ELEANOR WALSH – Staged Reading (New Play Development)
Calgary & Edmonton – Winter 2027
Paid Position
I’m looking for a director to help me figure out how my play lives onstage.
It’s a new full-length Canadian play, set primarily in a Calgary courtroom, centred on a woman with advancing Alzheimer’s disease and a prior request for Medical Assistance in Dying. It sounds heavy. And it is…
But the play is also funny, human, and occasionally messy (like all families). It’s about good people trying to do the right thing when nobody can quite agree on what the right thing is. The play is specifically written NOT to tell the audience what to think. Instead, it puts all the questions in the same room, letting them collide for a couple of hours, allowing the audience to wrestle with it themselves.
The project is being developed as a professional staged reading, with presentations planned in Calgary and Edmonton.
The reading will have a restrained theatrical vocabulary…some video projection, sound and staging…but only enough to explore how the play moves between the courtroom, Eleanor’s memories and, occasionally, between both worlds at once.
I don’t want it to be six actors sitting behind music stands.
Each presentation will also be followed by a moderated professional/public conversation involving people working in areas connected to the issues raised by the play.
The larger goal is to use the reading to discover the play’s theatrical voice and find the next steps toward full production.
THE SOMEONE
I’m looking for a genuine collaborator…someone comfortable working closely with a playwright, asking difficult questions, challenging things that aren’t working and bringing their own experience into the room.
You don’t have to agree with every choice I’ve made. In fact, it would probably be more useful if you don’t.
The director will work with me on things including:
• casting (six actors, with doubling)
• courtroom staging and memory sequences
• the use of video projection, sound and other design elements
• site consulting/suggestions
• finding the visual and emotional language of the piece
There’s an interesting theatrical puzzle at the centre of the play:
The courtroom is formal, structured and controlled. Memory isn’t.
Sometimes those two worlds remain separate. Sometimes they begin to bleed into one another.
I’m interested in finding someone who sees possibilities in that.
THE COMMITMENT
Most of the preliminary discussion and development can happen remotely, as needed.
The current expectation is approximately four Calgary rehearsals before or during January, followed by a Calgary technical rehearsal and presentation.
The Edmonton presentation may involve some re-staging work, but minimal resetting of actors, etc. is expected.
Exact scheduling to be developed with the director and cast.
THE COMPENSATION
Commensurate with experience. Negotiable.
Travel and accommodation required for the Edmonton presentation will be covered separately.
Performers and participating designers/technicians will also be paid.
TO APPLY
Please send:
• a résumé or short directing biography
• a brief note telling me what interests you about it
• links to previous work, if you want to share them
I’m more interested in hearing what you already see and the questions you want to the production to create, rather than receiving a formal cover letter.
Please send submissions to: jfjestad@gmail.com
Application deadline: November 15, 2026