Thiessen.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-1216">Along with the rest of us, playwright Vern Thiessen has been a lot of baking bread lately.

Vern Thiessen published an open letter to the nation’s professional theatre associations last week, encouraging them to seriously consider what they could be doing during the Great Pause, including reassessing their collective agreements and lobbying for changes to the Status of the Artist legislation. We cover his letter, the meaning of these agreements for working artists in Canada, and what post-pandemic theatre could look like for the foreseeable future (likely, it’s “G” houses). The Governor General Award-winning playwright also offers some advice on letter-writing—which we should all be doing more.

Links discussed in this episode:• Vern Thiessen’s publications at Playwright’s Guild of Canada• EPL’s Writer in Residence Susie Moloney• manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=ff7fa35d16&e=d1a1d3dc6f">Tracks, the final show of Fringe’s Off Season series, running May 19-24• The Georgia Straight manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=dd59da52fa&e=d1a1d3dc6f">profile on Canada Council CEO Simon Brault • The Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA, is busily manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=5476ca993e&e=d1a1d3dc6f">planning a summer season of live theatre with substantially reduced seats, no intermissions, audience face masks, and one-person shows. 

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