Montreal playwright Olivier Choiniere lands $100,000 Siminovitch Prize

TORONTO – Montreal playwright Olivier Choiniere has won this year’s Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.

Jury chair John Van Burek cited Choiniere’s “astonishing and daring originality” as he received the $100,000 prize in Toronto on Monday.

In a statement, Van Burek said Choiniere “seems destined to not only leave his mark on Canadian theatre, but to somehow transform and renew it.”

Choiniere, a National Theatre School graduate, has been shortlisted for several Governor General’s Awards.

He chose Annick Lefebvre as his Siminovitch award protegee and recipient of $25,000 from his total prize purse.

Created in 2001 in honour of scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, the prize recognizes a body of work in design, direction and playwriting in three-year cycles.

“Over and above the money or the time and means it provides, the real significance of this prize is this: to encourage the pursuit of an ever greater freedom, among those few that last and endure,” Choiniere said in a statement.

The other finalists for this year’s Siminovitch Prize were playwrights Michel Marc Bouchard, Hannah Moscovitch and Colleen Murphy.