Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) Sponsored PLEDGE Readings

Thanks to PlayConnect, which is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Playwrights Guild of Canada is pleased to sponsor a session of play readings, highlighting three individuals whose work is found in the PLEDGE database of large-cast plays by Canadian women. The playwrights featured include:

Carmen Aguirre is a Chilean-Canadian author, actor, and playwright, a Core Artist at Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre, and co-founder of The Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC) https://caltac.ca/. She wrote her first play, In a Land Called I Don't Remember, while still a student at Studio 58, where it premiered to critical acclaim. It was published by Talonbooks in 2019 in an anthology of her first three plays, entitled Chile Con Carne and Other Early Works. Since then, much of her writing has been autobiographical and unabashedly left wing, exploring themes of exile, loss, alienation, and isolation. Often the tone of her work is darkly comic.

Julia Lederer's plays and films have been produced and screened all over the world. Her work has been described as “brash, poetic, and fiercely original” (NOW Toronto), “laced with sophisticated poetry and wry insight” (The Los Angeles Times), and as, “ris[ing] to a rare level of universal truth, all while making us laugh. A lot” (NewCity Stage Chicago). Her most widely-produced play, WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN, was in the Theatre@ Boston Court's Polly Warfield Award-winning season, and also nominated for several awards, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle's "Best Production." Her film adaptation is greenlit to shoot in 2021. Most recently (pre-pandemic), Julia's collection of one-act plays, REALITY THEATRE, had its US premiere at Trapdoor Theatre in Chicago. Over the last year, Julia has written several narrative audio pieces that have been featured on podcasts in the U.K. and U.S., as well as through the Toronto Fringe and Convergence Theatre in Toronto. Her Better Help spot, "Distant Friends" (created with Rebecca Applebaum), about mental health during COVID, has received over ten million views. Julia's films have screened at major festivals, including the Toronto International Festival; Palm Springs International Film Festival; POFF Black Nights (Estonia); and the London Short Film Festival. SPOONING and IT’S NOTHING are currently streaming on CBC Gem. Julia is a storyteller with a love of language, who weaves intellect and imagination together with a sense of humour and whimsy.  www.julialederer.ca

Marcia Johnson has been a theatre artist in Toronto for over thirty years. Her latest play, Serving Elizabeth premiered in February 2020 at Western Canada Theatre followed by a run at Thousand Islands Playhouse in October. Other plays include Binti’s Journey, an adaptation of the teen fiction novel The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis (Theatre Direct Canada/Manitoba Theatre for Young People/Black Theatre Workshop); Courting Johanna (Blyth Festival) based on Alice Munro’s “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage,” and Late, an original piece produced by Obsidian Theatre Company.