PARC Announces Dramaturges for 2025 Annual Playwrights Retreat (Pan-Atlantic/National)

Natasha Greenblatt is a playwright, producer, dramaturg and director. Her plays include The Peace Maker (Next Stage Festival, Imago/Playwrights Workshop Montreal), Two Birds One Stone, co-created with Rimah Jabr (Two Birds Theatre, Riser Festival, Impact Festival, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre and Teesri Duniya Theatre), The Election, co-created with Yolanda Bonnell (Common Boots Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Direct), and Apocalypse Play, co-created with her mother, Kate Lushington (Two Birds Theatre, Common Boots). Natasha’s writing has been published by Playwrights Canada Press, GrayLit, CBC and GEIST. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and is currently working on her first creative nonfiction book, My Brother Is a River. 

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 Founder and Artistic Director of TODOS Productions & the Artistic Director of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.

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), the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (NS), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), Stratford Festival (ON), Lemontree Creations (ON), Banff Playwrights Lab (AB) and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC). He is a member of Playwrights Canada Press’s inaugural editorial committee.

His plays ALTAR and Urn were published by Scirocco Drama in 2024. 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. Santiago was the inaugural recipient of the John Palmer Award 2022 through the Playwrights Guild of Canada for being a change-maker in the theatre industry with his advocacy in the arts regarding equity, diversity, and anti-racism. In 2023, they were inducted into the YWCA’s St. John’s Circle of Distinction with the Inspired Innovation Award. Most recently, Santiago received the Senior Dramatic Script Award at the Newfoundland and Labrador 2024 Arts and Letters Awards for their newest play Seis Grados en Mayo. 

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, 2023, 2024, 2025 (upcoming) 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 racialized artist, Santiago believes that representation matters.

www.thesantiagoguzman.com

Pamela Halstead  is a dramaturge, director, actor, educator and arts administrator based in Kjipuktuk, colonially known as Halifax. She served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, assisting and supporting playwrights from across Atlantic Canada and beyond. Pamela has served as Artistic Director for Lunchbox Theatre (Calgary, AB) and Ship’s Company Theatre (Parrsboro, NS). In the 10 years between these two companies, she dramaturged, directed and/or produced over 60 productions, primarily premieres of new works. Most recently, Pamela served as the Interim Artistic Producer of Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, leading the organization through a time of significant change. Pamela is the recipient of the inaugural Evans Award (2013 Calgary Critics’ Awards) for her contribution to the vibrancy of Calgary’s theatre community, the 2019 PGC Bra d’Or Award winner for her support and promotion of Canadian women playwrights, and the 2024 Robert Merritt Legacy Award for outstanding contribution to the professional theatre in Nova Scotia.

Lara Lewis is a queer mixed Mi’kmaw/settler theatre artist living in K’jipuktuk. As a dramaturge, she has apprenticed under Jenny Munday, Natasha MacLellan, Ann-Marie Kerr, & Pamela Halstead. Lara is a graduate of the Fountain School of Performing Arts and University of King’s College School of Journalism. Lara is also a Merritt Award-nominated actor; she has worked with independent companies across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, most recently with Theatre New Brunswick. As an administrator, Lara has worked with Mayworks Kjipuktuk and Halifax Fringe, and is the vice-chair of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op.

Photo Credit: James Arthur MacLean

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. Jena is the Membership and Communications Coordinator for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre. They recently lectured at St. Thomas University, teaching the Advanced Script Workshop. 

Jena was recently the 2024 Playwright-in-Residence for the NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival, working with playwrights to develop fourteen scripts, including site-specific theatre, short plays, and one-acts. Other dramaturgical credits include 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).

Mike Payette is a director, educator and actor who has appeared at some of Canada’s finest theatres. He has worked with incredible companies across the country including The Citadel, Vertigo, Banff Centre, Geordie, Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Repercussion Theatre, Segal Centre, Centaur, The Grand, Factory Theatre, Neptune, and the National Arts Centre, among others. 

Directing credits include Craze, Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall, Cockroach and Paint Me This House of Love (Tarragon), Takwahiminana (Puntuate!/Soulpepper), Blithe Spirit (Shaw Festival), Choir Boy (Canadian Stage/Arts Club Theatre), Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), Another Home Invasion (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre), Hosanna and Choir Boy (Centaur), Around the World in 80 Days, The Paperbag Princess, and Reaching for Starlight (Geordie), Venus, Burning Vision and Indecent (National Theatre School), Sensitivity (Obsidian Theatre/CBC Gem, as part of 21 Black Futures), the French-language premiere of Héritage – A Raisin in the Sun (Théâtre Duceppe), along with the national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prod/Centaur/Factory/Firehall) and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (BTW/Tableau D’Hôte/NAC/Factory/Obsidian).

A lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University, and frequent guest artist at the National Theatre School of Canada, Mike is a two-time Montreal English Theatre Award (META) recipient and was the co-founding Artistic Director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and past Assistant Artistic Director for Black Theatre Workshop.  He was also Artistic and Executive Director of Geordie Productions in Montreal before becoming Artistic Director for Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where he is currently based.