Steal Away Home
Mahmoud
Mules
The Drowning Girls
The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble
Lizardboy
The Mommiad
St. Francis of Millbrook
I Have AIDS
Falling in Time
Je Me Souviens
Angélique
Creeps
Snake in Fridge
Kill Me Now
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Have you ever found the perfect part? Or read a scene that speaks to you? Or seen a play where the actor on stage matched the writing as if made-to-measure? Don’t you wish it happened more often?

Parallel Play is a tool to help smooth the search for material that really fits. Fits actors, directors, teachers, students, writers, readers and theatre enthusiasts in their quest to find parallels between cast and character.

Parallel Play draws from an extensive database of culturally diverse plays and playwrights. Its foundation is a collection curated by theatre people and designed for all. With new plays added regularly, we think you’ll find our collection unparalleled!

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DiscoverPlays and Playwrights

In our database, there are more than 1000+ plays. Search by title or playwright. Click on a playwright's name to see more of their works.

  • Discover plays with characters of Unspecified Culture

    Antarctica
    Speed Dating for Sperm Donors
  • Discover plays with Mixed Race Characters

    Who You Callin' Black, eh?
    Women of the Fur Trade
  • Discover plays with E. Asian + Diasp Characters

    Arigato, Tokyo
    Hiding Words (for you)
  • Discover plays with Middle Eastern + Diasp Characters

    Interrogation
    Graceful Rebellions

Discover Styles, like 'Play with Music'

SPIN play banner

Historical

SPIN

One part documentary and another part musical activism, Spin is inspired in part by the incredible true tale of Annie Londonderry, the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle in 1895. Parry spins a fascinating web of stories that travel from 19th-century women’s emancipation to 21st-century consumer culture, peeling back layers of history to reveal a surprising and contemporary heart to her theme of liberation. A vintage bicycle, hooked up to simple electronics and suspended in a mechanic’s stand, is played – from fenders to spokes to vinyl seat, from whirling pedals to bells – by percussionist Brad Hart, providing a captivating sonic accompaniment to parry’s songs and monologues. Staged by award-winning director Ruth Madoc-Jones, with stunning visual projections by acclaimed designer Beth Kates, this unique show has delighted audiences across the continent.

by Evalyn Parry, 2017
Characters: 1
Cultural issues
Discrimination
Reasonable Doubt play banner

Docudrama

Reasonable Doubt

"A significant moment in Canadian history is portrayed in this documentary musical about race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Weaving hundreds of real interviews conducted with Saskatchewan residents and the court transcripts surrounding the killing of Colten Boushie and trial of Gerald Stanley, a kaleidoscopic picture is formed of the views of the incident, the province, and relationships between all people in Canada. A verbatim play with music created by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, and Yvette Nolan, Reasonable Doubt provides a space to honestly talk to each other about what has happened on this land and how we can live together." - from the publisher "In 2015, playwright and journalist Joel Bernbaum was commissioned by Persephone Theatre to gather interviews with local citizens for the purposes of writing a documentary play on race relations in our province. Then, in 2016, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot on Gerald Stanley’s farm near Biggar, SK. and the interviews changed dramatically." - persephonetheatre.org

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Discrimination
Is My Microphone On? play banner

Play with Music

Is My Microphone On?

"In another life I was a small bubble of foam on a wave coming to shore, and the wave broke, and I burst, and that was it. Before that I was a small stream, for centuries. And in another life I was a mortal girl. Which is this life. After thousands of years, I have a mouth. So if you don’t mind, Mom, Dad, I’m going to speak. I’m going to shout. When I become a human I’m going to use some words. Can you still hear me? Is my microphone on? Young people have inherited a burning world. In this urgent and lyrical play, they reckon with the generations who have come before them, questioning the choices that have been made, and the ones that they will yet be forced to make. Is My Microphone On? is a play in the form of a protest song, in which a chorus of young performers hold the audience to account, and invite them to experience the world together anew." - from the publisher

by Jordan Tannahill, 2022
Characters: 17
Environment
Intergenerational issues
A Soldier's Tale play banner

Stylized

A Soldier’s Tale

A Soldier's Tale is a multi-disciplinary production written by Tara Beagan. The 13-member cast included actors and dancers, mixing spoken word, music and movement.

by Tara Beagan
Characters: 13
Violence
War
Destiny of Desire play banner

Play with Music

Destiny of Desire

On a stormy night in Bellarica, Mexico, two baby girls are born — one into a life of privilege and one into a life of poverty. When the newborns are swapped by a former beauty queen with an insatiable lust for power, the stage is set for two outrageous misfortunes to grow into one remarkable destiny.

by Karen Zacarías, 2023
Characters: 10
Class
Cultural issues
Cambodian Rock Band play banner

Stylized

Cambodian Rock Band

Part comedy, part mystery, part rock concert, this thrilling story toggles back and forth in time, as father and daughter face the music of the past. Neary, a young Cambodian American has found evidence that could finally put away the Khmer Rouge’s chief henchman. But her work is far from done. When Dad shows up unannounced—his first return to Cambodia since fleeing 30 years ago—it’s clear this isn’t just a pleasure trip. The core of the play is the relationship between the father and daughter.

by Lauren Yee, 2019
Characters: 10
Family
Immigrants
The Coloured Museum play banner

Stylized

The Coloured Museum

The Colored Museum has electrified, discomforted, and delighted audiences of all colours, redefining our ideas of what it means to be Black in contemporary America. Its eleven "exhibits" undermine Black stereotypes old and new, and return to the facts of what being Black means.

by George C Wolfe, 2010
Characters: 7
Black Experience
Race
Indecent play banner

Realistic

Indecent

Indecent is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s "God of Vengeance"—a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.

by Paula Vogel, 2018
Characters: 44
Antisemitism
Homophobia
Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts I, II, III play banner

Realistic

Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts I, II, III

Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return…only to discover that for Hero, free will may have come at a great spiritual cost. Father Comes Home From the Wars is an explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love, with all three parts seen in one night.

by Suzan-Lori Parks, 2015
Characters: 14
War
Race
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf play banner

Stylized

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf

A "choreopoem" that blends poetry and music to reveal the experiences of black women through a tapestry of stories.

by Ntozake Shange, 1997
Characters: 7
Feminism
Racism
One More River to Cross: a Verbatim Fugue play banner

Stylized

One More River to Cross: a Verbatim Fugue

Verbatim texts taken from interviews with former slaves made between 1936 and 1938 as part of the Federal Writers' Project: true testimonies that chronicle American slavery. A strong selection of story-telling, high stakes monologues

by Lynn Nottage, 2015
Characters: 12
Mlima's Tale play banner

Stylized

Mlima’s Tale

Mlima is a magnificent elephant trapped by the underground international ivory market. As he follows a trail littered by a history of greed, Mlima takes us on a journey through memory, fear, tradition, and the penumbra between want and need.

by Lynn Nottage, 2021
Characters: 20
Vietgone play banner

Stylized

Vietgone

An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in a new land, they just might find each other. Using his uniquely infectious style – and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now – playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of… Qui Nguyen.

by Qui Nguyen, 2018
Characters: 19
War
Love
The Brothers Size play banner

Stylized

The Brothers Size

The Brothers Size dramatizes the struggle between brothers who have taken different paths: Ogun, single-mindedly running his auto shop, and Oshoosi, recently returned from prison and fallen back with trouble.

by Tarell Alvin McCraney, 2013
Characters: 3
Siblings
Family
Choir Boy play banner

Realistic

Choir Boy

Pharus wants nothing more than to take his rightful place as leader of the school’s legendary gospel choir. Can he find his way inside the hallowed halls of this institution if he sings in his own key? An affecting and honest portrait of a gay youth tentatively beginning to find the courage to let the truth about himself become known.

by Tarell Alvin McCraney, 2016
Characters: 7
2SLGBTQI+
Black Experience

Discover Tags, like 'Race'

Graceful Rebellions play banner

Realistic

Graceful Rebellions

"Graceful Rebellions, playing in the SummerWorks Festival, tracks experiences of (and with) queerness in war-torn Afghanistan to Canada through two generations and four characters. We start with an idealistic fourteen year old, probably around sixty years ago, imagining her own future wedding on the eve of her sister’s. She is so good-natured and naïve that it is hard for us, the audience, who know her reality will not be able to meet her fantasy." - Mooneyonthetheatre.com "In this brilliant and engaging one-woman show, playwright and performer SHAISTA LATIF transitions seamlessly between distinctly complex characters in a deeply personal work. Moving across cultures and generations, Graceful Rebellions tells the stories of three Afghan women, each bartering for small joys and challenging the cultural norms that exist under Afghanistan’s patriarchal rule. Shaista lovingly portrays characters, by turns funny and heartbreaking, who struggle in a world where women commonly have no power, in a culture that has long been dominated by war." - National Arts Centre, Ottawa

by Shaista Latif, 2017
Characters: 4
LGBTQ2S+
Cultural issues
Dividing Lines | Líneas Divisorias play banner

Solo Show

Dividing Lines | Líneas Divisorias

"The one thing everyone knows is that we’re all going to die. Which means our loved ones are going to die. So how can we prepare for, experience, and honour their deaths? And does that look different if we have to make the decision to end their lives for them if they’re suffering? Dividing Lines | Líneas Divisorias is one woman’s story that offers a space for communal grieving through a celebration of life. Traced by the historic world events that coincide with her memories of independence and immigration, Beatriz reflects on how she spent over a decade caring for her mother—the one person she promised she’d be there for all the way until the end—as she lost her more and more to Alzheimer’s, and ultimately had to make the tough call to end her mother’s pain. A meditation full of light that doesn’t shy away from fear of the unknown, Beatriz’s narrative comes from a vulnerable and recognizable place of love that will invite our memories and choices in to heal." - from the publisher

by Beatriz Pizano, 2022
Characters: 1
Ageing
Alzheimer's
Reasonable Doubt play banner

Docudrama

Reasonable Doubt

"A significant moment in Canadian history is portrayed in this documentary musical about race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Weaving hundreds of real interviews conducted with Saskatchewan residents and the court transcripts surrounding the killing of Colten Boushie and trial of Gerald Stanley, a kaleidoscopic picture is formed of the views of the incident, the province, and relationships between all people in Canada. A verbatim play with music created by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, and Yvette Nolan, Reasonable Doubt provides a space to honestly talk to each other about what has happened on this land and how we can live together." - from the publisher "In 2015, playwright and journalist Joel Bernbaum was commissioned by Persephone Theatre to gather interviews with local citizens for the purposes of writing a documentary play on race relations in our province. Then, in 2016, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot on Gerald Stanley’s farm near Biggar, SK. and the interviews changed dramatically." - persephonetheatre.org

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Discrimination
The Making of St. Jerome play banner

Realistic

The Making of St. Jerome

When Jason De Jesus discovers his younger brother Jerome was the victim of a senseless shooting, his world is filled with questions surrounding Jerome’s death. Was his brother a threat or a casualty of racial profiling? Was he an innocent bystander or someone other than his family’s shining star? Internalizing his survivor’s guilt while reflecting on their strained relationship, Jason’s quest for truth and justice is tainted as he discovers there are no simple answers. Inspired by the shooting of a Filipino Canadian teenager by a police officer in Toronto, The Making of St. Jerome is a poignant look at the aftermath of an untimely death, the media’s role in the truth, and one family’s attempt to reconcile a haunting reality.

by Marie Beath Badian, 2017
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Death
Forgiveness play banner

Historical

Forgiveness

Mitsue Sakamoto and Ralph MacLean both suffered tremendous loss during WWII: Mitsue as a survivor of a Japanese Canadian internment camp, and Ralph as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. In order to rebuild their lives and their families after the war, Ralph and Mitsue must find the grace and generosity necessary to forgive those who have wronged them. Their paths eventually cross in 1968 when Mitsue’s son and Ralph’s daughter begin dating, and Ralph is invited to Mitsue’s home for dinner. This soaring adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning memoir affirms the power of forgiveness and shows us that in our challenging times characterized by political divisiveness, xenophobia, and race hatred, the story of Mitsue and Ralph’s personal triumphs over hatred, injustice, violence, and bigotry remains vitally relevant and urgently necessary.

by Hiro Kanagawa, Mark Sakamoto, 2023
Characters: 30
Empathy
Family
Body So Fluorescent play banner

Solo show

Body So Fluorescent

What happened last night on the dance floor? Gary knows he went to the club with his friend Desiree, but now all he has is a fuzzy memory and a text saying, “We’re done.” Desiree has known something’s been up with Gary, but she always kept her thoughts to herself. Until last night ended in an explosive fight. As Gary and Desiree retrace their steps to figure out the chain of events, perspectives shift from self to alter ego to untangle the facts. And after the dust settles, can their friendship be rebuilt? Body So Fluorescent is an electrifying exploration that asks difficult questions about Blackness, otherness, and appropriation.

by Amanda Cordner, David Di Giovanni, 2023
Characters: 2
2SLGBTQI+
Black Experience
Say Ginger Ale play banner

Realistic

Say Ginger Ale

Nadia is very happy to call Canada home. Since moving there at the age of 6, there was no turning back. So, why does everyone think she's pining for Jamaica? An unexpected trip back "home" makes her confront her feelings and her past. There may even be a love connection.

by Marcia Johnson, 2010
Characters: 5
Black experience
Community
Viola Desmond play banner

Historical

Viola Desmond

1946 New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. A Black beautician from Halifax refuses to sit in the balcony of the segregated movie theatre and is sent to jail and convicted of tax evasion for the $ 0.02 difference in price. The conviction is upheld by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

by Marcia Johnson, 2009
Characters: 20
Class
Cultural issues
The Sender play banner

Solo Show

The Sender

Cil Brown loves her work. Her job as a Sender on a global racism-elimination project has resulted in a peaceful, logical and sustainable world. However, she encounters technical difficulties when a Sendee objects to restrictions on the lives of residents of White Supremacist Island.

by Cheryl Foggo, 2023
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Class
Other People's Heaven: The Viola Desmond Story play banner

Historical

Other People’s Heaven: The Viola Desmond Story

Viola Davis Desmond (July 6, 1914-1965) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was an African- Canadian who ran her own beauty parlor and beauty college in Halifax. She has been referred to as a Canadian version of Rosa Parks. Desmond’s story was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Nova Scotian and Canadian history. On November 8, 1946, Viola Desmond refused to sit in the balcony designated exclusively for blacks in a New Glasgow theatre. Instead she took her seat on the ground floor where only white people were allowed to sit. After being forcibly removed from the theatre and arrested, Desmond was eventually found guilty of not paying the one-cent difference in tax on the balcony ticket from the main floor ticket.

by Beau Dixon
Characters: 6
Black Experience
Crime
Once A Flame play banner

Historical

Once A Flame

Once a Flame tells the harrowing story of the defiant Black slave Marie Joseph Angélique who was executed for arson in Old Montreal in 1734. This one act play recalls the events that took place before and after her trial.

by Beau Dixon
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Black Lives Matter
Who You Callin' Black, eh? play banner

Realistic

Who You Callin’ Black, eh?

Who you Callin Black Eh? is a coming of age play set in Canada’s largest, most multicultural, multilingual city, that is not about sexuality, but about colour. Wherever Our Heroine goes, she is not Black Enough or White Enough to find her people.

by Rita Shelton Deverell
Characters: N/A
Black Experience
Identity
My Place Is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada play banner

Historical

My Place Is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada

"This play is a research-based, dramatic exploration and celebration of little known African-Canadian hero Hugh Burnett's personhood and human rights legacy. The setting of the play is the world of Hugh Burnett's memory and our memory. Like our dreams, it is not confined by space or conventional rules. Through the interplay of text, theatre and movement, it is hoped that Hugh Burnett may speak his memory and our memory even as memory shifts and changes like the countless grains of a sand dune." - from the publisher

by Aaron Haddad, 2019
Characters: 3
Empowerment
Justice
Serving Elizabeth play banner

Historical

Serving Elizabeth

Serving Elizabeth begins in Kenya in 1952, during the fateful royal visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Mercy, a restaurant owner, is approached to cook for the royal couple. As a staunch anti-monarchist, how can she take the job? Decades later, Tia, a Kenyan-Canadian film student interning in the London office of a production company doing a series about Queen Elizabeth, discovers that there may be more to the story of the royal visit than we have been led to believe. Although she’s been a fan of princesses all her life, Tia learns that fairy tales and real life are very different things.

by Marcia Johnson, 2020
Characters: 10
Black experience
Colonialism
Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story play banner

Solo Show

Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story

Beneath Springhill is the incredible story of Maurice Ruddick, “the singing miner,” an African-Canadian who survived nine days underground during the historic Springhill mining disaster of 1958. This multi-award-winning chamber musical recalls the events during the disaster, the effect it had on Ruddick’s family, and the racial tensions in the town of Springhill. The play is a celebration of hope, courage and community.

by Beau Dixon, 2021
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Community