About Patricia Ludwick

A brief biography

I grew up in the wild beauty of Vancouver Island, a friend of trees, seaweed, wild pea vines, birds and animals of all kinds. As a teenager, I fell in love with the theatre, and went off to England to train as an actor, returning to Canada to my first professional job in Nova Scotia, where I fell in love with that coast, those fields and woods, lupines and wild blueberries. Caught up in the renaissance of new Canadian plays, I threw myself into founding small companies, workshopping new scripts, creating collectively and collaborating with dancers and composers, and eventually, writing my own plays for the theatre, which found productions in small companies at various times, and for radio, which were broadcast on various CBC Radio programmes. I began working as a dramaturge with the New Play Centre in Vancouver while still working as an actor, and when I moved to Gabriola Island, I shifted into feature film scripts, doing manuscript assessment and story editing for various funding bodies, independent producers, and individual screenwriters. I have also worked as an editor of nonfiction books for a small press on the island, to support my habit of living amongst the natural beauty of the west coast. Along the way, I have been privileged to learn much from talented artists in a number of disciplines, and have enjoyed sharing my own amalgamation of those skills and perceptions with people who have a hunger for engaging their creative energy through the medium of words. A practising Buddhist for many years, I desire to create a more compassionate world through writing practice.

Curriculum Vitae: Patricia Ludwick

Patricia Ludwick grew up on Vancouver Island, trained as an actor in England, and worked professionally on stage, radio and screen for over twenty years. As her interest in new works developed, she began writing plays for the stage and radio, which have been produced across Canada, in the United States, and Australia. Concurrently, she began working with other writers to help develop their scripts for the stage and, later, for the feature film industry. Her published work includes articles and poetry published in literary magazines and anthologies, and she has also worked as an editor of nonfiction trade books for an alternative press. She has been teaching in the arts community for over thirty years, including instructing university-level credit courses in scriptwriting and conducting community-education courses in writing based on personal experience.

Bibliography
Teaching
Editing
Script Development
Performance
Awards

Bibliography

Stage plays:

Radio plays:

Film scripts:

Collective creations, theatre:

Articles:

Dramaturgy/Script development

• Telefilm Canada, B.C. division, 1989 to present, analysis and evaluation of film and television scripts, including documentaries, series, MOWs, children's programming, feature films
• Praxis Centre for Screenwriters, Vancouver, 1997 to present, story editor and critiques of feature film scripts
• BC Film Corporation, script assessment, feature films, 1999 to present
• gearfilm, 2005, story editor, feature film, Destroyer
• Chaos a film company, 2004, story editor, feature film, Alberta Bound,
• Feldman & Associates, story editor, feature film, Water Revolution
• Big Sky Pictures, 2002, story editor, feature film, on the corner
• Turtle Island Productions, 2000, story editor, development of feature film
• Talisman Films, Halifax, 1999, story editor, development of feature film
• Alberta Motion Pictures Development Corporation, 1990-93, analysis and assessment of film and television scripts
• New Play Centre, Vancouver, 1979-1993, written critiques, participatory workshops and public presentation of plays for stage
• Theatre B.C., Backstage '93, one-on-one dramaturgy with community theatre playwrights, 1993
• VIEW The Performing Arts Society, Vancouver 1988, playreadings
• Women's Voices Centennial Project, Vancouver 1986, advisor
• Toronto Independent Dance Enterprises, Toronto 1986, consultant
• Artist-in-Residence, New Play Centre, Vancouver 1983, resource person
• Playwrights Colony, Banff Centre for the Arts, 1980-81, resource person

Professional editing experience

Manuscript evaluation:

Teaching experience

Writing:

• University of British Columbia, Creative Writing Department, 1991-92, 1992-93, (playwrighting seminar third year and above, adult students)
• Belfry Theatre, Writing Out Loud, 1998 (adults, eight weeks, playwrighting through improvisation)
• Malaspina University-College, Creative Writing Department, 1994 (first year introductory course on writing for stage, film and radio)
• Gabriola Writes, 1991-2004, The Voice of Experience (life-writing, six- and eight-week courses)
• Studio 58, Langara University-College, 1994 (professional training for actors creating one-person shows)
• Atlantic Playwrights Resource Centre, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland (three-hour workshops for adult playwrights)
• Community Education, Malaspina College 1990 to date, Nanaimo, Parksville and Duncan campuses (adults, evening and weekend seminars on writing dialogue, creating character, rewriting, development of writing habits and enhancing creative process)
• UBC Centre for Continuing Education, 1989 (adults, writing for performance, 10 weeks)
• Young Writers Conference, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, 1989 (playwrighting, grades 4-7, six 50-minute sessions)
• New Play Centre, 1988 (advanced playwrighting, adults, 3 months)
• West Word II, 1986 (playwrighting, adult women, two-week intensive)
• West Word V and VI, 1989 and 1990 (two-hour workshops for adult women writers in all genres)
• VIEW the Performing Arts Society, 1989, 1993 (generating creativity, self-scripting, adult women, eight-hour workshops)

Teaching the performing arts in the community:

• Beat Street Danceworks, 1991 (creative drama, girls 8-11, teens; 14 weeks)
• Malaspina College, International Programming, ESL, 1990 (Japanese college students, drama as a technique in language learning and cultural exchange)
• Malaspina College, Theatre Department, 1989 (university transfer course, introduction to acting, young adults, three months)
• C. Lee Dance/Theatre project, 1989 (workshop for singers, dancers, actors; three days)
• Axis Mime Company, Summer School, 1985 (young adults, six weeks)
• Nova Scotia Drama League, Summer School 1977, 1978 (community theatre training, teenage to seniors, four-week intensive)
• NDWT community workshops, Wacousta and Canadian Brothers, Toronto and London, Ontario 1976 (experiments in dramatization, grade 4 to seniors)
• Neptune Theatre, Halifax, summer 1973, 1974, James Reaney Listeners' and Donnelly workshops (age 4 through seniors)
• Inner-city Toronto schools, ongoing programming, 1975-76 (elementary through high school students)
• Visiting workshops across Canada, on tour with NDWT Company, 1975 (elementary through university students)

Performance experience

Public Readings/Lectures:

• John Barsby Secondary School, Nanaimo, 1998
• Sandstone Studio, Gabriola 1997
• Malaspina University-College, English and Theatre Depts. 1991, 1994
• Canada Council readings:
• Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, 1993
• Gabriola Island, 1990
• Thunder Bay, Ontario, 1989
• Edmonton and Calgary, 1987
• Whitehorse, Haines Junction 1986
• Schou Education Centre, Burnaby, 1988
• Women in VIEW Festival, Vancouver, 1990, 1998
• University of Alberta, English and Theatre Departments, 1987
• West Word I and II, 1985, 1986, Victoria and Vancouver
• National Book Week, Vancouver, 1985
• Vancouver Community College, Langara Campus, English Dept. 1984
• University of British Columbia, English Dept., 1983
• University of Western Ontario, Canadian Literature Conference, 1978

Awards

Canada Council:

B.C. Cultural Services:

Jury member: