Staff

Biography

Santiago Guzmán (he/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, NL. He is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions in St. John’s, NL, and the Artistic Associate for the pan-Atlantic organization Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre. He is a proud member of The Quilted Collective and Playwrights Canada Press’s inaugural editorial committee.
Santiago’s work as a writer aims to put local, under-represented narratives and characters on the frontlines, whilst inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy of Newfoundland and Labrador from a diverse perspective.
Their work has been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals such as TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), White Rooster Theatre (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship’s Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), Banff Playwrights Lab (AB) and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC).
Santiago’s play Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award of the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards & was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022. Most recently, Santiago has been short-listed for PGC’s inaugural John Palmer Award 2022.
As a dramaturge, Santiago has focused on supporting equity-seeking, emerging writers to tell their stories, as there is a need in our community to see these stories on stage. Through his theatre company, TODOS Productions, he has supported several pieces in development alongside Robert Chafe in the 2020 and 2021 TODOS’ Writing Unit. They have participated as lead and assistant dramaturge at PARC’s 2021, 2022, and 2023 Playwrights’ Retreat (pan-Atlantic), and has offered dramaturgical support through PARC’s Home Delivery program. Santiago was the dramaturge for the Fundy Fringe Festival in NB in 2020 and Plain Site Festival (NB) in 2021 and has offered dramaturgical support to Theatre New Brunswick (NB). He co-dramaturged with Natércia Napoleão CAHOOTS Theatre’s Playwrights Unit (ON), Hot House Crossing in 2022, and recently was a dramaturge of the 2023 Women’s Work Festival (NL). Santiago worked with Halifax Theatre for Young People as a dramaturge on Newcomers: Stories of Refugee and Immigrant Children.As an immigrant, queer, and artist of colour, Santiago believes that representation matters.

Santiago is thrilled to be able to continue supporting the growth of PARC moving forward and learn how can the organization best serve its membership while nurturing the voices of writers at all points in their careers.
www.thesantiagoguzman.ca

Biography

Lara Lewis (she/her) is a queer Mi’kmaw theatre artist living along Kjipuktuk who works primarily as an actor, dramaturge, administrator, and occasional writer. Her relationship with PARC began in early 2020, and she has been mentored by dramaturges including prior Artistic Director Pam Halstead, Natasha MacLellan, Jenny Munday, Richie Wilcox, and Ann-Marie Kerr. Through her work as an independent dramaturge or her work with PARC, Lara has worked with dozens of writers in and from all four Atlantic provinces. You may remember her as the girl who kept asking “but where are all the Indians?” in that one Home Delivery you prefer not to think about. In addition to independent work and her work with PARC, Lara has been a dramaturge with NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Theatre New Brunswick’s Fall Festival of New Plays, and ZeeZee Theatre’s Queer and Trans Playwrights Unit.
In addition to dramatirgical work, Lara has worked as an actor or deviser with Theatre New Brunswick, Eastern Front Theatre, Nestuita’si Storytelling, Solo Chicken Productions, Villains Theatre, and Zuppa. In 2022, she was Festival Antigonish’s Emerging Indigenous Artist in Residence, and was part of the 2022/23 Nightwood Theatre Write From the Hip cohort.

Lara lives in a lovely home with some gays and her black cat named Lou.

Lara is currently on sabbatical; in her stead, Jena McLean is the acting Artistic Associate.

Biography

Jena McLean (she/they) is a queer playwright and dramaturge with roots in New Brunswick and Alberta. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Drama studies from Mount Allison University. They recently lectured at St. Thomas University, teaching the Advanced Script Workshop.

Jena was recently Theatre New Brunswick’s Artist-in-Residence, where they spent time developing a TYA edition of their play A Canyon Contained. Other recent work includes Like Confetti, How to Give Yourself a [Redacted], MFG (Magical Fat Girl), the collective creation Mythes Analogues and Until Tenth Grade (staged reading, dir. Dean Fleming, Geordie Theatre, 2021). Her play Bonus Points if You Have Air Conditioning was directed by Andrew Kushnir in 2021 as part of NTS’s New Words Festival and later developed as part of TNB’s Fall Festival of New Plays, with direction and dramaturgy by Kat McCormack. Jena’s play An Ocean of Evergreens was directed by Yvette Nolan during Theatre New Brunswick’s 2020 Fall Festival of New Plays and was later submitted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. They were the 2024 Playwright-in-Residence for the NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival, working with playwrights to develop fourteen scripts. Other dramaturgy credits include Kaitlyn Thompkin’s What Will You Be?, Jake Martin’s Please Be Good, Iris Rhian’s Tiger Lilies, Lobster Girls, and Baby, Lauren Jean Lawlor’s Thinking About a Dog, Jessie Walker’s Horse Girls, Hilary Wheeler’s The List, Noah Deas’ Mr. Information, Mara Teare’s Sad Girls Watch the Princess Bride, as well as the collective creations Mythes Analogues and To Those Who Wait in Fear (dir. ahdri zhina mandiela, NTS, 2021).

Jena is driven to create work that is rich with complex roles for queer folks and young women alike. Her plays explore life’s grey areas, personalize the political, and aim to empower people to feel seen in theatre. She is a Sagittarius who is kind of okay at keeping plants alive.