Background
Parallel Play is being developed through the efforts of three departments within the Creative Arts and Industries Division at Langara College: Theatre Arts at Studio 58, Library and Information Technology, and Web and Mobile App Design and Development. It’s a unique intergenerational collaboration between students, past and present faculty, and other theatre professionals.
Although originally discussed as far back as 2001, the seeds that grew into the Parallel Play database were sown by the Studio 58 Student Diversity Committee in 2016. Under the leadership of Shanae Sodhi, they created the Diversity Playlist in response to the difficulty in finding “plays for school assignments that focused on diverse themes, featured diverse casts, or were written by artists of diverse backgrounds.” The filters used in Parallel Play for noting the cultural backgrounds of characters were initially based on the Diversity Playlist categories.
In 2018, Kathryn Shaw and Jane Heyman, former Studio 58 Artistic and Associate Directors, with assistance from students, began searching out and reading plays, entering information into a spreadsheet, and compiling an initial database of over 700 plays written in English (Canadian, American, British, etc). Since then the community supporting the database has grown to include Studio 58 graduates, faculty and students from the Web and Mobile App Design and Development program as well as the Library Information and Technology program, play publishers in Canada and the UK and professional actors, directors, and academics. The scope and information continue to grow.
Parallel Play fits the values of the Langara College strategic plan, celebrating and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion through tangible action.
Credit
Parallel Play wouldn’t have happened without the contributions of:
Student Support
Development and Design
Phase 1:
- Alex Orlov · Web Developer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
- Koichi Tanaka · Web Developer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
- Bruna Santos Weiss · UX/UI Designer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
Phase 2:
- Haidren Amalia - Web Developer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
- Mario Cesena - Web Developer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
- Luna Sever - UX/UI Designer, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
Studio 58 Diversity Committee: Emily Jane King, Michelle Morris, Lili Robinson, Shanae Sodhi, Dan Swain, Kelsey Kanatan Wavey, Anaïs West, David Underhill.
Studio 58 Readers: Chhavi Disawar, Sarvin Esmaeili, Sewit Haile, Dylan Floyd, Marielle Ortinez, Cameron Peal, Mateus Severo, Shanae Sodhi, Hikari Terasawa, Harmony Yen
Library Information and Technology: Kenzie Andrews, Robert Brown, Noel Gardiner, Gwyneth Haretzmuller, Carys Logan, Megg Willis
Langara College Faculty Support
- David Hudgins · Associate Director, Studio 58
- Tomoko Okochi · Instructor, Web & Mobile App Design and Development PDD
- Diane Thompson · Instructor, Data & Research Coordinator, Library & Information Technology Content Information
- Fiona Hunt · Department Chair and Instructor, Library and Information Technology Program
Database Spreadsheet Originators and Current Curators
- Kathryn Shaw · Former Artistic Director, Studio 58, Langara (Retired)
- Jane Heyman · Former Associate Director, Studio 58, Langara (Retired)
Project Consultant
- Jamie Robinson, Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University
- Maya Fleming, Research Assistant at York, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University
- Playwrights Canada Press, Annie Gibson, Editor
- Playwrights Guild of Canada, Rebecca Burton, Membership and Contracts Manager
- Scirocco Drama, Glenda MacFarlane, Series Editor
- Talon Books, Kevin Williams, President & Publisher
- Nick Hern Books, Maddie Hindes, Associate Editor
- The Pledge Project, Rebecca Burton and Barry Freeman
- Carmen Aguirre, Broderick D.V. Chow (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Courtenay Dobbie (Studio 58), Dean Paul Gibson, Stephen Heatley (University of British Columbia, Department of Theatre and Film), Kenji Maeda (Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Association), Dave McKay (Kansas State University), Jivesh Parasram (Rumble Theatre), Jovanni Si, Valerie Sing Turner (Visceral Visions), and Marcus Youssef
Glossary
This page is currently under construction, and will eventually expand to include a complete list of our terms.
At present our definitions are generally based on the glossary provided by The PLEDGE Project .