The Playwrights Unit focuses on the process of developing a script for the stage, and building a career as a playwright. Playwrights bring us a project they are passionate about, whether it is a clearly outlined idea for a play, a full-length draft ready to be workshopped, or anything in between. Participants will learn about: character development, scene structure, creating honest dialogue and sustaining tension in writing, along with administrative skills — including grant writing, crafting playwright resumes, and how to pitch your project to a theatre. Celebrate the explorations, discoveries and risk-taking of this year’s Playwrights Unit during this work-in-process sharing. 30 minute excerpts from three bold new works in development will be read. Don’t miss it!
This program is presented with support from Playwrights Canada Press
Merlin Simard
Merlin Simard (she/elle) is a performer, playwright, dramaturge, and screenwriter originally from Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal), now based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). As a performer, Merlin has worked with Factory Theatre, Crow’s, Outside The March, Buddies In Bad Times, Talk is Free, Toronto Dance Theatre, Studio 180 Théâtre Français de Toronto, and many other theatre companies across Canada. She has also acted on Grand Army (Netflix) and This Life (CBC), as well as in the short film Poils Anyways (Fittonia Inc.), which she also wrote. Merlin is currently the associate dramaturge at Theatre Passe Muraille and is developing several projects spanning across theatre, TV, and VR in both English and French. Her practice focuses on themes of access, gender euphoria, technology, and multilingual performance. @hussy4hussy | merlinsimard.com
Hey!
Thank you so much for being here. It means a lot.
The world sure seems like it’s a hard place to exist in these days. I feel it. You probably feel it, too. It makes it tough to write, sometimes. To bear witness to ongoing collapse, and to hold remembrance over the ruins of what’s already fallen.
Gwen, Melissa, and Suleekha’s plays are responding to the fucked up times we’re in by embracing our apocalypses with arms wide open. Whether it’s in a box office, a Barbie townhouse, or a home under the threat of eviction, these three playwrights are grappling with what it means to keep going within the destruction. To continue to find reasons to love and dream and fight for a better, fairer present, even in the face of an increasingly uncertain future.
I have been really lucky to facilitate a unit with all three of these playwrights. They are smart, awake, kind, funny, and also amazing at writing! I am soooooooo proud of what they have accomplished. I believe in them with my whole heart. They make want to fuck shit up!!!! They make me hopeful for our future.
— Merlin Simard, 2026 Playwrights Unit
