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.
Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Timothy Findley | Elizabeth Rex | [40] |
George Boyd | Consecrated Ground | [41] | |
Linda Griffiths | Alien Creature | ||
Daniel MacIvor, Daniel Brooks | Monster | ||
Jason Sherman | It's All True | ||
2001 | Kent Stetson | The Harps of God | [42] |
Mark Brownell | Monsieur d'Eon | [43] | |
Clem Martini | A Three Martini Lunch | ||
Michael Redhill | Building Jerusalem | ||
Jason Sherman | An Acre of Time | ||
2002 | Kevin Kerr | Unity (1918) | [44] |
Claudia Dey | The Gwendolyn Poems | [45] | |
Lorena Gale | Je me souviens | ||
Michael MacLennan | The Shooting Stage | ||
2003 | Vern Thiessen | Einstein's Gift | [46] |
Marie Clements | Burning Vision | [47] | |
Brian Drader | Prok | ||
Sunil Kuruvilla | Rice Boy | ||
Michael MacLennan | Last Romantics | ||
2004 | Morris Panych | Girl in the Goldfish Bowl | [48] |
Robert Chafe | Butler's Marsh and Tempting Providence | [49] | |
Michael Healey | Rune Arlidge | ||
Karen Hines | The Pochsy Plays | ||
Mieko Ouchi | The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye) | ||
2005 | John Mighton | Half Life | [50] |
Marjorie Chan | China Doll | [51] | |
Don Druick | Through the Eyes | ||
Daniel MacIvor | Cul-de-sac | ||
Richard Sanger | Two Words for Snow | ||
2006 | Daniel MacIvor | I Still Love You | [52] |
Morwyn Brebner | The Optimists | [53] | |
Lisa Codrington | Cast Iron | ||
Jason Sherman | Adapt or Die: Plays New and Used | ||
Drew Hayden Taylor | In a World Created by a Drunken God | ||
2007 | Colleen Murphy | The December Man | [54] |
Salvatore Antonio | In Gabriel's Kitchen | [55] | |
Anosh Irani | The Bombay Plays: The Matka King and Bombay Black | ||
Rosa Labordé | Léo | ||
Morris Panych | What Lies Before Us | ||
2008 | Catherine Banks | Bone Cage | [56] |
Ronnie Burkett | 10 Days on Earth | [57] | |
Paul Ciufo | Reverend Jonah | ||
Marie Clements | Copper Thunderbird | ||
Judith Thompson | Palace of the End | ||
2009 | Kevin Loring | Where the Blood Mixes | [58] |
Beverley Cooper | Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott | [59] | |
Joan MacLeod | Another Home Invasion | ||
Hannah Moscovitch | East of Berlin | ||
Michael Nathanson | Talk |
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 |
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.
Mishka Lavigne is the first person to be nominated for both the English and French language awards for Drama.