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

A writer, director, actor and producer, Judith Cockman has performed in Stratford, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles. She co-founded and directed The Roadside Stage in her youth, a theatre and acting school in the historic Town Hall near Kleinburg; and founded and produced the Roaring Truth Theatre in Regent Park, Toronto for youth 15-25 in the mid 2000’s, mentoring in all aspects of theatre production.

During her years in Los Angeles in the late ‘90’s she was accepted as a writer, performer and director into both the Playwrights’ Kitchen Ensemble and Theatre West.

Under her personal banner synnerz ’n Saints ink, Judith wrote, produced and performed four Toronto Fringe Festival works-in-progress – all of which generated heated discussion.

She tackles the subject of power in her plays. The abdication of it. The abuse of it. The reclamation of it. Religion is not spared. Her feature articles have been published in Canada and the U.S, and can be found on her website.

Her television credits include the National Prime Time television comedy series Out There, and research & writing as Associate Producer on several Discovery Channel documentaries. She received the Gold Plaque at the 1996 Chicago International Film Festival, as co-writer of Donna Davey’s documentary Helen Lucas: Her Journey, Our Journey. She has written several original teleplays, television series concepts & treatments. Shelves of prose. Her play “Heavens!” received the PGC Third Prize, 2024 Tom Hendry Award for Outstanding Play by an Emerging Writer and she’s honoured to have been granted a coveted spot in PARC’s 2025 Playwrights Retreat where she is developing a PART II to her 1994 Toronto Fringe outlier play Ok God, Get Off the Pot – exploring the wildfire of Narcissistic Power that is currently igniting so much
abuse in countries around the world.

Alison Crosby is a theatre artist originally from Cape Breton Island / Unama’ki and currently based in Halifax / Kjipuktuk. She is a graduate from Mount Allison University’s Drama Studies program. Alison has been fortunate enough to participate in PARC’s writing retreat twice before: once in 2016 with her script As If You Were Normal and as part of their online retreat in 2020 with In Lieu of Flowers (TNS Merritt Award Nomination for Outstanding New Nova Scotian Play). In Lieu of Flowers was developed as part of Neptune Theatre’s INKubator Program and premiered, in partnership with the Highland Arts Theatre, as part of Neptune’s sixtieth season.

Leahdawn Helena (she/they/nekm) was born and raised on the west coast of Ktaqmkuk, colonially known as Newfoundland, and is trained as an actor, writer, director, and dramaturge. They hold degrees in both Theatre and Sociocultural Studies from Memorial University Grenfell Campus.

Their first full-length screenplay, Ruthless, was selected for a Newfoundland Arts and Letters prize in 2020. Their play, Stolen Sisters, premiered in 2022, featuring Order of Canada member and Juno Award winner Deantha Edmunds, and was recently published by Breakwater Books. Their most recent theatrical work, 2024’s Precariously Placed: Pandemic Monologues From The Edge, was researched and created with support from York University.

L’nuit. Tleiawit Nujio’qonik. They are L’nu. They have family roots in the Bay St George
region.

Ameer Idreis is an award-winning Palestinian-Canadian writer, playwright, and urbanist whose work centres on culture, land, and identity. Writing across forms and genres, he has penned novels, personal essays, poetry, and stories for the stage. His debut play won a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, the Hart House Theatre Playwriting Competition, and is currently in development at Theatre Passe Muraille. When he’s not writing, Ameer can be found enjoying a flat white, curating niche playlists, and exploring Toronto’s neighbourhoods.

Rob MacLean is a Prince Edward Island writer and actor. He has co-written plays with Melissa Mullen 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. Rob’s current project is a loose adaptation of his father Angus’s account of evading capture after being shot down over nazi-occupied Europe in 1942. Rob is a graduate of Mount Allison University, (B.A. French, Philosophy) and the National Theatre School of Canada (Acting).

Natalie Meisner is a Professor, a Playwright, Poet, a  Mom and now a Podcast host (not
necessarily always in that order). She was born on the Mi’kma’ki / South Shore of Nova Scotia where she began her curious life by reading, with wild abandon, all books that came through in the town bookmobile. She has seven full length books in various genres to her name, was Calgary / Mohkinstsis’ 5th Poet Laureate and teaches creative writing at MRU where she loves helping other writers find their voice.

Melissa Mullen is a Nova Scotia born, PEI based playwright and actor. Her Merritt Award nominated play Still Dancing (Ship’s Company Theatre) and Rough Waters (Neptune Theatre and Theatre PEI) were developed with assistance of PARC. She has co-written several plays with Robert MacLean, 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. The two are currently working on an adaptation for the stage of Angus’ MacLean’s escape from Nazi Germany as told in his memoir Making It Home. Melissa is a member of PGC and a graduate of the National Theatre School.

Nabila Qureshi is a social sciences enthusiast who enjoys mediums and platforms that foster critical exploration & earnest expression. Her most recent artistic project was NewfoundLanded with TODOS Productions & White Rooster Theatre. She essayed the roles of co-playwright, assistant director, and actor under the artistic mentorship of Santiago Guzmán.

Since 2016, she has participated in several staged readings of plays in development, and has acted in White Rooster Theatre’s 2019 play Remnants, directed by Ruth Lawrence and written by Jenna Turk.

Nabila Qureshi occasionally works as an associate producer and reporter at the CBC bureau in St. John’s. Presently, she is a member of PARC.

Iris Rhian (all pronouns) is a playwright and actor from Canada and the United States. Iris’ writing spans a cross section of genres from investigative theatre, to weirdo comedy, to nontraditional musical theatre.

Born in Boston, Iris trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where they had their work developed and performed. After graduation, Iris held a two-year playwriting fellowship at Central Square Theater in Boston, where they developed two interview-based plays with local adolescents. Iris is thrilled to return to PARC, after being a Retreat participant in 2021, and is currently a member of the Factory Theatre’s 2025 TEPs Playwriting Cohort.

Abdullah Omar Saif is an arts enthusiast and a writer of fiction and essays in Bengali, his native language. His short stories have been adapted into radio dramas for Bengali-speaking audiences, and some of his works can be found on YouTube. Currently, he is writing a play for children.

In addition to writing, he works as a part-time actor in TV commercials and background roles on TV and film sets. He is a member of PARC and ACTRA.
Abdullah is currently pursuing his PhD. in the field of Narrative Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). He holds two master’s degrees in Community Health & Public Affairs and Policies. He has published five journal articles as both author and co-author.

Abdullah is the recipient of several scholarships from MUN, such as the Dean’s Fellowship Award (2021) and the Dean’s Doctoral Award (2020). Abdullah is a resident of St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Alora Simon (she/they) is an Indigenous theatre practitioner from Elsipogtog First Nation. She is a budding scenic designer, actor, and newly discovered playwright based out of Sackville, New Brunswick (Mi’kma’ki). She is an active member of the community having worked closely with the Motyer Fancy Theatre, Marshlight Theatre, Festival By the Marsh, and PARC. In 2024, she was the recipient of the Future NB Certificate of Recognition award for her consistent artistic delivery with her Internship with Live Bait Theatre. She is also a recent graduate from Mount Allison University, having a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Drama, a minor in Classical studies, and a certificate in Visual Material Culture. A technician for both stage and screen, Alora specializes in storytelling and the utilization of a space. Her work blends the two worlds together, curating a harmonious blend of contemporary and surrealism.

Bernardine Stapleton is a playwright, author, skit-artist, and actor. She was born in North West River, Labrador and grew up on the south coast of Newfoundland. She is one of our Newfoundland and Labrador’s most prominent theatre artists and cultural leaders. She has spent her career making beautiful theatre in unexpected places. She is a Siminovitch Playwright Prize finalist, as well as being the recipient of the Rhonda Payne Award for Theatre. She is the Artistic
Director of Girl Power Inc. an indie feminist theatre company devoted to championing the unique landscape of NL, and to advocating queer and gender equity. She is the inaugural playwright-in-residence with RCAT, embarking on a year-long journey of creation for a new play on aging and dying in the professional arts: Senior Moments: Don’t Wait Until We’re Dead.

She has had almost forty plays professionally produced in Canada and beyond, including Ireland, the U.K. and New York. Her plays include Offensive to Some and The Antidote for Life: Memory, Madness and Beagles, an autobiographical exploration of madness in the arts. New works in progress include an audio play for the NAC English Theatre’s Irresistible Neighbourhoods: Walking on Water, a feminist queer imagining Ophelia Saves the World from Zombies and the upcoming podcast The Haunted Doorbell. Bernardine was writer-in-residence at Memorial University in 2019 and has taught an Introduction to Playwrighting course there. Her books include Love, Life, with Breakwater Books and the newest yet unpublished Brazil Square about the once iconic boarding house district of St. John’s, and the writing guide How to Write a Play and Have Fun Without Hardly Even Trying or How to Finish Your Best Worst First Draft or Prepare to Throw the Pasta. She lives in St. John’s with rescue beagles Georgie Girl and Tiggy Duff.

Jamal is an actor, writer, filmmaker, and overall storyteller passionate about highlighting voices that often go unheard. Born in Barbados, he moved to Canada in 2022 to study Television and Film at Sheridan College. After graduation, he joined Rising Tide Theatre, working as a cinematographer on their exciting Digital Archival Film Project (2023–2025) and also performing in their summer show, The Trinity Pageant in 2024. In 2025, Jamal took on the role of Samson in TODOS Productions’ stage play 76 Centimeters, written by Xavier Michael Campbell and directed by Santiago Guzman.

Richie Wilcox is a multi-talented director/actor/writer who has spent the last fifteen years creating, devising and writing original works. They are the founding artistic director of HEIST where they have helped create several acclaimed works including The Princess Show, Frequencies, Princess Rules, and New Waterford Boy. Wilcox has worked with numerous companies across the Maritimes including Neptune, Festival Antigonish, 2B Theatre, Kazan Co-Op, Opera Nova Scotia, the Highland Arts Theatre and more. Wilcox was Artistic Associate with Theatre Outre in Lethbridge, Alberta from 2012 – 2016 where they premiered acclaimed works including UNSEX’d and The Confessions of Jeffrey Dahmer. From 2019-2022 Wilcox served as the artistic director of Ship’s Company Theatre where they premiered award-winning original productions such as Good Grief and Dayboil. Wilcox is a Merritt-award winner in acting and playwriting as well as a past Mayor’s Award for Emerging Theatre Artist recipient. They were also a finalist for the 2021 Nova Scotia Masterwork award for their work on The Princess Show.