Playwrights Theatre Centre (PTC) is where new Canadian theatre begins. For over 50 years, we’ve supported artists to imagine, develop, and share original works that reflect the complexity of our communities. From first spark to final performance, PTC offers dramaturgical expertise, creative residencies, workshops, and collaborations that help artists bring bold ideas to life.
Each year, we collaborate on more than 20 projects, ranging from intimate storytelling to site-specific, interdisciplinary, and technologically adventurous performances. Our programs, such as WrightSpace, Associates, and Company Collaborations, create space for artists at all stages of their careers to take risks, grow their skills, and connect with audiences in meaningful ways. Many works developed at PTC go on to tour nationally and internationally, shaping conversations far beyond Vancouver.
At the heart of PTC is a commitment to equity, inclusion, and ethical creation. We work with artists from diverse cultural and lived experiences, many of whom are creating across or between cultures, reclaiming stories, and imagining new futures. Guided by our co-leadership team, Davey Samuel Calderon (Artistic Producer and Dramaturg), Joanna Garfinkel (Artistic Director and Dramaturg), and Melanie Yeats (Creative Managing Director), PTC is led by artists for artists, with a deep belief in collaboration and community.
Rooted on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy’əm, Sḵwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations, PTC is dedicated to creating space for dialogue, innovation, and belonging. We continue to grow as a gathering place for the future of theatre, where artists and audiences come together to imagine new possibilities.
Our story
PTC’s story began in 1970, when Sheila Neville and Douglas Bankson founded the New Play Centre to encourage and develop dramatic writing in British Columbia. What started as a script critique service quickly grew into a producing theatre company, launching the popular New Play Festival and helping prove that Canadian stories belonged on Canadian stages.
In 1995, the New Play Centre merged with the Betty Lambert Society to become Playwrights Theatre Centre. Over the decades that followed, PTC evolved into a hub for new play development, launching programs like WrightSpace and Associates that became cornerstones for artists across the province and beyond.
Our homes have shifted too—from Granville Island to Vancouver’s Chinatown, and now to Progress Lab 1422, a collaborative cultural hub where some of the city’s most innovative theatre companies create side by side.
In 2025, PTC embraced a new era of co-leadership with Davey Samuel Calderon (Artistic Producer and Dramaturg), Joanna Garfinkel (Artistic Director and Dramaturg), and Melanie Yeats (Creative Managing Director). This model reflects our commitment to collective leadership, equity, and diverse representation, while cementing PTC’s identity as a company of artist-workers.
Through it all, one thing has remained constant: PTC’s belief in the power of theatre to connect us, challenge us, and create belonging. For more than five decades, we’ve been a launching ground for bold Canadian voices — and we’re just getting started.