THEATRE NEWS: MacLeod wins Simonovitch Prize; Cat cast back at ShawFest
7 NOV/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

Canadian playwright Joan MacLeod has been named the winner of the 11th annual Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize, the nation’s most lucrative award in theatre.


Chosen from a field of finalists that also included Robert Chafe, Jasmine Dubé, Greg MacArthur, Mansel Robinson and Larry Tremblay, MacLeod was honoured at a gala Toronto presentation Monday, where she received a cheque in the amount of $75,000. Thanks to the unique structure of the Siminovitch Prize, sponsored by the BMO Financial Group, playwright Anusree Roy also shared the largesse, chosen by MacLeod to receive the $25,000 purse awarded to a protege chosen by the winner.


MacLeod, who has already earned a Governor General’s Award and two Chalmers Canadian Play Awards in a career that spans more than a quarter century is known for a host of plays, including Jewel; Toronto, Mississippi; Amigo’s Blue Guitar; The Hope Slide; Little Sister; 2000; The Shape of a Girl; and Another Home Invasion and is hard at work on a new play titled What to Expect, slated to debut next year.


A clearly thrilled MacLeod said that choosing her protege from a field of talented young Canadian playwrights wasn’t as hard as one might expect. “It was easy and very flukey,” she says, recalling a playwright’s residency at the Stratford Festival last fall. “I met Anusree there and I really liked her but I didn’t know her work. Then I happened on a copy of Brothel #9 and I thought it was terrific,” she says.


The Siminovitch Prize is awarded annually on a three-year rotation, recognizing excellence in direction, playwriting and design.

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After steaming up the stage of the Royal George Theatre at last summer’s Shaw Festival in a production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Moya O’Connell and Gray Powell are slated to reunite next summer on the Festival’s Court House stage, cast opposite Patrick McManus, Jim Mezon, Mary Haney and Jennifer Phipps in a production of Hedda Gabler, directed by Martha Henry.


In other Court House casting announced Monday by Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell, Marla McLean and Graeme Somerville will team up with Sharry Flett, Kate Hennig and Jenny L. Wright in A Man And Some Women, directed by Alisa Palmer. Meanwhile, Mark Uhre and Elodie Gillett are paired up in Trouble In Tahiti, under the direction of Jay Turvey, while Nicole Underhay and Kevin Bundy headline a cast that also includes Kevin Hanchard, Martin Happer, Steven Sutcliffe and Robin Evan Willis, in Blair Williams’ production of The Millionairess.