Ravi Jain is pictured during a dress rehearsal of 'Prince Hamlet' at The Theatre Centre in Toronto in 2017.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Why Not Theatre founder Ravi Jain has won Canada’s top theatre prize.
Jain was awarded the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize at a ceremony in Toronto last night.
The jury praised Jain for “reshaping the ecosystem around him” with inventive work that puts inclusion at its centre.
Jain’s body of work includes Prince Hamlet, a bilingual ASL/English reimagining of Shakespeare and the two-part Mahabharata, a stage interpretation of a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit epic.
Jain chose that production’s co-creator, Miriam Fernandes, as his protege for the Siminovitch, meaning she’ll receive $25,000.
The prize typically honours designers, directors or playwrights in a given year, but the three-year cycle was paused for this milestone 25th edition to welcome nominations from all fields, including those outside the usual categories.
The prize purse also increased this year from $75,000 to $100,000.