PDCC Members at the 2009 PDCC Conference, hosted by Playwrights' Workshop Montréal, October 1, 2 & 3. From left: Rory Runnells (MAP), Jenny Munday (PARC), Brian Quirt (Nightswimming), Marie Barlizo (Nightswimming), Kim McCaw (CCTC), Emma Tibaldo (PWM), Heidi Taylor (PTC), Johanne Deleeuw (APN), Maureen LaBonté (Banff), Heather Inglis (SPC), Lisa O'Connell (Pat the dog) & James Durham (MAP).

Playwrights' Development Centres across Canada have come together to strengthen our organizations and assist in fulfilling our mandates – to support and assist the development of Canadian plays and playwrights.

One of the Centres major artistic goals – creating a stronger link between the plays we develop and a staged production – will be facilitated by artistic exchanges, improved communications, and the fostering of a higher profile for the Centres, their work, and their playwrights.

Background

An initial meeting of the Centres was held in March 2001 in Calgary, at which there was unanimous agreement to investigate the formation of a network of Playwrights' Development Centres across Canada. A generous and much-appreciated grant from the Theatre Office of the Canada Council, through the Flying Squad, enabled the Centres to hire consultant Jini Stolk to explore the feasibility of forming such a network.

She conducted initial research on how the Centres are perceived within the theatre community, on activities of comparable groupings of arts organizations, and on opportunities for cooperative activities among the Centres. At a strategic planning session held in Calgary in March 2002, the Centres examined their common needs, and set goals and objectives for working together.

At planning sessions in Ottawa in May/June 2002, the Centres unanimously agreed to create a new, national network of Playwrights' Development Centres in Canada, and defined its mandate and objectives. The Network defined an appropriate structure to meet its objectives, and came to agreement on the new organization's core functions and initial activities.

Those meetings also included our first successful event - a lively and wide-ranging community discussion about collaborating, making connections, and breaking down regional barriers.

The Playwrights¹ Development Centres of Canada (PDCC) is a network of arts organizations primarily devoted to the development of plays and playwrights in Canada. The organizations came together in 2001 to establish a national network to communicate and share ideas, to advocate on behalf of the member organizations and the playwrights they serve, and to engage in cooperative activities that contribute to the vitality of   Canadian theatre. Each organizations reflects the unique nature of the theatrical ecology in which it exists and operates, while sharing commonalities in programming and services for playwrights.  

Structure

The Playwrights' Development Centres is a loosely structured network and uses its mainly volunteer resources to increase the Centres' profile and stature and prepare for larger, cooperative projects.

Each of the Centres has equal say in what we do and how we do it. To organize meetings and carry out decisions, the Centres select a Convener from among its membership. In 2002 Ken Cameron of the Alberta Playwrights' Network was elected as the inaugural Convener.

The network of Playwrights' Development Centres will have the following core functions, initiated by the Steering Committee and facilitated and coordinated by the Convener:

Networking: connecting with colleagues through annual meetings for the sharing of ideas, knowledge and information about play development activities and issues throughout Canada

Communications: email list services, the maintaining of a web site and a “plays in development” listing

Advocacy: a common voice to speak to issues of playwright development, and enhance the value and importance – nationally and within the provinces and regions of Canada – of the Playwrights' Development Centres

Artistic exchange and development: creation of opportunities to disseminate scripts and projects to producing theatres

Special projects and initiatives: upcoming plans include joint play development and exchange projects