Board

Ruth Lawrence is a theatre and filmmaker based in St. John’s, NL. Ruth’s feature films include Little Orphans (Best Canadian Feature, Whistler Film Festival 2020), Hopeless Romantic (2018), and the award-winning comedy feature, Party Pirate (2024). Her documentaries A Lot of Love in the Room (2021) and Circus by Komatik (2019) have been featured on CBC Gem. She has directed, written, and/or produced over 70 short films and webisodes. She was Artistic Director of White Rooster Theatre from 2001-2023 and served as Artistic Associate of RCA Theatre from 2005-2008.

Ruth’s honours include the Joan Orenstein Best Actress Award, the RBC Michelle Jackson Award for Emerging Filmmaker, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Artist of the Year, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, the YWCA Woman of Distinction, a WIFT-AT WAVE Award, the national Leslie Yeo Award for Volunteerism, and the inaugural Ross Leslie Award for her contributions to film and theatre.

Eva Lucas (she/they) is a multidisciplinary theatre creator based in Mi’kma’ki, and a human being who tries their best. Hannah has been involved with PARC for five years, and has loved every second of it. She worked as an intern from 2019 to 2022, as an actor for their 2023 Playwright’s Retreat, and has been a part of the PARC Board since 2023. Outside of the PARC, you can find Hannah performing with Festival by the Marsh, McSweeney’s Dinner Theatre and more. Hannah’s first (and only fully complete)
… for now!) play, The Wonderful Wanderer of Wenderville, premiered as a staged reading at the 2022 New Works Festival through Live Bait Theatre, and had it’s first production in the 2024 season of Festival by the Marsh. When she’s not onstage, Hannah teaches theatre for youth and plays Dungeons and Dragons – a magical theatresport in and of itself.

Catherine O’Brien (she/her) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Young at Heart Theatre. She served as Artistic Director for the Harbourfront Theatre Summer Festival for three seasons, and most recently, Interim Executive Director at the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown. She is an actor, director, writer and producer. Catherine has worked in theatres across Canada and spent several seasons performing in the Charlottetown Festival, most recently playing Rachel Lynde in Anne of Green Gables.
Young at Heart Theatre continues to support playwrights and works with PARC on the Fresh From the Island New Works Festival on PEI.

Natalie Meisner is a poet and playwright who was born and raised on the Mi’kma’ki / South Shore of Nova Scotia and began her work in the indie theatre and spoken word poetry scenes of Halifax. After studying literature and theatre at Kings/ Dalhousie, she trained as an actor at the National Theatre School then headed west coast for a MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, and Ph.D at the University of Calgary. She has seven full length books in various genres to her name and was Calgary/ Mohkinstsis’ 5th Poet Laureate. She is a wife, a mom to two great boys, and a full professor of creative writing at Mount Royal University where she loves helping other writers find their voice.

 Her Books  It Begins In Salt

Speed Dating For Sperm Donors

BADDIE ONE SHOE

Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story

My Mommy, My Mama, My Brother & Me

Double Pregnant: Two Lesbians Make a Family

Growing Up Salty

Alison Crosby (she/her) is a theatre artist originally from Unama’ki / Cape Breton and currently based in Kjipuktuk / Halifax. Alison has been a fan of PARC’s work since her days as a student at Mount Allison University, where she completed her BA in Theatre Studies and first participated in PARC’s writing retreat with her collection of short plays titled  As If You Were Normal. Alison was the inaugural participant in Neptune Theatre’s INKubator program, in partnership with PARC, through which she developed her play In Lieu of Flowers. This show premiered as a part of Neptune’s 60th season, in partnership with the Highland Arts Theatre and was nominated for a TNS Robert Merritt Award. Alison is currently developing her next play, Irrelevant, with support from the Canada Council of the Arts.

PARC member Berni Stapleton (she/her) is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer of unique distinction. She was just listed on the Playwrights Guild of Canada Sure Fire List of Top 23 plays from female playwrights in Canada (for The Pope and Princess Di). Her play Woman in a Monkey Cage was also listed. She is the recipient of the 2018 Arts and Letters award for best dramatic script. She is the recipient of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to write her book for young Selkies and other creatures called: Girly Muckle and the Queer Hands. Her new one woman show is called Late Lesbians and Other Bloomers. She is one of the featured performers in the acclaimed Artistic Fraud production of Between Breaths.

She is a recipient of The Rhonda Payne award from Arts NL. She is a past recipient of the WANL award for best work in non-fiction for her contribution to the book They Let Down Baskets.(Published by Creative Book Publishing and co-created with the esteemed Chris Brookes and Jamie Lewis.) Her short stories and essays have appeared in Riddle Fence and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recipient of the Ambassador of Tourism award from Hospitality NL. Berni was the Artistic Director of the Grand Bank Regional Theatre Festival for 11 years. She has been a playwright-in- residence with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, Alberta Theatre Projects, CanStage, PARC, and other national companies. Her plays are regularly produced nationally and internationally. They include Offensive To Some, Brazil Square, The Haunting of Margaret Duley and Our Frances. Berni’s other books include This is the Cat and Rants, Riffs and Roars (Creative Publishing) and new works include Love, Life. Berni was dramaturge for and helped devise transVersing. Find out more by checking out latest projects, blogs, and the online shop at www.bernistapleton.com

Benton Hartley is the Artistic Director and Founder of Desert Island Theatre Company. Benton calls Charlottetown home, having been a part of the Island arts scene since arriving in 2009, as an actor, director, playwright, and – at times – improv comedian. Best known to audiences as a member of Popalopalots, Benton has also appeared as an actor in works as part of Vagabond Productions and Victoria Playhouse. A Graduate of George Brown Theatre School in April of 2019, Benton has since turned his attention to producing work through the Desert Island Theatre Company brand since August of 2019, most recently How It Happened, a play he co-wrote with Candace Hagen that premiered at the 2024 Island Fringe Festival in Charlottetown.

Alex Rioux is an emerging non-binary theatre artist, improviser, and educator based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Their work focuses on using physical theatre to enhance traditional narratives to create rich and unique theatre experiences.

Most recently Alex was brought on as assistant director for Theatre New Brunswick’s 2021 Christmas production Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and directed the premiere production of Kaitlyn Adair’s I Hope You Can See the Birds with the Notable Acts Theatre Festival. Their debut creation piece Fruit Machine chronicles Canada’s gay military purge and utilizes physical theatre as the catalyst to examine this oppressive time in Canadian history, this piece was named one of Fredericton’s Best Productions of 2019 by Grid City Magazine

Alex also continues to spearhead The Plain Site Theatre Festival, New Brunswick’s first and only queer-centered theatre festival. This festival provides emerging artists and students the chance to have their scripts developed and be mentored by other queer artists at the top of their field.

Melissa Mullen is a Nova Scotia born, PEI based playwright and actor. Her produced
plays Still Dancing (Ship’s Company Theatre) and Rough Waters (Neptune Theatre and Theatre PEI) were developed with assistance of PARC. She and husband Rob MacLean have co-written several plays, including Dear Mr. Keith (Theatre Yes and Magnetic
North), an adaptation of Sir Andrew Macphail’s The Master’s Wife, (PEI Heritage award winner), and The Man Who Saved the Songs. They were co-recipients of the 2020 PEI Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts award. She is a graduate of the National
Theatre School’s Acting Program.