2025 THA RBC Emerging Playwright Award Finalists
Supported by the RBC Emerging Artists Project
Syncopation on Terauley Street by Trisha Harlan (ON)
Set in 1921 in Toronto’s St. John’s Ward, this play follows Lila, a talented Black singer-songwriter, and her band, the Midnight Blues Ensemble, as they navigate love, racism, and survival after The Soulfire, their integrated performance venue, is forced to close. Lila’s childhood friend James returns from working as a porter with a renewed desire to fight for their community, clashing with her boyfriend Darnell, who has grown jaded by racism. When Lila allows Florence, the landlord’s daughter, to perform her song at a segregated venue, James accuses her of enabling exploitation. Determined to do better, Lila joins Florence and Anthony, an aspiring talent manager, to open The Velvet Reverie, an inclusive venue for all races. After Florence stands up to her father and secures The Soulfire for Lila, the band rebuilds and uplifts the next generation of artists.
Trisha Harlan is an emerging writer, producer, and multidisciplinary creative from Ajax, Ontario. A graduate of McMaster University’s Theatre & Film program and Humber College’s Creative Writing program, she crafts compelling narratives for the stage and beyond. Her work often explores a blend of history and culture in playful ways, bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront.
The Shivers by Tracey Hoyt (ON)
Eleven-year-old Alex reconnects with her mother for the first time in months and discovers that her creativity is her superpower. It’s a few years before the #MeToo movement. We’re in and around 4B – the Mood Disorders unit of an urban hospital during visiting hours – from late afternoon into early evening. Alex is an only child who keeps her gifts of singing and song writing private. Her father Jared is a sound department head in film and TV. Her mother Judy was an up-and-coming actress before a very public mental collapse – something Alex is unaware of. Tommy is Judy’s long-time nurse who does double duty as her unofficial personal assistant. Alex will do almost anything to help her mother escape her demons. The Shivers is a turbulent rollercoaster ride that ultimately lands with an appreciation for the healing forces of forgiveness and creative expression.
A Toronto-based actor, improviser, voice artist and writer, Tracey Hoyt has worked extensively in theatre, film, television and audio since 1987. Career highlights include the earliest productions of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, producing three versions of her fully improvised solo shows, a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her work in the comic web series Decoys and receiving the Cayle Chernin Theatre Development Award for her dramatic play The Shivers. In 2024, she received an OAC Theatre Recommender Grant (Port Stanley Festival Theatre) for her comic play-in progress, Harts Crossing. A busy voiceover coach, director and educator, Tracey is also a proud stepmom to three very creative young adults.
Baby by Iris Rhian (ON)
Baby stars Baby, an errant twelve-year old on the cusp of womanhood (the beginning of her menstrual cycle). Trapped in the dungeon, unable to get her period, and fearing the worst (infertility), Baby navigates bewildering doctrine taught in the fundamentalist cult where she resides. When the cult’s leader, Father Timmons, abandons his disciples, and Baby becomes impregnated through mysterious means, she must divest her conscience from God, and her extremist peers, to become the leader of her own body.
Iris Rhian (all pronouns) is a playwright and actor from Canada and the United States. Iris’ writing ranges from investigative theatre, to weirdo comedy, to nontraditional musical theatre. Originally from Boston, Iris trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where they had their work developed and performed. After graduation, Iris held a two-year playwriting fellowship at Central Square Theater in Boston where they developed two interview-based plays with local adolescents. Since relocating to Toronto, Iris has been developing a new play, Baby. This piece, which centres early adolescent procreation, and is set against the backdrop of a fundamentalist cult, received a staged reading as part of Talk Is Free Theatre’s I Do, I Don’t, I Dare! Festival in Barrie, ON, and will be further developed at PARC’s Playwrights Retreat in May, 2025. Iris is a member of Factory Theatre’s 2025 TEPS Playwrights’ Cohort.
Special thanks to RBC Emerging Playwright Award Peer Assessment Panelists: Suzie Martin (Chair), Rebecca Cuddy, and Michaela Di Cesare.