“Calling All New Playwrights: FAQ and What I Wish I Knew”

From the Desk of Brianna Lyttle, Student Playwright-in-Residence 2026

So you’ve sat down in front of your laptop, set to embark on the journey of playwriting for the first time. How exciting! But also, terrifying.

Trust me, I get it more than anyone. I am working on my second-ever script and have just gone through the dramaturgical process for the first time. I learned the definition of the word ‘dramaturgy’ about a month and a half ago. What better time to start than the present?

Venturing into a new creative foray can come with a lot of imposter syndrome, confusion, and questions. It is here I seek to at least somewhat aid in assisting those new to playwriting in finding their footing, through conquering the questions that came up for me and others.

Formatting

“Scripts must be typed with X font with X page numbers.
Stage directions must be written as X.
Dialogue must be written as X.”

Yeah, nah. Unless you are writing a script in an academic setting or in another such forum in which you’ve been requested to keep things in a specific format, there are no universal rules. As long as you, your dramaturge, the production team and cast (and your readers should your script be published – more on that later!) can understand what’s going on in your script and differentiate dialogue versus stage direction, you’re good to go. It’s up to you!

Some playwrights I’ve known will write character name-colon-line, keeping the dialogue in the same row(s). For example:

Arnold: I’m saying a line right now.

Bob: You’re saying a line right now? Well, I’m responding to your line!

Playwright Kimberly Belflower, famous for John Proctor is the Villain and Lost Girl, is known to turn stage directions into poetry. Others keep it short and direct.

I personally write dialogue by bolding and centring character names, with their lines following below, and italicizing stage directions. If stage directions take place before a character has finished speaking, I will border them with brackets. Below I’ve inserted a visual example. This is just how I do it; you might prefer the approach above. None of us are breaking the rules, because the rules don’t exist. This is a lawless land, partner…

If you, dear reader, have been seeking permission to write your script the exact way you want, without fear of reprimand from the invisible grammar police, you are free. Especially when it comes to dialogue…real people speak grammatically incorrectly!

Dramaturgy

If you’re dipping your toe into playwriting, you have probably seen the word “dramaturgy” floating around, and maybe not have known what it meant. While dramaturgy looks different for different scripts and playwright-dramaturge combinations, it is ultimately the process of working with someone to develop the story of a play.

As someone with a writing background mostly consisting of prose, I’ve come to understand dramaturgy as an editor to a book. The difference, though, is that a dramaturge will ideally help you tell the story you want to tell, rather than taking over and prescribing what they think should happen.

The process of dramaturgy will often look like writing a draft, submitting it to your dramaturge, discussing it, making decisions on how to move forward with the work, and rinse and repeat until you have reached a point of narrative satisfaction. Some dramaturges will ask questions, others will make offers, ideally all will champion your script and guide you to the place you want to go.

Publishing? PGC Membership?

Oftentimes, established playwrights will have their scripts published as a book to be used as reading material, academic texts, or to be licensed for production (most times anyway – some publishers will not handle production rights). Established Canadian playwrights will oftentimes also join the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC), also formerly known as the Playwrights’ Union of Canada. PGC is a national organization committed to advocating for playwrights across the country, supporting their artistry through negotiations with theatres as well as various programs and services.

If you’re a brand new playwright wondering about publishing your script or joining PGC, you can put these on the back burner for now. To publish your script or become a member of PGC, your script needs to be produced first. Some publishers will require these productions to be professional, while others are just interested in seeing that the script has gotten on its feet. This is because the production process will often lend itself to rewrites and edits, figuring out how the story flows once it hits the stage and adjusting accordingly. Thus, your focus at this point in time once you have a script should be to get it produced.

You can check out the PARC Ongoing Opportunities section in Resources for submission opportunities. Here you can find theatre companies across Canada accepting scripts for production consideration, as well as dramaturgical reading opportunities, award opportunities, and retreats and residencies to take time to write and connect with fellow playwrights and dramaturges.

Reaching Out to Theatre Companies

How do you get your script produced, you may wonder? What should you look for in prospective theatre companies to work with? How do you reach out to them? This is where research and the letter of intent comes in.

Once you know what you hope to accomplish with your script and the target audience, you can do your research from there to figure out which companies would be best suited for your work. Many companies will have a submissions section on their website if they’re accepting new work, but if they don’t, you can typically find production history somewhere. Looking through past shows will give you an idea of the type of story a company is looking to tell, and how yours would fit into it. If you’ve crafted a big, flashy spectacle show, you might not have the best of luck with a theatre company known for their small, intimate pieces.

After you’ve found the right company for you that is accepting new work, it’s time to craft a letter of intent. Similar to a cover letter you might write up for a job, a letter of intent introduces yourself and your script to a theatre company with the objective of letting them know why they should produce it. A letter of intent may not always be specifically required from the individual company you’re reaching out to, but it certainly helps with capturing the essence of who you are and what your work looks like.

A letter of intent should consist of the following:

• Introduction: Who are you? What has your playwriting journey looked like so far? If you’re new, what got you into playwriting? Why is this important to you?
• Why are you interested in this company? Why would they be a good fit for your script? The more personal you can craft this section, the better. If you’ve personally worked with this company or the people affiliated in some capacity, now would be a good place to mention it.
• What is the goal for your script? Maybe you want to see your script in a staged reading format, or you’re gunning for a full production. What is it you hope to see them do with your script? Where do you want this to go?
• Where did this script come from? Scripts, especially if more on the dramatic than comedic side, will generally come from a deeply personal place. Don’t feel obligated to trauma-dump here (and please don’t!), but you can share a bit about how the story came to be. Perhaps the idea struck you in the shower or on a walk, or you’ve always found a certain literary theme interesting, or you otherwise have an anecdote you can share about how your story was born.
• A little about the script itself, but not a full summary; that’s what the script is for. If they want it, they’ll ask you for it. Sending a full script without being asked is generally a no-no.
• Put it all together by explaining the connection between the play, company, and audience. Perhaps this company attracts a lot of students and that’s the target audience you hope to reach. Maybe this company’s mission is to uplift and platform the stories of a demographic that you are a part of. Once again, make this personal. If you can’t put to paper some solid reasons why this company would be a good fit for your script, it may be time to reconsider where you’re sending this letter.
• 1-2 pages: Ideally, you should have everything you need on one page, though you could add another if you really need to. Anything beyond that, and your readership is dropping.

Questions

So far, we’ve covered the bases of what I would’ve liked to have known before I started. Below are some questions I got asked by other people about playwriting on Instagram:

• How do you even start?
  • Easy! You log into Google Drive/Word/whichever other word processing software you use, open a blank document, and stare aimlessly at your laptop screen until you feel your retinas burning.On a serious note, there is no singular clear-cut answer to this. I’ve found my best creative ideas come to me organically, almost against my will. My brain will be ravaged by the characters slowly spawning and the plot unfolding around them until I pick up the keyboard and type it out myself. Many say that doing something menial such as showering or washing dishes will birth ideas, and I’ve found this to be true many times.If you feel the urge to write but can’t think of anything specific, an alternative to waiting for ideas to strike could be to think about a behaviour or theme you’ve always found interesting that you could further artistically explore. In the case of my script, for example, it was the loneliness experienced in university, and the ways people isolate themselves and each other in the name of connection that I wanted to explore.My mind’s eye kept bringing to me a sardonic spirit accompanying a university student through revisiting his memories, bringing a comedic edge to the story to help tie in the heartfelt elements. This manifested itself in the form of the burnt-out, well-meaning yet oblivious Raymond, who is guided by a spirit named Angel in seeing how he has hurt himself and others through his own fears. I then crafted the character Christie, who receives the other end of Raymond’s emotional distance and overcompensates for her loneliness with people-pleasing. Though planted with a seed of my own experiences, the characters ended up growing into their own distinct selves, with the core of the story being how they each find a happy medium between avoidance and anxiety to foster connection.Once you’ve got an idea and you’re getting it down on paper, you’re set. Congratulations, you’re a playwright now. Welcome to the club!

• Do you build a plot around characters, or characters around a plot?
  • Depends on the script and the playwright. Some writers will dream up the characters first and find a plot that suits them, while others such as myself will be struck by an idea for a story and develop the right characters to tell it.In the case of my script, the original version very much built the characters around the plot. The first draft was 11 pages long, including a title page and character list. The characters existed solely as vessels for a plot that I was aiming to wrap up and conclude in 10-15 minutes for a playwriting contest. I’ve since discovered that the story I wanted to tell needed much more room to breathe. The characters didn’t end up being fleshed out properly in this condensed version, which made the story fall flat.I am currently chipping away at the fifth draft, which is around 70 pages at the time of writing, with the estimated runtime in the ballpark of an hour and 30 minutes – about ten times as long as the very first version. As my script has developed, it has become more character-focused to the point where the scenes which initially didn’t exist or needed to be further fleshed out ended up being a little too long, which has brought me to my current task of making cuts.I believe the character development changing the plot will generally be the case with grounded, person-focused stories, though with other types of scripts, characters might be changed or axed for the sake of the plot. Neither are wrong approaches. There are no rules for artistic expression.

• How do you find playwright communities?
  • Right here is a great place to start! Working with PARC has introduced me to many like-minded people with lofty dreams and artistic goals like myself. Aside from this page, PARC has many resources to help you on your artistic journey.If this is your introduction to PARC, the organization supports emerging and established playwrights across Atlantic Canada. PARC platforms playwrights through featuring them on their website and social medias as Playwright of the Month (I was the most recent one…check out my interview at this link here), holds readings of new work as well as the U-Compete student playwriting contest annually, and the annual Playwrights’ Retreat held in Tantramar each year allows selected playwrights to hunker down and write for two weeks, working with a dramaturge and eventually culminating in a reading of the work with actors. These are just some of the ways you can connect with fellow playwrights and advance your craft through PARC’s resources!

Outside of PARC, there are a number of playwright development centres throughout Canada, such as Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver), and Alberta Playwrights Network, among many others. Playwrights Guild of Canada is an excellent resource to find the ones specific to you.

As well, your local schools and communities may have their own programs. At St. Thomas University in Fredericton, for example, Black Box Labs sees students getting together to discuss playwriting, workshop their scripts, and eventually work with actors to put together staged readings.

Hopefully you’ve come away from this page with some more knowledge about playwriting and confidence in being able to hone your craft. If ever you get to a point where you’re panicking and unsure what you’re doing, remember this: all you have to do to be a playwright is to write plays. There is no governing body ready to stamp or revoke their approval. Many of us are figuring it out as it goes. Such is the life of a creative.

Happy writing. Go change the world.