Posted by Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) and Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD)
Breaking News! CEAD and PGC Release SureFire 2025
Press Release for Immediate Distribution
The Centre des auteurs dramatiques and the Women’s Caucus of the Playwrights Guild of Canada Proudly Present the Release of SureFire 2025
National, January 23, 2025 – The Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) and the Women’s Caucus of the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) are happy to announce the release of SureFire 2025, a special Francophone edition of this community-generated resource.
SureFire is modeled after the American Kilroys, who publish annual lists of un- or under-produced plays by women, trans, and nonbinary creators, and it complements like-minded Canadian actions, such as PLEDGE and The 49 List. The under-representation of women playwrights on our nation’s stages is a well-documented fact; a problem magnified further for Indigenous women, women of colour, trans, and non-binary artists. This initiative is a response designed to help increase the profile of under-represented playwrights, encourage greater parity, and provide artistic directors, producers, and others with a ‘surefire’ means of finding exciting, original plays for production. This time around, PGC and CEAD reached out to theatre experts all across Canada and asked them to send in their top three “passion picks” or favourite works by women, two-spirit, trans, or non-binary playwrights in Canada written in French, in French and English, or translated from French into English.
As Alexandre Cadieux, Head of Text Promotion at CEAD, explains: “The under-representation of women, non-binary, trans, and two-spirit theatre creators and artists concerns all linguistic communities in the country. Moreover, texts that manage to find their way to the stage for a premiere rarely enjoy subsequent productions, which is difficult to understand in a country as large as Canada, and SureFire can help with that. When PGC asked CEAD to collaborate on an entirely French-language edition, we enthusiastically agreed to join this unique initiative.”
For the 2025 rendition, 217 play choices were received from 107 Recommenders (47 in English and 60 in French). The results were tabulated to see which works received multiple nominations, and the final result is SureFire 2025. It contains 26 play titles written by 29 (co-) creators, and each title links out to its own website page with more detailed information.
Please share SureFire far and wide and pick up one of these fantastic Canadian plays today!
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Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) was founded in 1965 as a centre for the support, promotion, and dissemination of French-language plays in Quebec and Canada. It occupies a unique place in the theatrical landscape for the number of its members and its objectives of research and excellence.
Playwrights Guild of Canada is a registered charitable national arts service association mandated to advance the creative rights and interests of professional Canadian playwrights; promote Canadian plays nationally and internationally; and foster an active, evolving community of writers for the stage.
Media Contacts:
In French: Alexandre Cadieux, CEAD; Email: centre.de.doc@cead.qc.ca; Phone: #514-288-3384
In English: Rebecca Burton, PGC; Email: rebecca@playwrightsguild.ca; Phone: #416-703-0201
Interviews available upon request
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Le communiqué de presse français est ICI.