The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency will bring together seven playwrights living in Canada over a twelve-day period, from October 16 to 27, 2025.
Created by Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM) and the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD), this Residency is held in partnership with Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Creative Gros Morne, the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station and with the vital support of the Cole Foundation.
Les candidats souhaitant postuler à la résidence d’auteurs dramatiques Gros Morne en français doivent se rendre sur le site web du CEAD et faire la demande auprès d’eux.
Application deadline: April 27, 2025
All applicants will receive a response by June 23, 2025.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility, require assistance with this application, or would like to discuss alternative methods of applying, please contact accessibility@playwrights.ca.
About the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency
The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency is a dual-lingual residency that welcomes writers from across Canada to Gros Morne, Newfoundland and Labrador. This unique dual-lingual residency takes place at the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station in Norris Point, located in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador.
English language playwrights should apply through PWM and French language playwrights through the CEAD. Applications will be considered from across the country; three English and three French applications will be selected. A seventh spot is reserved for a playwright from Newfoundland and Labrador working in English.
The residency will be led by Fatma Sarah Elkashef, Artistic Director of PWM, Aki Matsushita, dramaturg at PWM, Sasha Dion, dramaturg at CEAD, and Robert Chafe, Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud. The residency is an opportunity for solo writing, punctuated with moments of exchange and reading work in progress as a group. The host dramaturgs are available to read your work and engage in one-on-one conversations centred around your process and questions.
The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency provides playwrights with transportation, accommodation at Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station (private bedroom and bathroom), meals, an honorarium of $800.00, and dramaturgical support.
Read testimonials from the 2024 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency participants.
PWM welcomes all applications. While recognizing that the identity of each person is fundamentally plural, and multidimensional, we strongly encourage applications from artists who are: Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), Black, POC, racialized (including recent immigrants), 2SLGBTQQIPAA+, neurodivergent, disabled, living with chronic illness and/or chronic pain. PWM is strongly committed to supporting a wide range of cultural identities and lived experiences, therefore we encourage applicants to self-identify in their application if they are comfortable doing so.
Eligibility
- Be a Canadian citizen or hold permanent residency status in Canada;
- Be a playwright, writing in English, and have had at least one dramatic work workshopped, published, or professionally produced;
- The play should ideally be in the early stages of development (first draft or slightly beyond);
- Be available for the whole residency;
- Be willing to participate in group activities prepared during the residency;
- For playwrights writing in French, please visit the CEAD website. Please note that the CEAD only accepts applications from their members.
How to Apply
You can apply for the 2025 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency via our Google form, by April 27, 2025. Audio and video answers to some of the questions in the form are also welcomed.
In the form, you’ll be asked to provide the following information:
- Your name, pronouns (optional), age (optional), and contact information;
- Geographical location you will be departing from to get to Gros Morne;
- Geographical location you will be returning to;
- A statement of your interest in the residency and how it will benefit your process (written, video or audio);
- A description of the play in progress (written, video or audio);
- An excerpt of the play in progress (10 – 12 pages);
- A CV (2 pages maximum) and a bio;
- A copy of your last published, workshopped or produced play. (Please note, it must be a play other than the one you are applying to the residency with.)
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Selection will be made by a committee set up by PWM and CEAD. All applicants will receive a response by June 23, 2025.
If you have any questions regarding the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency, please contact heather@playwrights.ca.
Preview the application form as a PDF.
Schedule for the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency
October 16, 2025
Travel via plane and taxi to Norris Point, Newfoundland and Labrador (anyone departing West of Ontario will have to add a day of travel).
PWM organizes the travel for the artists, from their point of departure to the residency, and back again.
October 17 – 26, 2025
- Unstructured writing time at Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station;
- Individual sessions with residency dramaturgs as determined in collaboration with the playwright;
- Daily sixty-minute group meetings to read and discuss the process;
- 2 presentations by local artists;
- Shared catered dinner every evening;
- A public reading of excerpts from the plays in progress with the local community.
October 27, 2025
Departure for home.
Places to create during the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency
Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station
Since 2002, the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station, located on the magnificent west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, has had the primary mission of expanding knowledge in marine ecology. In addition, the station also engages in community and artistic activities. Nestled in the small coastal community of Norris Point and with breathtaking views, it is equipped with laboratories, offices, a library, a multimedia theatre, an aquarium, and an attached building with individual bedrooms.
The residence is wheelchair accessible. However, the library and theatre space at the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station, which is often used by the playwrights, requires the participant in a wheelchair to leave the residence, travel across the parking lot, into the main lobby entrance to access the library/theatre space.
Gros Morne National Park
Soaring fjords and moody mountains tower above a diverse panorama of beaches and bogs, forests and barren cliffs. Shaped by colliding continents and grinding glaciers, the ancient landscape of Gros Morne national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
