PARC is thrilled to share the shortlisted plays and playwrights for the inaugural Jenny Munday Atlantic Canadian Play Award.
This new award honours Jenny’s memory and tremendous contribution to our organization, while offering support and recognition to Atlantic Canadian playwrights.
The winning playwright will receive a cash prize of $1,500 and a PARC membership. The two runners-up will each receive $500.
This year’s shortlist finalists are (listed alphabetically by last name):
– Deepwater by Dan Bray (NS)
– The Weatherman by Brynn Cutcliffe (PEI)
– Wharf by Ryan Griffith (NB)
– Dayboil by Sharon King-Campbell (NL)
– White or Red by Sara Tilley (NL)
Please join us on July 23 at 12 pm ADT at the Eastern Front Theatre Rotunda at the Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, NS and live streamed on PARC’s Facebook Page to celebrate this big day for Jenny’s legacy, PARC and Atlantic Canadian playwrights.
Jurors’ Comments
Deepwater by Dan Bray (NS)
Dan Bray’s Deepwater plays with time and uses theatrical symbolism to illuminate the encounter between two women looking for answers at the heart of their own mysterious and complicated pasts
The Weatherman by Brynn Cutcliffe (PEI)
In The Weatherman, Brynn Cutcliffe tackles the alarming effects of global warming on Prince Edward Island with madness and wit.
Wharf by Ryan Griffith (NB)
Ryan Griffith’s beautifully constructed Wharf dives deep into the complexities surrounding a violent incident and explores its effects on seven people over time .
Dayboil by Sharon King-Campbell (NL)
Sharon King-Campbell’s incredibly strong characters and dialogue that is both hilarious and excoriating, take the Dayboil audience on a wild ride in a kitchen drama that packs a punch.
White or Red by Sara Tilley (NL)
Set in Sicily on the edge of Mount Etna, Sara Tilley’s risk taking White or Red is rooted in clown and filled with shocks and surprises.
Meet the 2024 Jury
Don Hannah
Don Hannah is an award winning playwright and novelist, and a founding member of PARC. His latest project, Greetings: One Hundred Years of Family Life — birthdays, funerals, wars, and feuds; engagements, breakups, elopements, elections, school days, and holidays; tears, queers, debts, and secrets; I love yous, I hate yous… and all the news in between — in Twelve Letters is a part of Theatre New Brunswick’s 2024/25 season.
Natasha MacLellan
Natasha MacLellan has been working in New Play Development in Atlantic Canada for almost fifteen years. Her love of new scripts was fostered through Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre where she mentored with Jenny Munday and through years of working at Mulgrave Road Theatre in Guysborough, NS. From there she started Forerunner Playwrights Theatre, which produced new works in Halifax for a decade. As Artistic Producer of Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro, she has premiered eight new scripts, including Chasing Champions by Jacob Sampson which played at Canada’s National Arts Centre in November 2018. She is honored to have been twice named the protégé of nationally respected theatre artists: Jenny Munday, recipient of the inaugural Mallory Gilbert award and Mary Vingoe, recipient of the Portia White Prize. She also serves on the PACT Board, chairing the Network & Learning Committee and is a member of the Labour Relations Committee. In the fall of 2018, Natasha moved to Fredericton, NB to become the 13th Artistic Director of Theatre New Brunswick.
Lara Lewis
Lara Lewis (she/her) is a mixed Mi’kmaw theatre artist primarily working as a performer and dramaturge. As a dramaturge she has worked at two PARC retreats, and with writers from across Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Quebec, and in New York. She was trained through mentoring with prior PARC AD Pam Halstead, as well as with Natasha MacLellan, Jenny Munday, Richie Wilcox and Ann-Marie Kerr, among others.
Lara recently performed her debut solo performance art show I See You at the 2023 Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax Festival of Working People in the Arts, and her debut full-length play, Weltamultiek, will be workshopped at the Nightwood Theatre Groundswell Festival in October in Toronto.
Lara is an active member-owner of both the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op and Glitter Bean Café Co-op. She has been nominated for two Merritt Awards, once for Outstanding Supporting Actor, and winning Outstanding Volunteer.
She lives in a big gay house with her cat, Lou, and four roommates.
Thanks to Our Donors!
Margot Brown, Judith Begley, Marilyn Best, Gay Hauser, Don Hannah, Alex Fancy, Florence MacDonald, Kim McCaw, Deborah Allen, Xavier Gould, Marshall Button, Hope MacIntyre, Robert White, Sarah Stanley, Natasha MacLellan, Tessa Mendel, Amy House, Janet Fothingham, Melissa Mullen, Joan MacLeod, Bruce Klinger and Kimberly Bungay, Mary Vingoe, Anne Chislett, Andy McKim, Maureen White, Leigh Ann Vardy, Leonard Falkenstein, Colleen Murphy, Rory Runnells, Mark Blagrave, Cindy O’Neill, Catherine Banks, Wendy Lill, Kathryn McCormack, Marguerite Dionne, Lisa Ross, Wanda Graham, Carlaw Crew, Karen Chung, TNB Theatre, Pamela Halstead, Wesley Colford.
Thanks to Our Sponsors!
Watermark Theatre & Daniel MacIvor.