Recommender Grants

Past recipients

Rebecca Auerbach – Discount Dave and The Fix

When a rockstar crashes a backstage party at a Shakespeare Festival, a thrill-seeking young actor is set on a path of self-reckoning. A provocative blend of truth and fiction, Discount Dave and The Fix is a suspenseful, hilarious, and harrowing examination of our obsession with celebrity, how addiction can bury our wounds, and what it takes to heal.
“This past spring, I was able to work closely with my brilliant director/dramaturge, Aviva Armour-Ostroff, to complete a draft of my new solo piece. And just in time for a staged reading at Theatre Aquarius as part of their Brave New Works Festival. It was exhilarating to finally share it with an audience and it would not have been possible without the support of the Ontario Arts Council’s RGTC program and Studio 180. I hope to share it with the Studio 180 audiences soon!”

Curtis Campbell – Blake & Clay’s Gay Agenda

Blake & Clay unveil the official Gay Agenda! The Dora-Nominated duo (Outstanding New Play, 2022) return with an essential seminar that will finally take the guesswork out of the 2SLGBTQIA+ experience and unite our community once and for all. Because if we queers can agree on one thing, it’s that we can’t agree on anything.
“This RGTC gave me the time to research and plan the building blocks of the script, and allowed me to prioritize the process over the product in a way that was totally new for me as a playwright.”

Sadie Epstein-Fine – Other Daughter(s)

Other Daughter(s) is a queer re-imagining of Sholem Aleichem’s stories, Tevye the Dairyman, the stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof. What happens to Tevye and his family after they immigrate to America? What about the revolution, so briefly mentioned in Fiddler? What about the Fiddler? Other Daughter(s) follows Bielke, Tevye’s youngest daughter as she comes into herself: her sexualilty, her politics and her music. Can Tevye accept his daughter for what she is: a queer, revolutionary, cabaret performer? Can they make a new life as immigrant Jews in Montreal? What about Shprintze, the second youngest, who they left on the other side of the ocean?
“The RGTC grant has given me some time to focus on developing Other Daughter(s) while I figure out how to parent my own, 4-month-old daughter.”

Carolyn Fe – The Scream

The Scream is a cringe-worthy awakening of white fragility at an age when parents should not have to question the life they’ve lived. The Scream tells a story of the tormenting pain of admitting to a life lived blindly. A Baby Boomer couple raised their children with the 1950s values they grew up in; blissful aproned stay-at-home Mom raised the kids while model-provider Dad brought home the bacon, kept a roof over everyone’s head, food on the table, clothes on their backs with a side dish of private schools and expensive extra-curricular activities. Good parents raising good kids make good people. Life was perfect and in order until the son brings home the love of his life, an older Filipina. Welcome to the decline of their family’s construct.
“The RGTC support received from Studio 180 went beyond the financial assistance. It validated me, gave me the confidence that as a later-in-(st)age artist, the stories I tell matter; that I matter.”

Stephanie Fung – As a former fat kid

No one wants anything to do with Egghead. Not even Egghead. Food may be an unspoken form of love, but Egghead bears witness to what happens when that dynamic is twisted. And fucked up for all parties. As a former fat kid reflects the dissonance and dysmorphia of being caught between two cultures, and how we start to get unstuck. A performance art-style play in prose, this piece explores what it’s like to be unconventionally ugly and beautiful at the same.
“Through the RGTC, Studio 180’s support has been vital in continuing the development of this piece from its creation in Nightwood Theatre’s Write From The Hip program. This opportunity has allowed me to collaborate with a dramaturg as I work toward a completed draft, while developing the skills in mixed-media production design for future presentation.”

Graham Isador – TRUCK

TRUCK is about a retirement speech for the last truck driver in America after all vehicles become self-driving. It’s a play about technology, work, and the near future. 
“The RGTC afforded me the time to finish a draft of the script and allowed for a reading of the show to happen at The Summerworks Festival.”

Michael O’Brien – DRIVEN

A science-fiction suspense experience set in Canada in the year 2045. A woman is trapped inside a driverless car with a sentient AI mind of its own. As the world outside seems to be unravelling on all fronts, the car continues on a highway towards an undisclosed location. Will the conclusion be a deliverance to freedom, a plunge into horror, or something else? Only the sentient car knows.
“This project was very graciously supported by Studio 180 with a recommendation for an RGTC grant early this year. As a result, a very strong first draft has been created, and I am now in dialogue with potential producers for further development. Again, I thank you all at Studio 180!”

Keshia Palm – The Amazing Chase Canada

Two generations of Filipina women navigate colonialism and capitalism in a high-stakes, satirical reality tv game show with all the odds stacked against them. The Amazing Chase Canada uses the structure and format of binge-worthy reality tv game shows to expose fabricated realities, the insidious rewriting of Canada’s history, and hidden truths we keep from our families and ourselves. The play asks brown, immigrant women: What does it take to win? What are you willing to lose?
“Studio 180 supported a 4 hour dramaturgical workshop with a full cast of professional actors, dramaturg, and creative team, as well as a 4 hour design jam with the creative team to develop and discuss technical approaches, design concepts and production scope as we prepare for an upcoming technical workshop in winter 2023!”

Zorana Sadiq – Really Great Cook

Excerpt: “A kitchen is not a vending machine. Can we all agree to that?
Don’t get me wrong, I too am hypnotized by the prospect of inky satisfaction: watching the apples, tuna sandwiches, and pudding cups slowly rotating in the glass case, like contestants at a pageant.
I’ll share a little secret with you though: Exactly what you want, is not always exactly what you want.  
Trust me, I would know.“
“My RGTC grant from Studio 180 made a focused writing session last spring possible. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to complete that vital first step in revealing the spine of my new play.  Thank YOU!”

Andrea Scott – Truthfully, Jackie

He exists in a myth-like bubble: JACKIE ROBINSON. I want to pop that bubble. I’m not American, but what I bring to Truthfully, Jackie, about the first Black man to break the colour line in America, is that I’m not a white male fan. I’m a Black woman who can bring authenticity to his story in the face of racism, while looking at the mythology around a hero who was also just a man.
“The support of the Recommender Grant allowed me to spend less time worrying about how my bills were going to get paid. Instead it bought me the peace of mind I needed in order to get a first draft completed ahead of schedule.”