On Stage interviewTag

Playwright Debbie Patterson on Why She Will Keep Exploring What It Means to "Die Well"

What does it mean to "die well"? If death is the end, is there anything left, at that point, to learn? These are the kinds of questions that fascinate acclaimed Winnipeg theatre creator Debbie Patterson, and ...

Beatriz Pizano on Why Writing Fast Takes a Long Time & the Slow but Hopeful Evolution She Sees in Canadian Theatre

As a playwright, director, actor, and activist, Beatriz Pizano has made a name for herself creating theatre that is daring and emotionally complex. She's been highly decorated for her incisive, compelling ...

Playwright Natasha Adiyana Morris on The Plays that Shaped Her & Why She Won't Remove Local Culture from Her Work

Playwright Natasha Adiyana Morris' The Negroes Are Congregating (forthcoming from Playwrights Canada Press later this month) became a sensation during its 2020 run at Theatre Passe Muraille. Morris, ...

Frances Koncan on How Playwrighting Gets Her "Closest to the Truth"

Frances Koncan's play, Women of the Fur Trade (Playwrights Canada Press) is the antidote to dull historical renditions of early Canada. Set in "eighteen hundred and something something", it follows three ...

Playwright & Passe Muraille Artistic Director Marjorie Chan on Writing the Scenes That "Need to Get Out" First

Librettist and playwright Marjorie Chan, who serves as Artistic Director of Toronto's iconic Theatre Passe Muraille while also creating her own plays and librettos, has a knack for exploring power, ...

Fairy Tale Lovers' Delight: Read an Excerpt from Kat Sandler's Dark & Funny Play, Yaga

The story of Baba Yaga, the forest-dwelling witch who grinds bones in her chicken-legged house, is one of the most enduring, strange, and iconic images from world folklore, and that's saying a lot. So ...

"I Knew I Wanted Big Stories" Susanna Fournier on Crafting Hundreds of Years of Dystopian History for Her Plays

Imagine creating not just a fully realized world, but an entire history that spans hundreds of years. That is the creativity Susanna Fournier brought to her suite of three plays, The Empire (Playwrights ...

Anosh Irani, Author of Masterpiece One-Man Show, Buffoon, on His Life and Process as a Playwright

Anosh Irani is one of Canada's most treasured and exciting playwrights and novelists, with his past work landing him on numerous award lists, including the Governor General's Literary Awards and the ...

Playwright Makambe K Simamba on Fearlessly Exploring "How Far Characters are Willing to Go in Order to Live Their Truths"

CW: discussion of anti-Black violenceIt's a gutting image: a seventeen-year old Black boy, a child in a hoodie, dead far too soon because of hateful and unchecked anti-Black racism. Makambe K Simamba's Our ...

Michael Grant on His (Naked) New Play & Creating a Fictional Small Town Across His Works

Norm and Ruth were just trying to get their marriage back on track. A simple idea: to head back to a place they knew they'd been happy and see if they can re-capture the spark there. But the struggling ...