The Playwrights Database
MIEKO OUCHI
Nationality: Canadianemail: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: Catalyst TCM Inc represented by Ian Arnold
Mieko Ouchi works as an actor, writer and director in both theatre and film & TV. Her first full-length play, The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye) had its world premiere at Alberta Theatre Project's playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays. Since then it has been produced at Workshop West Theatre (Edmonton), the Globe Theatre (Regina), the Tarragon Theatre (Toronto) and The Thousand Island Playhouse (Gananoque). The play is published by Playwrights Canada Press and received a nomination for Outstanding New Play from the Writers Guild of Alberta (Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award), as well as the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes (Edmonton) Awards and the Betty Mitchell (Calgary) Theatre Awards, both in 2003. In 2004, it was a finalist for the NAC/Canadian High Commission sponsored 4 Play Reading Series at The Old Vic Theatre in London, UK as well as being a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Best New Drama. In 2005 it won the Carol Bolt Award for Drama. It has been translated into Japanese by Toyoshi Yoshihara. Mieko's second play, The Blue Light, a commission from the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) about the life of controversial German propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, premiered at Alberta Theatre Project's playRites New Play Festival in February 2005, with subsequent productions at Workshop West Theatre (Edmonton) and The Firehall Theatre Centre (Vancouver), Keyano College (Fort MacMurray) and DMV Productions (Halifax). It was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2007, and has been nominated for Outstanding New Play by the Writers Guild of Alberta, the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes (Edmonton) Theatre Awards, winning Outstanding New Play at the Betty Mitchell (Calgary) Theatre Awards in 2005. It also received a nomination for the City of Edmonton Book Prize in 2008. It has been translated into French by Michel Ouellette, Japanese by Toyoshi Yoshihara, Czech by Matous Turek and Russian by Galina Kolosova and was read in 2007 at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow and at the hotINK International Reading Series in New York and in translation through the Centre des Artistes Dramatiques in Montreal in 2009. Mieko's third play, The Dada Play was a commission by Red Deer College (Red Deer) and has enjoyed productions there, at St. Mary's University College (Calgary) and most recently at the University of Oklahoma's School of Drama (Norman) in 2009 where Mieko was the inaugural Faith Broome Playwright in Residence. In 2011 she had two new plays premiere: a short 20 minute script called Things to Remember, which was part of the larger omnibus project Hometown at the Blyth Festival, and a new full length play called Nisei Blue which premiered at Alberta Theatre Project's Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays. It was a finalist for the 2011 Carol Bolt Award and won the 2011 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play. It will be published by Playwrights Canada Press and translated into Japanese by Toyoshi Yoshihara in 2013. Her award winning films Shepherd's Pie and Sushi, By This Parting, Samurai Swing, Paper Cut and Minor Keys have played over 30 festivals around the world and been aired on CBC, Bravo!, W Network and DUTV in Philadelphia. Mieko received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003 for her contribution to the arts in Edmonton.
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below is a list of Mieko Ouchi's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Blue Light, The Dada Play, The Jeremy Fisher Nisei Blue Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The Things to RememberBlue Light, The
Synopsis:
Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most remarkable and controversial women artists of the 20th century. Dancer, actor, photographer and filmmaker, Riefenstahl caught the eye of Adolf Hitler with her prodigious first film: The Blue Light. A cinematic innovator, her choice to direct Triumph of the Will got her blacklisted as a filmmaker until her death in 2003 at 101, unrepentant and mostly forgotten. Leni Riefenstahl, 100 years old, is in the office of a young female Hollywood Studio Executive. Leni's there to make a desperate pitch for her first feature film in fifty years. The young woman willing to meet her? Harder to say. . .. A thought provoking contemplation on art, politics and the seduction of fascism and a theatrical examination of a woman who danced one perfect dance with the devil and changed the way films are made.
Notes:
Runner up - 2005 Alberta Playwrighting Competition. The Blue Light won the 2006 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play. The Betty's Are the professional theatre Awards in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The play was nominated for both the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Drama Prize by the Writers Guild of Alberta And the City of Edmonton Book Prize in 2007.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playwrights Canada Press, 2007 -
Music:
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Genre:
2 Act Drama Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDada Play, The
Synopsis:
The Dada Play documents the smashing together of two revolutions born on the same small street in Zurich in 1916 during World War I. Hugo Ball, an unknown writer/musician transforms a rag tag gang of exiled avant garde artists into a collective powerhouse as they come together to form The Dada Art Movement, while in a tiny room above them, Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin, a little known philosopher and thinker, watches their cabarets, drinks his Pernod and plans the Communist Revolution. Set in the multilingual and multicultural chaos of tiny Switzerland, awash in exiles, pacifists, artists, quivering in the shadow of the bloodiest war to date in Europe, we watch the simultaneous birth of modernism in art and the biggest social revolution the world has ever seen.
Notes:
This play was A commission from Canada's Red Deer College Theatre Arts Program And was dramaturged by Vern Thiessen. It has been produced by two Colleges so far. Both have featured casts of over 20 student And community Actors. Casting is extremely flexible. The play could be done by As few As 12.
1st Produced:
Red Deer College - Theatre Arts 2006
Organisations:
Red Deer College - Theatre Arts
1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 12 Female: 8 Other: 8-15
Further Reference:
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Top of PageJeremy Fisher
Synopsis:
An old fishing couple is blessed with the birth of a sweet young son, Jeremy, but quickly come to realize he's different from other boys. Slowly, inexorably, he is transforming into a fish. His parents face the ultimate decision of their lives: whether to keep their beloved son with them in an aquarium for the rest of his life, or give him up to a life of freedom in the sea. A tender, magical and moving exploration of the process each parent must go through as they give their children up to the wider world.
Notes:
Jeremy Fisher is An English translation of the play of the same name written by Mohamed Rouabhi of Paris, France. This translation was A commission from the Banff Centre for the Arts France/Canada Translation Program, And was dramaturged by John Murrell And Vanessa Porteous. Appropriate for Ages 5-12.
1st Produced:
Concrete Theatre, Edmonton, Canada 2007
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Children's Play (45 minutes) One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: Can be done with four actors (3 M, 1 F), or three with doubling. The Concrete Theatre production of the play won Outstanding Production for Young Audiences at the 2007 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes (Edmonton) Theatre Awards.
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNisei Blue
Synopsis:
A noir detective story set in the historic Powell Street (Japantown) area of Vancouver in 1985 and 1939. An old cop, John Finch, returns to an old Asian Canadian run supper club, now a rundown karaoke bar in the notorious Downtown Eastside of Vancouver on the eve of his retirement, with only his old partner to help him solve a cold case that has haunted him his whole career. A beautiful young singer. A dead Mexican. A boat on fire. John races his own fading memory to find the key that will unlock the truth he has been searching for, for over 45 years.
Notes:
Winner of the 2011 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play, finalist for the 2011 Carol Bolt Award for New Canadian Play.
1st Produced:
Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary, Alberta, Canada -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playwrights Canada Press (Upcoming in 2013) -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Full length Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: 1 child
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRed Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The
Synopsis:
explores the transforming relationship between a disillusioned young aristocrat and the violin virtuoso and composer Antonio Vivaldi. Trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage, the young un-named woman is forced by her husband, a rich patron of Vivaldi's, to take violin lessons from the aging and desperate composer and within six weeks play a concerto for the court in Paris in 1741. All for a bet. The delicate, complex and combative journey they embark on will not only decide her future, but also change both of them in ways they never imagined. A story about the healing power of music.
Notes:
been translated into Japanese from English by Yoshi Yoshihara. finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama in 2004 And was the 2005 winner of the Canadian Author's Association Carol Bolt Drama Prize. The play was reprinted in 2007 And is Available in Mieko Ouchi: Two Plays from Playwrights Canada Press.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playwrights Canada Press, 2004 -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
full length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThings to Remember
Synopsis:
Set in the late 1980's and between 1910 and 1919, an old man on his deathbed conjures his childhood memories growing up one of two sons of a Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) homesteader in southern Alberta, Canada who struggled to raise his two young boys after the untimely death of his wife.
Notes:
Home is where the story begins. . .A commission from the Blyth Festival, this 20 minute script was one of 6 scripts that made up Hometown which ran At the Festival between June 21 And Aug 7, 2011. The other plays were written by Canadian playwrights: Jean-Marc Dalpe, Mansel Robinson, Martha Ross, Peter Smith And Des Walsh.
1st Produced:
The Blyth Festival, Blyth, Ontario, Canada 21 Jun 2011
Organisations:
The Blyth Festival
1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Short Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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