Playwrights Guild of Canada is a registered national arts service association mandated to advance the creative rights and interests of professional Canadian playwrights, promote Canadian plays nationally and internationally, and foster an active, evolving community of writers for the stage. It was founded in 1972 as the Playwrights Co-op. The main purpose was to publish and distribute scripts to encourage more productions of Canadian plays. Since then, it has grown and now provides programs and services for playwrights across the country, and now includes more than 900 playwrights. PGC provides promotional and advocacy programs and services for the creative rights of Canadian playwrights. Through its independently run subsidiary, Playwrights Canada Press, which was established in 2002, PGC is a primary source for unpublished Canadian plays, as well as information regarding performance rights. To help support and advance Canadian playwriting, PGC offers the following services to its members:
Publication of CanScene, PGC's monthly newsletter, which includes calls for submissions, jobs and other opportunities;
Promotion of Canadian playwrights via print publications, the PGC website, social media networks, and other means;
Advertising, selling, and distributing published and unpublished plays;
Administering amateur production rights;
Facilitating the Canada Council Readings Program, which creates opportunities for organizations such as universities, libraries and community groups to invite Canadian playwrights to read in public venues by paying the playwright's reading fees and subsidizing their travel expenses;
Professional development workshops;
And overseeing member enrollment in the RRSP Investment Plan and the Writer's Coalition Insurance Program.
PGC also publishes CanRevue, an electronic catalogue of Canadian Copyscript plays, on a monthly timetable. CanRevue promotes new Canadian plays and is sometimes released as a special edition pertaining to genre or geographical region. In 2011, PGC added a section within CanRevue entitled "Stage Ready". This is intended to narrow the gap between a written work and a production, and allows members to send PGC plays that have not yet been produced, but are ready to be promoted for the stage. CanRevue is sent out to over two hundred theatres and to schools across Canada.
History
PGC had its origins in a meeting held in 1971 by the Canada Council's theatre officer, David Gardner, with Carol Bolt, Tom Hendry, and Len Peterson to discuss issues affecting English Canadian playwrights. Those present at the meeting determined that there was a need for a publishing house for Canadian plays. Following the meeting, Bolt, Hendry and Peterson established the Toronto Playwrights Circle to obtain funding for the project. This led to the founding of the Playwrights Co-op of Canada in the following year, for the purpose of publishing and distributing plays written by Canadian playwrights. In 1979, the Playwrights Co-op changed its name to Playwrights Canada, Inc. In 1977, the Guild of Canadian Playwrights formed to advocate on behalf of playwrights and to lobby for suitable working conditions for Canadian playwrights. In 1982, the Guild of Canadian Playwrights and Playwrights Canada, Inc. merged to form the Playwrights Union of Canada. In 2002, the organization changed its name to the Playwrights Guild of Canada. That same year, it established its publishing arm, the Playwrights Canada Press. The Playwrights Guild of Canada is a registered charitable organization. In 1986, PGC created the Canadian Drama Foundation as its charitable arm. Part of its funding comes from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Ministry of Culture, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. The Guild has a Women's Caucus, which awards the "Bra D'Or" for supporting the work of female playwrights. PGC celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012 with a series of special events, such as a week-long play reading series in May that included Maja Ardal, Drew Hayden Taylor, Hannah Moscovitch, Brad Fraser, and Marcia Johnson. In May 2017, PGC opened the Canadian Play Outlet at 401 Richmond Street West, a physical bookstore with a selection of over 2000 published and unpublished plays by Canadian playwrights.
Awards
PGC has an annual awards competition with several categories: Lifetime Membership, Honorary Membership, Post-Secondary Competition, the Bra D'Or Award, Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights, Stage West Pechet Family Comedy Award, and Stage West Pechet Family Musical Award. The awards were recently named the Tom Hendry Awards after Tom Hendry, a founding member of PGC who died in 2012. The awards carry generous cash prizes and winners are recognized in a ceremony occurring in the fall each year. Deadlines for the awards are April 30 and May 31. As in previous years, in the future the awards ceremony will continue to forge relationships with other arts organizations and corporate sponsors, celebrating excellence in Canadian playwriting.
