Who We Are

Nancy Morgan has been working as an administrator in the non-profit arts sector for over 30 years. Nancy has previously worked as Executive Director of Theatre Nova Scotia, Managing Director of Strategic Arts Management, the General Manager at Eastern Front Theatre, and as Administrator at Great Canadian Theatre Company. As an independent consultant Nancy has worked with many organizations of various disciplines. Nancy has served on peer assessment panels at the national, provincial and municipal levels. She has served on the Board of Directors of Upstream Music Association, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, Performing Arts Lodge Halifax and served on an advisory board for Dalhousie School of Management.  Nancy has a BAH (Music) from Queen’s University and an MBA from St. Mary’s University.  She continues to be active as a music educator and as a mentor in arts administration.  Nancy is grateful for the mentorships and friendships which support and sustain her. 

Rebecca Burton has helped launch many PGC projects, such as Equity in Theatre (EIT), multistakeholder initiative redressing the underrepresentation of women in Canadian theatre (2014 – 2017); SureFire, a biennial community-generated list of un- and under-produced plays by women, two-spirit, trans and non-binary creators; and PLEDGE, a database of large cast plays (6 characters or more) targeting post-secondary schools. She received the Bra d’Or Award in 2015 and a Dora Mavor Moore Ancillary Award in 2022: the Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award for Outstanding Leadership in Administration in Theatre, Dance, and Opera in Toronto.  

Rebecca also works as an occasional editor, educator, researcher, and theatre practitioner. She has a BA from the University of Guelph, an MA from the University of Victoria, and PhD ABD status from University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. Rebecca authored the 2006 benchmark report, “Adding It Up: The Status of Women in Canadian Theatre,” she is the Editor of Long Story Short: A (Mostly) Ten-Minute Play Anthology (Playwrights Canada Press 2016), and she has published various articles in the field.

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz

Melinda (Mindy) Doherty Griffiths is an actress, singer and dancer who has performed and worked in Canada, the United States, and England.  She is a graduate of Queen’s University (B.A.; Kingston), The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (A.O.S.; New York City) and Humber College (Arts & Cultural Management; Toronto). Mindy has worked in numerous administrative positions with companies such as Ballet Jörgen, Harold Green Jewish Theatre, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), Mass Culture, & the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Mindy has also been a juror for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Montreal Fringe Festival’s Frankie Awards. Eager to enhance her knowledge, Mindy is currently completing a Project Management certificate (PMP).  Mindy is grateful for the love and support of her husband. She is a proud mom to two strong, spirited little girls, as well as a loving sheltie, Mr. Molesley. 

Photo credit: R.J. Lewis Photography

Sarah Duncan joined the PGC team in 2019, after completing internships with Theatre Passe Muraille and Lakeshore Grounds Interpretive Centre.  She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph, completed Humber College’s Arts Administration and Cultural Management program, and has since applied her knowledge through various work and volunteer roles. She was a partcipant in the Arts Administration Unit at the Paprika Festival in 2018.  Working with Rebecca Burton, Sarah is expanding her expertise at PGC by shadowing the Professional Contracts Committee and its work. Dedicated to the arts, Sarah is passionate about supporting the community and developing a strong understanding of their needs. 

Growing up in a rural farming community, Emma Taylor learned firsthand how the arts can open doors to new perspectives and experiences while also building connections and community.  Since her acting debut at the age of six as Gretl von Trapp, Emma has spent most of her life involved with theatre in one form or another. She performed in many productions at the community theatre in her hometown as a child and teen, later transitioning to off-stage roles including running their summer drama program as well as organizing and cataloging their historical archives.  Her administrative experience and artistic flair eventually drew her to communications, which enjoyably challenges her creativity and organizational skills. She loves using these skills to help shine the spotlight on PGC’s remarkable members. 

Monique Renaud is a Production Accountant for Film & TV and a Bookkeeper for the Arts. She is currently the in-house Production Accountant for Bizable Media as well as the Bookkeeper for Playwrights Guild of Canada. Monique has worked with PGC for many years in various roles. She worked as the Public Relations Manager, Marketing Director, Program Director, and has served as the secretary on the board of directors. When Monique decided to switch gears and focus on bookkeeping, PGC became her first client! With a Theatre background, Monique will always appreciate, advocate for, and believe in storytelling. She has had a long journey from performing on stage to sitting way back out of the spotlight with bank statements. What has stayed the same is her commitment to support the work of content creators. 

Chris Tolley is the co-host and producer of CBC Radio’s PlayME, which transforms Canada’s top theatre plays into bingeable audio dramas. PlayME won the Gold Medal for Audio Drama at the 2020 New York Festivals Radio Awards and has been honoured as a Webby honoree by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. As a playwright, his collaborations with Laura Mullin have been produced in every province and territory and earned multiple accolades, including five Dora Award nominations for Romeo/Juliet Remixed (Toronto/Philadelphia) and the Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural Fresh Ground Commissioning Award (World Stage). Other notable works include STATIC (World Stage) and AWAKE. Tolley’s work has garnered significant media attention both nationally and internationally. Tolley serves as Chair of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and has twice campaigned for Canadian Parliament, championing a strong arts-based platform.

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), 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.

Wren is an award-winning Canadian playwright currently based in Scotland dedicated to creating characters that can be played by actors of any gender, ancestry, ability, and/or age while exploring complex themes. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon (territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation & Ta’an Kwäch’än Council) she also lived and worked in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Treaty 1 territory for over 12 years. Production credits include: Bystander (Gwaandak Theatre), Situation (Gwaandak Theatre), When (Climate Change Theatre Action 2021), Now (Climate Change Theatre Action 2023), The Investigator (Yukon Digital Theatre Collective), and Billie and the Moon (Manitoba Theatre for Young People). She also won the Harry S. Rintoul Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the Winnipeg Fringe in 2017 for Anomie and was shortlisted for the John Hirsch Emerging Manitoba Writer Award in 2022. She is also a dramaturg, arts administrator and producer.

Amiel Gladstone is a playwright and director who has worked across the country and internationally in the United States, France, Romania and Russia. His plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press, Coach House, and Samuel French / Concord. He has held artistic positions at Theatre SKAM, Belfry Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Touchstone Theatre. Residencies include Tadoussac, Stratford Festival, Banff Centre. He is currently Director Theatre Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Keith Barker is a Métis artist from Northwestern Ontario. Keith is the director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program at the Stratford Festival, and the former Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto.

In 2020, he won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Carol Bolt Award. Keith was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2018 for his play, This Is How We Got Here. He received a Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Achievement in Playwriting for his play, The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change. In 2023 Keith was a recipient of the Johanna Metcalf Prize.

Jamie began his career in the Arts as playwright and performer with several Nova Scotia children’s theatres before moving on to writing and directing over 25 musical dinner theatre comedies throughout the Maritimes. His more recent plays are Before the Leaves Turn; Jukie & Her Dad; and the books for the musicals, Titanic: The Fated Voyage and KAMP. KAMP was nominated for ten and won five 2019 Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Awards, including “Outstanding Production of the Year” and it presently holds the record for the most successful production in the Neptune Studio Theatre’s 30-year history. Along with musical partner Scott Owen, Jamie has written the book and lyrics for an historic, musical farce, Parlour Tricks, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Dan School of Music & Drama Musical Award. Jamie’s varied career includes: stage & screen actor, puppeteer, voice actor, multiple award-winning improviser, and a frequent writer/performer for CBC Radio dramas. He lives in his native Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife Anne, a substantial Hot Wheels Batmobile collection, and 103 fountain pens. 

A big fan of simplicity, David makes legal issues understandable and actionable so clients can focus on what matters. A former professional hockey player turned lawyer, he applies the same strategy, resilience, and precision to his legal practice. 

His career spans New York City (Media & Entertainment) and Toronto (Civil Litigation), and he has also built and scaled start-ups, earning recognition in Profit Magazine. Fluently bilingual in English and French, he has represented clients before the Superior Court of Justice, Federal Court, and various tribunals. 

Licensed in Ontario and New York, he holds a Master of Laws from Cardozo School of Law (NYC) and an entrepreneurship-focused Master’s from the University of Waterloo. 

A lawyer who cuts through complexity, David ensures the law works for clients, not against them—because legal strategy should be as sharp as a well-written script. 

Marcia Johnson is an actor, playwright, librettist and dramaturg. Born in Jamaica, she has lived in and around Toronto since the age of 6.
Serving Elizabeth, commissioned by Thousand Islands Playhouse, had its world premiere at Western Canada Theatre. TIP’s production was delayed a full year due to the pandemic. Other productions between were at Stratford Festival, Belfry Theatre, Peterborough Players (NH) and Theatre Aquarius.
Other plays include Perfect on Paper (also a radio drama) and Say Ginger Ale.
Marcia has written the libretti for several short operas including the Dora-nominated My Mother’s Ring with composer Stephen A. Taylor. Their full-length adaptation of Paradises Lost by Ursula K. Le Guin premiered at University of Illinois and had a concert performance at SummerWorks Festival.

Her acting work has brought her to theatres including YES/Sudbury Theatre Centre and Blyth Festival. Marcia also appears in TV and film including Diggstown and American Gods.

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.

Jamie has been a Toronto-based artist for over 25 years as an actor, director, producer, teacher and writer. Select director credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage), Stag and Doe (Capitol Theatre), 1184 (Phoenix Arts/The Aga Khan), Madness with Rocks (Obsidian Theatre/CBC Gem), Copy That (Tarragon Theatre), Scotian Journey (Black Theatre Workshop), She Stoops to Conquer and Romeo & Juliet (Guild Festival Theatre). Theatre acting credits include: Four seasons with the Stratford Festival of Canada, Much Ado About Nothing and Measure for Measure (Canadian Stage), Risky Phil (Young People’s Theatre. Dora Award Winner, Outstanding Performance), Gas Girls (New Harlem Productions. Dora Award Nomination), Richard III (Metachroma Theatre. METAward nomination). Film/TV acting credits include: Brilliant Minds (Ambleside), Skymed (Paramount), Condor (AT&T), Believe Me (Showcase), Hudson & Rex (Rogers), Expanse (SyFy), Murdoch Mysteries (Shaftesbury). Jamie is a Professor of Acting & Directing for York University’s School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design.

Adrienne is the Artistic Director of SpiderWebShow and an artist whose work straddles theatrical and digital space. Together with Marcel Stewart and Michael Wheeler, she co-curates the Festival of Live Digital Art. Adrienne’s web projects include The Apology Generator, which earned her the inaugural Artist in Residence position on CBC Radio’s Q, and SadSongs.ca, commissioned by Nightswimming Theatre in Toronto. Landline (created with Dustin Harvey) is a performance for audio recording and SMS that has toured nationally and internationally for five years. Me On The Map (created with JD Derbyshire) is a kids’ show about urban planning and collective decision-making, received a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nomination in Vancouver, and was selected for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity 2017 Playwrights Colony. Her writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, CdnTimes, and the anthology Asian Canadian Theatre. Adrienne was Artistic Producer at Neworld Theatre in Vancouver until 2013. Adrienne holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and is currently an MFA candidate University of Victoria Fine Arts – Writing, her major project is SmartSmart, a participatory show about the supercomputers we carry in our pockets.

Amiel Gladstone is a playwright and director who has worked across the country and internationally in the United States, France, Romania and Russia. His plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press, Coach House, and Samuel French / Concord. He has held artistic positions at Theatre SKAM, Belfry Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Touchstone Theatre. Residencies include Tadoussac, Stratford Festival, Banff Centre. He is currently Director Theatre Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Adrienne is the Artistic Director of SpiderWebShow and an artist whose work straddles theatrical and digital space. Together with Marcel Stewart and Michael Wheeler, she co-curates the Festival of Live Digital Art. Adrienne’s web projects include The Apology Generator, which earned her the inaugural Artist in Residence position on CBC Radio’s Q, and SadSongs.ca, commissioned by Nightswimming Theatre in Toronto. Landline (created with Dustin Harvey) is a performance for audio recording and SMS that has toured nationally and internationally for five years. Me On The Map (created with JD Derbyshire) is a kids’ show about urban planning and collective decision-making, received a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nomination in Vancouver, and was selected for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity 2017 Playwrights Colony. Her writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, CdnTimes, and the anthology Asian Canadian Theatre. Adrienne was Artistic Producer at Neworld Theatre in Vancouver until 2013. Adrienne holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and is currently an MFA candidate University of Victoria Fine Arts – Writing, her major project is SmartSmart, a participatory show about the supercomputers we carry in our pockets.

Avery-Jean Brennan (They/She) is an award winning Transfeminine theatre artist born in Kjipuktuk, now based in Tkaronto. They have studied both playwriting and musical theatre writing as a book writer, composer, and lyricist under Leslie Arden, Christopher Weddell, and through The Musical Stage Company’s NoteWorthy program, led by Kevin Wong & Robert McQueen in 2019. Over the past five years, they have facilitated workshops on Trans Inclusive Practices in the Arts, which they have lead for theatre companies & professional organizations across Canada, such as Young People’s Theatre, the Associated Designers of Canada, and the Stratford Festival. In 2020, they were nominated for the Bra d’Or Award from the Playwrights Guild of Canada for their advocacy work for gender parity in live theatre. Avery-Jean’s first original musical, The Pansy Craze, was the recipient of Queer Theatre Toronto’s inaugural LGBTQ Fringe Award for pushing boundaries in representation for Queer & Trans characters in musical theatre. Their other writing works include the book for Nobody Asked to Be Here with music & lyrics by Camila Diaz-Varela (commissioned by Sheridan College & The Musical Stage Company), and their play No Country for They/Thems. They have also worked as a dramaturg for new works by writers such as Gabrielle Papillon for her work Mind the Light, Ani Palermo for She, Men, and the Giant F*cking Snake, and the writing team of Sadie Berlin, Alexandra Lainfiesta, and Alon Nashman for their work Mimi On the Beach.

David S. Craig is an award-winning, internationally produced, playwright and lyricist. He has written over thirty dramatic works including The Neverending Story at the Stratford Festival (from the novel by Michel Ende), Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia at the Odyssey Theatre, BOMBERS: Reaping the Whirlwind at the 4th Line Theatre, Athabasca (with Richard Greenblatt) at the Next Stage Festival and his hit comedy, Having Hope at Home at the Blyth Festival. His work has won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production three times, the Chalmers New Play Award three times, the Rideau Award, the Writer’s Guild Prize for Radio Drama and a Harold Award. Danny, King of the Basement was the first Canadian play to be nominated for the German Children’s Theatre Prize. In 2014, he received the Barbara Hamilton Award for Artistic Excellence. He is a former President of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Kelley Jo Burke is a crip playwright and creative nonfiction writer/producer living as a settler on Treaty Four territory (Regina, SK). Her plays include the award-winning Rigby, Greensleep: a fairytale for the end of days, The Curst, Us created with Jeff Straker 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, and was a host/producer for CBC Radio for 13 years. She has received multiple arts awards, including four City of Regina Writing Awards and the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s award for arts leadership.