Jury Chair (2002)

Bill Glassco is the founder of Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, founding co-artistic director of Canadian Stage and, most recently, founder of the Montreal Young Company. Born in Quebec City, Mr. Glassco studied at Princeton, Oxford and University of Toronto, where he began his career teaching English. He left to study acting and directing in New York, returning in 1969 to Toronto where, two years later, he founded the Tarragon. A director, translator and teacher, he has been committed to the growth of Canadian theatre and the nurturing of the nation’s dramatists, introducing audiences to the works of David French and Michel Tremblay, among many others. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and his other distinctions include Dora Mavor Moore and Sterling Awards for his direction of Cloud 9 and Nothing Sacred, respectively.

Jury Members

Nicola Lipman is one of Atlantic Canada’s most distinguished actors. She has performed regularly on stages across Canada and is currently in rehearsal for Theatre Calgary’s Death of a Salesman. She is particularly interested in the development of Canadian writers, and has appeared in numerous workshops and premieres of new works. Ms. Lipman was born in Vancouver and raised in England and Brazil. She returned to Canada as a teenager, attended the University of British Columbia and is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. She has resided in Halifax for nearly 20 years, where she has served on the Board of Directors for the Neptune, Eastern Front and Mermaid Theatres. She has also served on Canada Council and Nova Scotia Arts Juries, and has been a member of the executive of Canadian Actors Equity and ACTRA.

Leonard McHardy is the co-owner and co-founder of TheatreBooks in Toronto – for more than 25 years a leading source of books on the performing arts in Canada. An actor and director in Canada and the U.K., Mr. McHardy has also worked as the Director of Press and Public Relations for the Stratford Festival. He has served as a juror for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Chalmers Playwriting Awards, was a board member and President of the Theatre Museum, and volunteers his time to numerous organizations, including PEN International.

John Murrell is one of the most frequently produced of all Canadian playwrights. His plays have been translated into 15 languages and performed in more than 30 countries around the world. Mr. Murrell began writing plays more than 30 years ago, and is currently Artistic Director/Executive Producer of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre. He has worked as playwright-in-residence at both Theatre Calgary and Alberta Theatre Projects, as an Associate Director of the Stratford Festival, as Head of the Banff Playwrights Colony, and as Head of the Theatre Section of the Canada Council. A resident of Calgary, his many plays include Waiting for the Parade, Farther West and The Faraway Nearby, all of which were honoured with Chalmers Best Canadian Play Awards.

Maryse Warda has been active in theatre for more than 10 years. During her tenure at Montreal’s Théâtre de Quat’Sous, she was instrumental in her role as literary translator in bringing the works of English Canadian writers such as Brad Fraser and George F. Walker to francophone audiences. Her translations are celebrated for being faithful to the original, while making effective yet unostentatious use of the Quebec idiom. Her translation of four plays from Walker’s Suburban Motel series earned her a Masque trophy in 2000 from the Académie québécoise du théâtre and a nomination in 2001 for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Ms Warda is a graduate of Université de Montréal in English literature.

Jury Members 2007
Jury Members 2006
Jury Members 2005
Jury Members 2004
Jury Members 2003
Jury Members 2001