The Playwright of the Month for June 2026 is Brianna Lyttle (NB)! Thanks to funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program, Brianna is PARC’s inaugural Student Playwright-in-Residence.
Brianna (she/her) is an all-Canadian student, playwright, and actor with roots in Alberta, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Fredericton is the place she currently calls home, where she is working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Thomas University in English (Creative Writing) and an Interdisciplinary Studies major in Fine Arts (Musical Theatre). Throughout the Fredericton arts scene, she has performed with Branch Out Productions, Black Box Productions, STU Musical Theatre, and Rogue Productions, as well as starred in an episode of New Voices Film Lab’s 8 Cafes anthology, currently streaming on Bell Fibe TV1. Playwriting is her most recent foray into artistry, combining her interests of creative writing and theatre into a deeply satisfying blend. Brianna values theatre as a means of connection through storytelling, with a particular artistic interest in exploring the messiness of human relationships through complex characters.
We asked some questions so our members could get to know Brianna a bit better.
What are some Plays that have stayed with you or influenced your work?
One major artistic influence on my playwriting is actually fellow PARC member Jena McLean. Their writing style sucked me into the art form, with her emotional and complex storylines and characters, and signature humour.
I recently saw a staged reading of John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower for the first time and I haven’t fully stopped thinking about it since. I found it a beautifully bittersweet exploration of consent, #MeToo, and girlhood. One of the actors showed me a page of the script after, and I discovered that Belflower also took the time to write stage directions as poetry in a way I’ve never seen before. I haven’t been able to sit down and read the full script yet, but I eagerly await being able to get my hands on it.
What are some questions you’re exploring or investigating in your work right now?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how oftentimes, the most harm that is perpetuated on a small-scale, individual level is often by good people to other good people. I have a, possibly naïve, belief that most people on this planet are good people. I think most of the time, people are trying their best to be good and do good, and will often ruminate and justify to themselves why they are, when in reality we are all capable of harm and have inflicted and will continue to inflict it on others. And doesn’t that almost make it worse? I’ve found that it’s easy to move on from something that hurt you when you don’t want anything to do with the other person, but when it’s someone that you know is capable of doing so much good, it cuts extra deep.
Above all, I’ve been ruminating a lot on loneliness, connection, and forgiveness. Humans are social creatures, hardwired to connect, and yet oftentimes we isolate other people (and ourselves) without even realizing it. This is a concept I’ve been exploring a lot in my current work. What does it take to allow yourself to see someone and be seen?
Do you have any rituals or routines that fuel your creative process?
I generally try to begin writing in the mornings before my mind can get swamped by everything else around me. It’s significantly more challenging to get into the creative flow once I’ve become sucked into a social media procrastination void…
My routine on an ideal, uninterrupted day is as follows: I wake up, meditate for ten minutes, do some reading if time permits, then get dressed, eat breakfast, wash my face, brush my teeth. I get it all done before I begin, and will set a water bottle (potentially some snacks too) on my desk to have as little interruptions as possible. Once it’s writing time, I use a Pomodoro timer, because sitting and working for hours can be challenging for me, and I find frequent, short breaks help with writer’s block. Sometimes though, if I’m really in a flow, I will forgo the timer and sit and write uninterrupted. That’s when I know magic is really happening.
Tell us a bit about the role that PARC has played in your development as a writer and an artist.
I initially came to my dramaturge/PARC AD Santiago with a ‘first draft’ of 11 pages, including title page and character list. I knew I had in me a story worth telling, and I had some vague ideas about where I wanted to take the story and flesh it out, but I was ultimately facing the classic case of ‘what on earth am I doing?’ He asked questions I hadn’t considered, committing to helping me tell the story I wanted to tell but hadn’t articulated. As time went on, the characters went from lines on a page to becoming fully realized people, with the draft I ended the 2026 playwrights’ retreat with being a whopping 45 pages. PARC has allowed me to dream big, envisioning my script being produced and shared with the world. I feel like I am getting closer to that dream every day, and I am so grateful.