Santiago Guzmán (he/him/they) is an award-winning writer, performer, director and producer for theatre and film originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Santiago is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions, an organization that seeks to promote, produce, and support work of under-represented artists in Newfoundland and Labrador. They are also the Artistic Associate for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre in Halifax, NS.
He is a proud member of The Quilted Collective, whose first anthology, Us, Now, has been published by Breakwater Books in 2021.
His work is very brown, very queer, and very real.
Santiago is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions, an organization that seeks to promote, produce, and support work of under-represented artists in Newfoundland and Labrador. They are also the Artistic Associate for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre in Halifax, NS.
He is a proud member of The Quilted Collective, whose first anthology, Us, Now, has been published by Breakwater Books in 2021.
His work is very brown, very queer, and very real.
Core Values
His work as an artist is rooted in community:
He cares to foster, celebrate, and advance community.
Often, he pursues ways of ‘opening’ his creative processes to community, striving to work with these core values of his in mind.
His hope is that anyone observing one of his creative process can take away something new or be provoked/inspired to try applying something into their own craft.
This is a very small step he takes as a creator to deconstruct/disrupt/decolonize his art practice and share it with community.
He cares to foster, celebrate, and advance community.
Often, he pursues ways of ‘opening’ his creative processes to community, striving to work with these core values of his in mind.
His hope is that anyone observing one of his creative process can take away something new or be provoked/inspired to try applying something into their own craft.
This is a very small step he takes as a creator to deconstruct/disrupt/decolonize his art practice and share it with community.
Santiago defines “community” as a group of like-minded people that he feels he shares something in common. He identifies as a queer, brown, immigrant artist, and he feels a deep connection to those, like him, who have been historically oppressed/silenced.
Awards/Recognitions
2022
- Playwrights Guild of Canada Inaugural's 2022 John Palmer Award.
- NL 2022 Arts & Letters Award Winner (Senior Dramatic Script) for Urn.
- Short-listed for the NLCU 2022 Fresh Fish Award for Urn.
- “Best Short Film” at The Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival in Halifax, NS for Express Checkout
- Runner-up for the Highland Arts Theatre’s Rita Joe Canadian Playwriting Award 2021 for his play La Tlanchana (Working Title).
- Due to his work with TODOS Productions, he was listed in 2019 as an innovator in Atlantic Business Magazine's edition of "30 under 30: Newfoundland and Labrador".
Acting Credits
Selected acting credits include Urn (TODOS Productions), ALTAR (RCAT), Hunger and The Tales of Dwipa (White Rooster Theatre), The Other Side of This & I Forgive You (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Theatre New Brunswick), No Man’s Land and The New Found Lande Trinity Pageant (Rising Tide Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare by the Sea Festival), Private Eyes (Power Productions) and The Power of One (Perchance Theatre). Upcoming: ALTAR & S.T.O.P. (Theatre New Brunswick).
As a screen actor, Santiago has worked with film companies and festivals like Blue Pinion Films (We Are Here, Te Quiero), Pope Productions (Hudson and Rex, Season 3), NIFCO (Spin) and CNA Digital Filmmaking (The Impossible Dream, Because We Were). Santiago is an ACTRA Member.
As a screen actor, Santiago has worked with film companies and festivals like Blue Pinion Films (We Are Here, Te Quiero), Pope Productions (Hudson and Rex, Season 3), NIFCO (Spin) and CNA Digital Filmmaking (The Impossible Dream, Because We Were). Santiago is an ACTRA Member.
Writing Credits
-THEATRE-
Santiago's plays have been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals across the country, like TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship's Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC).
His play ALTAR was produced by the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company in 2021 and toured across high schools in Newfoundland and Labrador as a digital offering, as well as national presentations at Prismatic Arts Festival, (NS) and Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS Festival (ON). ALTAR will receive a second production by Theatre New Brunswick in the winter of 2023 and tour their province alongside the world premiere of his new TYA play, S.T.O.P.
Writing Residencies & Creative Units
2022
-TV / FILM-
-(NON) FICTION-
-DRAMATURGY-
As a dramaturge, Santiago has focused on supporting equity-seeking, emerging writers to tell their stories, as there is a need in the Atlantic-Canadian community to see these stories on stage. Through his theatre company, TODOS Productions, he has supported several pieces in development alongside Robert Chafe in the 2020 and 2021 TODOS’ Writing Unit. They were the dramaturge for the Fundy Fringe Festival in NB in 2020. They have been working with Halifax Theatre for Young People (NS) since 2021 as a dramaturge on Newcomers: Stories from Immigrant and Refugee Children, a project about immigrants in Atlantic Canada. Santiago has participated as lead and assistant dramaturge at PARC’s 2021 & 2022 Playwrights Retreat (NB/NS), and have offered dramaturgical support through PARC’s Home Delivery program. Santiago has dramaturged plays for the Plain Site Festival (NB), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), and co-dramaturged CAHOOTS Theatre’s HOT HOUSE CROSSING (ON) with Natércia Napoleão in 2022.
Santiago's plays have been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals across the country, like TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship's Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC).
His play ALTAR was produced by the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company in 2021 and toured across high schools in Newfoundland and Labrador as a digital offering, as well as national presentations at Prismatic Arts Festival, (NS) and Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS Festival (ON). ALTAR will receive a second production by Theatre New Brunswick in the winter of 2023 and tour their province alongside the world premiere of his new TYA play, S.T.O.P.
Writing Residencies & Creative Units
2022
- bCurrent's Thought Residency.
- Poverty Cove Theatre's Playwrights Unit
- lemontree Creations' Digital Residency.
- Neighbourhood Dance Works' Virtual Festival Residency.
- Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre's 2022 Playwright's Retreat.
- Ship's Company Theatre's Masstown Market Shipwright Residency.
- Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre's 2021 -online- Playwright's Retreat.
- Neighbourhood Dance Works' Virtual Festival Residency.
- Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre's 2020 -online- Playwright's Retreat
- Eastern Front Theatre and Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre's RBC Emerging Playwrights Program (NS)
- 2019 Paprika Festival (ON)
- Eastern Front Theatre and Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre's RBC Emerging Playwrights Program (NS)
-TV / FILM-
- Making NewfoundLanded: a documentary film on the making of TODOS Productions' NewfoundLanded, a verbatim theatre play about immigrants and refugees to NL (2022/2023).
- We Are Here: A documentary investigation TV show for Bell 1 Fibe about immigrants in St. John's, NL. (September 2021)
- Te Quiero: Short Film screened at the Nickel Independent Film Festival (2019), St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (2019), Sound Smith Film Festival (2019), Corner Brook’s Rotary Arts Centre (2019), NIFCO and ArtsNL’s Art in the Time of COVID (2020), through the AAMP - Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl (2020), and the newly created Open Film Festival (2021).
- Express Checkout: Short Film premiered at the Nickel Independent Film Festival (2021), screening at the Sound Smith Film Festival (September 2021).
-(NON) FICTION-
- Santiago's short story Vanity is included in the recently published int The Quilted Collective’s Anthology “Us, Now” by Breakwater Books LTD.
- He occasionally writes articles for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.
-DRAMATURGY-
As a dramaturge, Santiago has focused on supporting equity-seeking, emerging writers to tell their stories, as there is a need in the Atlantic-Canadian community to see these stories on stage. Through his theatre company, TODOS Productions, he has supported several pieces in development alongside Robert Chafe in the 2020 and 2021 TODOS’ Writing Unit. They were the dramaturge for the Fundy Fringe Festival in NB in 2020. They have been working with Halifax Theatre for Young People (NS) since 2021 as a dramaturge on Newcomers: Stories from Immigrant and Refugee Children, a project about immigrants in Atlantic Canada. Santiago has participated as lead and assistant dramaturge at PARC’s 2021 & 2022 Playwrights Retreat (NB/NS), and have offered dramaturgical support through PARC’s Home Delivery program. Santiago has dramaturged plays for the Plain Site Festival (NB), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), and co-dramaturged CAHOOTS Theatre’s HOT HOUSE CROSSING (ON) with Natércia Napoleão in 2022.
Education
He has guest-taught the period study at George Brown Theatre School (ON), and facilitated acting workshops at Memorial University of Newfoundland (NL), taught a playwriting workshop at Mount Allison University (NS) and a screenwriting workshop at Grenfell Campus (NL) in the Winter of 2021. He has facilitated numerous workshops with Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (NS), The Ruby Project (NS), TODOS Productions (NL), Halifax Fringe (NS).
He is a guest instructor at Highlight Arts Theatre's (NS) Theatre School Intro to Playwriting Class.
He is a guest instructor at Highlight Arts Theatre's (NS) Theatre School Intro to Playwriting Class.