sila | OHIO

Chantal Bilodeau has a new essay on worldpolicy.org, “A Playwright’s Journey Into the Canadian Arctic,” about her research and writing in the Arctic, specifically her interactions with the Inuit people.

From their site: The World Policy Institute, cited by Foreign Policy magazine and the University of Pennsylvania as among the world’s leading think tanks, identifies critical emerging global issues in an interdependent world and gives voice to compelling new global perspectives and innovative policy solutions.

Bilodeau is an alumnus of Ohio University. She is in the middle of a very ambitious project, The Arctic Cycle, whose goal is to write eight plays set in eight different countries whose borders extend into the Arctic Circle.

On Wednesday, OU alumnus Chantal Bilodeau (red scarf) talked to current Ohio University playwrights in their Seminar class. Bilodeau is writing a series of eight plays called “The Arctic Cycle.” Each play takes place in a different Arctic country, United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, and focuses “on the power of storytelling to investigate, and attempt to understand, the many challenges posed by climate change.”

Conversation topics covered a multitude of topics including developing voice, supporting oneself as a playwright, writing grants, the challenge of writing a series of plays on one particular theme and idea, and the similarities between Athens, Ohio and Manhattan (not really.)

The playwrights also read Chantal’s play, SILA, which is the first play of the Arctic Cycle and was commissioned by the Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. It’s won a slew of awards:
Honorable Mention from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition as part of their Collaboration Awards, 2011.
First Prize, Uprising National Playwriting Competition (Canada), 2011.
First Prize, Earth Matters on Stage Ecodrama Festival, 2012.
Woodward International Playwriting Prize, 2014

Sila has an upcoming production at the Underground Railway Theater in April 2014.

Tag: sila

Chantal Bilodeau’s Essay “A Playwright’s Journey to the Canadian Arctic” on WorldPolicy.org

OU Alum Chantal Bilodeau Visits MFA Playwrights