Liane Faulder| Grande Prairie Daily Herald | October 30
Edmonton’s Matthew MacKenzie has won the prestigious Carol Bolt Award for his new play, Bears.
The national award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize, comes from the Playwrights Guild of Canada and is awarded to a member of the organization who has premièred a new work in the past year.
“To get the win was definitely a surprise,” said MacKenzie in a phone interview after being honoured in Toronto Sunday night. “Just to be nominated along with Colleen Murphy and Kat Sandler, that was a pretty big honour in itself.”
A former student of Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts, MacKenzie is a graduate of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada, where he won the Quebec Lieutenant Governor’s award. He joins Edmonton playwrights Vern Thiessen and Meiko Ouchi in receiving the award.
Bears was a hit in Toronto last January, winning two Dora awards (presented by the Toronto Theatre Critics) for outstanding production and outstanding new play in the independent theatre division. Later that same month, Bears came to Edmonton, playing at Backstage Theatre. Local audiences also had the opportunity to see an earlier version of the play in 2015.
