What's New > The Siminovitch Prize Call for Nominations in Design
 |
The 2021 Siminovitch Prize nominations portal is now open, and they are calling on the theatre community to submit nominations for the most prestigious prize in Canadian theatre.
Do you know an innovative mid-career theatre designer that deserves national recognition, $75,000, and the opportunity to support a fellow emerging designer with mentorship and $25,000? Nominations will be accepted until midnight on July 11, 2021, PST.
The innovation we see on Canadian theatre stages today is due in part to the investment of the Siminovitch Prize over the past two decades. Every fall, this national prize acknowledges a professional theatre artist working in English or French whose work is transformative and influential.
“Receiving the Siminovitch Prize is an exceptional honor and recognition that enhances our work as artists and provides an invigorating impetus for our future endeavors. In this year of the pandemic that strikes at the very heart of theatrical practice and its artisans, this recognition of their creative work becomes even more vital and precious.”
– Stéphanie Jasmine, 2018 Laureate
Over a three-year cycle, the Siminovitch Prize celebrates a professional director, playwright, or designer, and in 2021 we will be honouring a mid-career designer as the Siminovitch Prize Laureate. The 2020 recipient was Ntlaka’pamux playwright Tara Beagan, and past design recipients from across Canada include Stéphanie Jasmin (2018), Anick La Bissonnière (2015), Robert Thomson (2012), Ronnie Burkett (2009), Dany Lyne (2006), and Louise Campeau (2003).
Nominations are encouraged for designers who, through their body of work, have made a significant creative contribution to theatre in Canada and who are continuing to create work that demonstrates innovation and excellence. The Siminovitch Prize is intended to provide an artist who has created remarkable work to date with the freedom to deepen their practice and make an even more significant contribution to the field in the years to come. This is not a lifetime achievement award.
Nominees must have at least ten years of experience as professional designers and will have developed a marked personal style or artistic approach to their craft. The following aspects of the artist’s work will be evaluated: originality, sense of evolution, growing maturity, continuing experimentation, impact upon audiences, and influence upon younger artists. Additional eligibility criteria can be found here.
A national jury of distinguished members of the Canadian theatre community is chosen annually to select the Siminovitch Prize recipient. The shortlist will be broadly announced in mid-October, and each artist will receive $5,000. The Laureate and Protégé, and the work of the shortlist will be celebrated during a national digital ceremony on November 25, 2021.
“The opportunity to lead a jury of diverse and passionate peers in a discussion of the incredible artists from across the country who are nominated, is a privilege. We get a glimpse of artists in the full flight of their art-making, wrestling with challenges, figuring it out. It is exciting to celebrate their effort as well as their accomplishments, and to ask, what will come next for these exemplary creators.”
– Vanessa Porteous, 2021 Siminovitch Prize Jury Chair
Please help us spread the word through your theatre companies, organizations, newsletters, and social media. Twitter: @SiminovitchPrz, Facebook: @SiminovitchPrize, #SiminovitchPrize
Questions can be directed to:
Aimée Ippersiel
Executive Director, Siminovitch Prize
aimee@siminovitchprize.com
The Siminovitch Prize Foundation thanks the annual donors and sponsors who give generously allowing us to award $120,000 each year.