Playwrights Theatre Centre

Kathleen Flaherty

PTC honours Kathleen Flaherty, a beloved dramaturg, director, scholar, journalist, mentor, and colleague. Kathleen’s insightful and loving creative practice profoundly connected her to PTC artists, staff, board members, and community collaborators. The mark she made within the national theatre ecology lives on. Kathleen was a good and wise person who’s legacy we will try to live up to.

Following her groundbreaking work at CBC, including her memorable work as producer of The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, where she collaborated with Thomas King, based on his novel Green Grass, Running Water, Kathleen joined PTC as Dramaturg in 2012. She brought her expertise in radio to podcast projects such as the PodPlays conceived of by Adrienne Wong with Martin Kinch, and developed by PTC and Neworld Theatre, and Roots and Seeds, conceived of by Veronique West and Kathy Feng in collaboration with the Carnegie Seniors and DTES Neighbourhood House community members.

Kathleen’s rich expertise in documentary form led to deep creative engagement with Theatre Conspiracy and Tim Carlson’s Foreign Radical, including innovative research into game theory in live performance. Other collaborations with Carlson include Victim Impact, which captured an up-to-the-minute court case, and an accompanying audio project, The Fraudcast. She was the original dramaturg on Tai Amy Grauman’s You Used to Call Me Marie, José Teodoro’s Islands (winner of the Lee Playwriting Prize in 2024), Elaine Ávila’s Ballad of Ginger Goodwin, Kitimat and Fado: the Saddest Music in the World, and Veronique West’s Szepty/Whispers. She was dramaturg and development collaborator with Savage Society for Taran Kootenayoo’s White Noise, which will be published later this year. She also collaborated with Rosemary Georgeson, Renae Morriseau and Savannah Walling on Weaving Reconciliation: Our Way, including the tour to the En’owkin Centre. The play’s modular structure included ceremony and the input of local youth in each community. It is one example of Kathleen’s skill in melding urgent content with unique forms. Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy’s Salesman in China was developed through Kathleen’s dramaturgical collaboration including public-engaged research and a trip to Beijing. It received its world premiere at the Stratford Festival in 2024.

Kathleen was foundational in developing PTC’s WrightSpace and Associates programs. After completing her tenure as Dramaturg in 2020, she continued her experimental practice as an independent dramaturg and producer on Meghna Haldar’s Termite and supporting radio play work, writing the introduction for Rose Scollard’s Love and War Western Style (2025). Her work post-PTC also included audio projects and the completion of her case-study-based book on PTC, Reimagining Theatre, which is tentatively scheduled for publication in 2026.

Kathleen impacted the PTC community and the world at large with her political commitment. One of the “Sinister Seniors” arrested at the Trans Mountain Pipeline protests in 2018, she served a short time in prison for criminal contempt, and supported playwright Mairy Beam in creating the courtroom drama Irreparable Harm based on their court experiences.

The eldest of a large family, Kathleen’s warmth, reliability, and frankness extended her circle of friends and admirers nationally. Her fierce intelligence was tempered by huge compassion and her humility belies the impact she has had creatively in Canada for the past 40 years. Always ready with a book to give away and big hugs and kisses, Kathleen’s life is a testament to how to live passionately, ethically, and hopefully. PTC will carry on her legacy even as we mourn her loss.

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Kathleen Flaherty Obituary | Keeper Memorials