powerful photos by Marty Gervais. McMaster’s previous book, The Gargoyle's Left Ear: Writing in Ottawa offers memories of growing up under the gaze of the Peace Tower gargoyles -- leading her to undertake projects like "Convergence: Poems for Peace", which brought poetry and art from across Canada to Parliament Hill, and the instant-book project Bookware: Ottawa Valley Poets. Her seventh poetry collection, Until the Light Bends was shortlisted for both the Ottawa Book Award and the Archibald Lampman Poetry Award. She has performed and recorded across Canada with First Draft, SugarBeat, and Geode Music & Poetry, and on such shows as Morningside, As It Happens, Richardson's Roundup, WordBeat, and GO! Susan was founding editor of the national feminist magazine Branching Out, and edits volumes like Waging Peace: Poetry and Political Action; Dangerous Graces: Women's Poetry on Stage; and Siolence: Women, Violence and Silence.

Writing For the Stage
Sunday, May 23, 2010

Instructor: Patrick Gauthier
Workshop Description: Focusing on the fundamentals of narrative playwriting – dramatic action, plot, structure, character, stakes, and dialogue – Writing for the Stage will introduce first-time and emerging playwrights to the basics of writing for the stage and serves as refresher for writers with experience. The goal of the workshop is to hone personal voice and process through discussion, critique, and writing exercises.
Participants are asked to be familiar with Hamlet, and to bring a short sample of their writing for the stage (either complete or in progress) to the workshop for reading and discussion.

Patrick Gauthier is a multiple award winning Ottawa-based playwright and director.  Playwriting credits include Tourist Things (Theatre la Catapulte/Magnetic North Theatre Festival), 8 Words That Ruined My Relationship (Gruppo Rubato), The Churchill Protocol (w/ Kris Joseph; Gruppo Rubato), and The Man Who Went to Work One Day and Got Eaten by a Bear (Gruppo Rubato).  His newest play, Airport Security (a comedy of paranoia), will debut in Ottawa in May 2010.

In 2007, The Churchill Protocol was named "Best New Creation" at Ottawa's Rideau Awards; and in 2005 his short play Dawn of the Dad won the Magnetic North Theatre Festival's "Magnetic Words" playwriting contest. 

Pat is a founding member and Artistic Director of Ottawa creation-company Gruppo Rubato, an Artistic Associate at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, and is a member of GCTC's 2008/09 Playmaker's Society. He holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Ottawa and an MFA in Directing for the Theatre from the University of British Columbia.

Taming the Fantasy Genre
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Instructor: Marie Bilodeau
Workshop Description: Kingdoms and lairs, warriors and witches, adventures and exploration... the fantasy genre is filled with archetypal themes and characters that break or re-affirm their mythic moulds. But convincing your readers that your story COULD be real (in a very alternate, different, and perhaps twisted way) is key to the fantasy genre. Chalked full of exercises on character, plot and setting development, participants will not only learn how to work within the boundaries of the genre (and which ones it’s ok to cross), they’ll also gain an arsenal against writer’s block, plot tantrums and uncooperative characters. Exercises are applicable to any fiction writing, but workshop will focus on the fantasy/sci-fi genres.

Marie Bilodeau’s fantasy trilogy, Heirs of a Broken Land, was recently published by Canada’s biggest genre publisher, Hades Publications. Her stand-alone space fantasy adventure, Destiny’s Blood, will also be hitting bookshelves sometime in 2010. Still fairly new to the writing scene, she has hit several bestsellers lists and was identified by Robert J. Sawyer, dean of Canadian science-fiction, as a “Canadian author to keep an eye on in the years to come.”

Got skills you want to share? Interested in leading a workshop with Dusty Owl? Contact Sean Zio and let us know what you got!