How Pat the Dog Playwright Centre Spent Our Summer Non-Vacation

The legacy from Spotlight 2009 lives on. Pat the Dog Playwright Centre’s 15/60 Play-in-an-Hour Workshop for kids was such a success we took it on the road. The year, as part of the International Windsor Fringe Festival, facilitators Kevin White and Molly Reisman had kids unleashing their creativity through story telling at the Art Gallery of Windsor. The goal? To create a 15-minute play in 60 minutes.

The time restriction didn’t limit their creativity. Reisman says, “One workshop had two sisters going into grades three and five. Within an hour, they had formed numerous characters (The Boneless Bunny, Super Sombrero and the Banishing Bride, just to name a few) and created a musical, even incorporating original songs.”

Molly Reisman is currently studying acting at Ryerson University. She graduated from Canterbury High School of the performing arts in Ottawa, where she has performed and produced numerous musicals and plays as well as seen one of her own original works mounted at an Ottawa Children’s Theatre Festival. She hopes to continue to work in this field, bringing creativity and energy to all future projects.

Molly says: Bringing the 15/60 Workshop to the Windsor Fringe was a very exciting experience. We did roughly two workshops a day, and each workshop was a unique process. What a great way for children to unleash their creativity.

Kevin White is a recent graduate from the Theatre Performance program at Humber College. He is currently developing a puppet show. In 2011/2012 he will be travelling across Ontario to perform Enoch Arden with Italian concert pianist Mauro Bertoli. Kevin is also a writer and cartoonist.

Kevin says: The Windsor Fringe Festival was a great time. Between seeing shows every night and during the day, helping kids come up with bizarre and often very funny characters, from a very enthusiastic amusement park owner who had no one to visit the lone ride at his park to the villainous and musical “Boneless Bunny”, I had a fantastic week.