Block A

Block A is for playwrights who have written in class or in their kitchens, maybe had a short piece produced. And for theatre artists who have thought of themselves primarily as actors or as stage managers or directors, but have the itch to write for performance. It’s for artists who write for all kinds of performance from spoken word to performance art to songs, who primarily write for themselves or someone else to perform live in front of an audience. We’ve even had a few screenwriters who want to learn classic playwriting skills to help them build story and action. Each Block A cohort of six writers meets for ten weeks with a senior playwright mentor who offers fundamentals of writing for performance and helps engage their cohorts to be creatively generative and supportive of each other’s writing. The content and flow of Block A depends on the varied interests of the writers and the playwright mentor, who integrates their own practices and inspirations into the sessions. They learn from each other and get a sense of the collaborative nature of theatre-making.

Stay tuned to hear about our next round of applications in 2023!

Playwrights in this program:

Ashley Chodat

Ashley Chodat (she/her) is a deviser, dramaturg, playwright and educator. In these roles, Ashley has been fortunate to work for companies across Canada like Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, The Cultch, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Theatre SKAM and Arts Umbrella. She is particularly interested in stories that explore nostalgia, female joy and intergenerational relationships. She holds a diploma in Theatre Performance from Douglas College and is working towards her BFA in Applied Theatre at Uvic. Recently, her play June Bug won the inaugral TYP Family Forward Award at Vancouver Fringe Festival.

Reese Cowley

Reese Cowley (she/her) is a Sri Lankan-Canadian actor, director and playwright, born and raised in New Westminster, BC and is now based in Toronto, ON. She is a recent graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. Recently, she performed in the English language premier of Emma Hache’s Less in Frogetting with Pleiades Theatre in Toronto. Reese is thrilled to be joining this year’s Block A cohort, and looks forward to developing her first play!

Marya Folinsbee

Marya Folinsbee (she/her) is a clown, actor, playwright, and teaching artist from Edmonton/Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, who now lives in the Slocan Valley/Sinixt Territory, in the West Kootenays. Marya studied theatre at the Victoria School of the Arts and McMaster University, and independently with artists including David Diamond (Theatre for Living), Jon Davison (London Clown School), Deanna Fleysher (Don’t Call it Clown), and others. Marya has written & independently produced several plays, including “In Transit” (Nextfest 2001); “Be/Longing” (2018, co-written with Martina Avis); and “Domesticated Disputes (2020). Select acting credits include Peter in Peter Pan; Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Moon in The Real Inspector Hound; Le Geographe and Le Renard in Le Petit Prince; and Constance Ledbelly in Goodnight Desdemona (Goodmorning Juliet). Marya facilitates clown and theatre workshops for all ages, and is currently writing and devising two new works – PLAY! and The Mosquitos.

Jessica Harvey

Jessica Harvey (she/her) is a writer, theatre and film maker, musician/composer, teacher and mother. A UBC BFA Acting graduate, Jessica has created and performed work with companies including The Only Animal, Radix, Pi Theatre, Seven Tyrants and Universal Limited. She sang funk-rock vocals with Vancouver’s Two Apple Tobacco and gypsy jazz with Trotsky Tulsky in Belgium. Recently, she assembled an 8 piece band to perform a concert of her original music. Her short play ‘Real Company’ was produced at the 2018 Pull Festival. Jessica delights in telling stories that unearth lost worlds and shine light through the cracks in our foundations.

Krystal Kavita Jagoo

Krystal Kavita Jagoo (she/her) graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2008 and a Master of Social Work degree in 2010. Jagoo is passionate about equity, as can be seen from her writing and facilitation work for Scarborough Arts, Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, etc. She was published over 100 times in 2021. Her visual art, “University Ableism Bingo” was featured in Pandemic: A Feminist Response, and the zine, CRIP COLLAB. Jagoo is working on her collection of essays, entitled, “They Colonized Even My Tongue,” thanks to the support of Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council grants.

Andy Kalirai

Andy Kalirai (he/him) is an actor and playwright from Vancouver. He trained with Railtown Actors Studio and Tempest Theatre. Some of his performances include Guards At The Taj (Pick of the Vancouver Fringe 2019), All’s Well That Ends Well (Bard on the Beach), and Dooja Ghar (Monsoon Festival) which he also co-wrote.

Franki Katz

Franki Katz (she/her) based in Vancouver, BC is a fantasy novelist and singer-songwriter. Her current written works reflect on themes of isolation, power, and the making of the world, while her current album in progress uses a fairytale backdrop to explore the embodied impact of capitalism. Franki’s music sits on the edge of antifolk and alternative pop, focusing on piano and string instrumentals and dreamy vocals.

Mónica Perea

Mónica Perea (she/her) is a Mexican performing artist who lives in Vancouver, Canada since 2021. As a playwright, she had performed more than 25 plays, standing out 6 Shakespearean rewrites from the women’s character point of view. In 2018, she started the League of Theater Woman in Mexico, which reunites more than 300 women and advocates for their rights in the field. Her company, Theatre on Bike, not only produces plays but takes cyclists to different venues in Mexico City as audience. She was granted with national distinctions in Mexico and is now looking forward to find new opportunities in Canada. www.monicaperea.com/

Brenda Prince

Brenda Prince (she/her), AKA, Middle of the Sky, is a Winnipeg born artist who writes in various genres; poetry, playwriting and screenplay writing. She holds a BFA and MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Middle of the Sky’s work centres around the Anishinaabe Ikwe experience in today’s world. Her use of humour and spirituality figure prominently in all her work. She is of the Bear Clan and in her spare time she performs stand-up comedy.

Yasmin Tayob

Yasmin Tayob (she/her) has been an actor in theatre and film for 20 years and splits her time between that and teaching French and Spanish. She is from a mixed cultural background of Indian, Portuguese, Muslim and catholic parents and is interested in bringing these aspects of her experience into her writing. She has recently written a play about living with mental illness and is excited to bring it to life through this program.

Cole Vandale

Cole Vandale is a Disabled Métis filmmaker who has studied acting and filmmaking in Calgary, New York and Vancouver. He has worked professionally on a variety of union and non-union productions both in-front and behind the camera. His last short film Starlight was nominated for Best Live Short at the 45th American Indian Film Festival and was a finalist for the Sundance Ignite Fellowship. He recently was a participant in the 2022 CBC Access Scripted Stream and produced Rylan Friday’s film Terror/Forming which premieres at VIFF this year. Also, he worked with Mosaic Entertainment on the reality television series Bears’ Lair as an associate producer, co-writer and director which airs on APTN in September 2022. His goal is to help make filmmaking and theatre more authentic, sustainable, diverse and welcoming.

Rayne Weinstein

Rayne Weinstein (she/her) is a Jewish writer, artist and musician. Rayne was born and raised in Hong Kong, and now resides in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish peoples. She has had short fiction published in Room Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine and The Warren Undergraduate Review, won FreeFall magazine’s 2022 fiction contest, and was shortlisted for Room Magazine’s 2021 fiction contest as well as for The Fiddlehead’s 2021 fiction contest. Her short plays Ripe and Cumulus have been staged for the Brave New Play Rites festival. In her fiction, plays and music, Rayne explores climate change, family, cultures of war, the fragility of time and memory, and tenuous relationships with religion and the divine.