Weyni Mengesha, d’bi.young anitafrika among Metcalf performing arts prize winners

TORONTO — Soulpepper artistic director Weyni Mengesha and dub poet d’bi.young anitafrika are among the winners of the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes.

The Metcalf Foundation announced five recipients of the $25,000 awards, which celebrate mid-career artists in Ontario who work in dance, theatre and music/opera.

Winners get to bestow a $10,000 prize on a protégé early in their career, and Mengesha chose Soulpepper’s associate artistic director Luke Reece, a poet, playwright and director.

Jamaican-Canadian theatre artist anitafrika chose writer and storyteller Sashoya Simpson, while fellow Metcalf winner, playwright and director Sarah Gartshore of Sudbury, Ont., named theatre creator and puppeteer Adam Francis Proulx.

The prize also went to two Ottawa artists – francophone playwright and actor Alain Doom, who named director Dillon Orr as protégé; and composer Kevin Lau, whose protégé is composer Michelle Lorimer.

Nominees were selected through project competitions in dance, music/opera and theatre.

Ten remaining finalists each get $2,000: Penny Couchie, Christine Friday, Donna Grantis, Haviah Mighty, Lua Shayenne, Louis Simão, Vanese Smith, Adrian Sutherland, Marni Walsh, and Naishi Wang.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.