2025 THA Peer Assessment Panelists
Carol Bolt Award
With the generous support of multiple organizations
Peer Assessment Panelists: Karen Hines (Chair), Philip Akin, and Robert Tsonos
Philip Akin is an award-winning cultural leader and has been acting and directing for over 45 years. He is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading Black theatre company, and served as its Artistic Director from 2006 to 2020. Selected directing credits include Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Gatsby Jazz, Sonny’s Blues by Jay Turvey/Paul Sportelli (Shaw Festival), Million Billion Pieces by David Brock/Gareth Williams (Young People’s Theatre), Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu (Obsidian Theatre), Actually by Anne Zeigler (Harold Green Jewish Theatre), and The Humans by Stephen Karam. Philip Akin has been the recipient of the Silver Ticket Award, the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award, the Playwrights Guild of Canada Bra d’Or Award, the William Kilbourn Award, the Herbert Whittaker/CTCA Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, as well as the Life Membership Award from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
Karen Hines began her theatrical career as an underground sketch performer, and emerged as the author of multiple award-winning plays, which have been presented across North America at venues including One Yellow Rabbit, Tarragon Theatre, Boca del Lupo, Alberta Theatre Projects, Soulpepper, World Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Centre, and Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre). She is a two-time finalist for Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (for The Pochsy Plays; Drama: Pilot Episode) and a 2020 finalist for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Hines is also the Dora Award-winning director of international adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot, and has directed the creations of other beloved Canadian artists such as Linda Griffiths (Age of Arousal, ATP) and Michelle Thrush (Inner Elder, OYR, Native Earth, NAC). She is a Dora Award-winning performer (Pochsy) and a Gemini nominee (Married Life) and was “Karen” on the Emmy Award-winning series Newsroom (PBS/CBC). Her own prize-winning short films featuring the character “Pochsy,” have screened around the world.
Robert Tsonos is a director, playwright, actor, and is currently the Artistic Director of Watermark Theatre in PEI. He has had a distinguished international directing career having worked in Japan, Hong Kong, England, and Venezuela. For Watermark he has directed The Glass Menagerie, Barefoot in the Park, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, A Moon For The Misbegotten, Boeing Boeing, The Gin Game, Cottagers & Indians, and Same Time Next Year. Tsonos was the resident director at the Canadian Embassy Theatre in Tokyo from 2003 to 2006. As a playwright, Robert‘s play It’s Time won the Uprising National Playwriting Competition, placed 2nd in the 84th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, and was a finalist for the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition. His play The Hum was produced in Hong Kong; was a finalist for The Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition; and was published by Level 4 Press in “Regional Best 2012”. His play William & James has been produced in Toronto (Theatre Passe Muraille), New York, Montreal and Ottawa. His other plays include In His Name, Sharnoozle!, which toured international schools in Tokyo, the CBC Radio play Ice Age, as well as I Am Not The One, and Running – 3 short plays.
Supported by: Playwrights Canada Press, Scirocco Drama, Alberta Playwrights Network, Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Manitoba Association of Playwrights, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.
Comedy Award
Supported by an Anonymous Donor
Peer Assessment Panelists: Kevin Loring (Chair), Natasha MacLellan, and Zahida Rahemtulla
Kevin Loring (Nlaka’pamux, Lytton First Nation) is a Canadian playwright, actor, and director, currently serving as the first Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre. He has received numerous accolades, including the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama and the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script for Where the Blood Mixes (2009), which also received a nomination for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. His 2019 work, Thanks for Giving, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Drama. His writing credits feature Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, Battle of the Birds, and The Boy Who Was Abandoned. In 2023, he collaborated with true-crime author Peter Edwards on Lytton: Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire, reflecting on the community’s history and its significance to the Nlaka’pamux people after the devastating wildfire in 2021. Loring has served as co-curator of the Talking Stick Festival, Artist in Residence at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, and current Artistic Director of Savage Society in Vancouver.
Natasha MacLellan‘s love of new scripts was fostered through Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre where she mentored with Jenny Munday. When she was young and foolish, she started Forerunner Playwrights Theatre, which produced new works in Halifax for a decade and then spent six seasons as the Artistic Producer of Ship’s Company Theatre. For the last six years, she has been the Artistic & Executive Director of TNB, where she has been reinvigorating their new play output. Before she became a full-time producer, Natasha worked as an actor, director, teacher and dramaturge, and she still does those things, when she can.
Zahida Rahemtulla grew up in Burnaby on the unceded territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh-speaking peoples, and later spent years in Metchosin, Abu Dhabi, and Toronto. Her first play, The Wrong Bashir—an intergenerational family comedy about the Ismaili community—premiered to sold-out, critically acclaimed runs in Vancouver and Toronto (Touchstone Theatre, 2023; Crow’s Theatre, 2024). An audio version of the play was released by CBC’s PlayME in May 2025. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award, Theatre BC’s Play of Special Merit Award, the Fringe New Play Prize, and runner-up for the national Voaden Prize in Playwriting. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Alice Munro Short Story Festival Award and longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize.
Dan School of Drama & Music Musical Award
Supported by DAN School of Drama & Music
Peer Assessment Panelists: Kevin Wong (Chair), Jamie Bradley, and Krystle Pederson
Jamie Bradley began his career in the Arts as playwright and performer with several Nova Scotia children’s theatres before moving on to writing the books for (and directing) over 25 musical dinner theatre comedies throughout the Maritimes. His more recent plays are Before the Leaves Turn; Jukie & Her Dad; and the books for the musicals, Titanic: The Fated Voyage and KAMP. KAMP was nominated for ten and won five 2019 Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Awards, including “Outstanding Production of the Year” and it presently holds the record for the most successful production in the Neptune Studio Theatre’s 30-year history. Along with musical partner Scott Owen, Jamie has written the book and lyrics for an historic, musical farce, Parlour Tricks, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Dan School of Music & Drama Musical Award. Jamie’s varied career includes: stage & screen actor, puppeteer, voice actor, multiple award-winning improviser, and a frequent writer/performer for CBC Radio dramas. He lives in his native Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife Anne, a substantial Hot Wheels Batmobile collection, and 103 fountain pens.
Krystle Pederson is a Saskatchewan-based Cree/Metis actor, singer/songwriter performing across North America and New Zealand. Krystle is a recipient of the CBC Future 40 Award, shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Arts Awards as well as a nomination in the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards. Krystle’s list of acting credits includes a supporting role in Run: Broken Yet Brave, CBC Gem Series: Zarqa (Season 1), APTN: Chums, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre: The (Post) Mistress, NAC: Gabriel Dumont Wild West Show, Persephone Theatre: Reasonable Doubt, Manitoba Theatre for Young People: Frozen River, Caravan Farm Theatre: The Nutcracker, IMAGO: The Flood, Savage Society: You Used to Call Me Marie.
Kevin Wong is a composer-lyricist, singer/musician, and dramaturg. His musicals include: Recurring John: A Song Cycle; Polly Peel (with Julie Tepperman); Out of Stock; Drama 101 (with Steven Gallagher); In Real Life (with Nick Green); Believers (with Ali Joy Richardson), Take Me Back (with Amir Haidar); and Soft Magical Tofu Boys. Kevin streams online concerts weekly on the streaming service Twitch (twitch.tv/kevinywong). He is a member of the vocal group Asian Riffing Trio (with Chris Tsujiuchi and Colin Asuncion), is currently part-time faculty at Sheridan College, and is a three-time winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Dan School of Drama & Music Award for New Musical. As of 2023, he is the Creative Lead on the Musical Stage Company’s UnCovered concert series. Most recently, he can be heard on his albums Small Ways to Move and Covers (available on streaming services).
Drama Award
Supported by the National Arts Centre
Peer Assessment Panelists: Tetsuro Shigematsu (Chair), Pamela Halstead and Jamie Robinson
Pamela Halstead is a dramaturge, director, actor, educator, and arts administrator based in Kjipuktuk, colonially known as Halifax. She served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, assisting and supporting playwrights from across Atlantic Canada and beyond. Pamela has served as Artistic Director for Lunchbox Theatre (Calgary, AB) and Ship’s Company Theatre (Parrsboro, NS). In the 10 years between these two companies, she dramaturged, directed, and/or produced over 60 productions, primarily premieres of new works. Most recently, Pamela served as the Interim Artistic Producer of Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, leading the organization through a time of significant change. Pamela is the recipient of the inaugural Evans Award (2013 Calgary Critics’ Awards) for her contribution to the vibrancy of Calgary’s theatre community, the 2019 PGC Bra d’Or Award winner for her support and promotion of Canadian women playwrights, and the 2024 Robert Merritt Legacy Award for outstanding contribution to the professional theatre in Nova Scotia.
Jamie Robinson has been a Toronto based professional artist since 1997 as an actor, director, producer, educator and writer. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level Acting and Directing in York University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance, where he is a founding member of the School of Arts, Media, Performance, and Design’s Decolonization, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee. His research continues to explore inclusive and accessible Theatre for both artists and audiences, introducing play scripts written by traditionally marginalized groups into classes, and organizing/participating in professional and academic theatre events focused upon diverse casting practices. Select director credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage in High Park), 1184 (The Aga Khan/Phoenix Arts), Madness with Rocks (CBC Gem/Obsidian Theatre), Copy That (Tarragon Theatre), Scotian Journey (Black Theatre Workshop), She Stoops to Conquer and Romeo & Juliet (Guild Festival Theatre, also as Artistic Director). Theatre acting credits include: four seasons with the Stratford Festival, Much Ado About Nothing & Measure for Measure (Canadian Stage), Risky Phil (Young People’s Theatre. Dora Award Winner, Outstanding Performance), Gas Girls (New Harlem Productions. Dora Award Nomination), title role in Richard III (Metachroma Theatre. METAward nomination). Jamie was also co-editor of Canadian Theatre Review 173 where his article, “The Conscious-Casting Conundrum” won the Nathan Cohen Award for Outstanding Critical Essay.
Tetsuro Shigematsu, PhD, was born in London, England. At the age of 19, he became the youngest playwright and director to compete in the history of the Quebec Drama Festival. He has studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg, and Butoh with Kazuo Ohno. A former writer for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Tetsuro was the first person of colour to host a daily national radio program in Canada. His last three stage plays have received 21 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations, including three for “Best Original Script.” His solo work, Empire of the Son, was hailed by theatre critic Colin Thomas as “one of the best shows ever to come out of Vancouver. Ever.” His other solo piece, 1 Hour Photo, was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Drama. Tetsuro earned his MFA in Creative Writing, and PhD in Research-based Theatre at the University of British Columbia, where he was a Vanier scholar. Currently, he is co-leader of the LEAP program at The Arts Club, teaches theatre at the University of the Fraser Valley, and is Creative Director of the Research-based Theatre Lab at UBC.
RBC Emerging Playwright Award
Supported by the RBC Emerging Artist Project
Peer Assessment Panelists: Suzie Martin (Chair), Rebecca Cuddy, and Michaela Di Cesare
Rebecca Cuddy, Métis mezzo-soprano and multi-disciplinary artist, is a 2024 Opera Canada Rubie Award recipient, two-time Dora Award nominated performer and named to CBC’s top classical 30 Under 30 List. She has quickly gained international recognition on both concert and operatic stages and is a sought after collaborator for new theatrical and classical works. She joined Tapestry Opera as Assistant Director for Sanctuary Song in May 2025. Highlighted directing credits include Stratford Festival 2022 Langham Directors’ workshop and Assistant Directing under Alisa Palmer on Hamlet-911 by Ann-Marie MacDonald. She has written, created and directed a number of mixed media theatrical projects including The Maydee Box for the Festival of Live Digital Arts, 2022 and where the water meets the land for the Canadian Opera Company. www.rebeccacuddy.com
Michaela Di Cesare is a playwright and performer with a Master’s Degree in Drama from the University of Toronto. Michaela’s solo show 8 Ways my Mother was Conceived was presented in Toronto, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, Hudson, Winnipeg, and Stratford. Michaela wrote and performed in In Search of Mrs. Pirandello (2016 WildSide Festival Centaur Theatre) followed by the world premiere of Successions in the 2017/2018 Centaur Theatre season (Outstanding New Text, METAs 2018). Her play FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) premiered with Geordie Productions in September 2019 (Outstanding New Text Nomination, METAs 2020). Her play Extra/Beautiful/U won first place in the 2017 Write on Q competition presented by Infinithéâtre and received its world premiere in their 2023/2024 season. Michaela was playwright-in-residence at Centaur Theatre for the 2019/2020 season writing Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Dirty. Ugly) and the play had its world premiere with Theatre Ouest End in May 2025. Her play Hot Blooded Foreigner was commissioned by Tableau D’Hôte Theatre. Screenwriting credits include the web series Sex & Ethnicity and the short film The Carcass. She is currently shopping a feature length holiday romance Mistletoe & Marinara. In development are a comedy series The Simulators and a dramatic miniseries What You Deserve.
Suzie Martin works as a director and dramaturg in theatres and in non-traditional spaces to re-interpret classics, stage contemporary plays, develop new scripts, and lead collaborative devising processes. She was nominated for a Sterling Award for Outstanding Direction of a Fringe play in 2018 and holds a teaching award and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Alberta. She has served as Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM) since 2022. Directing work includes: Prophecy (TPM); among men (TPM/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Oh, The Humanity (guest director, University of Winnipeg); Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (guest director, UAlberta Studio Theatre); Vasilisa & Baba Yaga (Alberta Musical Theatre Company); Tragedy: A Tragedy (Blarney Productions); Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi (Manitoba Underground Opera); Fetch (Interloper Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (guest director, Citadel Theatre Young Acting Company); Over Her Dead Body, The Object of Constellations (Small Matters Productions); God’s Ear (UAlberta Studio Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (Theatre by the River & ECHO theatre).
Theatre for Young Audiences Award
Supported by the Estate of Rachel Wyatt
Peer Assessment Panelists: Jan Taylor (Chair), Lily Falk, and Michele Riml
Lily Falk is a theatre maker and outdoor educator based in Kjipuktuk. She’s co-artistic director of Gale Force Theatre where she collaborates on original works, often for families, often involving puppets, and sometimes outside! In summer 2025, she co-directed an outdoor poetry spectacular based on Icarus, Falling of Birds by Harry Thurston and Thaddeus Holownia. Recently, you may have caught her co-facilitating theatre making ensembles for preteens and teens in collaboration with the Adventure Earth Centre. Or at one of the city’s parks as an Art Biker with Wonder’neath. As an outdoor educator, she’s worked in a variety of specialized programs for children and youth with disabilities to participate in transformative outdoor experiences. Lily’s facilitation weaves together art-making, administration, the outdoors, and community building as a way to illuminate our interconnectedness, share our joy, and build resiliency. Lily is the Perform! Artists in the Schools Coordinator at Theatre Nova Scotia.
Michele Riml is a critically acclaimed playwright from Vancouver. Her first play, Souvenirs, won The BC Young Playwrights Search. Some of her other works include Under the Influence, Poster Boys, RAGE (which has been produced in French, Polish, and German and is winner of the 2005 Sydney Risk Award), On the Edge, and The Amaryllis, which was produced by The Search Party and premiered at The Fire Hall Theatre in Vancouver in the fall of 2020. The Cull, co-written with Michael St. John Smith, premiered at The Arts Club Theatre in 2023. Michele’s play Sexy Laundry has become an international hit, translated into more than 17 languages, and enjoyed by audiences in Canada, the United States, and Europe. It continues to be produced worldwide, along with its sequel Henry and Alice: Into the Wild. Michele also writes for young audiences, and her plays for YPT have been widely produced and translated. These include The Skinny Lie, The Invisible Girl, and Tree Boy, which was published by National Geographic and most recently produced in Athens, Greece. Her most recent play, She Shoots, She Scores!, an adaptation of hockey legend Cammi Granato’s book I Can Play, Too!, will premiere in 2026 with Green Thumb Theatre. Michele is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s FPA program. In 2008, she was nominated for the Siminovitch Prize.
Jan Taylor is a freelance playwright, director, dramaturge, educator, and theatre producer in the Edmonton area. Playwriting credits include book and lyrics for the family musicals: Alberto the Dancing Alligator, The Wizard that Was… or Was Not, and Bones in the Stones; family shows, Fiddle Cat and over 15 scripts for Kompany Family Theatre’s Camp Squealy-Moo Interactive Children’s Series. Jan has also directed and scripted a host of collectively-created pieces: including In True Pirate Fashion, Tales From a Laundry Basket, along with many others. Jan is currently the Artistic Director of Kompany Family Theatre.