News Releases
TORONTO, May 20, 2008 – BMO Financial Group today announced the members of this year's jury for the 2008 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre celebrating playwrights. The distinguished panel of theatre experts will select this year's recipient of the $100,000 prize – the largest prize in Canadian theatre.
The deadline for nominations for the Siminovitch Prize, which will be presented this year to a playwright, is June 4. A short list will be disclosed in September, and the recipient and his or her prot�g� will be announced on October 27.
BMO Financial Group sponsors the prize and will host the award ceremony. “We are proud to promote the development of great Canadian theatre,” said Gilles Ouellette, President and CEO of BMO's Private Client Group, “and to celebrate the directors, playwrights and designers who bring us so much enjoyment and thought-provoking art.”
Once again this year, the Siminovitch Prize Jury will be chaired by Leonard McHardy, co-owner of Toronto's TheatreBooks bookstore and board President of Necessary Angel, an internationally acclaimed Toronto theatre company.
“We have a very experienced and dedicated jury to help us with this year's selection,” said Mr. McHardy, “and we are all looking forward to considering the work of Canada's most talented and influential playwrights.”
The other members of the jury are: Patricia Hamilton, a celebrated Canadian actress with more than 45 years on the stage; Paul Lefebvre, a noted translator, stage director, dramaturge and theatre scholar.; Vicki Stroich, a prominent dramaturge, programmer and producer with Calgary's Alberta Theatre Projects; and John Van Burek, a director, teacher, translator, and Founding Artistic Director of Toronto's Pleiades Theatre.
[Please see biographical notes below.]
About BMO Financial Group's support of arts and culture
BMO Financial Group is one of Canada's largest corporate benefactors, and a major contributor to arts and culture. In 2007, BMO contributed more than $50 million in donations and sponsorships. BMO's funding supports numerous cultural charities and organizations, ranging from grants to music and art programs in schools, to sustaining grants for national cultural institutions.
About the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre
The Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre honours professional directors, playwrights and designers by acknowledging excellence and encouraging further exploration in Canadian theatre. The Siminovitch Prize was created in 2001 and is dedicated to distinguished scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, a playwright. A jury awards the $100,000 prize annually. For further information about the prize, please visit http://www.siminovitchprize.com/.
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Brief Biographies of Jury Members
Leonard McHardy (Jury Chair) 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 30 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 where he served as Director of Press and Public Relations for four seasons. 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 among them PEN International.
Patricia Hamilton has appeared on stages from coast to coast in Canada and the US, including the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, and also in Europe in London, Edinburgh and Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the founding producer of Masterclass Theatre in Toronto, and for seven years, the director of The Advanced Actors Workshop at the Banff Centre. She has directed at the Tarragon and Factory Theatres in Toronto and at the Shaw Festival. As a teacher/director she has worked at George Brown Theatre School, Sheridan College and Fanshawe College. In an acting career of over 45 years, she has been the recipient of several acting awards(Dora Award, Gemini Award, Genie Award) plus the Brenda Donohue award and the Silver Ticket Award.
Paul Lefebvre is a translator, stage director, dramaturge and theatre scholar. From September 2001 to December 2007, he was the Associate Artistic Director of the Th��tre fran�ais at the National Arts Centre. Since 2003, he has been the Artistic programmer of the Festival Zones Th��trales. In January 2008, he also became NAC Artistic Attach�. Prior to that, he was for eleven years the Literary Manager of the Th��tre Denise-Pelletier and the Associate Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre, both in Montreal. To date, he has translated 16 plays, including A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel and Unity (1918) by Kevin Kerr. He has also directed plays, including Le Sang de Mishi by Franz-Xavier Kroetz and Le Lit de mort by Yvan Bienvenue.
Vicki Stroich is Dramaturg at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary, where she has been a member of the Play Development team for seven years. In addition to her work at Alberta Theatre Projects – which has included dramaturgy and programming for the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays, and dramaturgy at the Banff Centre's Banff Playwrights Colony -- Vicki also freelances as a dramaturge, facilitator and director. Her work has included dramaturgy of both dramatic text and performance creation. Vicki is a member of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas.
John Van Burek, a director, teacher and translator, has had a long career in theatre in Canada. He has directed over 100 productions in English or French. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Toronto's Pleiades Theatre which does plays originating in languages other than English and he was the founding Artistic Director of Th��tre fran�ais de Toronto. He has taught at Canada's National Theatre School/�cole Nationale, York University, Ryerson University, Carnegie Mellon University and, in England, at Nottingham School for the Performing Arts. He has translated more than 40 plays, including the major works of Michel Tremblay, Marivaux, Goldoni and, most recently, Moli�re. He has been awarded the Prix Alliance, the Toronto Drama Bench Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Ordre de la Pl��ade de la Francophonie and a Queen's Jubilee Medal. John is a former member of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal.