The Siminovitch Prize is Canada's largest theatre award recognizing excellence in mid-career directors, playwrights and designers. $100,000 is awarded annually to recipients.
Anyone may nominate a qualified candidate for the Prize, and winners are selected by a jury made up of prominent theatre professionals. Nominees must be a professional director, playwright, or designer who, in the preceding 10 years, has made a significant creative contribution to no fewer than three noteworthy theatre projects in Canada.
A condition of the award is that one quarter of the prize (CAD$25,000) must be awarded to an emerging artist "Protégé" selected by the winner. The Protégé must be an individual involved in professional direction, playwriting, or design in Canadian theatre. The winner may choose to grant the amount to a single Protégé or divide it between two eligible Protégés. Three finalists also receive CAD$5,000.
History Formally, the Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, the Siminovitch Prize was launched in 2000 to honour the values and achievements of the distinguished scientist Louis ("Lou") Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore Siminovitch who was a pioneering playwright. A group of Dr. Siminovitch’s friends and colleagues came together on the occasion of his 80th birthday to create this award . Twelve individuals and six organizations founded the prize; primary amongst them was the prize's largest financial sponsor, the BMO Financial Group.
In March 2012, BMO announced that the 12th edition of the prize would be its last., In an interview one of the prize's founders, Joseph Rotman, he stated that the Siminovitch Prize was never conceived to run in perpetuity. However, in July 2013, new financial supporters were secured resulting in the revival of the Siminovitch Prize. The Prize has continued ever since, under the direction of the Siminovitch Prize Foundation, funded annually by individual donors and corporate sponsors.
Recipients The recipients of the Siminovitch Prize since its inception are:
2001 (director) - Daniel Brooks 2002 (playwright) - Carole Fréchette 2003 (designer) - Louise Campeau 2004 (director) - Jillian Keiley 2005 (playwright) - John Mighton 2006 (designer) - Dany Lyne 2007 (director) - Brigitte Haentjens 2008 (playwright) - Daniel MacIvor 2009 (designer) - Ronnie Burkett 2010 (director) - Kim Collier 2011 (playwright) - Joan MacLeod 2012 (designer) - Robert Thomson 2013 (director) - Chris Abraham (to date, the only laureate to receive both the protégé and main prize) 2014 (playwright) - Olivier Choinière 2015 (designer) - Anick La Bissonnière 2016 (director) - Nadia Ross 2017 (playwright) - Marcus Youssef"Playwright Marcus Youssef wins $100K Siminovitch Prize". CBC News, November 6, 2017. 2018 (designer) - Stéphanie Jasmin 2019 (directors) - Maiko Yamamoto and James Long 2020 (playwright) - Tara Beagan 2021 (designer) - Gillian Gallow 2022 (director) - Marie BrassardJ. Kelly Nestruck, "Marie Brassard wins 2022 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre". The Globe and Mail, December 1, 2022. 2023 (playwright) - David Yee"David Yee wins $75K Siminovitch Prize for uplifting Asian Canadian theatre community". Lethbridge Herald, December 4, 2023. 2024 (designer) - Sonoyo Nishikawa 2025 (director) - Ravi Jain
The protégé recipients of the Siminovitch prize are:
2001 - Chris Abraham 2002 - Geneviève Billet 2003 - Magalie Amyot and Michèle Magnon 2004 - Danielle Irvine 2005 - Anton Piatigorsky 2006 - Camellia Koo and April Anne Viczko 2007 - Christian Lapointe 2008 - Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn 2009 - Clea Minaker 2010 - Anita Rochon 2011 - Anusree Roy 2012 - Jason Hand and Raha Javanfar 2013 - Mitchell Cushman 2014 - Annick Lefebvre 2015 - Marilène Bastien 2016 - Shaista Laif and Sarah Conn 2017 - Christine Quintana 2018 - Max-Otto Fauteux 2019 - Conor Wylie 2020 - Joelle Peters 2021 - Joyce Padua and Joshua Quinlan 2022 - Philippe Boutin 2023 - Julie Phan 2024 - Mayumi Ide-Bergeron 2025 - Miriam Fernandes
References
External links Official website