Toronto. February 18, 2014. As the company marks its 35th anniversary, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre has announced the creation of the Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award. This annual award will recognize and encourage the achievements of queer artists who are founding careers in the theatre while engaging with the community.
Award recipients will be chosen by a panel of adjudicators comprised of the current and former Artistic Directors of the company: Brendan Healy, David Oiye, Sarah Garton Stanley, and Sky Gilbert.
This award is the latest addition to a rich program of youth-focused activities at the company, which provides free access to Buddies’ artistic programming, as well as performance and training opportunities for queer-identified youth aged 25 and under. Nominations were officially opened at an event this past Sunday that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the company’s youth program, which has been access by over 5,000 young people and helped to launch careers of such artists as Waawaate Fobister, Tyson James, Tawiah M’carthy, Kim Crosby, Flerida de Pena, and more.
In announcing the award, Buddies’ Artistic Director Brendan Healy remarked“It’s always great to increase our engagement with young queer… I’m also thrilled that all of the company’s past artistic directors will be working on this. Together they have mentored generations of young artists, so it only seemed fitting that we all come together to launch this new award.”
The recipient of the Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award will receive a $1,000 cash prize thanks to a generous gift from the Estate of John Alan Lee. Nominations are currently being accepted, and will close on April 30, 2014.
This award will be announced at a public ceremony on June 12th, 2014 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, which will celebrate the company’s 35-year history.
Application details and nomination paperwork can be found at
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