Shorelines by Mishka Lavigne – A small military-occupied community sits, waiting, parched of natural water while nearby levees hold the rising global shoreline. Seventeen-year-old twins Alix and Evan pass the time in an empty, abandoned pool with what they can scavenge from the abandoned houses, while government official Portia returns to familiar places, her past colliding with the present. The planned evacuation notice that eventually reaches all coastal cities has finally come, but the twins learn that survival is not guaranteed. As they rush to reach their grandmother, a retired journalist now living with dementia, her snippets of memories flow like humanity’s record player, skipping tracks before the final flood. A non-linear poetic play that acts like a postcard from the future, Shorelines is about family and community in a world ravaged by climate change. It also speaks to the inevitable inequality of disaster response and how poorer communities are disproportionately affected by it. 

Diggers by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard – Abdul and Solomon introduce newbie Bai to the intricacies and dignity of gravedigging for the town down the hill. But when illness hits the town, the three must make the best of a bad situation as their workload increases and their support from the community diminishes. Full of song, laughter, tears and beautiful humanity, Diggers is a tribute to essential workers. 

Mizushōbai- The Water Trader by Julie Tamiko Manning – Mizushōbai (The Water Trader) explores the life of Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto, a Japanese picture-bride turned ‘underground’ businesswoman in 1930’s British Columbia. It delves into her history, not as a clichéd dragon-lady madam (although at times, perhaps she is), nor as a dutiful daughter (although at times, perhaps she is), nor as a submissive and sexualized female Asian body (although at times, perhaps she is), but as a valuable member of Canadian society who had to fight against expectation, and for autonomy and recognition every step of the way. 

Mind the Light by Gabrielle Papillon Strasfeld – Mind the Light is a musical about a family of lightkeepers, taking place in a lighthouse in the 1880s, on a tiny island, off the coast of a small town on the East Coast. Born on a stormy night, Azélie Forgues comes into the world the same night her father perishes, while trying to get to the mainland to fetch a midwife. Raised by her mother and her uncle, and sharing her family’s dedication to the lighthouse on Parakeet Island (which also provides them with a home, autonomy, and safety) Azélie struggles with family dynamics, love, grief, and isolation. Despite gaining local and then national fame from a young age for her daring water rescues she must fight to keep her independence and her home through physically demanding and dangerous work, tremendous loss, and a love that she must keep secret.  

 Beautiful Scars by Tom Wilson (Tehohàhake) & Shaun Smyth – Tom Wilson. The Canadian music legend discovered at age 57 that his cousin, who he lived with growing up in Hamilton ON, is his mother and that he is Mohawk. This revelation shook his world to the core and has opened a search and journey back to his Indigenous core. In 2017, Tom’s wrote his bestselling autobiography, Beautiful Scars: Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers, and the Road Home. Tom’s journey now as an artist is to tell his story as often as he can in the hopes of creating understanding and healing between the two worlds. This musical is a theatrical interpretation of the “culture crack” that emerged in Tom when his mother Janie told him the truth about his past. The musical takes place inside that crack, in another dimension as Tom travels back through his life, revisiting the history that he believed to be true. It also illuminates the devastation that can be visited upon a person or culture when identity is taken, withheld or fabricated. In Tom’s words “You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes when you die? Well, the same thing happens when you are being reborn.” In addition to new music Tom has written for the project, his musical canon is prolific and has been accessed to illuminate this story. In workshop, Tom commented on how he is now realizing that in revisiting his earlier material his Indigenous sound has been there all along. It’s the blood memory. This is its time to shine.  

 Soft Magical Tofu Boys by Kevin Wong – Three brothers live in a house together. The eldest, a struggling staff lawyer at a not-for-profit, the middle brother, a morose and withdrawn young teen and the youngest who lives almost entirely in a fantasy world. They all have their eyes firmly fixed forward on the ‘next thing.’ And to top it all off, the house keeps breaking down. Walls are cracking, the basement has rats, pipes are bursting, and there isn’t enough money to fix it all. Can the brothers get where they want to be without damaging and destroying each other (and the house) in the process? 

Truth by Kanika Ambrose – It is 1858 on a Virginian tobacco plantation. Deep in a forest, a young Black girl named Phoebe sits in the hollow of a tree, a notebook in her pocket and a harrowing choice ahead. Truth is adapted from the Governor General’s Award-winning novel The Gospel Truth and tells the story of a courageous 16-year-old, the arrival of a stranger from the north, and a trail of secrets that could change everything. From the American South to St. Catharines, Ontario, Truth chronicles the fierce strength and resilience of a community as it struggles to find freedom.  

 Patty Picker by Evan Bawtinheimer – Patty is running for school president, until her political rival blackmails her over her deepest, darkest secret: Patty picks her nose.  

 Recipe for Change by Makambe K. Simamba – Change is the theme of the year for Mulenga and Chikumo, who just moved from a big city in Zambia to a small town in Northern Ontario. The two children try to grapple with their mother’s recent unexpected death by making their grieving father a birthday present he will never forget. 

Heratio by Genevieve Adam – What if nothing you thought you knew about Shakespeare’s Hamlet was true? What if no one saw the ghost, but only pretended they did? What if the uncle didn’t do it, but the servants knew who did? And what if the one man who lived through it all… wasn’t a man at all? A humorous re-imagining of the Bard’s melancholy Dane, with the upstairs/downstairs energy of Downton Abbey.  

 The Square by Pat Kiely – The Square is a huis clos about a young woman who informs her parents that she is a sex worker. The Floods are an ultra-liberal, Montreal family, celebrating Hope and Calvin’s wedding anniversary. They have two daughters; Zyanna, 24, a dancer (adopted from Vietnam), and Mack, 26, an actor living in New York. Things take a turn for the unexpected when Mack returns home and informs her family that she’s working as a sex worker in New York. There’s more. New York Magazine is doing a cover story on her with the headline, “New York’s Highest Paid Escort.” What follows is a feverish, alcohol-fueled evening, where two generations clash over Mack’s choices and the road forward.  

 Innocents by Rose Napoli – When a series of children faint in an art gallery, two security guards must work together to solve the mystery. 

Deepwater by Dan Bray – Set in rural Hants County, Nova Scotia, Deepwater follows police inspector Questa as she investigates a strange and inexplicable tragedy involving May— a reclusive marine biologist— and her young daughter. At its core, this bold new work questions the unknowable nature of life and relationships as two mothers strive to navigate a world so bizarre that it gives us creatures like the octopus— brilliant, yet deceptive— as well as the anglerfish— forsaken, yet misunderstood. Through this raw, challenging, and hopeful story, Deepwater explores the many ways that we, like much deep-sea life, must create our own light when we feel the most lost. 

For Francois by Brian Drader – For Francois is an inquiry into sexuality and identity and the nature of love. In Act I six historical figures from four different centuries – hostess and gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell, soldier Robert Shirtliff aka Deborah Sampson, poet Constantine Cavafy, pornographer Boyd McDonald, an unnamed Executioner, and Denny Fouts, the best kept boy in the world, gather for a wedding reception in 1948 that no one else showed up for. Act II is a reset – the morning after, a plush hotel, Deborah and Denny grappling with an unrealized consummation, Elsa, Cavafy, and the Executioner recast as hotel staff, and Boyd putting them all on trial for hypocrisy. For Francois is a play that is aware that it’s a play, it’s a wedding reception and the morning after, and it’s a trial, with you as the jury. Those found guilty will be erased from history. 

Wharf by Ryan Griffith – In Wharf, Nellis Stone and Allan Guillemot, two aging fishers, try and unravel the mystery of what happened to their missing friend, Stan Garrish. Rumours of his demise run rampant throughout the island community, but reliable details are scarce. Not helping matters is the occurrence of a riot that sweeps everyone up into its violence, confusing histories while entangling islanders into uneasy alliances. No one can be trusted completely, but this far from the mainland, and without any friends, one might very well drown on their own. 

Heavens! By Judith Cockman – Two mothers-in-law get stuck together in circumstances they can’t control, generating a battle of wits and witticisms. The farcical and heartbreaking uproar that ensues transforms them both. The women are opposites in every way. Eva is a prim, judgmental rule-keeper with little self-awareness. Jean is all too self-aware. Voluptuous in style and sardonic by nature, she pushes Eva’s buttons until she explodes. Their tale reveals roots of the power imbalances we’re still besieged with after a century of exposure. The underpinnings of #MeToo. The blaming of mothers, and mothers absorbing the blame. Rigid beliefs and their consequences. Generational wounds and the hard work of grinding their inevitability to a stop. Narcissism and gaslighting. Saving one’s life. As raw a descent into personal devastation that Heavens! is, it can also be experienced as an allegory depicting the ego awakening into consciousness … arguably a critical first step to keeping our world from devastation. 

Gringas by Mercedes Isaza Clunie – Gringas is a magical-realism coming of age story about 7 first- and second-generation Latina immigrants who have lost their ability to speak Spanish. In attempts to reconnect with their Latin-American roots, their mothers force them to attend a Spanish-only summer camp in Muskoka, Ontario. Within the confines of shared bunks, the teens confront their disappearing youth, through dreams, dance, and cigarettes, and tackle the intricacies of the looming shadow of their ‘gringa-ness’. 

 Love the Sinner by Rachel Renaud – Love the Sinner is a hard-hitting dramatic two-hander with absurdist elements following the joint unravelling of high school sweethearts Lenna (a straight-A student and devout Catholic) and Elle (a shy stoner) when Elle comes out as trans. It’s an exploration of religious indoctrination, the nuance of true love, and the abuse that unhealed trauma can catalyze. The story is inspired by the playwright’s experience as a Catholic teenager who was unable to accept their own gender and sexuality because of their faith. Though queerness is increasingly accepted, it is impossible to ignore the continual bigotry that stems from religious communities, especially towards trans people. Anti-trans rhetoric is rampant worldwide, affecting the safety of trans people everywhere. We need more stories that explore queer relationships, but that also shed light on how bigotry operates. In Love the Sinner, Lenna makes numerous mistakes because of her fear. As the audience, we see how Lenna’s mistakes affect Elle. Through this, we start to experience a deeper understanding of trans youth and why it’s so important to support them.  

Shorelines by Mishka Lavigne (QC) – Mishka Lavigne (she/her) is a playwright, screenwriter, and literary translator. Her plays have been developed and performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, Haiti, and Mexico. In 2023, she was a finalist for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize. Her play Havre, created at La Troupe du Jour (Saskatoon), received the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2019. Copeaux, produced by Théâtre de Dehors (Ottawa), was also awarded the same prize in 2021 as well as the Prix Jacques-Poirier. Murs— first produced as a podcast by Transisor Médias, Créations In Vivo and the Théâtre Populaire d’Acadie— received rave reviews in France and was produced for the stage in 2023. Mishka also writes in English. Her play Albumen, produced by TACTICS in 2019 (Ottawa), received the QWF Playwriting Prize and her play Shorelines was recently seen on stage (TACTICS, 2023). As a translator, both in French and English, Mishka has more than twenty credited translations of theatre, prose, and poetry. 

Diggers by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard (ON) – Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright, and agitator. Her main body of work, the 54ology, includes The First Stone, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Diggers, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Dark Love, Roominhouse, Salome’s Clothes and Gas Girls. Commissioned works include Reaching for Starlight (Geordie Theatre), Say the Words (Wrecking Ball), The House You Build (GTNT). Opera libretti include Forbidden (Afarin Mansouri/Tapestry Opera), Oubliette and Nucleosynthesis (Ivan Barbotin/Tapestry Opera). DM has collaborated on the creation of The Only Good Indian with Jivesh Parasram and Tom Arthur Davis, Hope Is a Story with Sunny Drake, They Say He Fell with Nir Bareket and 501: Toronto in Transit with Justin Manyfingers and Bob Naismith. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the Playwrights Canada Press anthologies Refractions: Solo and Refractions: Scenes and editor of Indian Act: Residential School Plays. 

Mizushōbai- The Water Trader by Julie Tamiko Manning (QC) – Julie Tamiko Manning’s first play Mixie and the Halfbreeds (with Adrienne Wong), about mixed identity in multiple universes, was commissioned as a radio play by CBC then adapted to the stage for Neworld Theatre (Vancouver) in 2009. It was then produced by fuGEN (Toronto) in 2018. Her second play, The Tashme Project: The Living Archives (with Matt Miwa), a verbatim retelling of the internment experience told through childhood memories of their Japanese Canadian elders, toured Canada in 2019 and was published in the anthology Scripting (Im)migration (PCP). Julie is currently collaborating with B.C. Nikkei artist PJ Patten to adapt the script into a graphic novel. Her third play Mizushōbai-The Water Trader about Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto, a Japanese picture-bride turned ‘underground’ businesswoman in 1930’s British Columbia, played to full houses in the Segal Studio in October 2023. It boasted a 5-member, all-female Japanese Canadian cast from across the country and was directed by Yvette Nolan. 

Mind the Light by Gabrielle Papillon Strasfeld (NS) – Gabrielle Papillon Strasfeld (She/Her) is a Kjipuktuk/Halifax-based award-winning recording artist, songwriter, composer, and producer. She is the creator of Mind The Light, an original musical she began working on in 2016. It is based on her family’s history, her own Queer identity, and her 2010 song Go Into the Night. She has released seven studio albums, ranging from folk to synth driven art-pop, and records and produces music for her own projects and other artists’. She has toured across Canada and internationally, her songs having enjoyed regular rotation on CBC Radio. She has had her songs placed in film, television, and advertisements in Canada, the US, and Australia. “One of the finest songwriters in the country right now.” –Tom Power, CBC’s Q, 2019. “She is an incredible songwriter and has a transcendent voice.” –Sarah Polley, the Globe, and Mail, 2017. 

Beautiful Scars by Tom Wilson (Tehohàhake) (ON) and Shaun Smyth (AB) 

Tom Wilson – In 2023, Tom Wilson was appointed to the Order of Canada his artistic and cultural contributions. Tom is the bestselling author of Beautiful Scars: Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the Road Home. He is a five-time Juno winning Canadian musician with multiple gold records. He has written for and recorded songs with Sarah McLachlan, City and Colour, Jason Isbell, Colin James, Lucinda Williams, Billy Ray Cyrus, Matt Andersen, Mavis Staples, and The Rankin Family. His band, Junkhouse, scored eleven top ten hits in the 90’s and his iconic, Americana-fueled Blackie and the Rodeo Kings has performed on stages from The Grand Ol Opry to Massey Hall and was widely publicized for their presence on George Bush’s iPod. Tom’s most recent incarnation, Lee Harvey Osmond, has received extensive praise and airplay throughout the United States and Europe. His art has shown in galleries in New York City, Vancouver, Toronto and more recently his paintings hang among esteemed Indigenous works from Norval Morrisseau and Christi Belcourt. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and is currently working on his second book Blood Memory for Penguin Random House books. 

Shaun Smyth – Shaun Smyth was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated from the BFA Acting program at the University of Alberta and has been acting professionally for over 25 years. He began his career at Alberta Theatre Projects at the Playwrights Festival. He then became a member of Stratford Shakespeare Festival company for two seasons, where he learned from classical masters Bill Hutt & Brian Bedford. He has also studied with such modern masters as Uta Hagen, Joe Chaikin, Patsy Rodenburg and Simon McBurney. Theatre highlights include Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story ( ATP), The Canadian premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll ( Canadian Stage Toronto), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Theatre Calgary/ Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), The Glass Menagerie and Shining City (Citadel Theatre), Of Mice and Men (Canadian Stage Toronto), The Pillowman and The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Birdland Theatre Toronto), Time After Time: The Chet Baker Project (Crow’s Theatre), Stones In His Pockets (ATP and The Grand Theatre London), Trainspotting (Canadian Stage), The Galileo Project (Tafelmusik). Shaun has received two Tyrone Guthrie Awards. Film & TV credits include ALERT, Suits, The Silencing, Anthrax, Murdoch Mysteries, Arrow, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, FRINGE, Witches of EastEnd, Almost Human, The Killing, Supernatural, Four Minutes, Proteus, Snakes and Ladders and Pit Pony. 

Soft Magical Tofu Boys by Kevin Wong (ON) – Kevin Wong (Composer & Co-Lyricist) is a composer-lyricist, singer/musician, and dramaturg. His musicals include Recurring John: A Song Cycle, STAR! (ving): A Collection of Songs, Polly Peel (with Julie Tepperman), Out of Stock, Drama 101 (with Steven Gallagher), In Real Life (with Nick Green), Believers (with Ali Joy Richardson) and Soft Magical Tofu Boys. Kevin streams online concerts weekly on the streaming service Twitch (twitch.tv/kevinywong). He is a member of the vocal group Asian Riffing Trio (with Chris Tsujiuchi and Colin Asuncion) and is currently part-time faculty at Sheridan College. As of 2023, he is the Creative Lead on the Musical Stage Company’s UnCovered concert series. Most recently, he can be heard on the live album UnCovered: The Music of ABBA (with The Musical Stage Company) and his own albums Small Ways to Move and Covers (available on streaming services everywhere). 

Truth by Kanika Ambrose (ON) – Kanika Ambrose is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and mom. She is a recent graduate of Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Primetime TV Program and Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company. Kanika’s work has premiered on stages and screens large and small in Toronto and in the USA. Her critically acclaimed play our place is the recipient of a Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Outstanding New Play.” Her opera Of the Sea with composer Ian Cusson premiered to great acclaim at Toronto’s historical Bluma Appel Theatre. Other credits include celebrated digital opera work Tak-Tak-Shoo at Opera Philadelphia with composer Rene Orth and Truth with Young People’s Theatre. A long-time resident of Scarborough, Kanika currently lives in Orono, Ontario with her husband and two sons. 

Patty Picker by Evan Bawtinheimer (ON) – Evan Bawtinheimer is an emerging playwright from Toronto, ON. Evan Bawtinheimer is an emerging playwright from Toronto, ON. He is a graduate of Fanshawe College’s Theatre Arts Program and Brock University’s Dramatic Arts Program. Acting Credits Include: Hamlet, Hamlet (Fanshawe College); Antonio, Twelfth Night (Brock University); Activist with Bag on Head (Law and Order: Toronto). Patty Picker (Flying Penguin Theatre) will be produced at the 2024 Toronto Fringe. 

Recipe for Change by Makambe K. Simamba (ON) – Makambe K Simamba is a Zambian-born, Caribbean-raised award-winning playwright and actor. As a playwright, her solo work includes the Dora Award-Winning Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers, and Little Brothers and A Chitenge Story. Her works in progress have been supported by The Stratford Festival, Banff Playwright’s Lab, Downstage Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, b current performing arts, Citadel theatre, Obsidian Theatre, Green Thumb Theatre, and more. Makambe is also a Dora Award Winning Actor who can be found on both stage and screen. She was the 2020/21 Urjo Kareda Artist in Residence at the Tarragon Theatre, and the co-host of Cahoots Theatre’s Blackstage Pass Podcast. Makambe’s intention as an artist is to be of service through her ability to tell stories. 

Heratio by Genevieve Adam (ON) – Genevieve Adam is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre School in Toronto and holds an MFA from the East15 Acting School in the UK. Selected acting credits include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (CBS), The Big Cigar (AppleTV), Mrs. America (FX), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), Stag & Doe (Capitol Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Theatre by the Bay), Annabel (BBC4), Measure for Measure (Thought for Food) and Recall (Toronto Fringe), for which she was nominated as Outstanding Actress in the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards. Her first play Deceitful Above All Things premiered at SummerWorks in 2015 and won several accolades including Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Production, and Best Emerging Artist. It was remounted at the Factory in association with The Storefront Theatre in February 2017. Subsequent plays include Bedsport (Newmarket National Play Festival), New World (Future Theatre Festival), Anatomy of A Dancer (Next Stage (2019), The Boat Show (Lost Souls’ Collective), and If The Shoe Fits, which won second place in the Toronto Fringe 2019 New Writing Contest. Her most recent play Dark Heart was named one of the top theatrical productions of 2018 by the Toronto Star. Genevieve is part of the 2023 Creator’s Units at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope and the Guild Festival Theatre in Toronto. She is also the poet behind the whimsical #haikusofthepandemic series. 

The Square by Pat Kiely (QC) – Pat Kiely has made 10 feature films. Some of note include Another Kind of Wedding, which he produced, and starred Kathleen Turner, Wallace Shawn, and Frances Fisher. Three Night Stand, which he wrote, directed, produced, and premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. It was hailed by critics as an “unromanticized romance that you rarely find in an escapist rom com,” said Los Angeles Times. Kiely’s debut feature, Who is KK Downey? opened with the highest per screen average in Canada and won him four Best Feature awards at fests around the world. John Anderson at VARIETY called it “A truly funny movie.” Kiely has also worked as a director for Discovery Plus, Lifetime Channel, Hallmark, and Rogers. As an actor, Kiely appeared alongside Gabriel Byrne in the feature film, Death of a Ladies Man. He played a key role in Arrival, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. He also appeared in The Life and Death of John F. Donovan starring Kit Harrington and Natalie Portman. He has acted in numerous television shows – some notables include Being Human (Syfy) and Seed (Rogers). Kiely got his start as a founding member of KidnapperFilms, a punk-rock film group that mounted live shows. Their unique content was half live sketch, half comedic videos. They toured around North America, playing stages like UCB (NY), Comedy Central Stage (LA), and earned a showcase at the Just for Laughs Festival (Montreal). He currently lives between Montreal (mostly) and New York, where he teaches acting at NYU and the Strasberg Institute. 

Innocents by Rose Napoli (ON) – Rose Napoli is an actor and author of six plays including Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. Her musical adaptation of Mavis Gallant’s The Carrette Sisters with composer Suzy Wilde was nominated for the Dora for Outstanding New Musical (as part of Musical Stage Company’s RETOLD series). She is currently working on new theatre projects with Crows, Tarragon, and MSC. Onstage, she most recently played the title characters in Kat Sandler’s Wildwoman (Soulpepper Theatre) and her own play, Mad Madge (produced by Nightwood at The Theatre Centre). Onscreen, she has developed television shows with CBC, Bell/Crave, Cameron Pictures, Shaftesbury, and Circle Blue Entertainment. She is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre, where she now teaches. 

Deepwater by Dan Bray (NS) – Dan Bray (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist currently residing in beautiful Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth). As founder and artistic director of The Villains Theatre, he has written, directed, and adapted many shows including Deepwater, Shakespeare’s Time Machine, Hänsel und Gretel in der Garten von Edible Horrors, Observatory Mansions, International Waters, and Zomblet. He is an 8-time Robert Merritt Award nominee, the 2022 Merritt Award winner for “Outstanding Adaptation by a Nova Scotia Playwright” (Hänsel und Gretel), and a 2023 East Coast Music Award nominee for “Children’s Entertainer of the Year” (Dinostories); similarly, many of his original Halifax Fringe plays have won similar festival awards including “Best Playwright” (The Return to Baker Street, 2016 and Criminal Negligee, 2012), “Best Comedy” (The Return to Baker Street), and “Best Family Show” (Wake Up, Rosie! 2012). He has taught Playwriting at Theatre Antigonish, and his work has been performed across the Maritimes, as well as in British Columbia and Ontario. 

For Francois by Brian Drader (MB) – Brian Drader is a writer, dramaturg, teacher, actor, and artistic administrator. His writing career has spanned 35 years, with plays produced in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Awards for his writing include the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Award, the Philadelphia Brick Playhouse New Play Award, and the prestigious Lambda Literary Award for Drama (USA), as well as nominations for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year. Brian was the Director of Playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal from 2004 to 2017. From August 2017 to present, he served as Executive Director of the Manitoba Association of Playwrights and taught Playwriting I and II at the University of Winnipeg. 

Wharf by Ryan Griffith (NB) – Ryan Griffith grew up along the banks of the Wolastoq River in Lower Woodstock, New Brunswick. A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (2007), his plays Fortune of Wolves and Lutz have been published by Playwrights Canada Press. His short play Shepody, Rage and Wolfe was featured as part of the National Elevator Project Plays produced by Theatre Yes in Edmonton and Halifax, and his original plays Returning Fire and A Brief History of the Maritimes and Everywhere Else as well as his adaptation of Alistair MacLeod’s The Boat have been produced by Theatre New Brunswick. He has served as a board member for PARC (Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre) and the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Currently, Ryan is the Artistic Director for the Next Folding Theatre Company in Fredericton. (www.nextfolding.ca) 

Heavens! by Judith Cockman (PE) – Judith Cockman is a writer, actor, and theatre producer. Over Judith’s lifetime, she founded, produced, and directed two small theatre companies— The Roadside Stage in her youth, Roaring Truth Theatre for underprivileged youth, and four of her own stage shows for Fringe Festivals under the banner of her personal company Synnerz’n Saints inc. In between, Judith has studied and practiced the craft of screenwriting. Her body of work includes— in various stages of development— roughly ten stage plays, many teleplays, & several original television series concepts and treatments. A bit of hired-gun television writing. Shelves of prose. A dozen published newspaper and magazine feature articles. And she has co-written several Documentaries. Best Documentary Arts & Humanities, Chicago International Film Festival titled Helen Lucas: Her Journey, Our Journey. 

Gringas by Mercedes Isaza Clunie (ON) – Mercedes Isaza Clunie is a queer, Chilean Canadian award-winning playwright, actor, and poet from Toronto. She holds a BFA in Acting from York University where she wrote and directed two of her own plays Splinters (2023) and Prude (2022). Mercedes’ work explores topics such as girlhood, culture, sexuality, and language through diverse formats that both disrupt traditional conventions and celebrate the essence of theatre. She is currently a member of Paprika Festival’s Playwriting Unit and has recently won the Wildfire Playwriting runner-up prize for her play Gringas which she plans to mount at Toronto and Hamilton Fringe this year. firstborntheatre.com @mechemonkey 

Love the Sinner by Rachel Renaud (QC)- Rachel Renaud has been acting since they were a teenager— in film, television, commercials, and theatre. Over the past few years, they have expanded their love of storytelling through writing and directing. They recently completed their first short film (funded by Canada Council for the Arts) Convalescence which they wrote, directed, and performed in as the lead role— receiving a nomination for “Best First-Time Filmmaker” at Toronto International Women Film Festival. They hope that by creating nuanced works that reflect disparate perspectives, they can inspire a deeper empathy and jubilance towards the things we do not understand. Love the Sinner is their first full-length play. 

Chair – Colleen Murphy is a two-time recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and the Carol Bolt Award for Outstanding Play, for Pig Girl  in 2016, and The December Man / L’homme de décembre in 2007. Other plays include  The Society For The Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius  (winner of six Jessie Richardson Awards, including Outstanding Production and three Elizabeth Sterling Awards, including Outstanding Production),  The Breathing Hole  (shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, U.S., and Carol Bolt Award), I Hope My Heart Burns First, Armstrong’s War,  The Goodnight Bird, The Piper and Beating Heart Cadaver  (shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award). Libretti include Fantasma with composer Ian Cusson, for the COC,  Oksana G with composer Aaron Gervais, for Tapestry Opera, and My Mouth On Your Heart with composer August Murphy-King, for Toy Piano Composers and Bicycle Opera. She has been Playwright-in-Residence at Finborough Theatre in London UK; Necessary Angel Theatre and Factory Theatre in Toronto, and at the University of Regina. She has been the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University; Writer-in-Residence at the University of Guelph; Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University; Lee Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Alberta; Writer-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick, and Writer-in-Residence at Green College, University of British Columbia. She currently teaches at Queen’s University in Kingston. 

Panelist – Tara L. Taylor – Manager at Light House Arts Centre, CBC Information Morning Cultural Columnist. Musical Theatre Playwright, Director, Animator, ACTRA Maritimes Member, Playwrights Guild of Canada Member, Director, Talent Ambassador for the Healthy Tomorrow, Foundation, Festival Director, Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival. Chair of Union of Black Artists Society. PERFORM NS Member, Theatre NS Member. Former Co-Chair of Women in Film & Television. Board Member of Black Women Film! Canada. Recipient of the ANSMA Industry Development 2021 Award for her body of work in presenting musical theatre and film. Original staged works include Viola: the Musical, Hood Habits and Love, Peace and Hairgrease world premiere co-produced with Eastern Front Theatre, nominated for Outstanding Production at the Robert Merritt Awards. Tara has been recognized as one of the top Canadian English Theatre playwrights to watch in SHIFTER Magazine in the Innovators-Icons in 2022-2023 and the featured playwright of the month in PGC’s online publication November 2023 (Featured Playwright — Tara Taylor | by Playwrights Guild of Canada | Medium). 

Panelist – Murdoch Schon is a nonbinary director, dramaturg, and digital innovator. Born and raised in Treaty One Territory (Winnipeg), they have been involved in the Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) English theatre scene for over a decade. As a multidisciplinary theatre maker, they use puppetry, movement, and technology to build unique and immersive worlds. Murdoch is fascinated by provocation, vulnerability, and the role of risk and failure in art making. They believe that theatre rises to its true power through the practices of ritual liminality, community, and imagination. Murdoch insists on the wondrous nature of theatre as a transformative space where rulers fail, heroes rise, and monsters seem more familiar than angels. Murdoch is a graduate of the Nation Theatre School Directing Program, and has a BFA, Specialization in Theatre and Development, from Concordia University.  

Chair – Wesley J. Colford (they/them) is a Dora and Merritt Nominated playwright and theatre artist from Cape Breton who currently resides in Sydney, NS where they operate as the inaugural Artistic & Executive Director of the Highland Arts Theatre (or HAT). They studied theatre performance at Sheridan College and George Brown College and spent eight years working in Toronto’s independent theatre scene, working as a writer, director, actor, and producer for multiple companies, as well as box office manager for Tarragon Theatre. Their plays have been produced in three provinces and have won national awards, been published, and adapted for film. Under their leadership, the Highland Arts Theatre has produced more than 100 mainstage theatrical productions in the past ten years and been nominated for Dora, Merritt, Excellence in Business, and Nova Scotia Music Industry Awards. They are a recipient of a 2015 Vital Award, the 2016 Jack Yazer Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal, and have been nominated for “Businessperson of the Year” from the Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Business Awards. They were recently honoured as one of the Globe & Mail’s “Canadian Arts Heroes of 2020” for their work developing the HAT’s bold new funding model, Radical Access.  

Panelist – Violette Kay is a composer, sound designer and multidisciplinary performer. Past projects include Adoration (Tantalus/Studio Porte Bleue), A Joy that’s Mine Alone (Art Apart, National Theatre School of Canada), From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea (Geordie Theatre, META Recipient for “Outstanding Emerging Artist– Production”), Therapy Was a Mistake (Penina Productions) and Counter Offence (Teesri Duniya Theatre). Violette is also Associate Producer at Geordie Theatre in Montreal and on the Board of Directors of Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture in Vancouver. She is passionate about helping to create artistic opportunities for young people, and accessible and anti-ableist work environments whether it be onstage, behind the scenes, or behind an office desk.  

Panelist – Sara Farb – Theatre Credits include Delphi Diggory on Broadway and in the original Canadian company of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, six seasons at the Stratford Festival with roles in closing Juliet, Anne Frank, and Cordelia, Willow in Light (Tarragon Theatre), Medium Alison in Fun Home (Musical Stage/Mirvish, Dora Nominee, TTCA Winner), Brigid in The Humans (Canadian premiere at Citadel/Canadian Stage). Productions at Soulpepper, Theatre Calgary, Tarragon, Theatre Passe Muraille, Segal Centre, YPT, and others. TV credits include Hudson and Rex, Frankie Drake, Departure, Nurses. Sara and Britta Johnson’s original musical Kelly v. Kelly made its world premiere in Toronto last year with Musical Stage and Canadian Stage. It won the Tom Hendry Award in 2020. Sara and Britta’s short musical, He Is Coming (Musical Stage/AGO) received a Dora nomination for best new musical. She is currently working on a new musical with Anton Lipovetsky for YES Theatre.  

Chair – Heather Cant is a multi-faceted theatre practitioner who works as a director, actor, playwright, dramaturg, and producer. Heather has experience with everything from large scale productions to interactive micro-performance. Her work has taken her throughout Canada, having worked for such companies as the National Arts Centre, Western Canada Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Chemainus Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Pi Theatre, Axis Theatre, Presentation House, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, Upintheair Theatre, Project X Theatre, Urban Ink, and SkirtsAfire. Heather completed her Master of Fine Arts in directing at the University of Calgary, where she developed Process-As-Relation, an anti-imperial paradigm for centering intersectional empathy in creation practices. Heather has formerly been the Associate Artistic Director of Western Canada Theatre and Artistic Producer of Project X Theatre. She now lives in Saskatoon where she is the Artistic Director of Persephone Theatre.  

Panelist – Rachel Mutombo is an award-winning actor and writer. She is an acting graduate of John Abbott College’s Professional Theatre program as well as the National Theatre School of Canada. Two acting career highlights include performing in the premieres of two extraordinary theatre for young audience plays: Selfie by Christine Quintana and Antigone:方 by Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho). Rachel’s first full length play Vierge had its world premiere at Factory Theatre in April 2023. She was also recently awarded the Canadian playwright award from the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund. Rachel is currently developing a TYA play with Young People’s Theatre titled Homeroom. Homeroom was the 2021 recipient of the Tom Hendry TYA award.  

Panelist – Anita Majumdar is an award-winning actor, playwright, dramaturg, trained classical Indian dancer and illustrator. She is featured in leading performances from the Stratford Festival to the Museum Theatre in Chennai, India. She has been a part of numerous playwrights’ groups including the Tarragon Writer’s Unit, the Cahoots Hot House Writer’s Unit, and the Banff Playwright’s Lab and been playwright in residence with Nightswimming. She was also awarded the Governor General Protégé Prize under the mentorship of the late John Murrell as well, recipient of Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Performance (Boys with Cars, Nightswimming/Young People’s Theatre). Her most produced work, the Fish Eyes Trilogy, toured extensively for 14 consecutive years and is published with Playwrights Canada Press. She is currently commissioned by Nightswimming to write A Girl Has No Gym and works as a dramaturg helping playwrights across Canada with new play development. 

Chair – Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director, and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR), served as Theatre Ambassador for Winnipeg’s Cultural Capital year, and as Artistic Director of the Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba. She was the Carol Shields Writer in Residence 2012 at the University of Winnipeg and Playwright in Residence at Theatre Projects Manitoba in 2013/14. She served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) from 2012 to 2018 and was a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She was a member of the Stratford Festival Acting Company in 2023. She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the Winnipeg Arts Council Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is the matriarch of a family of artists. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre. She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg with her partner and collaborator Arne MacPherson. 

Panelist – Louise Casemore is an artist advocate, prairie nuisance, and two-time Sterling Award winning playwright. Based in Alberta on Treaty 6 and 7 Territory, she is the recipient of the ATP/Enbridge Playwright’s Award, was shortlisted for the inaugural John Palmer Award from the Playwright’s Guild of Canada and is a 2023 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund honoree. Original plays include OCD (Canadian Tour), Functional (Found Festival, IGNITE!), GEMINI (Chinook Series, High Performance Rodeo), and Undressed (Alberta Theatre Projects). Louise remains active in the wider community by way of dramaturgy, teaching, and sector research; and in 2021 she released the long-range national study on new play development, “Surveying The Landscape” (commissioned by Alberta Playwright’s Network). She is a member of the Playwright’s Guild of Canada, LMDA, the Citadel Theatre Dramaturgy Lab, and recently completed an MFA in Theatre Practice with a specialization in Playwriting for Immersive Theatre from the University of Alberta.  

Panelist – Kathleen MacLean (they/she) – Kathleen is a 2Spirit, IndigiQueer, Métis-Settler from Treaty 6 Territory & the Homeland of the Métis (Saskatoon, SK). Kathleen graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada and was also part of the inaugural Pimootayowin Indigenous Playwright Circle. Currently, Kathleen works as the Artistic Associate and Circle of Voices Coordinator at Gordon Tootoosis Nīkanīwin Theatre. Kinanâskomitin to the Indigenous and Queer storytellers who have come before me – I am able to live my dream because of you. Recent Credits include Marie-Angelique in Women of the Fur Trade, Susan Blackbird in 1939, Emily Dictionary in The Rez Sisters. (Stratford Festival), Gwynn Starr in The Secret to Good Tea, Marie-Angelique in Women of the Fur Trade, (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Lucille in This Is How We Got Here, Charlotte Corday in The Revolutionists (Persephone Theatre); Okânawâpacikêw in nîkwatin sîpiy [Frozen River] (Manitoba Theatre for Young People); #7 in The Wolves (Live Five Saskatoon); Head Full of Lice in The Third Colour (Prairie Theatre Exchange). Other: Pimootayowin Indigenous Playwright Circle (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre).  

Chair – Cheryl Foggo is a playwright, author and filmmaker, whose work over the last 35 years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent. Among her works are Heaven, John Ware Reclaimed, John Ware Reimagined and Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West. Cheryl is a past recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Outstanding Artist Award, The Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award, the Arts, Media and Entertainment Award from the Calgary Black Chambers, the Women Making History in Alberta Award, the Alberta Order of Excellence, and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal. Cheryl was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Royal University in June of 2023. 

Panelist – Berni Stapleton is a playwright, author, skit artist, and actor. She was born in Labrador and grew up in Newfoundland. She has spent her career making beautiful theatre in unexpected places. She was a Siminovitch Playwright Prize finalist in 2023. She is the Artistic Director of Girl Power Inc. an indie feminist theatre company devoted to the queer-hands and creators of the outer reaches. Her plays include Offensive to Some, developed as part of the NAC’s English Theatre Program the Playwright’s Circle in 1996. It is produced regularly to this day. The Antidote for Life: Memory, Madness, and Beagles, is an autobiographical exploration of madness in the arts. New works in progress include the feminist queer imagining Ophelia Swims. Berni was writer-in-residence at Memorial University in 2019 and taught an Introduction to Playwrighting course there. Her books include Love, Life (Breakwater Books) the yet unpublished Brazil Square about the once iconic boarding house district of St. John’s, and the writing guide How to Write a Play and Have Fun Without Hardly Even Trying or How to Finish Your Best Worst First Draft or Prepare to Throw the Pasta. She lives in St. John’s with rescue beagles Georgie Girl and Tiggy Duff.  

Panelist – Melissa Mullen is a PEI based playwright, actor, director, and farmer. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. Her first play, Rough Waters, was developed with assistance from PARC and produced by Neptune Theatre in Halifax and TheatrePEI. She has co-written several plays with husband Rob MacLean, including the short piece Dear Mr. Keith for Theatre YES in Edmonton and Magnetic North, a stage adaptation of Sir Andrew McPhail’s The Master’s Wife (PEI Heritage award winner), and The Man Who Saved the Songs (a tribute to esteemed folklorist Edward ‘Sandy’ Ives). Melissa and Rob were co-recipients of the 2020 PEI Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts award. Her most recent play Still Dancing, developed with assistance from PARC and the Fresh From the Island New Works Festival, will be produced this summer at the Ship’s Company Theatre in Nova Scotia. 

Chair – Originally from White Rock, BC, Ashlie Corcoran (she/her) directs both theatre and opera, working nationally and internationally. Ashlie has been the Artistic Director of the Arts Club since 2018, during  which time she has directed: Guys and Dolls, Every Brilliant Thing, Little Shop of Horrors, Beautiful, Teenage Dick, Redbone Coonhound, The Matchmaker, Bed & Breakfast, Cost of Living, The Sound of Music, The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night. She was the Artistic Director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ontario, from 2012 to 2017 where she directed 15 productions. She is also the co-founder and Artistic Producer for Theatre Smash in Toronto, a British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar, and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Other favourite projects include: The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville (Vancouver Opera), Mamma Mia (Citadel Theatre), Me & My Girl (Shaw Festival), The Magic Flute (COC), Mustard (Tarragon Theatre). Ashlie is the proud mom of a spirited toddler.  

Panelist – Mona’a Malik is a writer from Saint John, New Brunswick. She is a past recipient of an Arts and Letters NL award for poetry, and her fiction has appeared in The Fiddlehead, Joyland, Event, the Coming Attractions 15 Anthology, Qwerty, The Ex-Puritan, Ricepaper, and Carve Magazine. She adapted her short story Dead Pumpkin, through the Young People’s Theatre Grant. Sania The Destroyer was produced for Theatre New Brunswick’s 50th anniversary season (2018-2019) and was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Playwriting Prize 2020.  

Panelist – Elio Zarrillo spends their days making plays and poems with and for their loved ones. They are originally from Treaty 1 territory and currently based on the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Some produced works include Volare (Prairie Theatre Exchange), The Outside Inn (Festival Antigonish, co-written with Sharon Bajer) and The Show (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre). Their newest play PEACHES is now in development as part of Zee Zee Theatre’s National Queer & Trans Playwriting Unit, while another play-in-process, Nik & Blanche, is currently undergoing an experimental transformation of play to zine to play again. They have also recently begun their Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.