National Playwrights Retreat 2026

May 15-24, 2026 Call for Applications

Caravan Farm Theatre is the Canadian Theatre Artist’s country home. Now in its fifth edition, the National Playwrights Retreat has provided a space for over 45 playwrights to retreat from the day-to-day in a beautiful natural environment, to focus on moving a project forward, to connect and build fellowship with playwrights from across Canada and to access dramaturgical support during their process. The experience has been described as “an invaluable resource,” “naturally transformative” and “a lot of fun” by alumni. 

What is provided:

• A room of one’s own.  Each participant will get a cabin to live in during the retreat week.  There are washroom and shower facilities on the Farm and the Cookshack is a great meeting place with wi-fi.
• Food to fuel the imagination. A cook will create delicious and healthy lunches and dinners for us. The Okanagan is a wonderful place for food! Basic fixings will be available for breakfast and there will always be coffee ready.
• Time and space for you to write and create. In addition to the cabins we will find places on the Farm for you to work with views and fresh air.
• Dramaturgical support, if requested, from dramaturg Vicki Stroich. Vicki has over 25 years experience as a dramaturg working with various styles of project and process. She can read and respond to your work or lend an ear to listen. She can also help you stay accountable to your goals for the retreat or just give you a pat on the back when you need it.
• Daily gatherings with formal and informal exchanges and discussions about the work and what is inspiring/challenging us.
• A couple of optional excursions off the Farm during the week to explore the area.

What is required of the playwright:

• Playwrights must be available to attend the National Playwrights Retreat from May 15-24, 2026. 
• As many of you will know, performing arts organizations across the country are experiencing lower revenue from ticket sales and fundraising. As an outdoor theatre in a rural environment our experience of these challenges is compounded with the impacts of climate change and extreme weather, causing cancellations and creating uncertainty in our audiences around attending events. We also have less access to municipal and private funding than many of our urban colleagues. The convergence of all these factors in the past three years has left us with significant financial challenges along with some big questions about how we support programming like the National Playwrights Retreat.

We are proud of the ongoing legacy of the National Playwrights Retreat and wish to see that legacy continue even as we navigate through this period of financial strain. In order to keep the programming moving forward, this year we will be introducing a sliding fee scale model informed by the actual costs of running the program including food, lodging and staff support. 

There will be three fee levels that playwrights can choose based on their financial circumstances. 

Accessible – $425 ($42.50/day)

True Cost – $850 ($85.00/day)

Pay it Forward – $1250 ($125.00/day)

Pay it Forward fees help to ensure that we can continue to provide accessible options to other artists.

• Travel to the Farm or Kelowna airport would be the participant’s responsibility.
• Playwrights are responsible for any materials needed to create the project (i.e. computers, portable music instruments, etc.)
• Participants will be asked to acknowledge the involvement of the Caravan Farm Theatre National Playwrights Retreat in the development of their project in subsequent production materials and published plays.

Who should apply:

Playwrights and theatre creators who have had at least one professional production who are looking for time and space to focus on conceiving and/or writing an upcoming project.

If you would like to submit an application for this year’s program, please limit it to three pages in length including:

• Your bio (approx. 250 words)
• A description of your project and what its development history and trajectory is.  A project that is still in its idea form is perfectly acceptable. We just want to know where you plan to be with your project as of the retreat.
• Please answer the following questions:
  • Why do you want to come to this retreat at the Caravan Farm Theatre?
  • How would this retreat help you progress the development of your project?
  • An indication of which fee level would be most appropriate for you. Please note that your answer to this question will be confidential.

Application deadline: February 20, 2026 

Email: Please email applications to: [email protected]

Applications will be reviewed by Environmental & Education Programs Manager Vicki Stroich, and Artistic Director Estelle Shook.

Applicants will be informed of the results of their application by February 27, 2026.

Caravan Farm Theatre is able to issue Letters of Invitation to participants to aid in artist funding applications.

There are 12 available spaces in the 2026 National Playwrights Retreat.

For more information please visit our website.  The Caravan Farm Theatre Society acknowledges that this organization and holdings held in non-profit public trust by the Society are sited on the unceded, traditional territories of the Secwépemc Nation and the Syilx Okanagan Nation.

Elena (or Eli) Belyea is a queer and trans playwright, performer, producer, arts educator, and Artistic Director of Tiny Bear Jaws. They were born and raised in amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton, Treaty 6 territory) and have had works produced across Turtle Island and internationally (including Hungary, Austria, Berlin, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, and Quebec City). They’ve been programmed at theatres nationally, including Factory and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), One Yellow Rabbit (Calgary), UpintheAir Theatre (Vancouver), the Centaur Theatre (Montreal) to name a few. Elena was the recipient of the 2023 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical for their performance in Verb Theatre’s WE’RE GONNA DIE. Their company, Tiny Bear Jaws’ production of their play “Smoke” won the 2023 Sterling Award for Outstanding Independent Production. In 2024, Elena was a member of Spindle Films inaugural Trans and Non-Binary Filmmaking Intensive. More at elenabelyea.com (or @elenabelyea on Instagram).

Geoffrey Simon Brown is an award-winning Albertan playwright, actor, director, and theatre creator. He is a founding member of the Major Matt Mason Collective where he has produced small-scale independent theatre since 2010. He currently serves as co-artistic director and has been involved in every one of their productions as both an artist and producer. Productions of his plays have been staged across the country, including productions at Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Tarragon Theatre, Pyretic Productions, Common Ground Arts Society, The Globe (Regina), and the National Theatre School of Canada. His plays include Static, Michael Mysterious, Night, Progress, Still Still Still, Control, Air, Destroy, If I Could Tell You Everything (written alongside the Theatre Junction high school mentorship ensemble), The Circle (which was published by Scirocco Drama in 2017), and the most recent adaptation of A Christmas Carol for Theatre Calgary. More at geoffreysimonbrown.com.

Davey Samuel Calderon, Vancouver, BC (he/they/siya) is a playwright, performer, writer, producer, drag artist, dramaturg, and settler on the ancestral, traditional and stolen lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. He was the Co-Founder of New(to)Town Collective, a theatre collective centered on continuous performance practice, exploration, and creating experimental devised works (2014 – 2024). His work has been on stages (Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! [Vancouver Fringe 2018, Evergreen Cultural Centre 2022] & BQFKN! ONLINE [rEvolver Festival 2023]), film (RUN! part of the shorts program of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2018), and other mediums (contributor to Canadian Theatre Review, Drag! Vol. 185, Winter 2021). Currently, he is Playwrights Theatre Centre’s Artistic Producer and Dramaturg and a member of Playwrights Canadian Press’ Editorial Committee. Work in development is as lead artist for Deep Fried: A Pinoy Musical!, which centers Filipinx-Canadians, racialized service workers, and community members representative of beloved neighbourhoods such as Little Manila (aka Joyce-Collingwood).

Bronwyn Carradine is a queer playwright and theatre creator. At 16, she left the small farming town she was raised in and found herself moving across North America, living in cars and backyard sheds, and taking artistic opportunities as they came. She currently has plays in development with Arts Club Theatre Company and Zee Zee Theatre Company. She’s a graduate of Studio 58 and was an inaugural member of the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Emerging Playwright’s Unit.

Shyanne Duquette is a mixed-Cree emerging multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Amiskwacî (Edmonton). A writer, director, actor, and arts facilitator, Shyanne is passionate about community-engaged processes and breaking down barriers to entry in the arts. Their work often explores themes of community, identity, and the things that set people’s teeth on edge. They have collaborated with theatre companies across Turtle Island, including Concrete Theatre, Alberta Playwrights Network, The Major Matt Mason Collective, Common Ground Arts, Tarragon Theatre, and The Citadel. As an independent artist, they have contributed to festivals such as SkirtsAfire, Edmonton Fringe, Folk Fest, Nextfest, Ignite, and Edmonton Poetry Festival, working in roles ranging from performance to administration.

Bassem has been in Canada for 17 years. Throughout that time, he pursued his artistic and non-profit passion by founding the Calgary Egyptian Association, obtaining diplomas in nonprofit management and community investment, then sitting on boards of many organizations, such as ANTYX Community Arts and Calgary Outlink. Currently he chairs the board of the Calgary Justice Film Festival and until recently the Arab Canadian Theatre, Kawalease ACT. His first play was produced in 2023, and he obtained the Rozsa Foundation’s Arts Management Diploma. Right after he became the artist and mentor in residence of the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation, and became the Executive Director of the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society. His current project is writing his upcoming musical, which he looks forward to the National Canadian Playwrights Retreat as an opportunity to develop its dramaturgical lines. Bassem is currently a finalist for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award.

Kennedy Huckerby (she/her) is a Métis educator, performer, and writer living in Winnipeg, MB (Treaty 1 Territory). Kennedy is a graduate from the University of Winnipeg (2022) obtaining her Bachelor of Education degree while simultaneously completing her B.A. in Theatre and Film. She is the Associate Artistic Director of Meraki Theatre; Winnipeg’s only student-driven theatre company. Alongside Meraki Theatre, Kennedy pursues her passion for mental health advocacy as she believes in the strong connection theatre has to mental health. Kennedy has founded B12 Theatre Productions: a Winnipeg theatre company that is dedicated to creating art through mental health awareness. Kennedy has recently completed Creative Manitoba’s Professional Mentorship program in playwriting and wrote her new play Best Friends Forever premiering at this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival (2025). Kennedy’s recent credits include the Manitoba School Tour of Déjà Vu (Meraki Theatre) and A is for Anxiety Apples (B12 Theatre Productions).

For the past decade, Erum Khan has cultivated a vast multidisciplinary practice, moving primarily between the intersections of live performance and filmmaking. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto where she studied Sociology, Cinema Studies, and Professional Writing & Communication. Recently Erum was the Artistic Associate at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, a recipient of the Urjo Kareda Research grant, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Queer Emerging Artist Award, and a selected artist for the inaugural edition of the Loughborough Lake Writer’s Retreat with Crow’s Theatre and Mongrel Media. Her short films have premiered at The Toronto Queer Film Festival, Breakthroughs Festival, The Toronto Independent Film Festival and The Rendezvous with Madness Festival. She was a playwright with Nightwood Theatre’s Write From The Hip program, a co-facilitator of the TD Emerging Creators Unit at Paprika, as well as leading the Emerging Creators Unit & Emerging Artist Producers Series at Buddies In Bad Times.

Lum’s play Geomancer was video streamed in May 2021 with David Hsieh directing. Cantopop musical Cat Country was read at Bellevue College Theater Arts in June 2023. Poems and short fiction published in Canadian Literature, Wascana Review, Canadian Anthology of Short Fiction Volume II, Into the Fire: Asian American Prose, Asian Week, Asian American Journal, and more. My day job is being a professor at a college in Washington state where I have mounted events such as the American Indian Film Festival and Social Justice for Black Lives.

Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Mi’kma’ki, who works across performance, installation, playwriting, animation, comics, drawing, and illustration. The artistic producer of The Villains Theatre, they have created many plays and performance works, including an outdoor singalong astronomy class and exploration of grief (A Beginner’s Guide to the Night Sky), a proto-sci-fi novel from the 1600s transformed into a contemporary tale about climate anxiety (The Blazing World), and a postal service that guides audience members to send postcards to strangers (TO: THE UNKNOWN). Colleen’s work has been nominated for multiple awards, and they are the winner of the Halifax Mayor’s Award for Emerging Theatre Artist. An experimenter and a maker, a collaborator and a ponderer, Colleen uses humour, chance, and curiosity in an attempt to wrangle with queer futures, the polycrisis, and our search for connection in a vast universe.

Jasper Mallette (he/they) is a transmasculine playwright and theatre maker who currently resides and creates within the traditional territories of the WSÁNEĆ, Lekwungen, and Songhees colonially known as Victoria, BC. They recently got their BFA in Writing from the University of Victoria. His previous playwriting credits include Straw produced by UVic’s SATCo in 2022, and Tadpole produced by We’re All Friends Theatre Company in 2023 for Between Word’s Victoria One Act Play Festival. He is currently in the process of developing his play Expiry Date with Pithy Productions. He often writes work revolving around queerness with a particular focus on transmasculine identity, an affinity for comedy, horror, and romance, and has recently been inspired to indulge in so-called “Canadian” queer history with the hope of educating and entertaining the masses. They also believe that silliness is vastly underrated.

Kamila Sediego (she/her/siya) is a daughter of immigrants, sister, auntie, partner, playwright, and dramaturg grateful to live on the stolen territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her ancestral roots stretch across the Pacific, and are embedded in the lands of Iloilo, Cebu, and Manila, Philippines. Most notably, Kamila was a Playwrights Theatre Centre Associate (2021-2024), and is a current Resident Dramaturg and co-lead of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre’s Creation Lab. Her play “Homecoming” (Urban Ink) premiered at The Cultch and The Evergreen Arts Centre in 2024, and will be published by Playwrights Canada Press later this year. In early 2025, she was awarded the inaugural Joyce Lam Award. With the care and support of many, she is developing a new play, “Engkanto.”

I am a playwright, actor, director, theatre producer and have worked with theatre companies across Canada. As artistic producer of Wishbone Theatre Productions, incorporated in 2002, I am dedicated to creating and producing new plays and musical events. Since 2008, Wishbone has been rurally based, making theatre for communities in the Robson Valley and B.C.’s northern interior. I also work as a freelance writer, writing essays, articles and reviews as well as documentaries and plays for CBC Radio. My short fiction has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies. Since 1997 I also teach theatre and music through Artists-In-Education Programs.

Deborah is a playwright and dramaturg who specializes in new musical theatre, comedy, and TV. Most recently, she completed the Scripted Series Lab at the Pacific Screenwriting Program. Prior to that, she spent the last few years in the wilderness developing a musical about wilderness therapy. Her play “Big Sister” was nominated for Outstanding Original Script at the Jessies and her musical “Carry On” won Vancouver Pick of the Fringe. Additional past writing credits include Sylvia’s Hotel (Kol Halev Performance Society), Finding Face Time (Touchstone Theatre), and Little Sausage (The Other Palace). As a dramaturg, Deborah co-founded Chalk Musical Theatre Dramaturgy and has worked on over 50 musicals. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from UBC and Masters of Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths, University of London. When she’s not writing, she’s succumbing to the Vancouver pressures of gravel cycling and plunging in unreasonably cold water.

Vicki is a dramaturg, nonprofit leader and community builder with over 25 years of experience. Designing and hosting creative spaces and fostering collaboration are Vicki’s great passions. In recent years she has been exploring connections between the environment and arts and culture through network building, facilitation and supporting artistic projects that engage with the climate crisis including piloting the role of Climate Dramaturg for the National Arts Centre English Theatre’s Irresistible Neighbourhoods project.  Prior to joining Caravan Farm Theatre full time, Vicki was based in Calgary and worked for Alberta Ecotrust and Alberta Theatre Projects. She has worked with a range of artists and organizations as a dramaturg and facilitator. She has a BFA Drama from University of Calgary and an Extension Certificate in Social Innovation and Changemaking from Mount Royal University. She is a Board Member for the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Vicki has received a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Achievement for her work on new Canadian plays.

2025 NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT PARTICIPANTS

Elena (Eli) Belyea

Geoffrey Simon Brown

Davey Calderon

Bronwyn Carradine

Shyanne Duquette

Bassem Hafez

Erum Khan

Leslie Lum

Colleen MacIssac

Jasper Mallette

Kamila Sediego

Sharon Stearns

Deborah Vogt

2024 NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT PARTICIPANTS

Carly Anna Billings
Louise Casemor

Neil Fleming
Meghan Gardiner
Kijo Gatama
Kevin Kerr
Cole Lewis
Clem Martini
Luke Reece
Michele Riml
Makambe Simamba
Diana Tso

2023 NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT PARTICIPANTS

Peter Anderson
Melody Anderson
Elaine Avila
Pedro Chamale
Mishelle Cuttler
Bevin Dooley
Meghan Gardiner
Shelagh Haney
Michael Kras
Shawn Macdonald
Camille Pavlenko
Sharon Stearns
José Teodoro

2019 NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT PARTICIPANTS

Peter Anderson
Melody Anderson
Meg Braem
Ellen Close
Itai Erdal
Patti Flather
Elinor Holt
Linz Kenyon
Leonard Linklater
Britt MacLeod
John Millard
Yvette Nolan
Christine Quintana
Sally Stubbs
Vicki Stroich
Jenna Turk

2018 NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT PARTICIPANTS