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$100,000 Siminovitch Prize Awarded to Newfoundland Director
Jillian Keiley
From the Siminovitch website:
TORONTO, October 26, 2004 - BMO Financial Group today announced
that Newfoundland director Jillian Keiley was named the 2004
recipient of the Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, Canada’s
richest annual theatre award. The Jury selected Ms. Keiley from
59 directors, nominated from every region in Canada. The announcement
was made during
a ceremony at University of Toronto ’s
historic Hart House Theatre.
The Jury described Ms. Keiley’s work as "startlingly original
and radically imaginative". According to the jury citation, she is
a "visionary, innovative artist whose experiments with form and content
have magical results for audiences and performers alike. Simultaneously
cerebral and visceral, her productions explore the parameters of
theatre art, often with powerful effect".
Ms. Keiley is the founding
Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, where she
has directed 14 new productions, almost
all of which were original scripts and scores created for the company
by playwright
Robert Chafe and composer Petrina Bromley. For the past 10 years,
Ms. Keiley has been working with Artistic Fraud to develop a unique,
mathematic and
music-based choreography and directing system called Kaleidography.
Ms. Keiley has been teaching this new system at universities and
professional training institutes across the country for the past
six years. She also
directs for other local companies, most recently Theatre Newfoundland
Labrador's Tempting Providence, and Jack 5-Oh, produced by Sheila's
Brush
Theatre Company.
Ms. Keiley teaches theatre with a specialization in chorus at Memorial
University and The National Theatre School of Canada.
The Jury
was chaired by Leonard McHardy, co-owner and co-founder of Theatrebooks
in Toronto. Joining Mr. McHardy were Marie-Hélène
Falcon, (Montréal, QC), Co-founder, Director General and Artistic
Director of the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques; Robert
Wallace, (Toronto, ON), Playwright and Professor of English and
Drama Studies, York University; Mary Walsh, (St. John’s, NF), Director,
Playwright and Actress; and Bob White, (Calgary, AB), Artistic Director
of
Calgary's Alberta Theatre Projects.
"The Jury had an extraordinary field of directors to discuss this
year before identifying five exceptional directors to be placed
on the short list," said Mr. McHardy. "Ms. Keiley’s remarkably
novel approach to theatre creation allowed the Jury to choose her as
the ideal recipient. "
Tony Comper, President and CEO of BMO Financial
Group, the founding sponsor of the Siminovitch Prize, applauded
the selection. "On
behalf of BMO Financial Group, a long-time supporter of the arts
in Canada, I am
thrilled to congratulate Ms. Keiley on this outstanding achievement.
The Siminovitch Prize is meant to encourage Canadian artists to
go further in
the pursuit of their crafts - to put wind in their sails to foster
creativity and innovation. And, just as importantly, it’s meant to
celebrate theatre in Canada and the talented artists who, like
Ms. Keiley, comprise this vibrant community."
Ms. Keiley was awarded
a cheque for $75,000 and her protégé,
fellow Newfoundland director, Danielle Irvine, received $25,000.
The prize founders have structured the Siminovitch Prize in this
way to underscore
the importance of mentorship in Canadian theatre.
In addition to
the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, Ms. Keiley has also won the
Canada Council's 1997 John Hirsch Prize for emerging
directors and was named the 1996 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts
Council's Emerging
Artist of the Year.
Ms. Keiley’s protégé, Ms. Irvine,
has directed more than 50 productions and has been teaching at
the National Theatre School
of Canada in Montreal for the last four years. She has worked at
the Stratford Festival of Canada for two seasons both in the main
company and as the first
director to go through their Conservatory for Classical Theatre
Training. She was the 1999 recipient of the Canada Council's John
Hirsch Prize for
directing and was a participant in the World Stage Festival 2000’s
Master Class for Directors.
The five finalists were selected from
59 Canadian directors who received nominations, the largest number
of nominees ever to be
considered for this prize. The finalists are: Lois Brown (St. John's,
NF), Martin Faucher
(Montréal, QC), Eric Jean (Montréal, QC), Jillian Keiley (St.
John's, NF) and Alisa Palmer (Toronto, ON).
The Siminovitch Prize
in Theatre was introduced in 2001 and dedicated to renowned scientist
Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore,
a playwright. Sponsored by BMO Financial Group, Canada’s richest annual
theatre arts award recognizes direction, playwriting and design in three-year
cycles,
beginning with the 2001 award to director Daniel Brooks; the 2002
award to playwright Carole Fréchette; and the 2003 award to designer
Louise Campeau.
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