Playwrights Theatre Centre (PTC) is a Vancouver based new play development centre dedicated to the encouragement and expression of the Canadian voice on the stage.

Since its inception in 1970, more than 5000 new Canadian plays have passed through Playwrights Theatre Centre.  More than 600 plays have been showcased – in workshops, public staged readings, and full productions – many from such prominent award-winning playwrights as Gordon Armstrong, Aaron Bushkowsky, Sally Clark, Marie Clements, Tom Cone, Dennis Foon, Margaret Hollingsworth, Kevin Kerr, David King, W.P. Kinsella, Betty Lambert, John Lazarus, Michael Lewis MacLennan, Eric Nicol, Kathleen Oliver, Morris Panych, Sheldon Rosen, Vern Thiessen, Charles Tidler, Ian Weir, and Guillermo Verdecchia.  Plays developed at Playwrights Theatre Centre have gone on to win the Governor General’s Award for Drama, The Chalmers Award, as well as countless regional theatre awards including, among others, Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Award and Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Award.

Founded as the New Play Centre in 1970 by Sheila Neville and Douglas Bankson, PTC initially began as a script critique service with a mandate to “encourage and develop dramatic writing in British Columbia”.  With the hiring of its first managing and artistic director, Pamela Hawthorn, in 1972 the mandate was broadened and became an active producing theatre company dedicated to the production and presentation of new works.

Under Ms. Hawthorn’s direction the New Play Centre premiered such plays as Herringbone by Tom Cone, Ned and Jack by Sheldon Rosen, Under the Skin by Betty Lambert, Harbour Houseby David King, and Dreaming and Duelling by John and Joa Lazarus among other major Canadian plays.

In 1995, under the direction of Artistic Director Kim Selody, The New Play Centre merged with The Betty Lambert Society to become Playwrights Theatre Centre and in 1999, under the leadership of Chapelle Jaffe, PTC acquired a permanent home complete with offices, library, writer’s room and a well-equipped 85-seat studio, on Vancouver’s Granville Island. 

Throughout the year, PTC reads and reports on 100+ new scripts and holds in-house readings and workshops of more than 30; offers a number of writing programs to its members including New Eyes/New Voices, a development program for early career dramaturgs; and presents several public readings and cabarets.  In early May, PTC mounts the annual Vancouver New Play Festival on Granville Island which presents an exciting variety of workshop productions, cabarets, seminars, and panel discussions.