In this anthology of plays by young emerging playwrights—Joseph Aragon (To Forgive, Divine), Ginny Collins (The Good Daughter), Rose Condo (pyg), David Ferber (PACT), and Primrose Madayag Knazan (Shades of Brown)—five exciting new voices tackle themes of forgiveness, teen suicide, self-image, cultural assimilation, and rum running on the prairies. To Forgive, Divine challenges the Christian principal of redemption as it affects a mother and daughter trying to find their way back to each other; Shades of Brown uses the Filipino immigration experience to explore cultural assumptions, interracial dating, racism, and that elusive sense of belonging that we call ‘home’; The Good Daughter dives deep into the delicious genre of black comedy, exposing a highly dysfunctional family of three women running rum on the prairies; PACT looks at teenage suicide with a darkly hilarious, disturbing, and ultimately hopeful effect; and pyg tells the funny and touching story of one woman’s struggle with loneliness and the relentlessly impossible ideals our culture’s media imposes on us. Breakout takes the reader on a journey through the minds of five young and vibrant voices, capturing the angst and humour and heart of a generation of playwrights grappling with that precipice between the teen years and adulthood.

Brian Drader is an actor and writer from Winnipeg, who now lives in Montreal, and is head of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. His writing credits include Liar (Scirocco Drama, 2004, a finalist for the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Playwriting Award, New York, NY), Prok (Scirocco Drama, 2003, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Drama, a finalist for the 2003 Governor General’s Award for Drama, and winner of the Theatre BC National Playwriting Award and the Brick Playhouse New Play Award), The Norbals (winner of the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition, and also published by Scirocco Drama), S*it (a play for teens), The Fruit Machine, and Tucktuck. Drader is also editor of Breakout, a Scirocco anthology of plays by young emerging playwrights.

Brian Drader's profile page