The Playwriting Roundtable

The Playwriting Roundtable is a 5-month long program where emerging playwrights work to develop new pieces of theatre with the support of emerging dramaturgs and facilitators. Each session, the roundtable focuses on creative and career building skills through a series of workshops led by different emerging artists in the Toronto theatre community, who we believe are the future leaders of our industry. The program concludes with a play-reading series where each artist has the opportunity to showcase their work.

This year, we have chosen to focus on plays featuring or focusing on bilingual or multilingual elements.

PROGRAM DETAILS:

Facilitated by: Mercedes Isaza Clunie and Zoe Marín

Roundtable Dramaturg: Jonnie Lombard

Timeline: January - June 2025 (dates dependent on cohort)

Helen Ho

Helen Ho (she/her) is a writer from and based in Toronto. She writes plays, like Bus Stop (Toronto Fringe 2024), Maggie Chun's First Love & Last Wedding (2023 TO Fringe New Play Contest Winner). She was a runner-up for Tarragon Theatre's 2024 Ellen Ross Stuart Award, and a playwright for Driftwood Theatre's 2022 Beyond the Bard program.

our 2025 cohort

Antong Xu

Antong Xu (he/him) is a settler, born and raised in Qinhuangdao, China, now based in Tkaronto. Sometimes he performs, sometimes he writes. He was part of Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit 2024 where he developed his play Table!. He will be developing a multilingual play at First Born Theatre’s Playwriting Roundtable, while also procrastinating on several other projects that may never be completed. Though he is still trying.

Laura Grigorakis

Laura (Dizzy) is a queer, Mad, Greek Canadian artist with an extensive plant collection. They are a playwright and poet, most recently having written for the collaborative show Hair Care by Reclamation Media Inc. Dizzy was the recipient of the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse scholarship for Theatre at the University of Toronto in 2024. Dizzy enjoys exploring themes of community, love, intimacy, rage, queerness, sexuality and disability through abstract visuals and mixed media. Dizzy is invested in building worlds that advocate for community care.

Ava Rain
Patterson

Ava Rain Patterson (She/They) is a Toronto-based actor, theatre maker, and playwright whose practice prioritizes accessibility, community, and authenticity. She is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies program from UofT and Sheridan. As a mixed, Queer, disabled artist, Ava values pieces that are not only honest, politically charged, and rooted in connection, but are also a little silly. Ava is so excited to be working with FBT!

Playwright

Assistant Dramaturg