Website: Playwrights' Theatre Centre

Founded: 1970 – formerly the New Play Centre

Location:
#201 – 1398 Cartwright Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6H 3R8

Contact Information:
Martin Kinch
Telephone: (604) 685-6228
Fax: (604) 685-7451

Executive Director: Martin Kinch

Mandate: To develop, produce and promote new works by Canadian playwrights, especially British Columbia playwrights.

Membership: 150 writers and supporters.

Serving: 100 writers each year for dramaturgy and classes; approximately 50 writers per year for readings and workshops; 40 – 80 people at each public workshop; and approximately 800 people annually at the New Play Festival.

Other Staff: Linda Gorrie – Administrator; Margaret Kapturkiewicz - Executive Assistant/Facility Manager; Kris Elgstrand - Administrative Assistant.

Annual Budget: $330,000

• Script Reading; individual dramaturgy of 200 scripts a year
• Three separate and continuing writers' groups: Writers Block A for aspiring playwrights; Writers Block B, Building a full-length script, and Writers Block M, Monologues, a weekly series of classes for four weeks
• Playwrights' Unit: for six member-playwrights each year, offering full readings every two weeks
• The Reading Series: in-house readings of 30+ plays a season
• Workshops: 6 week-long workshops with public performances
• Dramaturg Apprenticeships: for two students and two professionals, who will study with the dramaturgs and directors at PTC
• Canadian Play Library, PTC Play Guide catalogue, Playwrights – The Newsletter
• Vancouver New Play Festival, provides opportunities for writers of every level of experience to showcase their new works in a variety of developmental stages

Aaron Bushkowsky. The Dead Reckoning commissioned by the Vancouver Playhouse and developed over two years at Playwrights' Theatre Centre, presented in the Vancouver New Play Festival. Produced by the Playhouse in Vancouver in 2002 and awaiting a production on the Vancouver Playhouse main stage in 2003

MIchael Lewis MacLennan, now a writer and producer of Queer as Folk. Michael developed Grace and The Shooting Stage at PTC. Grace has been produced at theatres all over Canada and The Shooting Stage, produced in Vancouver, is now being translated into French, courtesy of the Banff playRites Colony, and Michael is on his way to Paris to attend the full-scale workshop.

Penny Gummerson recently won a Jessie Award for Wawatay, a play about a Metis family struggling to come to terms with the reality of their mixed heritage. This play is currently heading for a production in Saskatoon and then a Western tour. It was originally produced at the Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver, and was developed at PTC over a period of five years.