Natalie Meisner - PODPLAYS: Downloadable Art for Your Ears
Award-winning playwright and English professor Natalie Meisner is passionate about increasing student and public involvement within the arts community. In October, she pitched her idea for PODPLAYS: Downloadable Art for Your Ears and won $1000 to promote the project, as well as hire professional directors and voice-actors to assist with the production of the audio-plays.
Her intention for PODPLAYS was to create an outlet for her students and young playwrights to share their work and gain recognition in the arts community. Also she created a free and accessible outlet in which theater is brought to the individual to recreate the role of art in the everyday lives of Calgarians. Unlike traditional theatre, PODPLAYS can be enjoyed in a number of settings by simply downloading the plays or using Meisner's upcoming PODPLAYS app. Some PODPLAYS ask the viewer to go to a specific location in the city while others will ask them to become a spectator by moving along a certain route. The rest allow one to sit back, relax, and enjoy them in any setting.
The website will officially launch on December 5th and will include five plays by selected MRU students as well as selected works by Meisner. For more information, you can visit www.podplays.ca or her personal website: www.nataliemeisner.com .
- Kimberly Getz, January, 2013