**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Rajnish Dhawan, a Professor of English at the University of the Fraser Valley and an award-winning writer who writes in multiple languages and genres.

Since moving to Canada from India in 2009, Rajnish has written four plays. His first Canadian play That Time of the Year focuses on the issues of gender, and sexuality among the South Asian diaspora in Canada. That Land Beyond the Waves, is based upon the Komagata Maru tragedy. Basement Santa is a comical take on…

**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Valerie Sing Turner, the founding Artistic Producer of Visceral Visions, founder|Creative Director of CultureBrew.Art, and an acknowledged leader on issues of diversity and decolonization in the Canadian arts sector. A multidisciplinary artist who performs, writes, directs, dramaturges, and produces, Valerie has 20+ years’ experience performing onstage and onscreen, and as a voiceover artist in animation, new media, and CBC radio dramas and short-story narrations. She is the recipient of the Enbridge playRites Award for Emerging Canadian Playwright and the John…

*Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, aka Belladonna the Blest, an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her main body of work, the 54ology, includes: Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Gas Girls, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, and The First Stone. Commissioned works include Witness Shift (Obsidian Theatre, 21 Black Futures), Reaching For Starlight (Geordie Theatre), Say the Words (Wrecking Ball), The House You Build (SNTC). Opera libretti include Forbidden (Afarin Mansouri/Tapestry Opera) and Oubliette (Ivan Barbotin/Tapestry…

*Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Debbie Patterson, a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR), served as Theatre Ambassador for Winnipeg’s Cultural Capital year, and as Artistic Director of the Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba. She served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) from 2012 to 2018 and is currently a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit.

Playwriting credits include How it Ends, Sargent & Victor…

**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Vishesh Abeyratne, he is currently serving as one of two playwrights-in-residence at the Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC). His play “Divide and Rule” recently received a workshop as part of the TACTICS Online Series and was one of the winners in Infinithéâtre’s Write-On-Q! playwriting competition. His solo show “The Procrustes Pitch” was presented by Between Us Productions in New York and Riverside Theatre in Iowa. He has also written a play for young audiences called “Exposure”, published by YouthPLAYS, Inc.

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**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Marilo Nuñez, a Chilean Canadian playwright, director, actor and academic. She was the 2018 recipient of the Hamilton Arts Awards for Established Theatre Artist and was recently nominated for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. She is the 2021–22 Playwright in Residence at Aluna Theatre (Toronto) and was a member of Natural Resources, Factory Theatre’s playwright’s unit for established writers in 2019. She was Playwright-in-Residence at Aluna Theatre in 2016 and was McMaster University’s first Playwright-in-Residence in 2018. She is…

**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with award-winning playwright Jennifer Wynne Webber who writes in multiple genres and who has also worked as a television journalist, professional actor, dramaturge, and video producer. Her first book was a novel called “Defying Gravity.” Scirocco Drama has published two of her plays: “Beside Myself” and “With Glowing Hearts: How Ordinary Women Worked Together to Change the World (And Did).” Her play, “White Lies,” was published in the literary journal, Ryga and, under its former title “Whistling at the Northern Lights,”…

**Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Diane Flacks, who is a writer/actor. Recently, Diane played the titular role of Nathan in “Nathan the Wise” in Stratford’s 2019/2020 season. She wrote and starred in “Unholy”, her acclaimed play about women and religion for Nightwood Theatre. “Unholy” was nominated for a Dora, was filmed live for Zoomer tv and published in 2019. Selected plays include “Waiting Room”, “Bear With Me”, “Random Acts”, “SIBS” (with Richard Greenblatt). TV writing includes “Workin’ Moms”, “Baroness von Sketch Show”, and “Kids in…