Rick Butts writes plays. Because he wants to.
Rick’s plays have been produced professionally and at community theatres in Canada, the US and the UK.
His one-act play Happy Birthday Dear Maggie was selected from more than five hundred scripts by a team of producers, directors, writers and actors to be a featured episode in the audio series Loved Ones, Season 3, produced by the US-based Broken Arts Entertainment, the theatrical podcast company. It’s available at Broken Arts Entertainment’s channel on YouTube, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
The play made its Canadian stage debut at the Left of Centre Festival by IT Productions, Brantford, Ontario, in 2026. It will make its UK stage debut in October 2026 as a showcased presentation at Thestival, produced by the Butter Side Up Theatre Company in Sheffield, UK. Other plays have appeared elsewhere.
Rick hasn’t always been a playwright. But for some reason, he began writing plays. For the previous thirty-plus years, he wrote stuff for corporate clients. Then one day, he decided being a speechwriter and ghostwriter for the people who hire speechwriters and ghostwriters wasn’t what he wanted anymore. So now he writes plays. When asked why, he said “Because I want to.”
Rick is a member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada and Theatre BC. He has degrees in English literature and drama from McGill University (Montreal) and University of Toronto. He studied professional acting at the Banff School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta).
Once upon a time, he was an actor in community and university theatre productions. Dozens of them. He doesn’t act anymore. Different from acting out which he does on occasion. But he doesn’t act in plays. He only writes them.
Once upon another time, he also wrote short stories which were published in magazines and won some prizes. He doesn’t do that anymore either. Too busy writing plays. Because he’s a playwright. Writing plays.
spookyb 