Patrick O'Neill Award / Le prix Patrick O'Neill
Honouring a respected editor and champion of the Association, this award is given each year to the best edited collection published in either English or French in the field of drama, theatre, and performance studies in what is now known as Canada. The award is given in alternate years to a play anthology and an essay collection. Play anthologies published in 2024 or 2025 will be considered this year.
Nommé en l’honneur d’un éditeur respecté ayant contribué significativement à l’Association, le prix Patrick O’Neill est remis chaque année au meilleur ouvrage collectif, publié en français ou en anglais, dans le domaine de la recherche sur l’art dramatique, le théâtre et la performance, dans ce qu’on connaît actuellement comme le Canada. Le prix est décerné en alternance à une anthologie de pièces de théâtre et à un recueil d’essais. Cette année les anthologies de pièces de théâtre publiés en 2024 ou en 2025 sont admissibles.
2026 Winner
Pil Hansen and Jessica Watkin, eds. Performance Matters, vol 11, no 1-2 on Dramaturgies of Accessibility, 2025.
The committee would like to begin by acknowledging the incredible quality of the nominees this year. It was a rich and varied field, and we were a very fortunate committee indeed. Global climate education and its discontents: Using drama to forge a new way; Applied Theatre: Participation; Jess Dobkin’s Wetrospective; Power Moves: Dance, Culture, Politics; Retreating to Re-Treat: A Performative Encounter at the ‘Edge of the Woods’; Theater Magazine, vol 55, no 2, on Institutional Dramaturgies, and Urbanités autochtones en creation are each unique and valuable contributions to Canadian Theatre and Performance Studies.
This year we have chosen to honour Performance Matters, vol 11, no 1-2 on Dramaturgies of Accessibility with the Patrick O’Neill Prize. We noted the leadership the Performance Matters team consistently show in adapting the form of their publication to suit the needs of editors and their projects. This special issue, edited by Pil Hansen and Jessica Watkin, features a clear and necessary centering of disabled artists and scholars, as well as inspiring and varied forms of collaboration. The ways in which accessibility is discussed and represented throughout the publication can serve as new benchmarks for our field, expanding our collective understanding about what is both possible and necessary moving forward in theatre and performance research. Rich in theoretical insight and lived experience, this is transformative work that will shape practice as well as discourse within Theatre and Performance Studies for years to come.
French:
Le comité tient tout d’abord à souligner la qualité exceptionalle des ouvrages sélectionés cette année. L’éventail de candidats était riche et varié, et nous avons eu beaucoup de chance en tant que comité. <<Global climate education and its discontents: Using drama to forge a new way>>, <<Applied Theatre: Participation>>, <<Jess Dobkin’s Wetrospective>>, <<Power Moves: Dance, Culture, Politics>>, <<Retreating to Re-Treat: A Performative Encounter at the ‘Edge of the Woods’>>, <<Theatre Magazine>> vol 55, n° 2: <<Institutional Dramaturgies>>, et <<Urbanités autochtones en creation>> sont tous des contributions uniques et précieuses aux études théâtrales et des arts de la scène canadienne.
Cette année, nous avons choisi d’attribuer le prix Patrick O’Neill à <<Performance Matters>>, vol. 11, n° 1-2, consacré aux dramaturgies de l’accessibilité. Nous avons souligné le leadership constant dont fait preuve l’équipe éditoriale de <<Performance Matters>> en adaptant la forme de sa publication aux besoins des rédacteurs et de leurs projets. Ce numéro spécial, dirigé par Pil Hansen et Jessica Watkin, met un accent clair et indispensable sur les artistes et les chercheurs qui vivent avec des handicaps, tout en présentant des formes de collaboration inspirantes et variées. La manière dont l’accessibilité est abordée et représentée tout au long de la publication peut servir de nouvelle référence pour notre discipline, élargissant notre compréhension collective de ce qui est à la fois possible et nécessaire pour faire avancer la recherche théâtrale. Riche en réflexions théoriques et en témoignages personnels, cet ouvrage novateur influencera tant la pratique que le discours au sein des études théâtrales et des arts de la scène pour les années à venir.
Past Winners
2025 - Monique Mojica & Lindsay Lachance, eds. Staging Coyote's Dream Volume III. Playwrights Canada Press, 2024.
Honourable Mention: Obsidian Theatre. 21 Black Futures: The Anthology. Playwrights Canada Press, 2023.
2024 (co-winners)
Anthony Vickery, Glen Nichols, and Allana Lindgren, eds. Canadian Performance Documents and Debates. University of Alberta Press, 2022.
Hervé Guay, Jean-Marc Larrue and Nicole Nolette, eds. Théâtre et nouveau matérialismes. University of Montreal Press, 2023.
2023 (co-winners)
Julie Salverson, ed. When Words Sing: Seven Canadian Libretti. PCP, 2021.
Jessica Watkin, ed. Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada. PCP 2022.
2022
BOOK : Laine Halpern Zisman, Women and Popular Culture in Canada, Canadian Scholars, 2020
Honourable Mention: Yana Meerzon, David Dean et Daniel McNeil, Migration and Stereotypes in Performance and Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
JOURNAL : Canadian Theatre Review 182 (Spring 2020): Extractivism and Performance. Edited by Kimberly Richards and Heather Davis-Fisch.
Honourable Mention: Performance Matters Vol. 7 No. 1-2 (2021): Performing (in) Place: Moving on/with the Land. Edited by Jenn Cole and Melissa Poll.
2021 - Boca del Lupo, an anthology of Plays2Perform@Home
Honourable Mention: Lighting the Way: an anthology of short plays about the climate crisis, by Chantal Bilodeau and Thomas Peterson
2019 - Indian Act, ed. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard (Playwrights Canada Press, 2018).
Honourable Mentions:
Past Lives: Performing Canada’s Histories, ed. Heather Davis-Fisch (Playwrights Canada Press, 2017)
Queer / Play, ed. Moynan King (Playwrights Canada Press, 2017).
2018 - Performance Studies in Canada, ed. Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer (McGill-Queen’s UP, 2017)
Honourable Mention: Performing Indigeneity, ed. Ric Knowles and Yvette Nolan (Playwrights Canada Press, 2016)
Honourable Mention: Dalbir Singh, ed. Performing Back: Post-Colonial Canadian Plays. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2016.
Honourable Mention: David Dean, Yana Meerzon et Kathryn Prince (eds.), History, Memory, and Performance. Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan, 2015.
2015 - Natalie Alvarez, ed. Fronteras Vivientes: Eight Latino/a Canadian Plays. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2013.
2014 - Natalie Alvarez, ed. Latina/o: Canadian Theatre and Performance. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2013.
Honourable Mentions:
Roberta Barker and Kim Solga, eds. New Canadian Realisms: New Essays on Canadian Theatre. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2012.
Judith Rudakoff, ed. TRANS(per)FORMING Nina Arsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work. Intellect, 2012.
2013 - Roberta Barker and Kim Solga, eds. New Canadian Realisms: Eight Plays. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2012.
Honourable Mentions:
Kamal Al-Solaylee, ed. Tonight at the Tarragon: A Critic's Anthology. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2011.
Dennis Johnson, ed. Grassroots: Original Plays from Ontario Community Theatres. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2011.
2012 - Nina Lee Aquino and Ric Knowles, eds. Asian Canadian Theatre. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2011.
2011 - Louise Forsyth, ed. Anthology of Quebec Women’s Plays in English Translation. Vol III (1997-2009). Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2010.
Honourable Mentions:
André Bourassa, ed. La Trilogie inachevée. Montreal: L’instant scene, 2010.
Cynthia Zimmerman, ed. Reading Carol Bolt.. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2010.