Playwrights

Colleen Murphy | The December Man (2021)

Colleen Murphy is a playwright, filmmaker, and librettist, born in 1954 in Rouyn-
Noranda, Quebec, and raised in Northern Ontario. She is a two-time Governor General's Literary Award Winner and Carol Bolt Award winner, and holds countless nominations for her works. She is also an award-winning filmmaker and her distinct films have played in festivals around the world. Colleen has been Writer-in-Residence at four theatres and six universities including the Lee Playwright-in-Residence at University of Alberta and Canadian Playwright in Residence at Finborough Theatre in London UK. In 2017, Colleen was awarded a Canada Council New Chapter Grant to write a six-hour play Geography of Fire / LaFurie et sa géographie. In 2019, she received the Playwright Guild of Canada’s Lifetime Membership Award for her body of work.

Mary Vingoe, a white woman with dark grey and brown hair, is smiling centre frame. She is backlit and wearing a colourful scarf.

Mary Vingoe | Refuge (2013), Some Blow Flutes (2018)

A director, Artistic Director, Festival Director, playwright, teacher, and actor who has worked across the country, Vingoe is celebrated for co-founding four major companies in Canada. She is the founding Artistic Director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival at Canada’s National Arts Centre in Ottawa, co-founder and past Artistic Director of Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre, co-founder and past co-Artistic Director of Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, and co-founder and past Artistic Director of Eastern Front Theatre in Halifax.

Vingoe has directed and taught at theatres and universities across the country including Canada's National Arts Centre, Tarragon Theatre, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The National Theatre School, and Neptune Theatre. She is also a noted Canadian playwright. Her 2013 play Refuge published by Scirocco Press, was a finalist for the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and was short listed for the 2016 Governor General's Award for Drama. Her new play Some Blow Flutes was nominated for Best New Play at the Merritt Awards in 2019. Some Blow Flutes is published by Scirocco Press.

Mary Vingoe is the recipient of many awards most notably Nova Scotia's Portia White Award for artistic excellence. In 2011, Vingoe was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to Canadian theatre.

Wendy Lill, a white woman with light blonde curly hair, stands centre frame. She is speaking into a microphone and behind her are leaves from a plant.

Wendy Lill | Messenger (2015)

Playwright and politician Wendy Lill has written extensively for radio, magazines, film, and television. Her work has resulted in two ACTRA awards, a Golden Sheaf award (for her film Ikwo), a Chalmers award, a Gemini award, a New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Award, and four nominations for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (The Occupation of Heather Rose, All Fall Down, The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, and Corker.) Chimera, her first play since leaving politics, premiered at the Tarragon Theatre. She created and was head writer for the award winning CBC Radio Series Backbencher.

Catherine Banks, a white woman with chin length light grey hair, smiles slightly centre frame. Behind her is the ocean at early dusk.

Catherine Banks | It Is Solved By Walking (2014)

Plays by Catherine Banks have been performed across Canada, Scotland, the United States, and Catalonia and include: Miss N' Me; In This Light; It Is Solved By Walking; Bone Cage; Three Storey, Ocean View; and Bitter Rose, which aired on Bravo! Canada. Her work has been described as poetic, darkly humorous, courageous, and beautifully theatrical. Bone Cage premiered in 2007, and went on to win the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2008. It Is Solved By Walking won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2012, was translated into Catalan by Tant per Tant, and was one of three Canadian plays to tour Catalonia in 2012. Catherine has adapted Ernest Buckler’s novel The Mountain and the Valley for the stage. Her play Downed Hearts is set to premiere in 2023. A film adaptation of Bone Cage directed by Taylor Olson was the receipt of four audience awards at the Atlantic International Film Festival, including Best Screenplay.

Colleen Wagner | Home (2010)

Colleen Wagner studied visual arts at OCA and literature at U of T and moves between the two art forms. Plays include: The Monument, published by Playwrights Canada Press, won a Governor General’s Literary award and continues to be produced around the world; The Morning Bird, produced in English and French and published by Scirocco Drama; down from heaven, published by Playwrights Canada Press and nominated for a MECCA award for best new play; Home, published by Scirocco Drama; Sand; and Eclipsed.

She is a recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council research/creation grant that took her to Africa. She has completed a documentary film Women Building Peace, about women in several post-conflict zones in Africa who are rebuilding peace and created an interactive website. She also writes poetry and short fiction. She co-founded and was co-artistic director of The NotaBle Acts Theatre Company in Fredericton, New Brunswick from 2002-2007. She teaches at York University and divides her time between a river-side farm in New Brunswick and downtown Toronto.