Testimonials

The community, creative spirit and energy, and the level of feedback and mentoring provided by PARC form a vital resource for Atlantic Canadian playwrights. It’s the gem in the region’s crown of cultural organizations.

PARC is the only organization that east coast playwrights have to turn to for help with readings, promotion, dramaturgy and writing colonies. PARC is also the only organization in this region that is actively building a library of plays by east coast writers. The importance of PARC to the Maritimes’ cultural fabric cannot—and should not be—underestimated.

My time at the Playwrights Colony has been the highlight of my experiences as a PARC member. Having a full week devoted entirely to developing my play under the guidance of an experienced dramaturg was truly a gift - it gave me the time and space I craved to focus on my craft and develop my script in a supportive community.

This is the only organization in Atlantic Canada that assists playwrights in developing their work. Such assistance is invaluable and its merit cannot be overstressed.

There is nothing more life changing for a playwright than support. PARC has found efficient,effective and I think inexpensive programs to offer support across the board to both new and experienced playwrights from our region.

From offering support from the first stages of a play to production, the services that PARC provides to Atlantic Canadian Playwrights is invaluable.

I like to think of the work PARC does as an important, independent “research and development wing” of the Atlantic Canadian theatre scene. Independence means a “purity” in the process in that playwrights write about the things they are truly passionate about. And passion is the wellspring of all great art. PARC’s services are essential if we are to nurture our writers.

PARC has proven itself to be an effective medium for the education, promotion and development of playwrights and playwriting in Atlantic Canada. Since its founding in 1991, PARC has brought together playwrights and dramaturges with actors and directors to workshop some of the most exciting new plays that have come out of the region. PARC is vital to the health of our community.

Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre provides a service to playwrights, which theatre companies are unable to furnish, but companies are able to take the completed or nearly completed work and provide a production opportunity. Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre is an essential first stage in this process. Writers need the opportunity that PARC can provide.

PARC is an invaluable asset not only to the playwrights of the Atlantic region, but also to its actors and theatre companies. PARC is doing the developmental work that we cannot always afford to do, yet we get to reap the many benefits.

PARC stands firmly behind the playwrights of this region, helping them develop their work, gain confidence, hear their words aloud and test the realities of production. Best of all, PARC’s encouragement makes it possible for writers to stay here, at home, where regional theatres can best find their talents and put them to work on our stages!

In my opinion, PARC offers an invaluable service to Artistic Directors throughout the region, in providing a conduit through which the work of Atlantic Canadian playwrights, and particularly new Atlantic Canadian playwrights, can be made accessible to theatres in the region.

Each play development centre has its own personality and PARC is unique in its relationship to the entire region; PARC connects the playwrights of four provinces in a way that no theatre can or will.

I credit PARC with a continued effort to bridge the distance between creative minds in Atlantic Canada that often have no choice but to work in seclusion. PARC provides top notch dramaturgical support with top notch talent. The importance of early and effective dramaturgical support for the development of a distinct regional theatrical voice can not be declared loud enough. The work that PARC has done, and aims to do, is unquestionably essential to the growth of the Atlantic Canadian voice.

By its very existence, PARC showed me there was an information and support group for Atlantic Canadian playwrights. I have received critical evaluation of some of my early work from which I have learned a great deal. I find that PARC is a great source of encouragement.

PARC is essential. The organization provides essential services that support new work for the theatre. Writing for the theatre involves a complicated interface between playwright, director and audience. The work off the page has to engage that process long before the first production. PARC makes that possible for playwrights in the Atlantic Region. PARC is not a sit on its bum and gab kind of organization. PARC gets creative work done.