Thanks to funding from Nova Scotia Communities, Culture, Tourism & Heritage, we are thrilled to offer our sixth annual series of online classes and workshops, as well as a panel conversation with award-winning playwrights and dramaturges.
PARC Artistic Associate Lara Lewis leads facilitated conversations with mid-career playwrights, using their recently published work as a jumping off point for discussions of creativity, artistic practice, and inspiration over a nice cup of tea.
In each session, a 60 minute informal conversation is followed by a 30 minute Q&A, giving you the chance to pick the brains of prominent voices in theatre across the country. Can’t make it? Each session will live on our social media for one week after being livestreamed. While these conversations are free to join, donations are always welcomed.
March 4, 2026
with Erin Shields
Ransacking Troy
(Available via Playwright’s Canada Press)
Co-Presented with PARC Company Member Women’s Work Festival
March 11, 2026
with Colin Wolf
CoyWolf
(Available via Playwright’s Canada Press)
March 18, 2026
with Anusree Roy
Little Pretty and The Exceptional
(Available via Playwright’s Canada Press)
April 1, 2026
with Sanita Fejzić
Blissful State of Surrender
(Available via Playwright’s Canada Press)
April 8, 2026
with Rachel Mutombo
Vierge
(Available via Canadian Play Outlet)
April 15, 2026
with Kareem Fahmy
A Distinct Society
(Available via Concord Theatricals)
9 am-12 pm EST | 10 am-1 pm AST | 10:30 am-1:30 pm NST
Virtually Via Zoom
If you have any questions or access needs, please reach out to Lara Lewis at [email protected].
For more information and to register, click HERE.
About Erin Shields
Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for radical adaptations of classical texts which bring neglected female characters centre stage. Her latest play Ransacking Troy at The Stratford Festival is a retelling of the Trojan War Narrative from the perspective of its female players. Her additional text for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (Stratford Festival) gives a voice to silenced Hero at the climax of the play. Queen Goneril, which premiered at Soulpepper Theatre in rep with King Lear, centres Lear’s stifled daughters as they contend for power in a world that insists they remain powerless. Erin’s illuminating and hilarious adaptation of Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival), won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting. And her harrowing tragedy about sexual violence, If We Were Birds, won the Governor General’s Award for playwriting. Other plays include: Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre), Piaf/Dietrich (Mirvish Productions/Segal Centre), Beautiful Man (Factory Theatre), The Lady from the Sea (The Shaw Festival), The Millennial Malcontent and Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon Theatre) and Instant (Geordie Theatre).
Upcoming premieres: You, Always (Canadian Stage), Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary (Crow’s Theatre) and Medusa (Soulpepper Theatre). Erin’s plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press and you can read more about upcoming projects on her website – www.erinshields.ca.
About Colin Wolf
Colin Wolf is a Métis (MNA) theatre maker from Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), AB on Treaty 7 Territory. Wolf completed a BFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge in 2014 followed by 5 years making award winning/nominated theatre on the prairies. Wolf is co-founder with his sister Caleigh Crow at Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre. Wolf moved to Whitehorse in October 2019 to serve as AD at Gwaandak Theatre. Wolfs newest play CoyWolf explored a story about grief and hope backdropped by land displacement and is available for purchase through Playwrights Canada Press.
About Anusree Roy
Anusree is a writer and actor, nominated twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award and a four-time winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award, often referred to as the Tony Awards of Canada.
Her produced plays include Through the Eyes of God, Sisters, Trident Moon, Little Pretty and The Exceptional, Sultans of the Street, Brothel #9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma, andPyaasa. She has received numerous accolades, including the K.M. Hunter Award, the RBC Emerging Artist Award, the Carol Bolt Award, and the Siminovitch Protégé Prize. In 2018, she was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a prestigious and historic playwriting award for women writing in English-speaking theatre. Currently, Anusree is the commissioned playwright at Tarragon Theatre, where she is writing her new play, 147, 8th Street.
Anusree’s brand new solo show, Through the Eyes of God, has an upcoming production in Canada next year. Her recent play Trident Moon was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was nominated for an Outstanding New Play Dora Award following its successful run in Toronto and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2025.
Anusree has been a playwright-in-residence at several prominent theatres, including Nightwood Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Factory Theatre, The Blyth Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Canadian Stage Company, and Tarragon Theatre. Her career also includes two seasons as an actor at the Stratford Festival of Canada. Anusree holds a B.A. from York University and an M.A. from the University of Toronto. Her plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press, with a sixth scheduled for publication in February 2026. She has also served on the board for over five years.
Her expertise is widely recognized, with her work appearing in multiple anthologies such as Refractions: Scenes, Refractions: Solo, Love, Loss and Longing: South Asian Canadian Plays, Truth in Play, Dramathemes, TOK: Writing the New Toronto, and Diaspora Dialogues Anthology. Her plays are part of the curriculum at numerous universities, including the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Calgary, the University of Guelph, the University of Regina, McGill University, and the National Theatre School. Anusree also shares her knowledge as an adjunct professor of playwriting at the University of Toronto and as a professor of creative writing, teaching advanced drama to MFA students at the University of British Columbia.
For Television Anusree is currently the Co-Executive Producer and writer for the Allegiance S3 (CBC) television series. She has also worked on Interview With The Vampire S3 (AMC), Allegiance S2 (CBC), Transplant S2 (NBC/Netflix/CTV), I Woke Up a Vampire (Netflix), SkyMed (Paramount+/CBC), Remedy (Global TV), Killjoys (SyFy), and Nurses S1 & S2 (NBC/Global TV).
About Rachel Mutumbo
Rachel Mutombo is an award-winning actor and playwright who has spent most of her life between Toronto and Montreal. A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s acting program, she has performed in acclaimed productions such as the world premiere of Selfie (Young People’s Theatre) and the Canadian premiere of School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play (Obsidian Theatre/Nightwood Theatre).
As a playwright, Rachel’s work has been recognized with multiple awards. Vierge won first prize in Infinitheatre’s Write-On-Q playwriting competition in 2020 and was shortlisted for the 2024 QWF Prize for Playwriting. Her theatre for young audiences play, Homeroom, won Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Award in 2021. She is also the most recent recipient of the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Young Canadian Playwriting Award.
About Sanita Fejzić
Sanita Fejzić is a playwright, poet, and writer. Her play, Blissful State of Surrender, about a Bosnian Canadian family twenty years after their arrival to Canada world premiered at the Great Canadian Theatre Company on February 22, 2022. It was nominated for five Rideau Awards, winning Best Actress. In 2023, Sanita produced Why Worry About Their Futures at the undercurrents festival. Sanita’s post-apocalyptic radio play, Machines and Moss, lives on the National Arts Centre’s website. Our Lives Inseparable, about friendship and love across class divides, was read in 2025 at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago. Several of Sanita’s plays are under development and maybe forthcoming to a theatre near you.
Sanita lives with their wife and children on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people (Ottawa). Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sanita fled the Siege of Sarajevo and genocide of her Muslim Bosniak people at the age of seven, and lived as a refugee, illegal immigrant, and “temporary guest” across three countries before seeking permanent refuge in Canada.
About Kareem Fahmy
Kareem Fahmy is a NYC-based playwright and director from Sherbrooke, Quebec. His plays A Distinct Society, American Fast (winner of the Woodward/Newman Award) and Dodi & Diana have been produced across the US. Other plays include Riparian States, Fountains of Youth, Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the acclaimed novel The Yacoubian Building. Commissions: Audible, Artists Repertory Theatre, Colt Coeur, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation, inaugural recipient of The Next Forever Commission from The Civilians and Princeton University. Fellowships & Residencies: Yaddo, MacDowell, Sundance, Bogliasco Center, New Harmony Project, Hermitage, Banff Playwrights Lab, Stratford Festival Writers Lab. MFA – Directing, Columbia University. www.kareemfahmy.com