Shortlisted: Emerging Playwrights Award
Ontario, September 29th, 2020 – Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) proudly announces the short lists for its 2020 Tom Hendry Awards. The Emerging Playwright Award will be given out on October 27th 2020 at 7:30 EST.
RBC Emerging Playwright Award – 2020 Short List
This award is given annually for the best play by a PGC-member who is an emerging playwright. JURY: Muriel Hogue (Chair), Warona Setshwaelo and Yvonne Wallace.
Makram Ayache (ON) for Harun,
Megs Calleja (BC) for Twentysomething, and
Lior Maharjan (QC) for Eva in Rio.
About the short-listed plays:
Harun by Makram Ayache – Harun’s mother discovers he’s gay, she is killed in a tragic accident in Beirut. A year later, Harun is struck with a dystopian vision and a wilting Angel comes to him with a dire warning. As he and his friends organize a counter protest against white-supremacist uprising, worse turns worser as the veil between the political and the spiritual thins.
Twentysomething by Megs Calleja – Twentysomething explores messy, heartbreaking moments between people who love each other deeply but have bittersweet timing. The vignette play explores four relationships shattered by abandonment, set in the exact moment of unwanted happenstance. Each reunion is inescapable as couples are trapped in elevators, rescue cabins, rooftops, and prison cells, forced to confront years of unsaid conversations. Twentysomething is an unapologetic look at the truth behind what we do for love, why we hurt those closest to us in the name of love, and what it means to sit in second chances. In 29 Floors, fallen-out best friends Ted and Josie meet—and get stuck in—an elevator, four years after Ted abandoned their friendship with no warning. In 28 Clicks, brothers Pete and Finn wind up in the same wilderness refuge cabin during a fluke storm while hiking independently, three years after Pete left and cut all ties with the family. In 27 Cards, ex-fiancées Erin and Michael run into each other at a holiday party and wind up locked out on the rooftop in an effort to grab a smoke, two years after Erin left Michael at the alter. In 26 Cents, first loves Bailey and Linden find themselves in the drunk tank together, having no contact for a year since Linden left Bailey a three-sentence breakup voicemail. And in 25 Hours, a series of interwoven flashbacks follows each of the duos in the final hours leading up to a pivotal breaking point for their relationships.
Eva in Rio by Lior Maharjan – 20 year old Eva wakes up in Rio de Janeiro to attain her final form. With her gender confirmation surgery scheduled for that day, she goes on a last-ditch attempt to secure some vitamin D before her 8-week post-surgical celibacy. Along the way, she encounters larger-than-life characters in this wonderland––from instagramming with soundcloud rap star Christ the Redeemer, to getting caught in the flashing lights of the paparazzi. When her perfect man and perfect body aren’t enough, her surreal ambitions fall apart as she’s brought back to reality. In the hyper-sexualized gender-negative culture she’s grown up in, how will Eva reconcile the difference between her 20 year old fantasy self and the teenage life she is living?