Jury Chair (2008)

Leonard McHardy is a co-owner and co-founder of TheatreBooks in Toronto, a leading source of books on the performing arts in Canada for more than 30 years. Having acted and directed in Canada and the U.K., Mr. McHardy was invited to the Stratford Festival by Urjo Kareda and Robin Phillips where he served as Director of Press and Public Relations for four seasons. He has served as a juror for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in Toronto and the Chalmers Playwriting Awards. Currently he is the board President for the internationally acclaimed Necessary Angel Theatre Company. Mr. McHardy was also a board member and President of the Theatre Museum, and volunteers his time to numerous organizations, including among them PEN International.

Jury Members

Patricia Hamilton has appeared on stages from coast to coast in Canada and the US, including the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, and also in Europe in London, Edinburgh and Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the founding producer of Masterclass Theatre in Toronto, and for seven years, the director of The Advanced Actors Workshop at the Banff Centre. She has directed at the Tarragon and Factory Theatres in Toronto and at the Shaw Festival. As a teacher/director she has worked at George Brown Theatre School, Sheridan College and Fanshawe College. In an acting career of over 45 years, she has been the recipient of several acting awards(Dora Award, Gemini Award, Genie Award) plus the Brenda Donohue award and the Silver Ticket Award.

Paul Lefebvre is a translator, stage director, dramaturge and theatre scholar. From September 2001 to December 2007, he was the Associate Artistic Director of the Théâtre français at the National Arts Centre. Since 2003, he has been the Artistic programmer of the Festival Zones Théâtrales. In January 2008, he also became NAC Artistic Attaché. Prior to that, he was for eleven years the Literary Manager of the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier and the Associate Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre, both in Montreal. To date, he has translated 16 plays, including A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel and Unity (1918) by Kevin Kerr. He has also directed plays, including Le Sang de Mishi by Franz-Xavier Kroetz and Le Lit de mort by Yvan Bienvenue.

Vicki Stroich is Dramaturg at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary, where she has been a member of the Play Development team for seven years. In addition to her work at Alberta Theatre Projects – which has included dramaturgy and programming for the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays, and dramaturgy at the Banff Centre’s Banff Playwrights Colony – Vicki also freelances as a dramaturge, facilitator and director. Her work has included dramaturgy of both dramatic text and performance creation. Vicki is a member of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas.

John Van Burek, a director, teacher and translator, has had a long career in theatre in Canada. He has directed over 100 productions in English or French. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Toronto’s Pleiades Theatre which does plays originating in languages other than English and he was the founding Artistic Director of Théâtre français de Toronto. He has taught at Canada’s National Theatre School/École Nationale, York University, Ryerson University, Carnegie Mellon University and, in England, at Nottingham School for the Performing Arts. He has translated more than 40 plays, including the major works of Michel Tremblay, Marivaux, Goldoni and, most recently, Molière. He has been awarded the Prix Alliance, the Toronto Drama Bench Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Ordre de la Pléïade de la Francophonie and a Queen's Jubilee Medal. John is a former member of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal.