Upcoming Events
The conversation starts here. Join us in the lively discussion of all things theatre.
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The conversation starts here. Join us in the lively discussion of all things theatre.
Poetry is a gateway. It allows us to make connections and find meaning in mystery. In this workshop, we will wake up our poetic senses, begin to generate a sustainable and fulfilling writing practice, and embrace self-expression. This workshop is open to artists, writers, playwrights, actors, or anyone interested in picking up a writing practice.
On behalf of PTC and The Public Swoon, we invite you into the process of Mermaid Spring through a special package mailed directly to you.
Learn to work from archival documents, family history, personal memoir, and other “real” texts in this workshop with Joanna Garfinkel.
New to cold reads? Want to feel more confident in your cold reading skills? Whether you’re taping auditions for new or unpublished plays or prepping for podcast or online play reading recordings, Cold Reads and Fast Takes on New Material will give you tools to make the most of a text.
PTC would like to invite you to the final reading of the Tuesday Winter Cohort of PTC’s Block A Playwriting Workshop.
You are invited to a Visible Mending Workshop hosted by the Public Swoon, where you will have the opportunity to learn and develop fibre arts techniques as used in the creation process of Mermaid Spring, including crochet and embroidery.
Wanting to write a play with dynamic characters? Or create a performance where your personality is bigger-than-life from yourself? Or do you want to try out a persona you’ve always been curious to play with?
UNSCRIPTED: It Lives in My Bedroom (ILIMB) is excited to invite you back in-person to PTC on Friday, February 17, 2023 at 7:30pm PST at Progress Lab! Playwright, director and researcher Mily Mumford, with design collaboration by Chimerik 似不像 – Lighting, Projection Design & New Media Art Collective, brings you into the world of It Lives in my Bedroom.
Join our New Play in Development Prize winner, Zahida Rahemtulla with co-host Davey Samuel Calderon (Dramaturg, Public Engagement & NPiDP Dramaturg) and learn about working on the frontlines during the intake of refugees to Canada back in 2016, today, and even in Canada’s future. Nov. 19, 2021 – 7-9pm, PWYW!
An audio and text geolocation experience in partnership with The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team. How does your lineage shape the language you use for mental health? What will you find as you travel through UNSCRIPTED: Szepty/Whispers? What’s beyond “breaking the silence”?
Join mentors Joanna Garfinkel and Kamila Sediego for a workshop on the basics of applying to the Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council for project grants. Dates; Sept. 15 or Sept 22, 2021. Apply by Sept. 8.
Up for testing immersive digital art? Interested in joining a conversation about mental health, language, and lineage? Have a phone? We want you! We’re seeking test audience members for the app-based experience of Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue, as part of the Unscripted Series.
Application deadline: July 15, 2021, midnight PDST This position requires in-person work in Vancouver. Access to a vehicle is an asset. Are you at home in OBS or Streamyard? Can you troubleshoot meeting platforms without skipping a beat? Can you make a beautiful online schedule to create order out of…
PTC will host 4-6 projects in residence, September 20-25, 2021, to explore digital dramaturgy for theatre on- and off-line. We continue investigations begun by our partners in Montreal and Winnipeg into digital forms in theatre practice.
Do you want some tips and tricks to write, rewrite or finish songs? Join our Pay-What-You-Will songwriting workshop with singer-songwriter Belinda Bruce (PTC’s Communications Manager) and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jon Wood (Flophouse jr), over two sessions – June 14 and 28 from 6:00-8:00pm.
Put you best fool forward this April! Our PWYW Studio Workshop Series starts with Clowning Online with Davey Calderon. Keep your performance life alive in this 2-hour workshop (April 16, 5:30-7:30pm) learning to develop your “clown” for the online stage.
Our workshop series returns for 2021! Led by PTC staff, these workshops will help hone your skills and move you deeper into your process. And PTC and New(to)Town Collective have teamed up for a Summer Training Jam Series, adding 4 more theatre workshops for you to access!
In this 3-hour workshop, Joanna Garfinkel will lead participants through the basics of applying to the Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council for project grants. Workshop Dates: March 3 and 17, 2021. 6:30-9:30pm. Deadline to Apply: February 24, 2021 @5pm PST
Playwright Pedro Chamale invites you into the test kitchen of his new work, which highlights the unseen people who plant, tend and harvest our food. This live-streamed event is part cooking show, part “kitchen table talk” with special guests who explore the fallout from our reliance on the exploitation of migrant workers to put food on Canadian tables and the roles artist might play in making change. Join us, we have saved you a seat at our table!
PTC, in collaboration with rice & beans theatre, will hold its Annual General Meeting on Monday, December 7, 2020 at 7:30pm, online. Register now!
November 19-29, 2020, Digitally Streaming Online. PTC is excited to support the independent launch of JK JK’s Catalina La O Presenta: Ahora Conmigo. Originally selected as the Fringe New Play Prize winner, Catalina is being released digitally outside of the festival context to respond to the creative opportunities and challenges of the pandemic. The independent production, set in an abandoned television studio, translates beautifully to the screen. With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Originals, JK JK has crafted a digital theatre experience that brings the best of both media together.
PTC is proud to present Harvest Lens Series + Roots and Seeds with Heart of the City Festival, October 28 – November 8, 2020. In the Harvest Lens Series, PTC’s Davey Calderon collaborates with theatre artists in a series of short videos featuring DTES Neighbourhood House’s Urban Farm. And we relaunch our podcast Roots and Seeds.
In PTC’s first online Unscripted on Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 7:00pm PST, join playwright Derek Chan and co-host Davey Calderon (Dramaturg, Public Engagement) as they bring the voices of Hong Kong democracy activists in Vancouver into conversation with Derek’s play-in-development, yellow objects.
Always wanted to write for theatre? Or already have a script you want to work on? Join our most popular program for emerging artists: Block A.
Finding what you know already. Join Heidi for this 7-evening workshop that offers a container for creative discovery. Using improvisation (for movement, writing, or aural/oral creation), emergent structures, and self-dramaturgy, participants will discover a performance seed that is all their own.
#BlackOutTuesday
Today is #GivingTuesdayNow – a new global day of giving and unity to support those most impacted by COVID-19. Join us in supporting DTES Response or an organization closest to your heart, and make a difference where it’s needed most.
Our workshop series is back for 2020! NOW OFFERED ONLINE. Led by PTC staff, these workshops will help hone your skills and move you deeper into your process. Whether you are an actor, producer, playwright, or all three, there’s a workshop that will inspire you, engage you, and give you some practical skills to move your practice forward.
PLEASE NOTE: The Reading of Rick Tae’s “My Little Tomato” TONIGHT (JAN. 15 at 8PM) has been cancelled due to inclement weather!
Come and experience new plays in development as part of VACT’s MSG Lab program (in association with PTC).
At Unscripted: Kuroko, join Tetsuro Shigematsu for a behind-the-scenes party exploring the world of his upcoming new play, Kuroko. Test virtual reality environments, discover the ideas that sparked Kuroko, and see a sneak peek of the play.
Where does our food come from? Who grows it? Who is nourished by it? Join playwright Pedro Chamale for words and music from his play-in-progress that brings temporary foreign farm workers centre stage – the unseen people who plant, tend, and harvest. Share food and stories in a family-friendly event that reveals the links in Canada’s food chain.
We believe in the creative impulses of our artists. Help PTC say, “Yes, let’s” to new Canadian plays by WrightSpace 2018 playwrights Barbara Adler, Tai Amy Grauman, Robert Hamilton and Yvonne Wallace. Our goal is to raise $3000 by November 15 to ensure these artists have cultural consultants, designers, actors and space to dream! Donate at CanadaHelps.org today.
Project Dramaturg Joanna Garfinkel and Fringe New Play Prize winners Sara Vickruck and Anaïs West share thoughts about the development of “Poly Queer Love Ballad” and the unique relationship between songwriting, slam poetry and playwriting.
Join PTC at the premiere of Weaving Reconciliation: Our Way, a new play and cultural encounter that gives voice to those who have lived within Canada’s long shadow of colonialism.
Set yourself up for a successful summer. These workshops will help hone your skills and move you deeper into your process. Whether you are an actor, producer, playwright, or all three, there’s a Studio workshop that will inspire you, engage you, and give you some practical skills to move your…
SECRET LOCATION…. In the ’80s in Poland under Martial Law, people gathered in secret in basements and school gyms, gaining entrance with a bottle of vodka and a password whispered to the janitor. To join us for Veronique West’s “Unscripted: Where the Devil Can’t Go”, you won’t need to bring vodka, just meet us at Progress Lab 1422 (1422 William St.) this Thursday, May 3. The password is “DEVIL”.
Join us for readings of new works by MSG Lab playwrights Gary Mok, Yumi Ogawa and Sangeeta Wylie. PTC Test Kitchen Feb. 22-24, 2018. FREE.
PTC Presents Unscripted: Salesman in China, a border-crossing time-travelling community event. Performances, talks, food and images bring Beijing, 1983 and Vancouver, 2018 into relationship through Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. How do we translate language and cultural differences? How do we bridge the gap between generations? PTC Associates Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy welcome you into the world of their new play.
For two months in 1983, two of the world’s great artists struggled to bridge the abyss between two of the world’s great cultures. UNSCRIPTED: Salesman in China is a border-crossing time-travelling community event that unearths their incredible story.
Join PTC and rice & beans for our AGM and performances from our Company Collaboration: Play Dates.
Refreshments and a window into some fresh new work.
Doors at 6:30
Meeting at 7 pm, followed by refreshment break
8 pm reading
You are invited to follow Vancouver Moving Theatre and PTC in the next phase of development of the theatrical production (and cultural encounter) Weaving Reconciliation.There are three events taking place at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival (Oct. 25 – Nov. 5) in Vancouver as part of the process: Slahal Story and Demonstration; Trickster Talk and Play Reading: Weaving reconciliation.
This year, we are delighted to announce that the number of playwrights submitting to Block A, PTC’s popular program for emerging writers, has exceeded the capacity by 500% so four sessions are being convened, two in the fall and two in winter. Check out our cohorts and find out who is the recipient of The Virago Play Series scholarship.
The Virago Play Series is offering a bursary to support a female or femme identified playwright who is accepted to one of PTC’s two cohorts for Block A in the coming season.
The winners of the 2017 Fringe New Play Prize – lee williams boudakian, Kamee Abrahamian and Anoushka Ratnarajah – have been working with Associate Dramaturg mia amir on their play Setting Bones for the last seven months. Anoushka shares the challenges and deep explorations embedded in creating this far-reaching and personal work.
The Fringe New Play Prize work-in-progress (Untitled) Boxes has undergone many transformations in the last few months, including a new title. Read about the playwrights’ progress.
Joint AGM with Itsazoo Productions. Join us at our AGM, an evening of celebration and free Associate-ing. The end of 2016 marks the final days of our three-year collaboration with PTC Associates Carmen Aguirre, Hiro Kanagawa, Quelemia Sparrow, Adrienne Wong, Dave Deveau and Elaine Avila.
Want to be part of an international performance commons? Meet Ramona Ostrowski (Associate Producer) and Jamie Ghalon (Co-founder & Senior Creative Producer) of HowlRound TV while they are in Vancouver to introduce their platform and program content for the online theatre portal.
Join us for a conversation of how theatre contributes to the fabric of Vancouver’s Chinatown – where food and language intersect on Coast Salish territory. Come at 6:30pm for the DUMPLING CHALLENGE! Stay for readings in English and Cantonese from Jovanni Sy’s play A Taste of Empire/食盡天下, translated into Cantonese by Derek Chan. With Bob Sung, Jovanni Sy, Derek Chan and Andrea Yu.
Tinkers is an adaptation of the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Paul Harding. This new transcendentalist work features an intimate and dazzling relationship with the natural world, woven into a story of family karma.
June 21-25, 2016 at the Firehall Arts Centre
O’wet/Lost Lagoon is a solo performance about reclamation and change that weaves real-life stories with the visceral experience of a spiritual canoe journey. Written and performed by Quelemia Sparrow, it grapples with the identity of a mixed-race aboriginal woman in a present-day, colonized world.
How does Jordan Hall engage with comic forms in her new play “How to Survive an Apocalypse”? Embedded critic Kelsey Blair investigates.
How to Survive an Apocalypse by Jordan Hall is the winner of the 2016 Flying Start Program, a collaboration between PTC, Touchstone Theatre and the Firehall Arts Centre. The 18-month development process for a new play culminates in a first production at a PACT theatre. The play opens June 2…
Theatre and new technologies with Mallory Catlett February 1, 2016, 6 – 10pm PTC Test Kitchen (#202 – 739 Gore Ave., Vancouver) Register via the PuSh Festival website AED Heidi Taylor had a chance to see a workshop production of Decoder 2017 in New York in June, and is excited…