Stage Plays
SEQUENCE
by Arun Lakra
What is luck? Are eight consecutive Tails always just a coincidence? And what are the chances of two people having a dog named Cynthia?
Sequence is a mind-blowing, award-winning, edge-of-your-seat science thriller, where two stories intertwine like a fragment of DNA. In one thread, Time Magazine’s Luckiest Man Alive has bet on the Super Bowl coin toss 19 years in a row. And won every time. Today, he is about to risk 880 million dollars on the 20th, until he fortuitously meets a young woman who claims to have figured out his mathematical secret. Simultaneously (or so it seems), a blind professor is paid an mysterious late night visit by a student in a wheelchair, who, on his Genetics final examination, somehow got all 150 questions wrong… a 1 in 5 quintillion chance.
In this theatrical petri dish, stem cell research, God, miniskirts, Fibonacci numbers, and football, all spiral together in an intellectually sexy cocktail. Sequence inspires, delights, and surprises with its playful language, and interplay of logic and metaphysics. Belief systems clash, ideas recombine, mutate and evolve, and order springs from chaos. And the question is asked... In our lives, in our universe, and even in our stories, does order matter?
AWARDS:
- 2015: Shortlisted for New American Voices Competition, Sequence, American Actors UK, London, England.
- 2014: Winner of Gwen Pharis Ringwood Drama Prize, Sequence, Alberta Literary Awards.
- 2014: Long-listed for James Tait Black Prize for Drama, Sequence, University of Edinburgh/National Theatre of Scotland.
- 2013: Winner of Betty Mitchell Award, Sequence, Outstanding New Play.
- 2013: Winner of Calgary Theatre Critics Award, Sequence, Best New Script.
- 2013: Winner of Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Award for Drama, Sequence, Bloomington Playwrights Project.
- 2012: Finalist – Sequence - STAGE (Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration) International Script Competition – Judges included 3 Pulitzer-Prize winners (Tony Kushner, David Lindsay-Abaire, Donald Margulies) and 2 Nobel Laureates, University of Californa Santa Barbara.
- 2011: Winner of Grand Prize – Alberta Playwriting Competition for Sequence, Alberta Playwrights’ Network.
PRODUCTIONS, PRESENTATIONS, and PUBLICATIONS:
- 2018: Production - Sequence - Real Wheels Theatre - Vancouver, BC.
- 2017: Workshop and Public Reading of Cancon 1 at Lunchbox Theatre's Suncor Stage One Festival of New Plays, Calgary.
- 2017: WordPlay - A staged reading of the ATP Playwrights Unit.
- 2017: Ontario Premiere, Tarragon Theatre 2016-17 season - Toronto.
- 2014: Production, Shadow Theatre, Edmonton, AB.
- 2014: Publication, Playwrights Canada Press, Toronto, ON.
- 2013: US Premiere, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Bloomington IN.
- 2013: Workshop and Public Presentation, Telluride Playwrights Festival, Telluride, Colorado.
- 2013: World Premiere, Downstage Theatre/Hit and Myth Productions. Big Secret Theatre, Epcor Centre, Calgary, Canada.
PARTICIPATION
- 2015: Juror for Alberta Literary Awards
- 2014: Member of Citadel Theatre Playwrights Forum
- Member of Alberta Playwrights Network
- Member of Playwrights Guild of Canada
FORTUNATO HEIST
A Twisty-Mystery Heist by Arun Lakra
Bloomington Playwrights Project - May, 2022
A band of criminals, torn apart by suspicion and betrayal, reunites to steal the Satoshi Diamond from a dangerous international art thief. When the plan goes sideways, they slowly realize: when stealing from a thief, there are no rules.
CANDEMIC (FORMERLY CANCON-1)
A Musical Comedy
Book and Lyrics by Arun Lakra
Music by Dan Perrott
A young man's brain is attacked by a virus that selectively destroys his Canadian-ness. A doctor employs radical Canadian-ness Preservation Techniques in a race to find the antidote, before the virus spreads and he loses his wife, his daughter, and his entire identity.
2017 Stage One Festival of New Plays, Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary AB.
2018 Stage One Festival of New Plays, Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary, AB.
