Playwrights Guild of Canada is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2011 Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights. They are:
- Catherine Banks, It Is Solved By Walking
- Marie Clements, Tombs of the Vanishing Indian
- Mieko Ouchi, Nisei Blue
- Anusree Roy, Brothel #9
- David Yee, paper SERIES
The jury included award-winning New Brunswick playwright Don Hannah; director Estelle Shook; and Jodi Armstrong, Production Editor at Playwrights Canada Press. The jury was chaired by Florence Gibson MacDonald.
The winner of the 2011 Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights will be announced in Toronto before the end of October 2011.
The Award
The Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights, named after one of PGC’s founding members, is given annually to a member of PGC who has premiered an original play within the past year.
A juried panel selects the winner from a number of submitted plays. The winner of the Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights receives $3,000 and the opportunity to be published.
Past recipients: Kent Stetson, Daniel Goldfarb, Florence Gibson MacDonald, Mieko Ouchi, John Mighton, Stephen Massicotte, Colleen Murphy, Vern Thiessen, and Michael Nathanson.
Funding for the award is generously sponsored by the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), Playwrights Canada Press, and Playwrights Guild of Canada.
The Playwrights
CATHERINE BANKS was born in Nova Scotia in 1957. Her interest in writing began early. Her love of drama and her understanding of its power comes from time spent in her grandmother’s kitchen, listening to her stories/ravings of real-life dramas. But it was the work of Michel Tremblay that inspired her to begin writing plays. Catherine’s plays include Bitter Rose, Bone Cage, The Summer of the Piping Plover, and Three Storey, Ocean View.
MARIE CLEMENTS is an award-winning performer, playwright, screenwriter, director, and producer who has worked extensively in and across a variety of mediums including theatre, performance, film, new media, radio, and television.
Her twelve plays, including The Edward Curtis Project, Copper Thunderbird, Burning Vision, and The Unnatural and Accidental Women, have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and international work, including the Festival de Théàtre des Amériques (Urban Tattoo, 2001 and Burning Vision, 2003) in Montreal, the National Arts Centre/Magnetic North Festival (Burning Vision, 2003 and Copper Thunderbird, 2007) in Ottawa, and the Cultural Olympiad/Push Festival (The Edward Curtis Project, 2010) in Vancouver.
Her play Tombs of the Vanishing Indian premiered in Toronto (March 2011) and will be published by Talon Books (spring 2012). A translation of her script Burning Vision was given a staged reading at La Mousson d’été in France (2011), and will be produced by Santa Clara University (spring 2012).
MIEKO OUCHI works as an actor, writer, and director in theatre, film, and TV and is based out of Edmonton, Alberta. Her first full-length play, The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), has been produced at Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP), Workshop West Theatre, the Globe Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Her second play, The Blue Light, has been produced at Alberta Theatre Projects (Betty Mitchell Award—Outstanding New Play), Workshop West Theatre, Firehall Theatre Centre in Vancouver, Keyano Theatre in Fort McMurray, and at DMV Productions in Halifax.
Mieko’s newest play, Nisei Blue, premiered at ATP’s Enbridge playRites Festival in 2011. In 2012 it will be published by Playwrights Canada Press and translated into Japanese by Toyoshi Yoshihara.
Mieko is a co-founder and a current artistic co-director of Concrete Theatre and the president of the board of Playwrights Canada Press Ltd.
ANUSREE ROY’s playwright and performance credits include: Brothel # 9 (Factory Theatre), Roshni (Theatre Passe Muraille), Letters to my Grandma (Theatre Passe Muraille), Pyaasa (Theatre Passe Muraille). Roy was a performer in the Dora-nominated 9 Parts of Desire and Necessary Angel’s Tout Comme Elle. Her operas Noor over Afghan and The Golden Boy premiered at Opera Briefs in Toronto in 2011.
Anusree has also been a playwright-in-residence at the Canadian Stage Company (2008–2009), Theatre Passe Muraille (2009–2010), and the Blyth Festival (2010–2011). She won the RBC Emerging Artist Award in 2009 and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for 2011. She holds an M.A from the University of Toronto and is the co-artistic director of Theatre Jones Roy.
DAVID YEE was born and raised in Toronto. He is currently the artistic director of fu-GEN Theatre Company. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. His play, lady in the red dress, was nominated for the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award and is published by Playwrights Canada Press.
Playwrights Guild of Canada is a national arts service organization mandated to advance the creative rights and interests of professional Canadian playwrights, promote Canadian plays nationally and internationally, and foster an active, evolving community of writers for the stage.
Guidelines and applications for the 2012 Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights will be available online in January 2012. Visit www.playwrightsguild.ca/awards for information on this and other awards presented by Playwrights Guild of Canada.
