Holiday Office Closure

Playwrights Canada Press will be closed for the holidays starting Monday, December 22, 2014 and will reopen on Monday, January 5, 2015.

Any orders placed via our website during this time will be shipped when the office reopens.

Please contact University of Toronto Press Distribution for large orders in Canada, or if you require a quicker service. US customers can contact Theatre Communications Group to place any orders.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season!

The Fondue-do!

On Monday, December 15 from 11am-7pm we're opening our office to you! Come by and browse our books for some great deals, and enjoy some treats while you do. (There will be chocolate fondue!)

Where: 269 Richmond St W., Suite 202 (west of John St.)

Jordan Tannahill wins the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama!

A warm congratulations to Jordan Tannahill who won the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays!

Check out the full list of winners here.

INSPIRE! Toronto International Book Fair, Nov 13 - 16

Playwrights Canada Press will be at INSPIRE! Toronto International Book Fair from Thursday, November 13 to Sunday, November 16. We'll have a wide variety of plays available for purchase; find us at our booth and stock up on books! 

And if you're checking out author events, don't miss Yvette Nolan! She will be reading from The Unplugging at the Spark Stage on Friday, November 14 at 3pm, and will be part of the panel discussion, Indigenous Theatre and Drama, with Daniel David Moses at the First Nations, Métis & Inuit Literary Circle on Sunday, November 16 at 2pm. Click here for the full programming schedule.

We hope to see you there!

Colleen Murphy in Edmonton, November 10

Meet Colleen Murphy, the Governor General's Literary Award-winning author, in Edmonton on November 10 when she reads from her latest work, Armstrong's War (co-published with the Banff Centre Press), the touching story of an unlikely friendship between a young Pathfinder and a Canadian soldier.

Where: Audreys Books, 10702 Jasper Ave. NW
When: Monday, November 10 at 7pm

2014 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre

A warm congratulations to Olivier Choiniere who won the 2014 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, which acknowledges a leader in theatre whose work is transformative and influential. The Prize also supports emerging talent with a protege prize awarded to a theatre professional chosen by the winner. This year the protege prize was given to Annick Lefebvre. Congratulations to Olivier and Annick!

Keith Barker in Thunder Bay, October 22

Catch Keith Barker for a reading from The Hours That Remain, the haunting story of a missing woman, in Thunder Bay on Wednesday, October 22 at 7pm.

Where: Thunder Bay Public Library, at the Brodie location in the Fireside Reading Room (216 Brodie St. South)

And be sure to catch the production on stage at Magnus Theatre, opening on Thursday, October 23.

2014 GG Shortlist Announced

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the shortlist for the 2014 Governor General's Literary Awards. Among the shortlist in the drama category are Rick Chafe for The Secret Mask, Janet Munsil for That Elusive Spark, and Jordan Tannahill for Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays.

For a limited time we have all three plays available in one bundle for only $30. Read them all before the winner is announced on November 18!

Arun Lakra at Wordfest 2014

Arun Lakra, the inimitable playwright behind the wildly successful Sequence is at Wordfest 2014!

Catch him at the following events:

Writers Book Club, a panel discussion on how writers approach the works they read and write, on Tuesday, October 14.

This Really Happened: My Big Mistake, a live storytelling event, on Saturday, October 18.

Thirtybash at Hotel Ocho, November 3

It's Playwrights Canada Press's 30th birthday! Join us at Hotel Ocho (second floor) on Monday, November 3 for a toast! We're kicking off the party at 6pm with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, followed by readings at 7pm. 

Hosted by Jon Kaplan and Susan G. Cole of NOW Magazine, the evening will include readings by David S. Craig (Tough Case), Sky Gilbert (St. Francis of Millbrook), Judith Thompson (White Biting Dog and Other Plays), Kristen Thomson (Someone Else), and David Yee (carried away on the crest of a wave).

Come for a drink, or stay for the whole evening, but don't bring a gift. We're 30 now. 

Whole Lotta Love from the METAs

Erin Shields's If We Were Birds and Rahul Varma's Bhopal were among the nominees for the METAs. Hooray!

Click here for a full list of nominees.

ThirtyBash, Nov 3 in Toronto

We turned thirty this year, and we're celebrating on Monday, November 3 at Ocho Hotel in Toronto! Join us in toasting 30 years of drama!

Hosted by Jon Kaplan and Susan G. Cole of NOW Magazine, the evening will feature readings from our authors (lineup to be announced soon) and a chance to win prizes.

We'll get the party started at 6pm, followed by readings at 7pm. Bring your friends; it's free!

Word on the Street 2014

Playwrights Canada Press will be at Word on the Street on Sunday, September 21 from 10-6pm. Visit us at booth 180, between the New Narratives Tent and the Great Books Marquee. There will be loads of books on sale, and fun buttons aplenty!

We hope to see you there!

Call for submissions: 10-minute plays for upcoming anthology

Playwrights Canada Press invites submissions of English-language 10-minute plays to be included in a new anthology for publication in 2016. Translations from other languages into English are also welcome. Previous production of the work is not a prerequisite.

Send submissions to: 10minutes@playwrightscanada.com and please include the following:

• The playwright's name, full mailing address, phone number, and email address.
• If the play has been previously published, please provide contact information for the publisher or person who holds publication rights.
• Please include the name of the playwright and the title of the play as the subject line of the email.
• The script(s) to be considered. A maximum of 3 scripts per playwright will be accepted.
• Only electronic submissions in the form of a Word document or PDF will be accepted.
• This call is only open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

The deadline to submit is February 27, 2015.

Key Dates

• Call for scripts: August 2014
• Submissions deadline: February 27, 2015
• Selections of scriptsL July 2015

Only playwrights chosen to be included in the publication will be contacted. No phone calls please.

Please send all inquiries to 10minutes@playwrightscanada.com

Summer Book Sale

Have you read the Trillium Book Award winner This Is War by Hannah Moscovitch yet? Or the multiple award-winning play, Sequence by Arun Lakra? We have these and many other great reads all available on our website. Now you can take 20% off your purchase when you shop online until August 11!

Shipping is only $2.99 to anywhere in Canada. Use promo code SUMMERSALE14 at checkout.

Win Books!

We're nosing around to find out what you're reading this summer. Please humour us. Instagram a photo of your favourite reading spot, featuring your summer book(s). It's pretty simple. But we do have one rule: the books should be Canadian-authored plays. 

What do you get out of it? The chance to win our entire list of single plays being published this fall.

How does it work? To win our fall books, follow playcanpress on Instagram, take a photo of your favourite reading spot (including your summer books), and tag us in it with the hashtag #summerdrama. Contest closes Aug 1 so get your photos in before then.

(Contest open to Canadian residents only.) 

TheatreBooks Says Farewell

Our dear friends and owners of TheatreBooks, John Harvey and Leonard McHardy, announce that TheatreBooks is closing its doors after nearly 40 years. They have been instrumental in guiding students and the theatre-loving community to discover great books, and their knowledge and wisdom will be missed. Join us in wishing them well in their future endeavours.

Click here for the full press release.

Hannah Moscovitch wins the Trillium Book Award

Hannah Moscovitch took home the Trillium Book Award for This Is War (co-published with the Banff Centre Press) at the OMDC's Trillium dinner on June 17 making her the first playwright to ever win the Trillium Book Award in its 27-year history. 

Click here for a full list of 2014 winners.

End-of-Spring Book Launch, June 23

Let's get dramatic at our end-of-spring book launch! Help us kick off the first day of summer with readings from this exceptionally talented group of playwrights:

nisha ahuja, Cycle of a Sari from Refractions: Solo
David Yee, carried away on the crest of a wave from Refractions: Solo
Arun Lakra, Sequence 
John Lazarus, The Grandkid
Jordi Mand, Between the Sheets
Nathalie Claude and Moynan King, The Salon Automaton from Once More, With Feeling

Where: No One Writes to the Colonel, 460 College Street
When: Monday, June 23, 2014
Doors at 6:30PM, readings at 7PM

Free admission, cash bar.

Special Reading of This Is War by Hannah Moscovitch, June 4

Hannah Moscovitch's This Is War has been shortlisted for the 2014 Trillium Book Award! Catch Hannah reading from her play at TheatreBooks on Wednesday, June 4 at 6pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Arun Lakra Interview with Open Book

When Arun Lakra wrote his first play, Sequence, it was an instant hit with critics and won multiple awards from the Calgary Theatre Critics Award for Best New Script to the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play, among others. Now Arun sits down with Open Book to discuss the concept of luck and the impact of the Fibonacci sequence on his play.

This Is War finalist for 2014 Trillium Book Award

We are pleased to announce that Hannah Moscovitch's This Is War is a finalist for the 2014 Trillium Book Award!

The Ontario Media Development Corp (OMDC) is hosting a special event on June 16 where the finalists will read from their nominated works. The event is open to the public and will be held in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library at 6:30pm. Winners will be announced on June 17.

World Theatre Day 2014

"Dinosaurs did not know the theatre. That is why they were destroyed from the surface of the Earth. Dinosaurs did not have the means to explain or understand the changes of the planet. They did not invent games and could not laugh. Moreover, they did not recognize the differences between them and generally refused to cooperate with others. Perhaps they dreamed? But they did not have the means to share their dreams. They lived alone and sad, and that is why they could not survive as a species. It was the Jurassic period...before the theatre." -Mélanie Léger, translated by Chantal Bilodeau

It's World Theatre Day! Let's celebrate the imagination that comes alive on the stage and on the page.

Check out Canada's full message from Mélanie Léger.

We're also extending a 20% discount on ALL of our titles today when you shop online. Just enter promo code WTD2014 at checkout.

Happy World Theatre Day!

New Year, New Books

It's time to get excited about our upcoming books because in the next few months we'll be releasing new work from Daniel MacIvor, John Lazarus, Janet Munsil, and some fresh and talented playwrights.
If you haven't checked out our newest catalogue, download it here and put some new drama in your to-read pile!

Or sign up for monthly newsletter and we'll let you know about our recent releases, our upcoming books, and send you exclusive deals for our online store.