Four bridge-building playwrights make short list for $75,000 Siminovitch Prize

By: The Canadian Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

TORONTO - Four playwrights who bridge divides on stage and off have been shortlisted for the $75,000 Siminovitch Prize.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/10/2023 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Four playwrights who bridge divides on stage and off have been shortlisted for the $75,000 Siminovitch Prize.

It’s Canada’s biggest theatre purse, and it goes to an artist whose work helps transform the country’s theatre scene.

This year’s list of finalists includes d’bi.young anitafrika of Brampton, Ont., who is committed to creating work that centres Black queer feminist theatrical forms, and who has also dedicated time and energy to mentoring other theatre artists.

Berni Stapleton, left to right, Mishka Lavigne, d’bi.young anitafrika, and David Yee are seen in a composite image made from four undated handout photos. The four playwrights, who bridge divides on stage and off, are on the short list for the $75,000 Siminovitch Prize. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Simnovitch Prize, Marianne Duval, Dahlia Katz, *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Berni Stapleton, left to right, Mishka Lavigne, d’bi.young anitafrika, and David Yee are seen in a composite image made from four undated handout photos. The four playwrights, who bridge divides on stage and off, are on the short list for the $75,000 Siminovitch Prize. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Simnovitch Prize, Marianne Duval, Dahlia Katz, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Francophone playwright Mishka Lavigne of Gatineau, Que., also made the short list, for work in French and English.

Jurors say St. John’s, N.L., artist Berni Stapleton made the list for her “bold and unyielding commitment” to portraying women and girls from her province on stage and “making a place for them and gender nonconformists in the canon.”

Rounding out the short list is David Yee of Toronto, who jurors praise for both his artistic range and commitment to supporting Asian Canadian and BIPOC artists in his city.

The winner is set to be announced Dec. 4. That person will receive $75,000 and an additional $25,000 to award to a protege. Runners-up will get $5,000 apiece, plus another $5,000 to award to an emerging artist.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2023.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

You’re a solid, loyal sister, so worry not

Maureen Scurfield 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I ran into my sister’s husband at the bar recently. He was drinking with a bunch of people from his work. I noticed he was sitting close to a young woman, with his arm around her.

I just nodded without a smile as I slowly passed them. I kept on going, but he knew I saw them together. A few minutes later he came over — obviously drunk — and said, “You’re a good girl! You won’t say anything to your sister, will you?” Ha! I looked at him and said, “Of course I’m going to say something!”

My loyalty will always be to my sister. I phoned my sis in my car and blabbed. She tried to laugh it off, but she’s gone silent since — not answering my calls or messages. So apparently now I’m the troublemaker? That’d be just her style! What should I do?

— Worried About Us, North Kildonan

Free Press staff 2 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Advance voting for civic and school board elections begins next week.

Voters can cast early ballots for the Oct. 28 election in certain locations from Monday through Oct. 23.

Eligible voters can use their address to search for a convenient location.

Early votes can be cast at the council building at city hall (510 Main St.) every day, except weekends and Thanksgiving, from Monday to Oct. 23.

Letters, Oct. 3

7 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

A morning in the life …

My very first lesson does not start when I walk into that lecture hall, oh no — it starts long before. It begins when I walk to my car, check the estimated arrival time to the University of Manitoba and hope that Winnipeg traffic agrees with it.

A drive that appears completely manageable changes almost immediately when I’m greeted by a tsunami of orange pylons and a line of cars that appears to go on forever. Traffic moves by the inch, lanes magically disappear and the detour I took yesterday now has a detour of its own. These factors make me do a calculation that I have become all too familiar with. How late can I arrive and still find parking, run to my class across campus and get to class with enough time left to make it worth it?

I have grown used to people saying, “Why not just leave earlier?” I do. But when I’m already leaving for my 8:30 a.m. class at 7 a.m., there’s only so much I can do. This drive that some would think is relaxing is one that feels like an assignment that I didn’t know I had to complete and is due at 8:30 a.m.

Kent Monkman stands next to his new permanent sculpture, dubbed “The Colony,” as shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout-Michael Seleski (Mandatory Credit)

Manitoban Kent Monkman debuts beaver sculpture in Toronto’s ambitious new waterfront park

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Manitoban Kent Monkman debuts beaver sculpture in Toronto’s ambitious new waterfront park

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 9:17 AM CDT

TORONTO - Kent Monkman’s first-ever public art installation is dam good.

The celebrated Cree artist’s new permanent sculpture, dubbed “The Colony,” debuts Wednesday in Toronto’s east end.

The 15-foot-high bronze structure features beavers dancing, feasting and celebrating, evoking Indigenous ceremonies.

It highlights the vital role of beavers in the natural, Indigenous and colonial histories of Turtle Island, says a release.

Read
Updated: 9:17 AM CDT
INSTAGRAM Prediction contracts let you ‘invest’ in whether Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry will get married.

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Editorial 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Let’s make a prediction: sooner or later, when Canadian governments find a way to take their own cut of the action, prediction-contract gambling on everything from sports to entertainment to political decisions is going to come to Canada.

And that’s a horrible, dangerous, pernicious idea.

Unless you have particular access to information — either inside information or strategic information based on skills or education — you’re not likely to make money at it. In fact, structurally, you’re likely to lose. In prediction markets, you basically pay an amount, plus fees from the company involved, to bet on whether something will or will not happen within a certain time frame. The amount you pay for your contract depends on how other people are also betting.

As Wealthsimple describes it, “You buy whichever side you think is right. Prices move with demand, so if the market leans towards one outcome, the more that side costs. If a lot of people are backing the TSX to finish above 38,000, yes gets more expensive and no gets cheaper.”

Read
2:01 AM CDT
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Being an inner-city school comes with challenges but also fosters an underdog mindset that leads to exceptional accomplishments.

Gordon Bell rings in a century

Maggie Macintosh 13 minute read Preview

Gordon Bell rings in a century

Maggie Macintosh 13 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT

Mischka Valencia had gotten used to the hum of heavy machinery at Gordon Bell High School.

“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s all been under construction,” the Grade 12 student said, standing on the sidelines of the brightly painted revamped outdoor basketball court. “I had no idea this was a court.”

The Filipina teenager landed in Winnipeg several months after the inner-city campus had transformed into a construction site.

It was the fall of 2023 and Mischka’s priorities were fitting in, befriending classmates and learning a third language via first-period French.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT