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The official instagram of Playwright’s Atlantic Resource Centre, home to hundreds of Atlantic Canadian plays.

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💻 UNO A UNO - WRITING CONSULTATIONS

📢 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR IBPOC PLAYWRIGHTS 📢

“Uno a Uno: Writing Consultations” are one-on-one brainstorming feedback or dramaturgy sessions open for early-in-craft playwrights.

Writers have a one-on-one session with PARC’s Interim Artistic Director Santiago Guzmán about a particular piece in development. Their first session is open to non-members, PARC membership is required for subsequent sessions.

To request a one-on-one meeting with Santiago Guzmán, please fill out the form on our bio! by @parconline

Join PARC’s Artistic Director Santiago Guzmán to learn more about the 2027 Playwrights' Retreat! This session will provide a general overview of our flagship program and shed light on the submission and selection processes. This info session is open to everyone interested in applying to the retreat. Come with your questions and curiosities!

WHEN
November 9, 2026
6 pm EST | 7 pm AST | 7:30 pm NST

WHERE
Virtually Via Zoom

The link will be available in the PARC E-Bulletin, or by contacting PARC AD Santiago Guzmán at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca. You can also reach out to Santiago if you have any questions or access needs.

For more information about the retreat, visit our website! by @parconline

The annual Playwrights’ Retreat, PARC’s flagship program, is a two-week playwrights residency open to emerging and established playwrights in Atlantic Canada and beyond. At the Retreat, up to ten playwrights from across the Atlantic region and beyond will have an opportunity to further develop a new script.

The Retreat offers the most intensive writing opportunity for playwrights in this region. It provides playwrights with the time to write, reflect and develop their work in a supportive and nurturing environment. Writers benefit from the one-on-one assistance of a professional dramaturge and the expertise of a company of professional workshop actors. Accommodation and honorarium provided and travel arranged or assisted.

The 2027 Playwrights’ Retreat will take place from May 9-23, 2027, in Tantramar, NB. Submissions will be accepted until December 1, 2026. Selected Playwrights will be notified by February 15, 2027.

If you have any questions & access needs during the submission process, don’t hesitate to contact PARC’s Artistic Director Santiago Guzmán at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca.

Visit our website to learn more and submit! by @parconline

The Playwright of the Month for October 2026 is Candace Hagen (PEI)!

We asked Candace about the role that PARC has played in her development as a writer and an artist.

"In February 2026, Santiago reached out about developmental support for 'Afterbirth,' after I’d submitted it for PARC’s annual Playwrights’ Retreat. My initial thought was: development for what — it’s done. (Yes, the irony of submitting a play to a retreat while believing it was “complete” doesn’t escape me.)

In March, they reached out again with an offer of workshopping, dramaturgical support, and a staged reading at April’s Island Playwrights’ Cabaret. It seemed like a nothing-to-lose-something-to-gain scenario, so I responded with enthusiasm, and we went for it.

Working on the script with Santiago was illuminating. No, in truth & perhaps also in cliché, it was a revelation. 'Afterbirth' was far from complete. More characters waited to be discovered, and Theadora Finch had so much more to reveal than I’d realized. Staging the play wasn’t the final word; it was part of its ongoing development. I had to wage a battle with my own naïveté and “one and done” mentality.

PARC’s support has pushed me deeper as a writer — to ask more questions, to pull up a chair and interrogate the characters in my plays in ways I hadn’t before. It’s been a fucking eye-opening journey, and I’m grateful for it."

Read the full interview with Candace at our website. by @parconline

The Playwright of the Month for October 2026 is Candace Hagen (PEI)!

We asked Candace: Do you have any rituals or routines that fuel your creative process?

"My ritual is executive dysfunction and task paralysis. My fuel is crushing anxiety, internal dread, whiskey shots, the crushing fear of mediocrity, and the deep desire to create work that fosters connection in a timeline where we are so far from ourselves, and one another."

Read the full interview with Candace at our website. by @parconline

DEADLINE TODAY!!

With the generous financial support from ArtsNL and in partnership with PARC Company Member Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC) is thrilled to bring back new play development workshops to Western Newfoundland!

PARC is now welcoming submissions from playwrights at all levels in their careers based in and/or connected to Western NL to develop new plays through our New Play Development Workshop Series. Playwrights may submit a completed script (ideally) or a partially completed work-in-progress. We welcome any story, but preference will be given to local stories and/or musically inclined pieces.

Two to three Western NL playwrights will receive the opportunity to undergo an intensive development process with professional dramaturgical support from PARC AD Santiago Guzmán. Each workshop will include one-on-one dramaturgical meetings and time to write, and depending on the playwrights needs, may also include working sessions with professional actors and/or a public reading with the opportunity for feedback and conversation. Accommodation and honorarium provided and travel arranged or assisted.

DATES
Submission Deadline: October 30, 2026
Notification of Results: December 1, 2026
Workshop Dates: February 15-20, 2027

For questions or access needs, reach out to Santiago at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca
To learn more and submit, visit our website! by @parconline

Let's Talk and Let's Write is back in a new form! In these monthly sessions, we invite IBPOC writers and other writers in equity-deserving groups* to gather. The structure stays the same - with some time for writing and learning, and some time for conversing and connecting with other artists. This Fall, each session will have a different theme — stage directions, stakes, and dialogue — so writers can strengthen different parts of their practices! This is a low-pressure, low-stakes environment to connect with your own practice and other writers.

Our final fall session takes place in St. John's, NL, presented in partnership with PARC Company Member RCA Theatre, as part of their RCA Professional Development Series. Join PARC AD Santiago Guzmán in the Second Space for an evening of inspiration, creation, and connection.

*PARC understands equity-owed communities as those who historically have been silenced, systemically oppressed, or erased, including (but not limited to) Indigenous & racialized communities, members of the 2SLGBTQAI+ community, women, migrants, and artists with disabilities.

WHEN/WHERE
November 20, 2026 - 6-8 pm

WHERE
LSPU Hall Second Space - St. John's, NL

To register for a session or in the case of questions, please reach out to Santiago Guzmán at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca. by @parconline

Presented in partnership with PARC Company Member RCA Theatre, as part of their RCAT Professional Development Series, this workshop is led by award-winning playwright and dramaturge and PARC's AD Santiago Guzmán. Santiago will work with you to further develop your new play by asking dramaturgical questions and offering prompts to unlock new storytelling possibilities. You don't need a completed script to participate—an idea, a few pages, or a couple of scenes will work. The workshop will focus on process and exploration, not a finished product.

Only 8 spots are available. $50 or free for PARC and/or RCA members.

WHEN
November 20, 2026 - 2-6 pm

WHERE
LSPU Hall Second Space - St. John's, NL

To RSVP, please email Santiago at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca with the writing/work you’re bringing into this process (if applicable, but not mandatory). by @parconline

The Playwright of the Month for October 2026 is Candace Hagen (PEI)!

We asked Candace: What are some questions you’re exploring or investigating in your work right now?

"Take my hand (or don’t, in fact — I’d rather you didn’t; just walk beside me at a respectable distance) as we go through my current processing-as-a-writer labyrinth.

How do I write the ordinary until it becomes unbearable? How do I build anxiety and fear into a conversation where, ostensibly, nothing is happening? When does a familiar gesture become unsettling, and how much needs to change on the page for us to feel it? How does pedestrian intent become villainous? At what point does a character’s understanding of themselves stop them from accommodating what I’ve written them doing?

How much do I trust the audience, the witnesses, to find what I’ve left between the lines? Where am I giving them room to discover something, and where am I over-explaining because I’m afraid of being misunderstood? And is that fear based in the self, or the character? And when does that stop being something I have a right to know? Can I leave silence unresolved without writing around it to make sure everyone gets the point? And what “points” genuinely matter, and to whom, and why? And what role do I truly play in any of that? How do I write the fragility of being human without explaining it away? What basic emotions connect us, and how does writing further into the particulars of one life make it recognizable to someone who has lived an entirely different one?

And how much of ourselves and of others do we weave into these characters? What does consent look like in playwriting? Do we truly own everything that has ever happened to us? What responsibility do we have to those we pull scraps and threads off of to weave into our own work? Do we ever get back what we’ve left behind? I’m curious about what becomes possible when I allow myself to loosen my grip on what I thought the play was, let ego death happen in a blaze of glory, and let collaboration send me back into the writing for a developmental rebirth."

Read the full interview with Candace at our website. by @parconline

The annual Playwrights’ Retreat, PARC’s flagship program, is a two-week playwrights residency open to emerging and established playwrights in Atlantic Canada and beyond. At the Retreat, up to ten playwrights from across the Atlantic region and beyond will have an opportunity to further develop a new script. Writers benefit from the one-on-one assistance of a professional dramaturge and the expertise of a company of professional workshop actors. Accommodation and honorarium provided and travel arranged or assisted.

The 2026 Playwrights’ Retreat will take place from May 9-23, 2027, in Tantramar, NB. Submissions will be accepted from October 15, 2026 to December 1, 2026. Selected Playwrights will be notified by February 15, 2027.

Playwrights should submit an application for the Retreat ideally to further the development of a completed script. Only playwrights whose work is known to PARC will be welcomed to submit a detailed synopsis or outline (not a recommended way to apply). This year, we request playwrights to submit a script sample of max 10 pages, though you may be asked to submit a full draft upon review.

The playwright must be a playwriting member of PARC, whose membership dues are up to date. If you have barriers to attending this Retreat in person (disability, child care, loss of income, etc) that you are concerned would prevent you from participating, we will attempt to find ways to accommodate, if you are chosen.

An info session with PARC’s Artistic Director Santiago Guzmán will take place on November 9, 2026 at 6 pm EDT | 7 pm ADT | 7:30 pm NDT. The Zoom link will be available in our weekly members’ newsletter (for PARC members) or can be requested by emailing ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca.

If you have any questions & access needs during the submission process, don’t hesitate to contact PARC’s Artistic Director Santiago Guzmán at ad@playwrightsatlantic.ca.

To learn more and submit, click the link in our bio or visit our website! by @parconline

The Playwright of the Month for October 2026 is Candace Hagen (PEI)!

We asked Candace: What are some plays that have stayed with you or influenced your work?

"Saying 'Equus' feels like an unhinged answer. To be honest, I didn’t grow up with scripts or theatre in my bones; Richard Lemm forced it on me during my undergrad creative writing classes. After taking every course offered at every level, I had become a virtuoso of dialogue avoidance. I went to extraordinary lengths to ensure no one in my writing spoke directly to anybody else.

I think it was a thimble having an internal crisis over deforestation — in an exercise meant to explore dialogue — that prompted his next assignment: five pages, two people talking to each other. Only dialogue. Nothing else.

I wrote it sweating and half drunk in a coffee shop that has since been gentrified. Those intensive forty-five minutes became the foundation for 'Salty.' One scene was eventually staged; the rest remains neglected in multiple drafts in my Google Docs. But I was hooked. I threw my poetry manuscripts in the trash and started writing plays.

All of that to say, I could research and Google the names of scripts I’ve read or plays I’ve watched — but that isn’t what stays with me; it’s the moments of writing and witnessing in collaboration with others that influence my work. Local theatre inspires me — watching radical creatives like Brynn Cutcliffe, Jay Whitehead, Rebecca Parent, Rosie Shaw, John MacCormac, Graham Putnam, and Benton Hartley...I could go on.

What stays with me is the bravery of those who put their work on a stage, any stage, and the privilege of watching artists thrive and grow together. It’s the people, the symbiosis, the osmosis of collaboration. For someone who had to be forced into writing a script, I am an accumulation of every creative I’ve worked with who had the gorgeous audacity to take up space."

Read the full interview with Candace at our website. by @parconline

PARC is thrilled to congratulate member Candace Hagen, who recently received the PARC PEI Award at the 2026 Island Fringe Festival. Her play 'When There’s Nothing Left to Say' was recognized for its outstanding dramatic merit. The jury praised the production for its variety, fantastic movement, and snappy dialogue, noting, "The script took us on an emotional journey that very relatable for a modern audience."

ABOUT THE PLAY:
Sometimes you just know. A look. A comment. A tiny moment of absolute revulsion. 'When There’s Nothing Left to Say' is a collection of one-acts about the small revelations and sudden reckonings that tell us a relationship is over, even when you’re still in it. Because knowing it’s over is one thing. Actually leaving? Well. That’s another story.

Congratulations Candace! by @parconline