Vancouver playwright Marcus Youssef has won the 2017 Siminovitch Prize, called Canada’s most prestigious theatre prize. The prize is worth $100,000, with Youssef getting $75,000 and $25,000 going to his chosen protégée, actor and playwright Christine Quintana, co-artistic producer of Vancouver’s Delinquent Theatre. “The final deliberations were intense, but in awarding the prize to Marcus Youssef, we were absolutely delighted to be able to celebrate a mid-career artist whose work was already of the highest calibre and was, in fact, changing the face of Canadian theatre,” said jury chair Bob White in a news release. The other finalists were Montreal’s Évelyne de la Chenelière, Ottawa-born Hannah Moscovitch, who frequently works in Toronto, and Toronto’s Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. Youssef’s work — including such plays as A Line in the Sand, Winners and Losers, and King Arthur’s Night — has been performed across North America, Australia and Europe, including Toronto.

Source: thestar November 07, 2017 18:45 UTC