PLAYWRITING ROUNDTABLE

SUPPORTING NEW PLAYWRIGHTS CREATING NEW WORK

First Born Theatre’s 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.

Zoe Marín and Mercedes Isaza Clunie facilitate this program yearly. This year’s focus was plays with bilingual or multilingual elements. Jonnie Lombard is the resident dramaturg for the cohort.

This program has been supported by Native Earth Performing Arts and TouchwoodPR.

THE 2025 Cohort

Helen Ho - Playwright

Laura “Dizzy” Grigorakis - Playwright

Ava Rain Patterson - Assistant Dramaturg

Antong Xu - Playwright

THE PLAYS

Mallo is a monkey, a girl, a Chinese-Canadian storyteller dressed as a monkey-- and she is telling us two different Journey to the Wests: the fantastical Chinese folktale about the monkey king, and the story of her family’s arrival in Canada. Dressed for the tale, Mallo takes us along the westward journeys of monkey king Sun Wukong and her dad; crossing different lands, times, and climates. This play is about oral storytelling in different languages, immigration, the legacies we leave, and the stories we tell. How much of yourself do you have to give to tell a good story? How much does the truth matter if the story is good?
Traveling through the River of Time, 牛头马面, Cow Head and Horse Face are here to do their job: to bring the souls of three deceased Chinese immigrant back to where they are meant to be. The comrade, the painter and the martyr, none of them are ready. So yeah, where are they meant to be? We’ll see...
牛头马面在时光之河中浮出水面，向你招手。别怕，他们不是来找你的。
他们此行的任务，是引领三位华人移民的灵魂返回他们该去的地方。
什么是“该去的地方”？你知道吗？
其实我也不知道。
咋整，你说。
唉。
Serpent, goat or lion? Chimera, follows Greek immigrant Areti (a.k.a Artie) in a confrontation of Madness, sexual trauma, and identity in the midst of their first queer breakup. Three 'fruits' that make up the facets of Artie's mind help resurrect she-god Chimera in attempts to bring Artie solace, but will it work? Chimera pulls us through memories of Greece and Toronto queerfully, poetically, and brutally. This new work is as wild as life is painful, and asks all the tough questions. How can we accept inevitable death? How do we forgive the unforgivable? and How can we move through life when we don't fit in anywhere?