Playwrights Theatre Centre announces new shared leadership

Davey Samuel Calderon, Joanna Garfinkel, and Melanie Yeats to take over from Heidi Taylor

(Left to right) Melanie Yeats, Joanna Garfinkel, and Davey Samuel Calderon. Photo by Nathalie De Los Santos

FOUNDED IN 1970 as the New Play Centre and with a focus on dramaturgical practice, Playwrights Theatre Centre has just announced a new shared leadership model.

PTC will see Davey Samuel Calderon, Joanna Garfinkel, and Melanie Yeats together take over from outgoing artistic and executive director Heidi Taylor for collectively held decision-making, “deeper artistic development with company collaborators, and more meaningful connections to diverse communities”, according to a release.

Contributing to the design of the new leadership model were consultant Jeanne LeSage and Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance executive director Kenji Maeda.

Calderon first joined PTC as a volunteer and became an intern in 2016. He continued on to be a frequent collaborator with the organization in various capacities and in 2020 took on the role of dramaturg, public engagement. Calderon has worked with Neworld Theatre, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Alley Theatre, and Paul Wong Projects, among other organizations.

Beginning in 2010, Garfinkel served as a frequent dramaturgical contractor for PTC, shepherding the Fringe New Play Prize from 2017 to 2020. Joining the PTC staff as dramaturg, creative engagement in 2021, Garfinkel reinvigorated the curriculum for PTC’s dramaturgy training initiative, Block D, which is welcoming its second cohort this year. Specializing in new play development as well as site-responsive and multidisciplinary work, Garfinkel cofounded Universal Limited with Yoshie Bancroft, and their collectively created work has been seen across Canada. Other recent accomplishments include leading the dramaturgy of the National Queer and Trans Playwriting Unit.

Yeats started out at PTC as operations manager in 2016, becoming creative managing director in 2020. She has since worked to refine how the organization approaches governance, human resources, and strategic planning.

Taylor has initiated a fundraising campaign to support the incoming cohort of associates: Undaunted Creation.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

With Ionesco’s Cabaret, Rumble Theatre brings the Theatre of the Absurd into the modern age

The show, produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre, finds contemporary resonances in Eugène Ionesco’s 20th-century works

Theatre review: Gleefully chaotic Goblins dismantle Oedipus at Bard on the Beach

Wug, Kravga, and Moog deliver a take on Sophocles’ Greek tragedy that, in addition to copious amounts of crude humour, has its share of chillingly effective moments

Theatre review: A Streetcar Named Desire unsettles with mix of charm, fragility, and violence

Ensemble Theatre Company taps into the humid haze of a Tennessee Williams classic where love and self-deception mingle

Theatre review: The Little Mermaid dives into glittering storybook setting at Theatre Under the Stars

Standout performances and design bring infectious energy to Disney’s tale of love and self-discovery

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach’s adaptation of Antigone opens new paths through timeless tragedy

Bold update by Kate Besworth brings mythic figures closer to us while continuing to ask the ancient questions posed by Sophocles

Theatre review: Theatre Under the Stars’ Sister Act soars on joyous sounds and heartfelt story

Fierce company transforms characters by committing to the popular musical’s blend of disco, soul, and gospel

Anita Majumdar’s Why We Work Out is an exercise in understanding, at Indian Summer Festival

Presented by the fest and Boca del Lupo, the multifaceted one-woman show carries long-standing reflections on workout culture and the life-altering effects of a pandemic

Local theatre artists’ project King Arthur’s Night culminates in a buoyant new film that blurs documentary and fantasy

Now streaming on Knowledge.ca, John Bolton–helmed movie stars Niall McNeil, Marcus Youssef, Veda Hille, Nathan Kay, and more, in a mix of artists with and without Down syndrome

Dark, funny, and a little weird, The Apiary brings offbeat buzz to summer theatre scene

With live music and innovative touches, a collective of established Vancouver stage artists brings eco-horror play about disappearing bees to life at the Vines Den

Ensemble Theatre Company’s Peerless riffs on Shakespeare and affirmative action

Part of Ensemble’s summer festival, Jiehae Park’s play references Macbeth as it takes on the power dynamics of U.S. college admissions

Theatre review: Arts Club production of The Play That Goes Wrong goes hilariously right

Great performances and impeccable set design and stage management ensure that the comedy about a hapless theatre company is a chaotic mess in all the right ways

Antigone gives ancient Greek play a modern feel at Bard on the Beach, to September 18

In playwright Kate Besworth and director Ming Hudson’s adaptation, contemporary language highlights the continuing relevance of Sophocles’ 5th century BC tragedy

Theatre review: Horror resonates in Bard on the Beach’s dystopian Macbeth

Bold and bloody new take on “the Scottish Play” speaks effectively to an era of intense societal fears, with postapocalyptic atmosphere to burn

Kat Reynolds channels her inner disco diva for Theatre Under the Stars’ Sister Act

The Vancouver performer straps on the platform shoes and readies her powerhouse voice for musical based on the movies she grew up watching

Ionesco's Cabaret mixes absurdist theatre with a playful art party, July 23 to 25

Homage to Eugène Ionesco is presented by Rumble Theatre and produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach's spirited, soccer-mad take on The Merry Wives of Windsor builds a wonderfully no-frills sense of place

In a shamelessly fun update, the comedy’s colourful schemers, lovers, and busybodies are regulars at a Vancouver community centre during World Cup fever

Bard on the Beach stages a riotous Goblin:Oedipus in the Douglas Campbell Theatre, launching July 5

WUG, KRAGVA, and MOOG return to the Shakespeare festival for a hysterical take on the titular Greek tale

Josh Epstein’s job is to ensure everything goes right in The Play That Goes Wrong

The Arts Club director says the smash-hit U.K. show is one of the most technically demanding comedies ever written

Theatre review: Sophie's Surprise 29th throws the season’s wildest party, mixing offbeat laughs and high-calibre acrobatics

At The Cultch’s York Theatre, wonderfully weird characterizations meet gravity-defying feats in a raucously unpretentious banger that has “hit” written all over it