2026 THA Carol Bolt Award Finalists
Supported by Playwrights Canada Press, York University Department of Theatre, Dance, & Performance, Scirocco Drama, Alberta Playwrights Network, Manitoba Association of Playwrights, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.
The Neighbours by Nicolas Billon (ON)
Simon and Denise reside in a modest house on a quiet street, their life blissfully low-key and unassuming. But when it comes to light that their next-door neighbour has been hiding a sinister secret, it forces the couple to re-examine the past, leading the audience to a surprising conclusion that asks hard questions about the bonds that unite us.
Nic’s literary vocation surfaced at the age of six, when he wrote and illustrated a story on index cards about a rampaging robot. He stapled the cards together and sold Le Robot to his mother for a tidy profit. Today, his work is known for its challenging subject matter blended with humour, twists, and deep humanism. The Elephant Song, Nic’s first play, premiered at the Stratford Festival in 2004; it has since been produced around the world and was made into a feature film in 2014. Several of his other plays, most notably Iceland and Butcher, have had major productions across Canada and internationally. Accolades include a Governor-General’s Award for Drama, a Canadian Screen Award, and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award.
Rez Gas by Cale Crow & Genevieve Adam (ON)
After moving away from his home reservation to pursue a music career, Destin stumbles back into town with unexpected car trouble and lands at the Wide Wigwam, the diner at the center of the community. There he finds many of those who he left behind and who want to remind him of his history and his place in the community. Described as Corner Gas meets Come From Away, Rez Gas is a beautiful expression of Indigenous joy with a hip-hop-infused, unforgettable score.
Genevieve Adam is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre School and holds an MFA from East15Acting School in the UK. Selected acting credits include Ginny &Georgia, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Mrs. America, The Handmaid’s Tale, Stag&Doe (Capitol Theatre), Annabel (BBC4), Measure for Measure (Thought for Food) and Recall (Toronto Fringe) – for which she was nominated as Outstanding Actress. As a playwright, her works have garnered nominations at the Doras (Heartless, Aki Studios), SummerWorks (Deceitful Above All Things: Outstanding New Play, Best Emerging Artist), Playwright’s Guild (Heratio, Tom Hendry Comedy) and Toronto Fringe (If the Shoe Fits, New Writing). Her play Dark Heart was named one of the top theatrical productions of the year by the Toronto Star. An audio version of her New France trilogy can currently be heard on the Stratford Festival’s Stratfest@Home digital platform. In 2025, Genevieve was awarded ACTRA’s Outstanding Performer Award for her role in this audio series. Genevieve is also the poet behind the whimsical #haikusofthepandemic, now available in paperback. www.genevieveadam.com
Born and raised on the Alderville First Nation territory in central Ontario, Canada, Cale Crowe was fueled by music from the time he had a heartbeat. That love of music & sense of “life soundtrack” would lead him to picking up his father’s guitar for the first time at age 12 and performing live for his first audience at 14. Cale himself says that “[at the time] music was [his] way of connecting & communicating with an outside world [he] longed to be a part of.” Today, performing using an acoustic guitar, an electronic drum pad, and a loop station pedal, Cale has performed at bars, theatres, and festivals from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Albuquerque, New Mexico. His blend of campfire-style folk and modern pop/rock reflects & builds upon the taste he developed all those years ago. Cale is finishing a third EP: 2024’s “Burn Blue”, an eight-song journey spanning multiple genres and themed around loss, regret, hope, and resilience. As for the future, Cale only hopes to continue to connect with people and uplift them with his music. Wherever life takes him, Cale will keep telling his story – and the stories of others – behind an acoustic guitar and a microphone.
Cult Play by Scout Rexe (QC)
Cult Play is a suspenseful solo show that pairs live performance and multimedia to explore coercion, intimacy, and the aesthetics of power. What would you do if the life you always dreamed of came at a price you never expected? Alex meets a captivating woman who is everything she’s ever wanted. Taylor opens the door to a thrilling new world… but what if it’s all a trap? Cult Play immerses the audience in Alex’s journey and the seductive power of belonging. In revealing her dark archive, Alex invites you to step into a thought experiment that questions the boundaries between voyeur and participant.
Scout Rexe is a playwright and dramaturg. Scout’s Cult Play received its world premiere with Imago Theatre in Fall 2025 followed by a production at Neptune Theatre in Winter 2026. Her other plays include O Death, a nuanced exploration of cancel culture, trans identity, and the legacy of our cultural icons, and This is the August, a darkly funny love story about generational frictions, fame, and the blurring of public and private selves, which premiered at SummerWorks. Their short play Lodged in the Body toured nationally and internationally with Theatre of the Beat. Scout has participated in residencies at Gros Morne and Riding Mountain National Parks, Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island, and the Stratford Festival. As a dramaturg, Scout has collaborated on new plays with artists across Canada and the UK. Scout holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and a BA from Concordia University.
Special thanks to Carol Bolt Award Peer Assessment Panelists: Pâmela Mala Sinha (Chair), Len Falkenstein, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard