Jury Chair (2007)

Leonard McHardy is a co-owner and co-founder of TheatreBooks in Toronto, a leading source of books on the performing arts in Canada for more than 25 years. Having acted and directed in Canada and the U.K., Mr. McHardy was invited to the Stratford Festival by Urjo Kareda and Robin Phillips to serve as Director of Press and Public Relations. He has served as a juror for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in Toronto and the Chalmers Playwriting Awards. Currently he is the board President for the internationally acclaimed Necessary Angel Theatre Company. Mr. McHardy was also a board member and President of the Theatre Museum, and volunteers his time to numerous organizations, including PEN International.

Jury Members

Geneviève Billette is a graduate of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Her plays produced in Quebec include Crime contre l’humanité (Crime Against Humanity), which was short-listed for the 2000 Governor General’s Award, Le Goûteur and Le Pays des genoux (The Land of the Knees). Her works have also been staged in France, Mexico, Switzerland and English Canada. Chosen as the protégé of Carole Fréchette, the recipient of the 2002 Siminovitch Prize, Ms. Billette won the 2005 Governor General’s Award for Le Pays des genoux. She has also translated plays by several Mexican playwrights. Ms. Billette is a member of the board of directors of the Centre des auteurs dramatique (CEAD).

Katrina Dunn is a Vancouver-based director, artistic director and producer. She has been the artistic director of Touchstone Theatre since 1997, overseeing that company's all-Canadian mandate. In 2003, she co-founded the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, an annual city-wide performance festival for which she now acts as associate curator. Her many freelance directing credits include work for the Arts Club Theatre Company (A Christmas Story), Bard on the Beach (Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline), and Studio 58 (The Caucasian Chalk Circle, At the Black Pig's Dyke). She has been nominated six times for Jessie Awards in Outstanding Direction, and has won for her work on Michael Healey's Kicked.

Valerie Moore is a celebrated director, choreographer and teacher whose work has been seen across Canada, the U.S. and abroad. Originally from Montreal and educated in both Quebec and Ontario, she has been connected with many of Canada's most prestigious theatres including The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival, London's Grand Theatre, Charlottetown Festival, Theatre Calgary, Banff Centre, Centaur Theatre, the National Arts Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, Tarragon Theatre as well as the Canadian Opera Company and Opera Ontario. This Fall she will join the faculty at The Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training at The Stratford Festival of Canada.

Carlo Guillermo Proto has abroad range of theatrical experience in directing, producing and writing. Mr. Proto’s first short film, Pura Sangre, has been screened at several film festivals across Canada and received the Best Emerging Local Filmmaker award at the 2005 Alucine International Latino Film Festival. As the general manager and company producer for Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre Projects Mr. Proto produced several plays across Canada. During his time with the company, he created The Cahoots Summer Youth Project, a subsidized summer camp for low-income families. Currently Mr. Proto is working on a feature length documentary about a blind family that sings in the Montreal Metros.