PARC is thrilled to announce the dramaturges for the 2024 PARC Retreat at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB from May 5 – 19, 2024!
Meet the dramaturges
Santiago Guzmán
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 & the Interim Artistic Director for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.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 (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 artist of colour, Santiago believes that representation matters.
Pamela Halstead
Pamela Halstead (she/her) is a director, dramaturge, actor, teacher and arts administrator who has worked across Canada. She is the former Artistic Director of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), Lunchbox Theatre (Calgary, AB), and Ship’s Company Theatre (Parrsboro, NS). Pamela received the inaugural Evans Award (Calgary Critics’ Awards) for her contribution to the vibrancy of the Calgary theatre community and the 2019 PGC’s Bra d’Or Award for her support of Canadian women playwrights. Most recently, Pamela was the Interim Artistic Producer of Theatre Newfoundland Labrador and was awarded the 2024 Merritt Legacy Award winner for outstanding contribution to professional theatre in Nova Scotia.
Lara Lewis
Lina makaga
Lina Makaga is an actress, singer, stage manager, production and festival assistant based in St.John’s, NL, Canada.
Her journey in the world of performing arts started in high school, where she cultivated her passion for acting while studying Drama. In 2021, she was featured in the TV series “Astrid and Lilly Save the World ”, followed by Hudson and Rex in 2022. In 2023, she landed a leading role in a short film called “NYX” .During the summer of 2023, she was part of “NIFCO’s Intro to Filmmaking program” where she and her peers wrote/shoot/ directed and edited a short film “Jellybean”. Lina is known to lend her magical voice for readings in multiple plays in St.John’s.
In January 2023, she made her stage-managing debut in the play “Happy Anniversary”, produced by Todos Productions. Shortly after, she stage managed “A Talk In The Terrace” with Sycamore productions. Followed by “Song Seekers: The Greenleaf & Mansfield Story” produced by White Rooster Theatre. She is currently a Mentee in the musical “An American Hymnal” produced by Terra Bruce Productions.
She is engaged in ongoing exploration, continually pushing her artistic boundaries as she aspires to grow both as a person and an artist.
Mariló Nuñez
Mariló Nuñez is a Chilean Canadian playwright, director, dramaturge and scholar. She is a 2021 winner of the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Award in Theatre. She has been a member of playwright’s units at Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Cahoots Theatre and Nightwood Theatre and was playwright in residence at Aluna Theatre and Carousel Players. She was McMaster University’s first Playwright-in-Residence in 2018 and was the recipient of the Hamilton Arts Awards for Established Theatre Artist. Her plays include: Three Fingered Jack and the Legend of Joaquin Murieta, El Retorno/I Return, Last Supper, Huinca, Foxy: Tales of An Urban Zorra, INQUEST, Demos Kratos, and Sangre Redux. She teaches playwriting at theatres and universities across the country using the Fornes Method. She was founding Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Company, a company dedicated to developing the new work of Latinx Canadian playwrights. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and is currently obtaining her Ph D. in Theatre & Performance Studies at York University. This spring she will be performing in El Terremoto by Christine Quintana at Tarragon Theatre.