Patricia Darbasie

Workshop West is pleased to announce patricia darbasie as a WWPT Playwright in Residence.

Pat’s been a part of the Edmonton theatre community for a long time. A graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting and she is a two time Sterling award winner. Upon completion of her MFA in Directing, Pat studied Voice and Speech at York University where she developed an integrated voice and movement technique. In 2001 Pat started writing plays; Carnival Magic, a play based on West Indian culture toured Edmonton area schools with Concrete Theatre. Pat’s play Ribbon, about black settlers in Amber Valley, is a one-woman show she wrote and performed for her MFA thesis in Directing at the University of Alberta. And West Indian Diary was a community based collaboration, produced by Ground Zero Productions in 2011.

artist statement

Pat is very excited to be working with the team at Workshop West! Over the years Pat has the privilege of being an actor in many workshops of new plays at WW. And her first Sterling was in a new work by Blake Brooker called the Barbarians.

Pat will be working on another black historical piece set in Edmonton in the 1920s. It’s a very interested time in our history and like right now - the city was in a place of rebuilding and restructuring after the first World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic. Who knew that the struggles we are currently in could bring insight to a time 100 years ago?