2026 THA Drama Award Finalists
Mabel’s Mine by Lyndsey Bourne (BC)
Two sisters work as heavy equipment operators in an open pit mine, driving the biggest trucks in the world, driving something as big as a three-story house. Hauling oil sands through the pit, 75 meters deep inside the earth. Back and forth. Back and forth. In sub-arctic Northern Alberta. For twelve hours a day. Mabel’s Mine is a new play exploring the body and the bodily as sacrifice zones inside the largest industrial project on the planet.
Lyndsey Bourne is a playwright, teacher and doula. Her plays have been presented and developed with The Fringe Next Stage Festival (Toronto, Oct. 2024), La MaMa, New Georges, The Hearth, Ojai Playwrights Conference, New York Stage and Film, Judson, Rattlestick Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, Playwrights Horizons, The Mercury Store, Manhattan Theater Club, The Civilians, Page 73, The Public Theater, The Banff Centre For The Arts and Creativity (Playwrights Lab 2025), MacDowell, and The Vancouver Arts Club among others. Lyndsey teaches Writing and Devising for Performance at Playwrights Horizons Theater School (NYU Tisch Drama) and practices beekeeping at her community garden in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Born and raised in North Vancouver and Penticton, British Columbia, Lyndsey is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. BFA NYU, MFA Brooklyn College (with Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney).
The Ghosts of Mariupol by Christopher Morris (ON)
In 2022, Russia bombed Ukraine’s Mariupol Theatre, killing over 600 people sheltering there. Amongst them were staff and artists of the Mariupol Theatre. Following this, some of these artists moved to a town in Western Ukraine to continue their company’s work. And in Mariupol, Russia rebuilt the theatre they bombed and has been sending Moscow-based theatre directors to stage propogandist productions with local Ukrainian theatre artists, some of which are Mariupol Theatre artists who survived the bombing. The Ghosts of Mariupol follows the fractured relationship between two actresses, best friends, as one collaborates with Russians on a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, while the other creates a show for wounded Ukrainian soldiers in a rehabilitation hospital in Western Ukraine. Inspired by the true stories of Mariupol theatre artists, The Ghosts of Mariupol is a story about survival, the limits of friendship and the power of theatre during war.
Christopher Morris is an actor, playwright and director and the artistic director of the Toronto-based theatre company Human Cargo. His most recent play tremblements premiered at Montréal’s ESPACE GO in November/2023, a French-language collaboration between Human Cargo and Québécois theatre artists. The Runner premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2018 to critical acclaim winning three Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding New Play and has been touring across Canada since. Other credits include: Our Beautiful Sons (Blyth Festival); The Road to Paradise (co-playwright with Jonathan Garfinkel – Human Cargo/Crow’s Theatre/Buddies in Bad Times); Night (Human Cargo/National Arts Centre) and Return: The Sarajevo Project (co-playwright, Dora nomination). Christopher is currently writing the book and lyrics for a musical adaptation of Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage. He is the recipient of the Canada Council’s 2012 Joh Hirsch Prize for emerging directors and the 2005 K.M. Hunter Award for Theatre.
Medusa by Erin Shields (ON)
A furious, fearless imagining of Medusa’s story. Before the serpents, before the legend, there was a woman caught in a world that feared her power. Pulled through time from ancient myth to a modern day Rage Room, Medusa is a raw, electrifying dive into female fury – the kind that’s been silenced, punished and finally set free. As she grapples with the voices that haunt her, the forces that shape her, and the rage that refuses to be contained, Medusa immerses audiences in a world where women’s fury is both feared and necessary. Visceral, theatrical, and unflinching, this is a story that will either release your inner serpents or turn you to stone.
Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for radical adaptations of classical texts which bring neglected female characters centre stage. Her latest play, You, Always, which premiered at Canadian Stage in February, is an ode to sisterhood. This past summer, Erin’s retelling of the Trojan War narrative from the perspective of its female players premiered at The Stratford Festival. Her additional text for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (Stratford Festival) gives a voice to silenced Hero at the climax of the play. Other highlights include: Queen Goneril (Soulpepper), Paradise Lost (Stratford), Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre), Piaf/Dietrich (Mirvish Productions/Segal Centre), Beautiful Man (Factory Theatre), The Lady from the Sea (The Shaw Festival) and If We Were Birds (Tarragon Theatre). Upcoming plays include Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary (Crow’s Theatre) and Medusa (Soulpepper Theatre). Erin’s plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press and you can read more about upcoming projects on her website – www.erinshields.ca.
Special thanks to Drama Award Peer Assessment Panelists: Katrina Dunn (Chair), Barry Bilinsky, Daniel Macdonald.