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One of the key pillars of our mission at WJT is supporting the development of new Jewish-Canadian plays and playwrights. For the 24/25 season, we are proud to welcome local playwright Alex Poch Goldin to our writing residency. In particular, WJT had committed to supporting Alex's new play, Edenbridge - a tale of family, tradition, Antisemitism, and new beginnings set within a real Prairie shtetl in the Carrot River Valley.

We need YOUR help to get this project off its feet and onto the stage! By supporting our Playwright-in-Residence, your contribution helps offset the cost of research expenses, workshops, dramaturgy consultants, drafts, and revisions.

About Alex Poch Goldin:

A transplant to Winnipeg from Montreal (via Toronto), Alex’s plays have been seen on stages nationally and internationally. He has developed scripts for Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, Royal MTC, The Stratford Festival, The Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage, Tarragon, Factory, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theater Gastpiele-Kempt (Germany) and others. His plays include Yahrzeit (Toronto Jewish Playwriting Award/German national tour); Louie’s Dilemma (WJT/Soap and Laughter): The Bad Luck Bank Robbers, The Right Road to Pontypool, (4th Line Theatre); The Life of Jude (Passe Muraille), Jim and Shorty (Factory Theatre). His plays Cringeworthy and This Hotel were both nominated for Dora Awards for Outstanding Original Plays. His opera The Shadow was produced to acclaim by Tapestry New Opera and he has created libretti for the The House of Mirth and Against Nature with James Kudelka and the Citadel Dance Co. Alex developed projects for CBC Radio, Bravo! Television and was a nominee for the Siminovitch Prize. He has just completed his newest work The Trial of William Shakespeare about antisemitism and The Merchant of Venice. Alex’s plays are published by Scirocco Press, Winnipeg. Alex is also an award winning actor and has worked across the country including The Lehman Trilogy, My Name is Asher Lev, Bang Bang (Royal MTC) as well as Soulpepper/Canadian Stage/Tarragon/Citadel/ and others. Alex recently played Moschel in the lauded CBC series The Porter, and appeared in Little Bird, Skymed and the holocaust short;The Fast Runner.

About Edenbridge:

I stumbled onto the idea for this project after researching the Jewish history of Manitoba. Back in the 1880s, the Canadian government offered eastern European Jews farmland across the prairies, 160 Acres for $10. Jews could not own land in Russia and Ukraine and so they came to this land of opportunity, and dozens of small, rural Jewish communities sprang up across the Canadian prairies, farmed by seamstress and tailors and people more familiar with sewing and t'zfillin than sowing and tilling. I have visited 4 of these colonies, documenting a vanished world. My intention with Edenbridge is to write a full length play about this extraordinary and little known period of prairie history. This story weaves a tale of ancestors, happy and sad, filled with their struggles and accomplishments in the new world. It will bring history to life.

Learn more about Edenbridge by clicking here.

We're counting on your help! Support Edenbridge today by clicking here.