We had the great pleasure of hosting award winning playwright & dramaturge Santiago Guzmán as our over the winter of 2024/25. Originally from Metepec, México, now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Santiago holds a BFA in Theatre from Memorial University. Santiago’s play Urn was produced by TODOS Productions and toured to Dartmouth, NS, at Eastern Front Theatre’s STAGES Festival in 2022. Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award at the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards, and was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022. Santiago was the inaugural recipient of the John Palmer Award 2022 through the Playwrights Guild of Canada for being a change-maker in the theatre industry for advocacy in the arts in the areas of equity, diversity, and anti-racism.
During the residency Santiago continued to develop his play Long-Distance-Short (working title). On March 26, 2025 a local audience was treated to a participatory work-in-progress reading with Santiago, Diego Guerrero (ANDRÉS), Juanita Peters (ARI), Raeesa Lalani (FLORA), Diego Cavedon Dias (FKBOI69) and James MacLean (SEBASTIAN), with dramaturgy by Pamela Halstead.
The work continues to evolve and we look forward to hosting future incarnations.
