Craft Bites is a webinar series where playwrights are connected to share their work and discuss the craft of playwrighting with one another.
PGC members have been paired up with an International playwrights for a special edition: Craft Bites International.
You can tune into these live events and get a glimpse of what these theatre creators have been up to!
Join us for a bite of inspiration!
Craft Bites is open and free to the public.
To register to listen to Craft Bites International click HERE.
Our International Partners
The Lucille Lortel Theatre (New York, U.S.A)
The Lucille Lortel Theatre Alcove New Play Development Program is devoted to new writing for performance expressive of diversity and difference from a wide variety of thematic, formal, cultural and linguistic perspectives. The program serves supports dramatists especially in the early stages of their work process.
For more information on The Lucille Lortel Theatre, click HERE.
@lortel_theatre
The Australian Writers’ Guild (Australia)
The Australian Writers’ Guild is the professional association representing writers for stage, screen, audio and interactive and has protected and promoted their creative and professional interests for more than 60 years.
The Guild’s vision is to see performance writing and performance writers thrive as a dynamic and integral part of Australian storytelling, shaping, reflecting and enhancing the Australian cultural voice in all its diversity.
The AWG’s purpose is to promote the role and recognition of – and rewards for – performance writing in Australian society and culture; to pursue a thriving industry environment; to protect and advance rights and opportunities and to promote excellence and improve professional standards, conditions and remuneration.
For more information on the Australian Writers’ Guild click here.
Glass Mask Theatre (Ireland)
Glass Mask Theatre are the foremost producer of new plays in Ireland. Named company of the year in their first active year of 2021, their mission statement is to stage daring new plays that speak to the NOW in our immersive venue.
For more information on Glass Mask Theatre click here.
Nordic Drama Corner (Finland)
Nordic Drama Corner is the largest drama agency in Finland, Nordic Drama Corner represents many leading Finnish playwrights and novelists and film writers, and constantly strengthens its strong international profile. While representing Finnish dramaturges and playwrights, we carry a broad selection of titles by major dramatists worldwide. We work closely with the entire theatre industry in Finland and we actively cultivate our extensive international network, based on our long-standing presence in the field.
Nordic Drama Corner’s earliest roots go back to the 1920s, when two Finnish theatre organizations, The Association of Finnish Theatres and the Association for Amateur and Professional Theatres founded their own theatrical agencies. In 1993, these two organizations combined their agency services, and thus Nordic Drama Corner was formed. In 2002, the agency was re-established as a limited company; theatre organizarions still owning the company.
Find out more about the Nordic Drama Corner: www.dramacorner.fi
Follow NDC on Twitter: @dramacorner
The Playwrights Association of New Zealand (New Zealand)
The Playwrights Association of New Zealand Inc. was formed in 1958. The aim of the Association is to foster the writing of plays through Playwriting Seminars, Workshops, Competitions, Play Assessments and newsletters and to foster links between playwright members.
For more information click HERE.
Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland (United Kingdom)
Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland was established in 2004 at the behest of playwrights to provide artistically independent career support to the playwrights of Scotland. We are the only arts organisation in the UK exclusively dedicated to the artistic development of writers for live performance. Centring the voice and autonomy of playwrights, we support writers of all levels of experience to reach their creative potential by connecting them with peer support, world-class industry excellence, and opportunities for artistic growth.
For more information click HERE.
Twitter – https://twitter.com/Pwrightsstudio
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Playwrightsstudioscotland
Instragm – https://www.instagram.com/playwrightsstudio/
Theatre Arts (South Africa)
Built on the tenets of affordability, inclusivity and accessibility, Theatre Arts is a vibrant home for local theatre practitioners – a place where they can create work, develop skills, perform, engage in dialogue and meet and work with theatre practitioners who come from diverse backgrounds, whether cultural, social, economic or simply in skill and experience. Described as the rehearsal space of choice, Theatre Arts is dedicated to creating the right environment for artists and theatre to flourish.
For more information click HERE.
Teksti – the playwrights’ community (Finland)
Teksti (The Text) is a playwrights’ community founded in 2007 which works in close cooperation with Writers Guild of Finland. The goals of Teksti are the development of Finnish dramatic literature, supporting the identity of the Finnish playwrights, and increasing the prestige and visibility of the profession. As a community, Teksti aims to create connections between playwright and the rest of the theater field as well as to open discussions about the relations between theaters and playwrights.
Writers Guild of Finland
(Suomen Näytelmäkirjailijat ja Käsikirjoittajat ry)
Originally founded by a group of writers, Writers Guild of Finland has been in active operation since 1921. Today the guild comprises over 600 members who work as professional script writers for stage, film, television, radio and new media. Both Finnish and Swedish speaking authors are represented by the guild.
Writers Guild of Finland protects the professional, copyright and financial interests of its individual members, and handles the rights of properties owned by other controlling bodies such as estates. In addition to negotiating and issuing contracts, we develop codes of practice in co-operation with theatres, television channels and producers. We also work closely with various artistic, copyright and public affairs organisations in order to further the aims of professional writers.
For more information click Here.
Women Playwrights International & International Playwrights’ Forum – (Philippines)
Women Playwrights International Philippines (WPIP) – The first formally organized country chapter of the Women Playwrights International (WPI). It was launched on November 25, 2020 during The Second Conference for Asia Women and Theater held at the National Arts Center in Mt. Makiling Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. Three years after its establishment, WPIP hosted the 6th WPI Conference supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Japan Fundation Manila Office, and the Asian Cultural Council Philippines Foundation, Incorporated.
WPIP’s flagship projects include the Basic Playwriting Workshop for the Indigenous Women, Readathon of Plays in Metro Manila and its Satellite Readathon of Plays in Bacolod City, and the Basic Writing Workshop for Emerging Women Playwrights. WPIP is the partner organization of the International Theater Institute- International Playwrights Forum (ITI-IPF) in the implementation of the Dramaturgy Education Exchange Program in the Philippines. With its unwavering commitment to provide a safe space for sharing, learning, and exchange among Filipino women writers, playwrights and theater artists, WPIP presented its milestone achievement for two decades in the 2020 Festival of Plays by Women on March 6 to 8, 2020. At present, WPIP continues to pursue its various projects across the country while fostering collaborative local and international programs such as the annual Asia Playwrights Festival of the ITI-IPF Korea and Asia Theatre Circle, and the Craft Bites International of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
For more information click here.
International Playwrights’ Forum Philippines (IPFP) – is the ITI Philippine Centre’s counterpart committee of the International Playwrights’ Forum (IPF), one of the standing committees of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), the largest world organization for the performing arts. IPFP is known for initiating the collaborative implementation of the Dramaturgy Caravan project in the Philippines since 2012, and later expanded into the Dramaturgy Education Exchange Program (DEEP). With WPIP as its implementing organization, in collaboration with the NCCA, Performance Laboratory, Inc., Negros Cultural Foundation, Masskara Theatre Ensemble, the program is institutionalized in the Philippines and becomes a regular component of the Kuris International Theatre Festival held annually in the University of St. La Salle and Negros Museum in Bacolod City. IPFP is also active in conducting various local and international projects such as the 2021 Global Competition for Emergent Playwrights, the GloWplayforum (Global Women’s Online Play Reading and Forum) in 2020 and 2021; Anthology Project: Collection of Plays on Asian Theatre and Social Justice; and the recently launched podcast program, The HeartH Café.
For more information click here.
Since 2008, Michele Lee has been writing stories professionally across stage, audio, live art and screen. Her practice is characterised by a deep commitment to complex portraits of Asian Australian people, people of colour and to women, whether amplifying the stories of her own community, the Hmong people, or creating stories that give dimension to people from a diversity of communities. Selected theatre works include HOW DO I LET YOU DIE? (2023), SECURITY (2022), SINGLE LADIES (2022), GOING DOWN (2019) and RICE (2017.) Selected live art and audio works include AN ASSISTANT’S GUIDE FOR A PANDEMIC (2018), THE NAKED SELF (2018, 2016), TALON SALON (2014, 2013, 2012) and SEE HOW THE LEAF PEOPLE RUN (2012). Screen credits include WHITE FEVER (2024), SOAR (2022); HUNGRY GHOSTS (2020) and RETROGRADE (2020). Michele has worked across different producing contexts: she’s had professional companies stage premieres and remounts of her plays, she’s co-presented shows with arts organisations where she was also the lead artist and Michele has also independently produced her own shows. Michele’s works have been recognised through development and production grants, and she has been awarded a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Australian Writers’ Guild Award (Stage and Radio), Malcolm Robertson Prize, Betty Burstall Commission and was a 2022-23 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow. She has been nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Nick Enright Prize and Patrick White Award. Michele regularly assesses, mentors and teaches across the country.
DYLAN VAN DEN BERG
A Palawa playwright and dramaturg from the northeast of lutruwita/Tasmania, Dylan’s work explores Blak identities by pivoting narratives that are already part of our national consciousness to embolden Indigenous perspectives. Dylan’s play Whitefella Yella Tree premiered as part of Griffin’s 2022 season and has gone on to be nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama and win the NSW Premier’s Award for Playwrighting. It also won the AWGIE award for Stage – Original and the David Williamson Prize. His play Ngadjung for Belco Arts Centre which he also directed premiered the same week and won the AWGIE award for Community and Youth Theatre. He is a member of Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group and with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, Dylan trained as a dramaturg through the BlackWrights Program with Kamarra Bell-Wykes. In 2021, his play Milk premiered at The Street Theatre and won NSW Premiers Award Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, the Victorian Premiers Award for Drama, the Canberra Critic’s Circle Award and the 2022 Kate Challis RAKA Award. The play was described as “a new and powerful development in Australian First Peoples’ theatre” (Canberra Critics’ Circle). Milk is published by Currency Press. Dylan studied drama at the Australian National University and the State University of New York.
Alana Valentine is a dramatist, director and librettist. She co-wrote the Helpmann award-winning Barbara and the Camp Dogs with First Nations artist Ursula Yovich, and co-wrote the Ruby and AWGIE Award winning libretto for Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan with Christos Tsiolkas, music by Joe Twist. Her two plays on the HSC syllabus in NSW are Parramatta Girls and Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah. In 2022 Alana also co-wrote, with Stephen Page, Wudjang: Not the Past for Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia’s premier First Nations dance theatre company with whom she has collaborated since 2011. Her plays are published by Currency Press including Bowerbird: The Art of Writing Theatre Drawn From Life. In 2024 Alana presented Send For Nellie, a cabaret about West Indian Australian performer Nellie Small in the Sydney Festival, wrote and directed Notre Dame, a narrative concert for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, presented at the Melbourne and Sydney Recital Halls, co-wrote Baleen Moondjan with Stephen Page, which opened the Adelaide Festival in March 2024, published Wed By the Wayside, a narrative non-fiction work of memoir, based on her acclaimed 2022 play Wayside Bride, presented at Belvoir Theatre. Most recently her oratorio Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan was presented by Opera Australia in the Joan Sutherland Theatre of the Sydney Opera House and her collaboration with physical and visual theatre company erth, called arc began a 40 venue tour in June. Alana’s website is www.alanavalentine.com
Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a multi-award-winning Black queer & trans theatre maker and screenwriter from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Azure holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (2011) from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as well as an MA in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a BA in English & Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (2005).
Azure’s full-length play “Crooked Parts” was published in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, and will be produced as part of Obsidian Theatre Festival in Detroit, MI in June 2024. Azure’s full-length play “Mirrors” received its world premiere, produced by Parity Productions, at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop in spring 2020. Unfortunately, this production closed early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Mirrors” is now available for purchase through NoPassport Press. Azure’s new play “Red Rainbow,” a 2022 National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, received a production at Mt. Holyoke College in spring 2022 and at Tufts University in spring 2023.
2023/2024 Alcove at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Commission Recipient, Still Standing Artist-in-Residence @StonehengeNYC, recipient of Waterwell New Works Lab’s 2021 Commission, Kilroys List 2020 playwright, recipient of Parity Productions’ 2018 Annual Commission, Winner of Downtown Urban Arts Festival’s 2018 Best Play Award, and the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest.
Finalist for the 2023 Dramatists Guild Catalyst Fellowship, 2023 NY Independent Theatre Awards’ Artistic Achievement Award, 2023 Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, 2022 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, Theatre Viscera’s 2022 and 2020 Queer Playwright’s Contest, VanguardRep’s 2019 Summer Production; Semi-finalist for the 2024 and 2022 National Playwrights Conference, the 2024 Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, the 2021 Doric Wilson Award, and the 2019 Burman New Play Award. azureosbornelee.com
Iraisa Ann Reilly is a writer, actor and educator who is half-Cuban, half-Irish and whole New Jersey. She writes bilingual plays to reflect the communities and spiritual realities that she calls home. Select full-length plays include Good Cuban Girls (Teatro del Sol, at The Arden Theatre), The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo (Winner, Latinx New Play Festival at La Jolla Playhouse 2023, Sol Fest 2022, Yale Drama Series Shortlist 2022, Finalist Leah Ryan Prize, KCACTF) Saturday Mourning Cartoons (Winner, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival 2022, Arkansas New Play Festival 2023, Finalist Goldberg Playwriting Prize 2022, Semifinalist Blue Ink Award 2023, Semifinalist Premiere Stages) and Miss America Pretty (Latinx Playwright’s Circle Mentorship with Migdalia Cruz, Semifinalist Blue Ink Playwriting Award 2024). She is currently under commission with the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and ArtHouse Productions in Jersey City, NJ. Her plays have been developed by Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, The Chain Theatre, The Workshop Theatre, ARTHouse INKubator, and the Latinx Playwright’s Circle. Thanks to a Lucille Lortel Micro-grant she is currently writing a one-woman show entitled January 6th: A Celebration. A Bodega Princess remembers tradition not Insurrection. As an actor she has worked regionally and off-Broadway and is an adjunct professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU. Iraisa Ann holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and a BA in Theatre and English from the University of Notre Dame. iraisaannreilly.com
Rex Ryan is artistic director of Dublin’s glass mask theatre, the top new writing theatre in the city.
Rex has been nominated best theatre actor in Ireland three times. Also in Manchester, the Dublin fringe and the Richard Harris film festival. His plays have been performed in Ireland and off Broadway. He has directed many new plays by acclaimed Irish playwrights,
Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright. She is a member of Aosdána, Ireland!s elected affiliation of outstanding artists. Deirdre collaborates with artists and theatres all over the world, is literary associate to Meath County Council and has a large canon of regularly produced plays to her credit. Deirdre is published by Nick Hern Books.
Best Known Plays include: The Saviour, The Unmanageable Sisters, Rathmines Road, Moment, Halcyon Days, Bogboy, Hue & Cry, Spinning and her Irish Revolutionary Trilogy Wild Sky, Embargo and Outrage.
Deirdre works predominantly with the Abbey Theatre, Landmark Productions and Fishamble Theatre Company in Ireland but also collaborates with theatres in the UK, Europe and America. Recent works include The Saviour for Landmark Productions & Irish Repertory Theatre NYC 2023, An Old Song Half Forgotten for the Abbey Theatre & Sofft productions 2023, TEMPESTA Glassmask Theatre/Cork Midsummer Festival 2024, In the Middle of the Fields for Solas Nua Washington DC 2021, The Visit for Draiocht & Dublin Theatre Festival 2021/22, Bloody Yesterday 2022 for Glassmask Theatre.
Deirdre has a number of new Theatre and Screen projects in development, currently under commission to Stat Theatre Maintz in Germany, Fishamble in Dublin and NOMAD touring group. She also has years of experience as a producer and enjoys curating or participating in multi-genre artistic projects for Meath County Council and other national festivals/events. March 2023.
Representation: Emily Hickman at The Agency London.
Photo: Barry Cronin
Kati Kaartinen (born 1972) is a playwright, screenwriter, and dramaturg based in Helsinki. Kaartinen graduated from the Helsinki Theatre Academy in 2002, majoring in directing and dramaturgy. Her plays deal with melancholic topics such as suicide, mental health, and lack of communication through a hopeful, life-radiating and warm approach. Her central topics can be divided into three categories which, according to her, will always remain as a permanent in our lives: death, birth, and love. Having grown up in the working class, her characters often reflect this reality as well.
In 2004 she received the Venla Award for best dramatic script for the television film Arvon Veli (rough translation: Dear Brother), and the Lea Award for best dramatic text of the year from the Finnish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild in 2009 for her play, Aina. In addition to working in theatre, she has also worked as a teacher and done freelance work in television and radio.
More on her and her plays: https://www.dramacorner.fi/en/plays-and-authors/kaartinen-kati
Headshot taken by Laura Malmivaara
Pasi Lampela (born 1969) is one of the most productive and topical Finnish playwrights of his generation. His plays examine the problems of modern life and its hidden pressure points by combining tragedy and comedy. In form they are intimate chamber pieces, usually focusing on a family or other small group people. Lampela is also an accomplished director well known for his sharp interpretations of classics and new writing.
In his plays, Lampela often examines guilt, sexuality, conflicts between generations and the loss of values. He depicts conflicted people who fight for their humanity in a merciless world. Lampela, who besides drama writes novels and short stories, sees his work as an attempt to dismantle taboos and societal distortions.
The Dreams of the Marquis (2000) is set in the early nineteenth century; its central character is the Marquis de Sade, who has been locked in an insane asylum where a secret visitor comes to see him. Westend (2005) is a portrait of a well-to do family and their hidden conflicts. In Granada (2017) Lampela tells a comedic story of former lovers meeting again and reliving their passionate relationship, whereas On Ice (2019) is a family story about pursuit of success, set in the world of professional ice hockey.
More on him and his plays: https://www.dramacorner.fi/en/plays-and-authors/lampela-pasi
Headshot taken by Yehia Eweis
Tim Hambleton has written nine full length comedy plays which have been performed by repertory societies around New Zealand. Gone To Seed won Best New New Zealand Full-length Play at the Regional Theatre Awards in 2019. On The Right Track won Best New New Zealand Full-length Play at the Regional Theatre Awards in 2020. Tim has also written a number of 10 minute comedies, several of which have won or been placed in national competitions, and have been published in collections of award winning short New Zealand plays. In 2022 Tim received the Playwrights Association of New Zealand Outstanding Achievement Award. Tim is a lawyer employed by the New Zealand Police as a prosecutor. He is married with two children. He lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.
April Phillips is a British born, writer, director, actress and producer who lives in New Zealand. April has been writing professionally for the theatre for over 25 years and is a client writer for Playmarket (New Zealand’s playwright agency and development organisation). She is one of New Zealand’s most licensed playwrights and her plays are regularly produced throughout Australasia. Her international hit comedy play “STiFF” has been produced over 100 times in New Zealand, Australia, Norfolk Island and the United Kingdom. At Playmarket, April has a catalogue of 13 plays. Her most recent stage work is a musical “Let’s Talk About Me” that had its premiere in 2022.
April is a member of the acclaimed Hens’ Teeth women’s comedy troupe and a founding writer/performer with the Femme Natale Theatre Company which has toured its sketch comedy show all over New Zealand and which received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023.
April completed a Master’s degree in Scriptwriting in 2010 at Victoria University. Her thesis was a feature screenplay “Charlotte Badger”. She carried out her internship at the NZ Film Commission. At the end of the degree course, she was awarded the Michael Hirschfeld Scholarship for Scriptwriting.
April has made several short films with varying multiple roles as writer, producer, director and occasionally as an actress. She is currently the co-writer/co-director of the feature film 1978 (post production) and the co-producer/script consultant of the feature Blind Panic (post production). April’s films have screened at some of the largest and most prestigious genre festivals including Fantasia (Montreal), Screamfest (Hollywood), Horror Hound (Cincinnati), A Night of Horror (Sydney), London Sci-Fi Film Festival, and FilmQuest (Utah). In 2021 her film The Haka screened at the Cinema Des Antipodes (Cannes). The Haka, co-written by April and director Isaac Lee, went viral after its Anzac weekend online release in 2021 and has been viewed over 2.5 million times on YouTube alone. Two of the five films selected for the New Zealand Film Festival in China in 2014 were April’s.
She has won or been nominated for numerous awards as a writer/director/producer of plays and films. She has been the recipient of the PANZ Outstanding Achievement Award. April was chuffed to be awarded a Humanitarian Award in 2021 in relation to the disability themes in her Sci-Fi short film “The Last Man on Earth”. April is proud to have recently worked as co-writer and acting coach on the film “Mako”, a film in the Samoan language and which was selected for the New Zealand International Film Festival. www.aprilphillips.com
Linda McLean is an award-winning playwright based in Glasgow. Her plays are produced in the UK and internationally, most notably in the USA and France. In 2023, she wrote Castle Lennox for Lung Ha Theatre Company and the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. During the pandemic she wrote, Go On, a response to Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape for the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. She is currently under commission to the Citizens Theatre, the Royal Lyceum, Dundee Rep and Magnetic North. She is an excellent cook, loves board games (current favourite is Everdell), crochet, and has ambitions to weave her own willow coffin. All true.
Laurie Motherwell is a Glaswegian playwright.
In 2024 his play Roost was performed as part of A Play, Pie and a Pint. In April 2023 his play Sean and Daro Flake it ’Til They Make It premiered at the Traverse Theatre, before being performed again during the Edinburgh Fringe. In the same year Laurie was the Tron Theatre Resident Writer where he developed a new play The Grand Sun Shines Eternal.
He has developed work with other organisations such as the National Theatre of Scotland, An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Macrobert Arts Centre, and Paisley Book Festival. He has previously been a recipient of a MGC Futures Bursary, and in 2019 he was a recipient of a New Playwrights Award from the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland.
Ayanda Haas: In all walks of life, I believe, for a complete communication of an idea, nothing surpasses a dramatic representation of that idea you want to convey. I believe that as artists we are duty bound to always challenge the unchallengeable and inspire the uninspired. For years I have been involved with community theatre and in 2014 I went to MAGNET THEATRE to polish my skill in theatre making. Today I can proudly say that I am a developing writer, growing actor, passionate shadow puppeteer and an art teacher. TIRO’S TOUGHLOOP TESTIMONY is a play I wrote during that devastating period of our lives in 2020. In 2023, the play took part at Baxter’s Zabalaza Festival and scooped three awards respectively. 1: Best Actor. 2: Best Script. 3: Finest of the Festival. This year, the play went on to receive three niminees at the prestigious Fleur Du Cap awards and also took part at Iphulo (Eastern Cape) and Botho (Limpopo) Art Festivals.
FELIMON BONITA BLANCO, PhD, DA
Felimon Bonita Blanco finished his 3-year Professional Diploma in Intercultural Theatre from the Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore on full scholarship from the Georgette Chen TTRP Scholarship Fund. He holds two doctorate degrees: Doctor of Philosophy in Education from La Salle University, and Doctor of Arts in Literature and Communication from Cebu Normal University.
Felimon is the Founding Artistic Director of Teatro Guindegan of La Salle University, Ozamiz City. In 2013, the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Sur awarded him the Most Outstanding Zambosurian (Arts and Culture Category). In 2017, the Municipality of Tambulig also awarded him the Tambul Ni Ilig Award for Arts and Culture. He is the co-author of the book Speech and Theater Arts, published by Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Currently, he is working on the textbook Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Region with Rex Education, Inc.
As actor and director, his plays have been performed in international festivals in Manila, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore. Off the stage, Felimon has also been a regular delegate to international programs such as Asia Europe Foundation’s “Health on Stage: 10th Asia Europe Young Volunteers Exchange Program” in Bangalore, India (2011), at Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, Japan (2013), at the 20th Performance Studies International Conference in Shanghai, China (2014), and at the Abu Dhabi Culture Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE (2019).
Felimon served as Mindanao representative to the National Committee on Dramatic Arts (NCDA) of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) from 2008-2013 and 2017-2019. He was then elected Head of NCDA for the Term 2020 to 2022. His recent play The COVID Spirits was performed by inITIate PH, a Pan-Philippine artist collective of the graduates of Singapore’s Intercultural Theatre Institute. He presently teaches Journalism and Drama at the Jose Rizal Memorial State University – Dipolog Campus.
LUNA SICAT CLETO Novelist, Playwright and Fictionist
Her novel “Makinilyang Altar” (UP Press) won the Madrigal Gonzalez Prize for Best First Book in 2004, as well as the 2003 Gawad Chanselor and UP Presidential Distinction Awards for Best Creative Work. Her second novel, “Mga Prodigal,” was a finalist at the Gawad UP Centennial in 2008, and was published by Anvil in 2010.
Her other works include “Maternal,” which won 3rd Prize for the One-Act Play at the 1987 Gawad CCP para sa Panitikan, “Ang Lohika ng mga Bula ng Sabon,” which won Honorable Mention at the 1990 Timpalak Panitik of Diyaryo Filipino, “Alakdan,” 2nd prize for Short Story for Children from the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in 1992, “Bago Mo Ako Ipalaot,” 3rd prize for poetry in Filipino Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 1996.
In 2017, she won 3rd prize for her story “Tatlong Proposisyon ng Hangin” at the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. She was also one of the honorees for the Gawad Balagtas, an annual lifetime achievement award given by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) for her work in fiction in 2018. She also edited “Pag-ahon sa Hirap: Mga Kuwentong Nanay” (Eight Books Press) in 2018, which was cited as the Best in Non-Fiction Anthology by the National Book Awards.
Luna is also a Fellow from the UP Institute of Creative Writing, and is currently a member of the National Council for Literary Arts, of NCCA. She teaches courses in Malikhaing Pagsulat (Creative Writing in Filipino) and Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
Venise Tolentino Buenaflor
Venise Buenaflor finished Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Master of Arts in Psychology at the University of St. La Salle-Bacolod. She is a Registered Psychometrician and has been in the field of education for 4 years teaching art and psychology-related subjects. She is currently the program consultant of The Negros Museum doing curriculum design and implementation of special educational programs for students.
Aside from her professional work, she is also a board member of the Performance Laboratory Inc., a theatre artist for 10 years, involved in the field of acting, playwriting, and directing. She directed various short plays and portrayed lead and supporting roles in several local plays and made her first acting debut on the CCP Stage as part of the CCP’s Virgin Labfest Main Festival of Plays where she performed a monologue titled “Wala nang Bata Dito” by Sari Saysay. Some of her original plays were featured during the Staged Readings in CCP under the Women Playwrights International and chosen as one of the Top 10 fellows in the VLF Writing Fellowship Program 14 under the mentorship of Glenn Sevilla Mas. Significantly her works made its way to different platforms such as “Dorm 425” which was accepted as one of the entries at VLF Visayas and “Tuhoy” which was invited to the writer’s playroom in WPI Montreal 2021.
Dan Bray
Dan Bray (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist living in beautiful Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth). As artistic director of The Villains Theatre, he has written, directed, and adapted many shows (including Deepwater, International Waters, Shakespeare’s Time Machine, Hänsel und Gretel in: der Garten von Edible Horrors, Observatory Mansions, and Zomblet). He is a 10-time Merritt Award nominee and the 2022 Merritt Award winner for “Outstanding Adaptation by a Nova Scotia Playwright” (Hänsel und Gretel). Most recently, his original drama Deepwater was named “First Runner Up” for the inaugural Jenny Munday Atlantic Canadian Play Award, and he received an East Coast Music Award nomination for Dinostories (“Children’s Entertainer of the Year,” 2023). His work has been performed across the maritimes, as well as in British Columbia and Ontario.
Dan has had the good luck of working with many of Nova Scotia’s finest theatre companies – as a playwright, director, actor, and dramaturge – including Two Planks & a Passion Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea, Festival Antigonish, Mulgrave Road Theatre, and Phyllis Rising Productions.
Dan is the 2023-25 Merritt Co-Host/Producer, the former Vice Chair for the Halifax Fringe Festival, a two-time attendee of Playwright Atlantic Resource Centre’s annual retreat, and a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. He received his MA from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama in 2009.
Kelley Jo Burke
Kelley Jo Burke is a crip playwright living as a settler on Treaty Four territory. Her plays include the award-winning Rigby, Greensleep, The Curst, Us, for which she received a Tom Hendry award, The Selkie Wife and Charming and Rose: True Love. Her many CBC’s radio IDEAS documentaries have been heard all over the world. Recent books include Wreck: A Very Anxious Memoir, and Ducks on the Moon: A Parent Meets Autism. She teaches, edits, dramaturges, & narrates audiobooks. She has received multiple arts awards, including four City of Regina Writing Awards and the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s award for arts leadership.
Laurie Dumont-Bal
Laurie Dumont-Bal is a Montreal-based biracial theatre artist with Indian and French-Canadian settler origins. She works as a playwright, director, playback theatre performer and theatre teacher. During the 2023-2024 season, she completed the Nested Circles residency at Imago Theatre, as well as the Fireworks Play Development Program at Teesri Duniya Theatre, which culminated in a staged public reading for her play “Here”. She has directed more than ten musicals at the Segal Centre Academy, where she also worked as the lead book writer/script supervisor for three original musicals named “Silent Knight”, “Our First Day” and “Magic All Around Us”.
Jeff D’Hondt
Jeff D’Hondt is a member of the Lenape nation at the Six Nations of the Grand River with additional Belgian Canadian ancestry. He has two decades of experience working in mental health and substance abuse treatment services, which he gained through positions in the correctional system, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, within Indigenous communities, and at hospitals and homeless shelters. He graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History (with minors in Aboriginal Studies and the History of Science), from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Social Work (where he was also part of the contract teaching faculty), and from York University with a Masters of Social Work (where his research on using theatre to give voice to homeless Indigenous youth was awarded the Gerry Erickson Essay Prize for Best Practice Research Paper). He’s also a K.M. Hunter Artist Award nominee who has written plays produced/workshopped in Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. He lives in Toronto.
Lily Falk
Lily Falk is an emerging theatre-maker living in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) and co-artistic director of Gale Force Theatre. Her first play, Crypthand won the 2022 Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Emerging Playwright Award. With Gale Force, she co-created whimsical and unique performances for young audiences including one delivered by a tandem bike with wings and one that takes place in a beautiful, patch-work ten. Lily also works in community arts as an associate artist with the River Clyde Pageant and with her own company, creating outdoor theatre ensembles with preteens and teens. When she’s not making theatre, you can find her facilitating nature preschool programming, playing the accordion, or riding a tandem bike.
Alexandria Haber
Alexandria Haber is an award -winning playwright. Her plays have been produced in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, the UK and include: The Silent Woman, ( co-written with Ned Cox)The White Bear London, UK, shortlisted for QWF 2022 Playwriting award. Alice and The World We Live In(Centaur Theatre, Sarasvati Productions, upcoming production at The Grand in Kingston, November 2024) Winner of the Infinite Theatre Playwriting competition 2017) Mouth to Mouth (Montreal Fringe, The White Bear, London) ( co- written with Ned Cox) On This Day, (Centaur Theatre ) Life Here After, (Imago, Centaur, Wildside, Winner of the Infinite Theatre Playwriting competition 2011) Closed for Urgent and Extraordinary Work, (Theatre Yes, Edmonton,): Game Changers , I don’t like Mondays and The Water Chronicles, Geordie Productions. Radio Dramas: The Very Little Girl and Washing Day, produced by CBC Radio. Alexandria also works as a dramaturge and playwriting teacher, most recently at Concordia University.
Jordan Hall
Jordan Hall is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, best known for her plays Kayak and How to Survive an Apocalypse, and the cult-hit webseries Carmilla (over 70 million views on YouTube.) Her work is heartfelt, witty, and irreverent — shaping stories that matter into propulsive, addicting entertainment. Recent credits include story editor and writer on Family Law, and the neurodiverse comedy Functioning, on option with MUSE Entertainment.
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)
Jeff Ho is a theatre artist, originally from Hong Kong. As an actor, he has toured as Ophelia in Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet across Canada and the US for over five years. As a playwright, his works include cockroach (曱甴), Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), Antigone: 方, and trace. Jeff is a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, the Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for Best New Canadian Play, the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Award, has been a finalist for the Playwright’s Guild of Canada Drama Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award, and has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and currently lives in Toronto.
Lindsay Kyte
Lindsay Kyte is a playwright, performer & songwriter originally from Reserve Mines, Cape Breton. She has a Masters of Theatre from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in England (LIPA), where Sir Paul McCartney gave Kyte her degree. Kyte has performed on stages and screens across Canada. Her play Tompkinsville was nominated for 3 Merritt awards, winning two for “Outstanding Score” and “Outstanding Production by a New or Emerging Theatre Company.” Tompkinsville features original music created by Ian Sherwood and Kyte, as does Toronto Adventures, produced by Festival Antigonish, Victoria Playhouse, and Grand Bank Theatre Festival. Rita MacNeil’s son chose Kyte and Mike Ross (Soulpepper) to create Dear Rita, a musical celebration of Rita MacNeil, premiering in 2021 at the Charlottetown Festival and Savoy Theatre, and had its Ontario/Newfoundland premieres in 2024 with Tweed & Company and Terra Bruce. Dear Rita then had its Halifax premiere at Neptune Theatre in Summer 2024. Dear Rita also won the Merritt award for “Outstanding Score.” Kyte’s play Open Casket Open Mic premiered in 2022 at Victoria Playhouse, with music by Kyte, Terra Spencer, and Garry Williams. Kyte is also working on a new musical project with Darrel Cameron (Blue Acres) through the Banff Centre for the Arts. www.lindsaykyte.com
Breton Lalama
Breton lalama is a writer and performer committed to enriching and diversifying queer and trans representation in storytelling. PLAYWRITING INCLUDES: THE LAST SHOW ON EARTH! TRADEMARK SYMBOL (Neptune Theatre premiere); QUID PRO QUO (currently in development with Tarragon Theatre); SORRY IF I DIE BUT- (currently in development with Talk Is Free Theatre). SCREENWRITING INCLUDES: Really Happy Someday (TIFF 2024 premiere; Spindle Films); when i was a little boy i wasn’t (screened internationally). Breton is a proud co-founder of the Spindle Films Foundation, an initiative created to support transgender Canadian filmmakers. @bretonlikethecrackers
Glenn Marais
Glenn Marais is a writer/singer/songwriter/character educator who uses his music for healing and hope. Glenn is an accomplished writer how has released a book of poetry and is currently developing and producing a musical play, Jook that he has written.
He is also a motivational speaker, performer and recording artist, with a passion for social justice advocation. Glenn’s personal and professional mantra, “Give to Live”, encompasses that ideology in his wide ranging work as the former Artistic Outreach Coordinator for the Aurora Cultural Centre, in the nonprofit sector with Thrive Youth Canada, his own non-profit MusicCan, that provides instruments and lessons to underserved youth and his own edu-tainment company Music in Mind. Self-improvement is a constant in Glenn’s life, having recently completed a Master of Arts Degree at Wilfrid Laurier, certification in Mindfulness and Meditation from McMaster University and Reiki Level II Certification.
Glenn has been nominated for a Juno award, received the Donald Cousens Community Impact Award for 2021, Wilfrid Laurier’s 30 in 30 Graduate Student Association Award, Member of Parliament’s Medal for volunteer service as part of Canada 150 Celebrations, The Queen’s Jubilee Award in 2023 and numerous other accolades in his work empowering and educating our young people to become the voice of change that we need to see in our world. www.glennmarais.ca
Alicia Payne
Alicia Payne is a Canadian multidisciplinary storyteller with credits in theatre, film, television and radio. Memberships include: ACTRA, CAEA, Dramatists Guild of America and Playwrights Guild of Canada (former president). Alicia participated in residencies and programs such as the 2022 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency; Tapestry Opera Composer Librettist Laboratory; and BIPOC TV & Film Kids’ TV Writing Incubator. Alicia’s work has been presented in festivals and conferences such as: Toronto Fringe Festival; Toronto for Everyone; Canadian Forces Artist Program Exhibition (Group 6); Garland Lee Thompson, Sr. Readers’ Theatre of New Works at the International Black Theatre Festival (North Carolina); Atlanta Black Theatre Festival; and Valdez Theatre Conference (Alaska). D Cup, a comedy, has been translated into Danish and had a reading in Denmark. Alicia is also an artist educator, facilitates youth leadership workshops, and is a Metcalf Foundation Adaptive facilitator. Alicia is the audiobook narrator of Flower Diary by Molly Peacock and a cofounder of Arbez Drama Projects. Alicia believes in the power of storytelling to build community.
Zahida Rahemtulla
Playwright Zahida Rahemtulla grew up in Burnaby, BC and later spent years living in Metchosin, Abu Dhabi, and Toronto. She currently teaches Adult Education in Capilano University’s Community Development and Outreach Department and also works at Blind Tiger Comedy school to increase access in comedy. Her first play, The Wrong Bashir, premiered in Vancouver (Touchstone Theatre, 2023) and Toronto (Crow’s Theatre, 2024) to critically acclaimed sold-out runs. Her second play, The Frontliners, a comedic drama about refugee resettlement, won a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, Theatre BC’s Play of Special Merit Award, the Fringe New Play Prize, and was runner-up for the national Voaden Prize in Playwriting. Zahida is currently working with Nightswimming Theatre and Talk is Free Theatre to create acting training programs for seniors of colour over the age of 55 to build capacity and train professionally.
Alicia Richardson
Alicia Richardson is an actor-writer who hails from Boynton Beach, Florida. She came to Canada for the affordable tuition, then she got health care and figured…why fight it? In 2013, she graduated from York University’s MFA Acting & Diploma of Voice Teaching Programs. Now a Permanent Resident, she’s livin’ that sweet (but sometimes sour) artist’s life in Toronto. Her body of work spans theatre, television, film, and voice-over. Her plays include: Articulation, Solve for X, and Sweeter (which was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play). Alicia has developed works through artistic residencies with Obsidian Theatre Company, Driftwood Theatre Group, Young People’s Theatre, and Cahoots Theatre Company. Currently Alicia is co-writing a new musical, Brown Eyes, alongside fellow actor-writer Saccha Dennis in a two-year residency with b current Performing Arts Co. Follow her tasty, multi-hyphenate adventures on social @leesheelovesyou
Julie Salverson
Julie Salverson is a nonfiction and theatre writer and scholar whose work explores violence and foolish witnessing. She gives workshops on resilience support through drama. Prose publications include A Necessary Distance: confessions of a scriptwriter’s daughter (2024, Wolsak & Wynn), “Rearranged by Water” (Prairie Fire, 2025), “Theatre Beyond Culture Wars” (2023, Research in Drama Education), Lines of Flight: an atomic memoir (2016, Wolsak & Wynn), Words That Sing: 7 Canadian Libretti (editor and librettist, 2022, Playwright’s Canada Press) “Sounding Out the Nuclear: an atomic opera: contestations of Nuclear Power, with Peter C. van Wyck and Juliet Palmer (2020, McGill Queen’s University Press), “Shameless Acts of Foolish Witness.” Comedy Begins with our Simplest Gestures: Levinas, Ethics, and Humour, edited by Brian Bergen-Aurand. Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh. 2017. Plays and libretti include Shelter, Thumbelina, The Haunting of Sophie Scholl, Boom (with Patricia Fraser), The Pied Piper Returns, Beyond the End of Your Nose (with Patricia Henderson). She is Professor Emerita, Queen’s University, Canada. Website: https://jsalverson.wordpress.com/
Rita Shelton Deverell
Throughout her career in broadcasting, journalism and theatre, Rita Shelton Deverell has stood out for her innovation, creativity, and inclusion. She co-founded VisionTV, where she produced Skylight (Gemini, Best Lifestyle Information) and It’s About Time (Gemini, excellence in mainstream television reflecting Canada’s cultural diversity). From 2002 to 2005 she was news director at APTN Network, and mentored her Indigenous successor. In 2005 she returned to drama. Her play Who You Callin Black Eh? won the Teen Jury prize at the 2019 Toronto Fringe, and she received a 2022 Canada Council grant to create a digital version. Twice a Slave started as a scene, written for Act 3 (older women professional writer/actors) in which Rita learns a big surprise about her Great Grandmother Mary.
Vern Thiessen
Vern Thiessen is one of Canada’s most produced playwrights. His plays have been seen across Canada, the UK, United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia and been translated in five languages. His works include Of Human Bondage, Vimy, Einstein’s Gift (GG winner), Lenin’s Embalmers (GG finalist), Apple, and Shakespeare’s Will. He has been produced off-Broadway five times. Vern is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dora and Sterling awards for Outstanding New Play, The Carol Bolt Award, the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, the City of Edmonton Arts Achievement Award, the University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence, The Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, Canada’s highest honour for a playwright. He was also a finalist for the Siminovich Prize in Playwriting. Vern received his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg and an M.F.A. from the University of Alberta. He has served as president of both the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of Alberta. For six years he served as Artistic Director of Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, one of Canada’s leading new play companies. He is married to acclaimed screenwriter and novelist Susie Moloney.
