Women’s Caucus Programs

About

PGC’s Women’s Caucus was established to meet the particular needs of women playwrights. Overseen by a volunteer committee, the Women’s Caucus meets in person on an annual basis, and it stays in contact with its members throughout the year with a monthly Women’s Caucus Newsletter, a closed Facebook group, and the occasional online meeting.

The Women’s Caucus undertakes various activities and programs to assist its members, to enhance diversity and gender equity. These include:

  • Committee
  • Kelley Jo Burke (Chair) 
  • Rebecca Burton (PGC Staff Member)
  • Joanna Falck
  • Aldona Jaworska
  • Rachel Mutombo
  • Carolyn Nakagawa

The Women’s Caucus administered PGC’s annual Bra d’Or Award, recognizing a theatre professional for their support of women playwrights. The award went on hiatus in 2017, was merged with the Tom Hendry Awards and relaunched in 2019 on International Women’s Day. 2023 marked the final year for the Bra D’Or Award.

Past recipients include: 

  • Brian Quirt – 2006
  • Hope McIntyre – 2007
  • Katrina Dunn – 2008
  • Eric Coates – 2009
  • Andy McKim – 2010 
  • Philip Akin – 2011
  • Rachel Ditor – 2012
  • Robert Metcalfe – 2013
  • MaryVingoe – 2014
  • Rebecca Burton – 2015
  • Diane Brown – 2016
  • Pamela Halstead – 2019
  • Marjorie Chan – 2020
  • Micheline Chevrier – 2021
  • Beverley Cooper – 2022
  • Catherine Banks – 2023

If you have questions about the Women’s Caucus, a project that you think we should consider, or if you would like to become more actively involved, email the Staff Liaison at membership@playwrightsguild.ca.

Projects and Initiatives

The CASA Award

The CASA Award was a CAnadian and South African partnership of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Women’s Caucus and the African Women Playwrights Network. Started in 2017, the CASA Award supported an experienced, woman-identifying playwright living in South Africa by providing her with funding, writing space, directorial assistance, and dramaturgical mentorship.

Visit The CASA Award’s Facebook page and learn more.

After five years, CASA has come to an end. In that time, the Award supported seven extraordinary and gifted women: Rehane Abrahams, Genna Gardini, Kela Griot (formerly Maswabi), Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni, Koleka Putuma, Tamara Guhrs Schulz, and Philisiwe Twijnstra. Learn more about the award, its recipients, and their work on the Casa awards page.

To help celebrate and mark the final year of CASA, a short documentary film was made, entitled “Time to Dream,” which explores the inspirations and challenges South African women playwrights face, as told through the stories of three CASA Award winning playwrights: Rehane Abrahams, Tamara Guhrs Schulz, and Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni. The film is directed by South African filmmaker Dominique Jossie, and it was released on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2023. To watch the film, Time to Dream. Watch the Youtube Video.

Equity in Theatre

In existence from 2014 – 2017, EIT was a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at remedying gender and other related inequities in the theatre industry. It involved Artists Driving Holistic Organizational Change; Associated Designers of Canada; Canadian Actors Equity Association; Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario; Deaf, Disabled, and Mad Arts Alliance of Canada; Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance; Literary Manager and Dramaturges of the Americas, Canada; Pat the Dog Theatre Creation; Playwrights Guild of Canada; Playwrights Theatre Centre; and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres. Through a multi-pronged, intersectional, and inclusive response involving the community as a whole (artists, stakeholders, and audiences), EIT promoted dialogue, generated greater awareness of and exposure to women theatre practitioners, and developed community-based action plans to help redress industry imbalances. Projects included a 2015 gender-based research study of the industry with recommendations, an sectoral Symposium, a Conference with American groups, a dedicated website with various resources, and live social events, such as play readings, discussion panels, hackathons, and more.

To visit the EIT website, click here: https://www.equityintheatre.com.

The P.L.E.D.G.E Project

An acronym for a “Production Listing to Enhance Diversity and Gender Equity,” PLEDGE is a fully searchable database of large cast plays (6 characters or more) by Canadian women, two-spirit, trans, and non-binary folks. It provides resources to help improve the number of women playwrights (only 18%!) and other underrepresented voices produced on the mainstages of Canada’s post-secondary training institutions. Pledge aims to raise awareness and increase the representation of women and racialized communities in theatre programs all across the nation and beyond. There are over 500 plays to choose from!

To visit the website, click here: https://www.pledgeproject.ca/.

SureFire

SureFire is a community-generated resource inspired by the Kilroys; an American group that produces an annual catalogue of high-quality, un-produced and/or under-produced plays by women, non-binary, and trans folks to help redress marginalization. For our Canadian rendition, theatre aficionados (or “Recommenders”) across the nation are nominated by PGC’s Staff, Women’s Caucus, and National Forum (Regional) Reps, and they are asked to submit their top three “passion picks” for under- or un-produced plays by Canadian women, trans, and non-binary creators. We gather the results, tabulate the findings, and release SureFire biennially to provide the industry with a valuable resource and “sure-fire” means to help identify new and remarkable, production-ready plays.

SureFire 2024 will be presented in partnership with Centre des auteurs dramatiques. The bilingual list will be released in June 2024.

See PGC’s special 50th anniversary edition of SureFire 2022 on this PDF file.

View the SureFire 2020 results on this PDF File.

To see the SureFire 2018 results, see the Surefire Page.

Back to Top