The Governor General's Award for English-language drama honours excellence in Canadian English-language playwriting. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama was divided.
Because the award is presented for plays published in print, a play's eligibility for the award can sometimes be several years later than its eligibility for awards, such as the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play or the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award, which are based on the theatrical staging.[1] Titles which compile several works by the playwright into a single volume may also be nominated for or win the award.
Winners and nominees
1980s
1990s
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Ann-Marie MacDonald | Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) | [20] |
| Audrey Butler | Black Friday? | [21] | |
| John Mighton | Scientific Americans | ||
| George F. Walker | Love and Anger | ||
| 1991 | Joan MacLeod | Amigo's Blue Guitar | [22] |
| Sally Clark | The Trial of Judith K. | [23] | |
| Don Druick | Where Is Kabuki? | ||
| Linda Griffiths | The Darling Family | ||
| Daniel David Moses | Coyote City | ||
| 1992 | John Mighton | Possible Worlds and A Short History of Night | [24] |
| Daniel Brooks, Guillermo Verdecchia | The Noam Chomsky Lectures | [25] | |
| Dave Carley | Writing With Our Feet | ||
| Judith Thompson | Lion in the Streets | ||
| Dianne Warren | Serpent in the Night Sky | ||
| 1993 | Guillermo Verdecchia | Fronteras Americanas | [26] |
| Daniel MacIvor | House Humans | [27] | |
| Raymond Storey | The Saints and Apostles | ||
| David Young | Glenn | ||
| 1994 | Morris Panych | The Ends of the Earth | [28] |
| Joanna McClelland Glass | If We Are Women | [29] | |
| Wendy Lill | All Fall Down | ||
| Bryden MacDonald | Whale Riding Weather | ||
| 1995 | Jason Sherman | Three in the Back, Two in the Head | [30] |
| Brad Fraser | Poor Super Man | [31] | |
| Deborah Kimmett | Miracle Mother | ||
| Joan MacLeod | The Hope Slide/Little Sister | ||
| Eugene Stickland | Some Assembly Required | ||
| 1996 | Colleen Wagner | The Monument | [32] |
| Wendy Lill | The Glace Bay Miners' Museum | [33] | |
| John Mighton | The Little Years | ||
| Michael O'Brien | Mad Boy Chronicle | ||
| Betty Quan | Mother Tongue | ||
| 1997 | Ian Ross | fareWel | [34] |
| Maureen Hunter | Atlantis | [35] | |
| Lee MacDougall | High Life | ||
| Jason Sherman | Reading Hebron | ||
| Judith Thompson | Sled | ||
| 1998 | Djanet Sears | Harlem Duet | [36] |
| Bruce McManus | Selkirk Avenue | [37] | |
| Richard Sanger | Not Spain | ||
| Sandra Shamas | Sandra Shamas: A Trilogy of Performances | ||
| David Young | Inexpressible Island | ||
| 1999 | Michael Healey | The Drawer Boy | [38] |
| Wendy Lill | Corker | [39] | |
| Daniel MacIvor | Marion Bridge | ||
| Colleen Murphy | Beating Heart Cadaver | ||
| Theresa Tova | Still the Night |
2000s
2010s
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Robert Chafe | Afterimage | [60] |
| Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman | Scratch | [61] | |
| Michael Healey | Courageous | ||
| Judith Thompson | Such Creatures | ||
| David Yee | lady in the red dress | ||
| 2011 | Erin Shields | If We Were Birds | [62] |
| Brendan Gall | Minor Complications: Two Plays | [63] | |
| Jonathan Garfinkel | House of Many Tongues | ||
| Donna-Michelle St. Bernard | Gas Girls | ||
| Vern Thiessen | Lenin’s Embalmers | ||
| 2012 | Catherine Banks | It Is Solved by Walking | [64] |
| Trina Davies | The Romeo Initiative | [65] | |
| Karen Hines | Drama: Pilot Episode | ||
| Cathy Ostlere, Dennis Garnhum | Lost: A Memoir | ||
| Anusree Roy | Brothel #9 | ||
| 2013 | Nicolas Billon | Fault Lines: Three Plays | [66] |
| Meg Braem | Blood: A Scientific Romance | [67] | |
| Kate Hewlett | The Swearing Jar | ||
| Lawrence Jeffery | Frenchtown | ||
| Joseph Jomo Pierre | Shakespeare's Nigga | ||
| 2014 | Jordan Tannahill | Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays | [68] |
| Rick Chafe | The Secret Mask | [69] | |
| Sean Dixon | A God in Need of Help | ||
| Janet Munsil | That Elusive Spark | ||
| 2015 | David Yee | carried away on the crest of a wave | [70] |
| Beth Graham | The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble | [71] | |
| Tara Grammy, Tom Arthur Davis | Mahmoud | ||
| Bryden MacDonald | Odd Ducks | ||
| Marcus Youssef, James Long | Winners and Losers | ||
| 2016 | Colleen Murphy | Pig Girl | [72] |
| Brad Fraser | Kill Me Now | [73] | |
| Donna-Michelle St. Bernard | A Man A Fish | ||
| Jordan Tannahill | Concord Floral | ||
| Mary Vingoe | Refuge | ||
| 2017 | Hiro Kanagawa | Indian Arm | [74] |
| Robert Chafe | The Colony of Unrequited Dreams | [75] | |
| Anna Chatterton | Within the Glass | ||
| Michael Healey | 1979 | ||
| Kate Hennig | The Virgin Trial | ||
| 2018 | Jordan Tannahill | Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom | [76] |
| Keith Barker | This Is How We Got Here | [77] | |
| Anna Chatterton, Evalyn Parry, Karin Randoja | Gertrude and Alice | ||
| Anosh Irani | The Men in White | ||
| Erin Shields | Paradise Lost | ||
| 2019 | Amanda Parris | Other Side of the Game | [78] |
| Kevin Loring | Thanks for Giving | [79] | |
| Hannah Moscovitch | What a Young Wife Ought to Know | ||
| Sean Harris Oliver | The Fighting Season | ||
| Tetsuro Shigematsu | 1 Hour Photo |
2020s
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Kim Senklip Harvey | Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story | [80] |
| Yolanda Bonnell | bug | [81] | |
| Christopher Cook | Quick Bright Things | ||
| Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman | Guarded Girls | ||
| Donna-Michelle St. Bernard | Sound of the Beast | ||
| 2021 | Hannah Moscovitch | Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes | [82] |
| Falen Johnson | Two Indians | [83] | |
| Jivesh Parasram | Take d Milk, Nah? | ||
| Paul David Power | Crippled | ||
| Christine Quintana | Selfie | ||
| 2022 | Dorothy Dittrich | The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key | [84] |
| Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, Medina Hahn | Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience | [85] | |
| Robert Chafe | Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down | ||
| Marjorie Chan | Lady Sunrise | ||
| Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho) | Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) & Antigone: 方 | ||
| 2023 | Cliff Cardinal | As You Like It, A Radical Retelling | [86] |
| Darla Contois | The War Being Waged | [87] | |
| Hiro Kanagawa | Forgiveness | ||
| Suvendrini Lena | The Enchanted Loom | ||
| Jordan Tannahill | Is My Microphone On? |
Multiple winners and nominees
2 Wins
- Catherine Banks
- John Mighton
- Colleen Murphy
- Morris Panych
- Sharon Pollock
- Jordan Tannahill
- Judith Thompson
- George F. Walker
6 Nominations
- Judith Thompson (2 wins)
5 Nominations
- Daniel MacIvor (1 win)
- Jason Sherman (1 win)
4 Nominations
- Robert Chafe (1 win)
- Wendy Lill
- Michael Healey (1 win)
- John Mighton (2 wins)
- Jordan Tannahill (2 wins)
- George F. Walker (2 wins)
3 Nominations
- Joan MacLeod (1 win)
- Hannah Moscovitch (1 win)
- Colleen Murphy (2 wins)
- Morris Panych (2 wins)
- Sharon Pollock (2 wins)
- Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
2 Nominations
- Catherine Banks (2 wins)
- Daniel Brooks (both with cowriters)
- Marjorie Chan
- Anna Chatterton (consecutive, 1 with cowriters)
- Marie Clements
- Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman
- Don Druick
- Brad Fraser
- Linda Griffiths
- Tomson Highway (consecutive)
- Karen Hines
- Maureen Hunter
- Anosh Irani
- Lawrence Jeffrey
- Hiro Kanagawa (1 win)
- John Krizanc (1 win)
- Kevin Loring (1 win)
- Bryden MacDonald
- Michael MacLennon (consecutive)
- Richard Sanger
- Erin Shields (1 win)
- Vern Thiessen (1 win)
- Guillermo Verdecchia (consecutive, 1 win)
- David Yee (1 win)
- David Young
Drew Hayden Taylor and Anosh Irani have also both been nominated for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. James Reaney won the award three times before Poetry and Drama were split in 1981 into separate categories.
References
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