By Samara Caplan and Laura Gauthier. Laura and Samara spend their days as non-profit unicorns and fill every spare minute exploring the world of musical theatre as BFFs (that’s Broadway Friends Forever). Follow @bffs613 on Instagram and Facebook.
How does someone just write a play? Where do you start? Where do ideas come from? How do you do it on top of your regular job? Kanata Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival is coming up from Aug. 1 to 3 and features seven plays by local playwrights. We wanted to learn more about these short plays and their process, so we sat down with Trevor Eggleton, whose 10-minute play Cod Almighty will be premiering at the festival.
Kanata Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival
Apt613: What inspired you to write a play? Where did you get the idea? What has the process been like?
Trevor: It came from an idea I had years ago where I was at a barbecue eating salmon stuffed with crab and I thought — here are two creatures living their lives having no idea about this world up here of monster trucks, report cards, and garage doors and what would it be like if they had a glimpse of it, what would they tell their fishy friends.
Over the years, I thought about writing in some form, but couldn’t see where anything I’d produce would end up, and then I came across the 10-minute play festival in Kanata last year, and I thought, ‘what a great idea.’ I went, loved it and reached out to them about how I could be involved. They were very welcoming, letting me know about the playwriting group where the plays come from. I joined and wrote a couple of plays that weren’t great before the fish idea came to the surface — and I went with that. Once I started on it, I found the first draft came surprisingly quickly.
Apt613: Tell us more about the story of Cod Almighty and how it has progressed to get to the stage.
Trevor: It’s about a fish who gets caught and thrown back for being too small and then tells her fishy friends about the out-of-body-of-water experience she had, trying to convince them of another realm and a higher power above the surface of the water.
It was written as part of the Kanata Theatre writers’ circle. We started in September as a group of about 25 people with varying degrees of experience in theatre, each hoping to have a play chosen as part of the 2025 festival. You’re connected with a writing coach (Guy Newsham, who has had many plays produced) who gives you pointers on how to improve it, then you bring it to the group. Everyone’s play gets read and workshopped, and you do three rounds of edits before submitting for adjudication in March. And if you’re lucky, you’re one of the seven plays chosen for production.
Apt613: Have you had this performed for any audiences yet? What are you hoping the reactions will be?
Trevor: This will be the first time having it produced — first time having anything produced. I can’t wait to see what it will look like in the hands of actors, directors and set designers who know what they’re doing. That’s the great thing about drama is that it’s a collective art form where everyone adds something to it. I’m really excited to see how they all interpret my ideas and words.
Apt613: You have a great cast and team behind the scenes. What has it been like seeing the show come to life?
Trevor: I’ve been quite removed from it all. I had a few chats with the director, but really, it’s up to her and the cast to run with it. It’s a fun play, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how they bring it to life. One of the actors who was part of the final reading is in it, and he was great doing things with the dialogue and character I hadn’t thought of. I’m not sure who else is in it, but I’m sure they’ll be great. The whole thing will be a surprise to me on opening night.
Apt613: After this festival, what are the next steps? Do you think you’d like to expand it to a longer play?
Trevor: Well, I submitted it to the Canadian National 10-minute play festival taking place in Belleville in September, and it was chosen as one of seven among over 200 entries. I’ll be curious to see what they do with it compared to the Kanata Theatre.
After that, I plan on giving it all another try in September with the Kanata Theatre playwriting group with another play, which I haven’t written yet.
There are 10-minute play festivals out there, so I might see if someone else picks it up. I’m also thinking about how I can stretch it into a longer play, maybe for a fringe festival. Who knows! I look forward to sticking with it. Turns out writing a 10-minute play is a pretty fun way to spend an evening.
The 10-Minute Play Festival runs August 1 to 3, with general admission tickets available at the door – cash only – and pay what you can.
