Colleen Murphy

Colleen Murphy

Finalist, 2008, 2014

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Biography

Murphy’s tough, hard-hitting plays pull back the curtain on disturbing subjects that we often don’t want to look at. But her stories are told in an intimate setting through deeply human characters. The December Man (L’homme de décembre) is driven by the Montreal Massacre, and her recent play Pig Girl was inspired by the murders of the missing women in Vancouver.

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Ross Manson

Ross Manson

Finalist, 2010, 2016

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Biography

Ross Manson is an award-winning director and the founding artistic director of Volcano, an independent theatre company based in Toronto. Volcano is mandated to cross borders of all kinds in its work: disciplinary, cultural, and geographic. Over the past 20 years, Ross has directed and/or co-created shows that have toured around the world, and won or been nominated for over fifty local, national and international awards. He is the founder of the Volcano Conservatory (a professional training program for alternative performance), and co-founder, with Deborah Pearson, of inFORMING CONTENT (an initiative to wed experimental theatre making with expert academic research). His work is featured in the award-winning documentary film Goodness in Rwanda – an exploration of Volcano’s tour to Rwanda of Michael Redhill’s play on genocide (the only Canadian production to ever win the Best of Edinburgh award). Information about the many shows he has worked on can be found at volcano.ca.

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Hannah Moscovitch

Hannah Moscovitch

Finalist, 2014, 2017

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Biography

Hannah is an acclaimed Canadian playwright, librettist and screenwriter. Her work for the stage includes East of Berlin, The Russian Play, Little One, This is War, Infinity, What a Young Wife Ought to Know, Bunny and Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (with Ben Caplan & Christian Barry). Her plays have been produced across Canada as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Germany, Japan and Australia. She’s won multiple awards for her work, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the SummerWorks Performance Festival Prize for Production, the Toronto Critic’s Award for Best New Canadian Play, the Trillium Book Award (Hannah is the only playwright to win the honour in the Award’s twenty nine year history) and the prestigious international Windham-Campbell Prize administered by the Beinecke Library at Yale University. She is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

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Ravi Jain

Ravi Jain

Finalist, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025

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Biography

Ravi Jain is a highly acclaimed theatre maker known for making politically bold, accessible, and thought-provoking theatrical experiences that are changing the face of Canadian theatre. A visionary artistic director, versatile director, astute producer, and playful actor, he has spent his career reimagining what theatre can be, impacting the lives of both audiences and artists alike.

With Why Not Theatre, Mr. Jain has created over forty collaborations and performed over five continents. Ravi’s work tours for many years after it is made and has been presented across Canada and internationally at major festivals; his recent adaptation of The Mahabharata, premiered at the Shaw Festival and toured to sell out the Barbican Theatre in London, and the Lincoln Centre in New York.

Mr. Jain was awarded the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Director and the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction and in 2022, The Johanna Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Prize. He is a graduate of Ecole Jacques Lecoq in France.

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Sherry J Yoon

Sherry J Yoon

Finalist, 2022

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Biography

Sherry J Yoon is the Artistic Director of Boca del Lupo in Vancouver, BC. Her passion for creating new performance through collaborative pursuits has enabled her to create work in theatres, intimate performance installations and large spectacle site-specific work. Through co-creation, collaboration, partnerships, and commissions, she has premiered and toured multiple productions. With Boca del Lupo, selected credits include: Fall Away Home, Photog., Expedition, plays2perform@home, Red Phone, and Taste of Empire. Freelance credits include: Arts Club, Richmond Gateway, Bard on the Beach, Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Radix Theatre, and the National Arts Centre. During Sherry’s tenure, the company has received numerous awards, including the Alcan Performing Arts Award, Jessie Richardson awards, and the Critics Choice Award for Innovation. Her productions have toured festivals and venues across Canada, Europe, and Mexico. She is currently working on an interactive installation about climate change.

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Philippe Boutin

Philippe Boutin

Protégé, 2022

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Philippe is a director, actor, and writer. He quickly distinguished himself as a creator to watch with his first ambitious plays: Détruire, nous allons, a large-scale show featuring forty  actors on a football field, and Le Vin Herbé (2016 Prix Opus, Discovery of the Year), an epic opera-theatre piece with a cast of nearly seventy  artists, presented at Arsenal Montreal. In 2018, he founded Empire Panique, the company that produced his most recent creation The Rise of the BlingBling– La Genèse, a mystical pop retelling of the Jesus Christ figure. The show premiered at Usine C, where he had previously been an associate-artist, in May 2022.

Presented by

Acceptance Speech

I would like to thank Marie Brassard for championing my artistic approach and for gifting me this huge dose of courage.

Marie
You who continually seek, risk, try to sketch new ways of doing things, new ways of saying things.

You who have been practicing creation for so many years, playing with form, revealing such curiosity and boldness through your approach, know that it is a truly great privilege to be your protege.

You exemplify success for me, since success, for me, means seeing one’s ideas through to the end. Whatever the pitfalls, you constantly strive to emancipate yourself.

Thank you, Marie. You inspire me and help me to believe in my crazy ideas.

As an artist, I am interested in excess; in epic and multidisciplinary forms.

In 2013, my first play, Détruire, nous allons, was performed on a football field, with about thirty actors.

In 2016, we orchestrated Vin Herbé, a gigantic pop opera-theatre piece, carried by more than 70 artists in a contemporary art museum.

And most recently, in 2022, we created The Rise of the BlingBling, at Usine C; a piece that dives into the heart of a tragic and funny, completely surrealistic reinterpretation of the Jesus figure.

I’ve always viewed my creations as a party.

An ephemeral theatrical celebration, in which delight plays an essential part.

I picture theatre as a sport, a playground, where you have to give your all, passionately, body and soul, leaving nothing behind. And it is important to say that these wildest of dreams, these so-called “unreasonable” shows would never have been possible without the extreme generosity of the artists around me.

I would like to thank all the collaborators, with whom I have been creating for nearly 10 years, from the bottom of my heart.

Without you, there are no projects. Thanks again, friends.

Thanks to my family, for the love. Thank you for always believing in me, for giving me everything. I owe my emancipation to you.

And finally, a huge thanks to the RBC for supporting this prize and emerging artists who are trying to push the boundaries, who dare to try new things, questioning the art form. Your generosity is a big boost.

Long life to you and to your approach, Marie!

Long live the Siminovitch Prize and the people who make it all possible!

Long live the theater!

Thank you! Thank you, have a good evening!

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Joyce Padua

Joyce Padua

Protégé, 2021

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Joyce Padua is a Toronto-based set and costume designer. A BFA graduate of York University, her work has been featured in a broad range of playing spaces—including shows with Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Thousand Islands Playhouse, and the Stratford Festival. Joyce was the Canadian representative at the 2019 Beijing International Biennale of the International Stage Design Students’ Work Exchange. Most recently she made her costume design debut at the Shaw Festival with Desire Under the Elms. Joyce is interested and committed to opening doors for diverse theatre makers.

Presented by

Acceptance Speech

Thank you, merçi beaucoup, maraming salamat. There are so many ways I have learned to say thank you, and in this moment, I feel the need to express them all.

I’m overwhelmed, grateful, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by this generous award. It’s a feeling I’m familiar with: I wrestle with—and relish in—this joyful trepidation often in our line of work.

A designer once told me, when I shared this feeling, that one of our many privileges in life is that we get to draw and re-draw the lines of our maps.

It is particularly true now, when the world feels liminal, changeable, and also—emergent. The future of our industry is unknown and therefore plentiful. I fell in love with the theatre for its many forks in the road and avenues of exploration, often times taking you in unexpected directions.

Gillian’s phone call was certainly that—unexpected. And Gillian is a radiant guide down this path, a generous mentor and brilliant designer. I cannot express my gratitude more fully than to say that she is exactly who I strive to embody in my own practice and discipline. So, thank you, Gillian.

To Joshua, whom I have the delight of sharing this Protégée title with—thank you for your kindness and support, not only through this experience, but through the course of our knowing each other. Of all of the talented artists I’ve had the pleasure to work with, I’m glad that my travelling companion on this journey happens to be my friend.

To the Siminovitch Prize Board of Directors, and to the RBC Foundation—it is an honour to walk this road you have paved. To my friends and family, thank you for your faith that I will find my way. Thank you to my past teachers and the many artists who took me under their care, and ensured I never strayed so far off the beaten path that I might become lost.

May the maps we have drawn be guides for future travelers. May they see splendours along the way we could never dream. Thank you.

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Ann-Marie Kerr

Ann-Marie Kerr

Finalist, 2022

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Biography

Ann-Marie Kerr is an award-winning theatre artist. Her work has been presented at prestigious theatres and festivals in New York, London, Mumbai, Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Memphis, Nashville, Cork, and across Canada. Select directing: One Discordant Violin (2b Theatre Co., Théâtre La Licorne (french version), 59E59 St. Theatre, Chester Playhouse, Bus Stop Theatre), #IAmTheCheese (Halifax Theatre for Young People, Eastern Front Theatre), Frequencies (Heist), Concord Floral (Dalhousie University), Secret Life of A Mother (Theatre Centre, Crow’s Theatre), One Discordant Violin (2b Theatre Co., 59E59 St. Theatre), Bed & Breakfast (Soulpepper Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Theatre New Brunswick), Daughter (Theatre Centre, SummerWorks Festival, PuSh Festival, Battersea Arts Festival, Edinburgh Festival), Snake in the Grass (Neptune Theatre), I, Claudia (Globe Theatre, Neptune Theatre), Stranger to Hard Work (Eastern Front Theatre), The Circle (Alberta Theatre Projects), The Debacle (Zuppa Theatre), Invisible Atom (2b Theatre). A graduate of École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq and York University, Ann-Marie is also the former Artistic Associate of Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

Kerr also served as a Jury Member in 2013. 

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Joshua Quinlan

Joshua Quinlan

Protégé, 2021

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Joshua Quinlan is a set and costume designer whose work was most recently a part of the Langham Directors’ Workshop at the Stratford Festival. Since 2016, Joshua has assisted many of Canada’s leading designers for theatres coast to coast, including Terra Bruce, Mirvish, The National Ballet of Canada, Arts Club, Blyth Festival, Globe Theatre, Edmonton Opera, Manitoba Opera, and he has assisted on twenty productions over five seasons at the Stratford Festival. Joshua is a recipient of the 2019 Tom Patterson Award and the 2017 Ian and Molly Lindsay Fellowship, and in 2020, he was a Pauline McGibbon Award nominee. Joshua is a graduate of The University of Windsor, and he completed his M.F.A. in Theatre – Design at The Ohio State University.

Presented by

Acceptance Speech

I cannot begin to express my gratitude without acknowledging how difficult and dark the past 20 months have been. I have come to appreciate the pause, for it has been a time to question, to reflect, and to breathe.

At this very moment — the time of this filming — it is opening night of my first full-capacity, indoor show in two years. I feel our world coming back to life and I feel very alive in it.

I would like to begin by thanking the Siminovitch Prize Foundation, as well as the RBC Foundation and their Emerging Artists Program. It means the world to me that there are people so dedicated to supporting artists and creators; giving us a platform to be seen, and a chance to learn. Your commitment to the arts makes our dreams possible.

Thank you to my many mentors for sharing your brilliant minds with me. I wouldn’t be here today without your guidance.

My family. Thank you for your unwavering love and support. Myles. Ross. Grandma. Alyssa. And my Mom, who has been with me through it all. I love you.

Gillian. Thank you so much for this opportunity and my sincerest congratulations on your incredible achievement. I still remember my first encounter with your work — a set of costume renderings for The Physicists. Your characters jumped off the page and have been with me ever since. I am in awe of your precision and creativity, from the page to the stage, the micro to the macro, the worlds you create are absolutely breathtaking. Thank you for your trust and for believing in me — it means more to me than my words will ever be able to express.

Joyce. I am so grateful and humbled to be in this moment with you looking forward.

Here’s to the future.

Thank you.

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Nancy Bryant

Nancy Bryant

Finalist, 2021

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Biography

Nancy Bryant is an established costume designer living in Vancouver and works widely designing for dance, theatre, opera, and television. Her work brings her together with various teams of fellow designers, directors, writers, and choreographers to theatre spaces and production workshops both locally and far afield.

Nancy’s approach to costume design has been influenced by her visual arts background and her work with innovators and groundbreakers including Morris Panych (The Overcoat), Kim Collier (Angels in America, Hamlet), and Jonathon Young (Betroffenheit, Revisor) to name a few.

Collaborations with choreographer Crystal Pite have had much notoriety in Europe, the UK, the USA, and across Canada, including pieces with The National Ballet of Canada, The Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Opera House, Zurich Opera House, Netherlands Dance Theatre, and with Pite’s company Kidd Pivot.

Recipient of the 2020 BC Achievement Foundation Award of Distinction, Olivia Awards for Best New Dance Production (2017 and 2018), Toronto Critics’ Theatre Award, a Leo Award, and twelve Jessie Richardson Awards.

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Nathalie Bonjour

Nathalie Bonjour

Jury Member, 2017

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Biography

Originally from France, Nathalie has lived in Montreal and Ottawa and has been based in Toronto since 2000. She is a senior performing arts consultant, producer and coach who has worked in leadership positions in the performing arts in Canada for the past twenty five years – from independent companies creating new work to larger organizations, including: MAI (Montreal, Arts Interculturels), Just for Laughs Festival, National Arts Centre, Nightwood Theatre and Queen of Puddings Music Theatre.

Nathalie has been instrumental in developing and producing many important new Canadian theatre, dance and opera works and has toured several of them nationally and internationally. Nathalie has been a consultant since 2012, producing, touring, and providing organizational development and strategic planning services to several companies. In the last couple of years she has produced shows presented by Panamania and Luminato Festivals in Toronto, Magnetic North Festival, as well as Festivals in Morocco, Taiwan, Germany and the UK, including this August the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.

As a lay person Nathalie has sat on many Boards, committees and juries. Nathalie holds a Masters degree from UQAM; her thesis examined theatre as a tool for intercultural communication. She also completed the program of the Schulich School’s Executive Directors’ Institute, the Coach Training Institute curriculum and recently obtained a Positive Psychology Coaching Certificate from the Wholebeing Institute.

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