Playwriting Contest Winners Announced!
Image description: A beige background. Black text at the top reads: Playwriting Contest, a gold band of glitter is behind it. Below in black are the winning plays and playwrights. The SPARC logo is in the bottom left corner, the Canada, Ontario and OAC logos are beside it (in that order l to r) and an ink pot with a quill resting in it is in the bottom right corner.
💫 It's time to announce the winners of the 2026 SPARC Playwriting Contest!!!!
The top three pays, chosen by our Play Selection Committee, will be read at the 2026 Symposium, Unearthing SPARCs of Creativity!, on Saturday May 23, 2026 in Sudbury. Readings will occur from 4-5:30pm at The Sudbury Theatre Centre. 🎉🎉🎉
🥁🥁🥁 Drum roll please 🥁🥁🥁
A Gas Station Parable - Lisa Habermehl
Northern Mug- Colleen Simm
Roadside Distraction - Richard Lummiss
There were two other pays that we felt deserved an Honourable Mention each. They are:
Passings - CB Campbell
Funeral Sandwiches - Megan Raftis
💫 💫 💫 Congratulations to the Winners and our Honourable Mention writers. And a great big THANK YOU to all of the Playwrights who submitted a 10 minute piece to the contest. We had a lot of entries and you sure did make the committee's job very difficult with your fantastic work! 💫 💫 💫
To register for Symposium and attend the readings of these great plays, please follow this link: https://SPARCSymposium2026.eventbrite.ca
Image Description: A black and white photo of Lisa. She looks directly at the camera and smiles. Her long hair is loose around her shoulders.
Lisa Habermehl - A Gas Station Parable 💫
Lisa is a "long in the tooth" Northern & rural physician whose script writing often explores the intersection of medicine, dramatic arts and the human condition. She is a co-founding member of "So I Guess We're Doing This? Theatre Company" in Kenora, Ontario and is a firm believer that theatre can be a powerful connector for geographically isolated communities. She's grateful to her family, friends and colleagues for their ongoing support and encouragement of her artistic endeavours and as she strives to leave no interesting stone unturned.
Image Description: A black and white photo of Colleen. She smiles broadly into the camera. Her dark hair is swept to one side.
Colleen Simm - Northern Mug 💫
Colleen Simm has spent more than thirty-five years working in community and semi-professional theatre as both an actor and director. Noticing a smaller and narrower lane for older performers, she began writing plays that place underrepresented age groups at the centre of the story. Colleen was the winner of the 2025 Quinte Arts Festival Playwriting Competition and a finalist in the 2025 Canadian National Ten-Minute Play Festival. Much of her work explores older women breaking stereotypes with childlike abandon. For Colleen, isolation and remoteness are not only geographical; they also reflect the assumptions we make about age, gender, and culture.
Image Description: Richard stands in front of a brightly coloured background. He wears sunglasses and looks at the camera in profile.
Richard Lummiss - Roadside Distraction 💫
Richard joined the Belleville Theatre Guild in Belleville, Ontario in 2000 as a sound designer and sound operator. While working in those capacities for the Guild’s One Act Festivals, he was inspired to write his first play, “Terry’s TV Repair” in 2015. It was staged at the Guild in 2016. “Roadside Distraction” was written in 2016 and premiered the next year at the Old Church Theatre in Trenton, Ontario. Both plays focus on rural and small town Ontario and the people who live and work there. He is thrilled that “Roadside Distraction” was chosen for this year’s SPARC Symposium.
Image Description - CB is outside in nature. He wears sunglasses and looks down, smiling, at the camera.
CB Campbell - Passings 💫
CB (Charles) Campbell was born on the Gaspe coast of Quebec and migrated west to Thunder Bay, with a few stops along the way. Charles embraces the artistic process even though, as an accountant, creativity isn't always encouraged. He has had five 10 minute plays produced in Thunder Bays 10x10 Play Festival and is currently developing a full length play. He also writes poetry and fiction and also published a computer paper in the late 1990s. His visual art has been exhibited at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery. He is either a Renaissance man or has misdiagnosed ADD (maybe both).
Image Description: Megan smiles at the camera. Her glasses have rhinestones at the corners and her hair is down. She stands in front of a brick wall.
Megan Raftis - Funeral Sandwiches 💫
Megan Raftis is a long time member of the Grey Wellington Theatre Guild, currently serving as secretary and head of the wardrobe and script reading committees, and as one of the directors of the Summer Youth Theatre program. She has written 12 youth plays and one for adults which have been staged by the GWTG. When not at the theatre, Megan also sits on the Minto Cultural Roundtable and the Harriston Historical Society. She resides in Harriston, in the town of Minto, and spends time reading and playing slightly more games of Euchre than she actually wants to. Megan is looking forward to attending her fourth SPARC symposium this year!
