January 24th & 25th, 2026
The Emering Playwrights Reading Series
A Toronto based Theatre series for Early Career playwrights to develop their work with established theatre creatives
2026 Season
The Plays
Swallow the Fire by Anahita Dehbonehie
Facing a Widowed Father by Alten Wilmot
Girls Trip, Bwitches! by Kian Diab
| Anahita Debhonehie // Swallow The Fire | Anahita Dehbonehie is an Iranian artist currently based in Toronto. Her practice extends across design, direction and playwriting. She is committed to work that questions positions of power and creates space for contemporary conversation. Her work in performance has been featured across Canada and internationally. Design work on both stage and screen has been recognized with multiple nominations and wins including Dora Awards, Toronto Theatre Critics awards, an Ontario Stage award and a Sterling Haynes Award among others. As a playwright she is a former participant of Write From the Hip with Nightwood, The Gillespie House retreat with Driftwood Theatre and the Urjo Kareda residency at Tarragon Theatre, where her first play will premiere in the coming season. She is a resident artist with Outside the March. | A bomb is about to go off but it's unclear whether it will change the world or merely feed the algorithm. As the clock ticks toward detonation, the play unspools in real time: a confrontation between generations, between reform and revolution, and between public performance and private conviction. Swallow the Fire asks what happens when activism becomes theatre, when maternal love becomes collateral, and when the end of the world is less terrifying than the end of our illusions. |
| Alten Wilmot // Facing a Widowed Father | Alten Wilmot is an award-winning playwright, performer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto and the Waterloo Region. They create bold, witty work fueled by Queer, Caribbean, and MAD experiences. Founder of Unwrap Theatre, Alten has led over 25 premiere productions and collaborated with institutions across the country. Their work blends humour and heartbreak, drawing from diasporic forms, interdisciplinary practice, and comedy. Alten champions untold stories by unheard voices for underserved communities through raw emotion, joy, and truth. @altenwilmot | When Alliston, a high-achieving graduate student, discovers that the $35,000 from his mother’s life insurance - meant to cover his tuition - has gone missing, he spirals into crisis. As he enters desperation, he is forced to confront his estranged father, Daniel, and the unresolved grief that has fractured their relationship. Set against the backdrop of university life, the play explores the tension between personal ambition and familial obligation, particularly within a Caribbean immigrant household. Through humour, heartbreak, and moments of deep vulnerability, Facing a Widowed Father examines how grief shapes the way we love, forgive, and move forward. |
| Kian Diab // Girls Trip, Bwitches! | Kian is a Mississauga raised, Lebanese-Canadian artist. He is actively finishing his final year in his second degree in the Brock University international double degree business program at Neoma Business School in France. He has previously worked with the culture division in Mississauga as a drama specialist, and worked with GTA community theatres like Theatre Unlimited and writing for Globe Productions. He has also spent 3 years directing, producing and managing Brock Musical Theatre, directing shows like Little Women and Carrie. He is passionate about all kinds of stories and art from DC superheroes to Edward Albee plays. He is most drawn to absurdist theatre and musical productions. After working in DEI and getting to travel around Europe during school, Kian has become more driven to help strengthen and continue to represent the beauty and diversity of Canadian theatre. | When a long awaited Muskoka trip finally makes it out of the group chat, best friends Sabrina Deliah, Felicia and Messica (plus one unwanted boyfriend) are ready for an unforgettable weekend getaway until they are shaken by cheating accusations within the group. A confrontational text with an unfortunate typo sends the night spiraling into a full-blown witch hunt, filled with confessions, confrontations, and a brewing cauldron of delusion. Will the girls and their friendships survive the night? Girls Trip, Bwitches! is a wacky, campy comedy about a being brought together through chaos. |
2026 Season
The Jury
We are pleased to introduce our jury for our 2026 season of The Emerging Playwrights Reading Series.郝邦宇 Steven Hao
郝邦宇 Steven Hao is an award winning director, actor, and writer currently based in Tkaronto. Born and raised in China, Steven is very open about how his upbringing and cultural influences have often impacted how he tells stories and leads his processes. His work can be found across many stages in Ontario, primarily with a focus on new Canadian works. Most recently, Steven appeared in the world premiere of Salesman in China at the Stratford Festival, and he’s grateful for the continued opportunity to support new play development everywhere he goesMollie Garrett
Mollie Garrett is a playwright and dramaturge based in Toronto. As an artist Garrett is interested in text-based creation processes and the inclusion of disability dramaturgy in the creative process. She is curious about how audience engagement is considered during the creation process and believes that joy and humor can be our most radical tools for change. In 2018 she completed an MA in playwriting and dramaturgy at RADA. Her playwritting has been supported across Ontario by the TAC, OAC, Theatre Gargantua, Tottering Biped Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Green Light Arts, and Tarragon Theatre. She had been produced within the larger anthology works of Urban ARTeries (Theatre Gargantua) and Play This: Hamilton (Tottering Biped Theatre). While living in London she started two new-work festivals under the banner, The Search for Blue Theatre and assisted in the curation and facilitation of dozens of emerging playwright's creation processes as Festival Dramaturge. She has facilitated new play, production and adaptation dramaturgy processes on numerous projects, supporting artists and creative processes at Theatre Gargantua, Landor Space, CentrE17, Theatre Royal Haymarket and Camden People's Theatre. Since moving home to Toronto Garrett has received mentorship through Tarragon Theatre's Generating Pages and Playwriting and Dramaturgy courses, Nightwood Theatre's Creatryx 3.0, and the Playwright Resiliency Mentorship Program with the Playwrights Guild of Canada. She has sat on the OAC Recommender Grant juries for Theatre Gargantua, Factory Theatre and Tarragon Theatre. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (Canada), as well as Shifting Ground Theatre as the Treasurer.Aurora McClennanLiza Hersh
About Us
The Emerging Playwrights Reading Series is a project co-created and produced by Liza Hersh and Aurora McClennan, following conversations in the Toronto Fringe Festival’s TENT program.
The Series was created by and for emerging artists as a response to feedback surrounding the challenges associated with transitioning into professional spaces. The series intends to provide selected playwrights with both development support for new plays and greater exposure to Toronto’s theatre community.
“Something Old” by Keara Voo - EPRS 2024. Photo by Liza Hersh.
Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding the Series - submissions, participating, attending, or others, please don’t hesitate to email us at the link below.
“Camp Halo” by Rebecca Ostroff - EPRS 2024. Photo by Liza Hersh.L-R: Anne Van Leeuwen, Cass van Wyck