AWARD RECIPIENTS

Susanna Fournier (2018)

Susanna Fournier is a Canadian theatre-maker with a dark sense of humour. She works in various performance mediums, primarily constructing new texts for theatre (of which she has written many, with no end in sight). Her work is feminist, rowdy, anti-imperial, and sometimes impossible. Susanna is the founder and artistic producer of PARADIGM productions, a collaborative producing vehicle dedicated to creating the practical and artistic opportunities emerging and pivoting artists need to investigate disruptive stories and methodologies. In 2018/19 PARADIGM will produce Susanna’s trilogy of performance texts, The Empire, across three venues in Toronto and as radio-drama podcasts online. To learn more visit www.empiretrilogy.com and www.susannafournier.com

Jennifer Dallas (2017)

Jennifer Dallas is an award-winning contemporary artist, hailing from the Canadian Rockies. She is the founder of Toronto-based Kẹmi Contemporary Dance Projects (Kẹmi) and was a worker member at The West End Food Coop in Toronto for 4 years. Her work as a performer, choreographer, designer and activist reflects her belief in the connective potential of the performing arts. Influenced by extended travel, Dallas has earned critical acclaim in Africa, Eastern Europe and across Canada, for her playful and insightful work. In 2017, Dallas received the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Female Performance, for her performance of Kittly-Bender, which also received nominations for choreography and production.

Georgina Beaty (2016)

Georgina is the Artistic Co-Producer of Architect Theatre, creating research-based plays that engage with the human stories behind contemporary issues, including Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show, telling the story of the community at the heart of Canada's oil extraction industry, and a new work in progress about the proposed Northern Gate Pipeline. Inspired by research on climate change, she recently wrote and performed EXTREMOPHILES in the 2016 SummerWorks Festival. Georgina is a graduate of Studio 58 and the University of Alberta, and a winner of Solo Collective's Solo Flights competition (2012).

Sarah Pittoello (2016)

Sarah is a counsellor, teacher, and organic farmer. A counsellor at Acadia University she also taught a course on Sustainable Food Systems and Community Development. She is a faculty member and Farmer-in-Residence at the Just Us! Centre for Small Farms, growing a market garden for the Just Us! cafes while teaching and supporting farm interns. Sarah also works as a farmer and yoga instructor at her family business, ReRooted. Sarah holds a BSc. (Hons.) in Physics from Queen's University, a MSc. Holistic science from Schumacher College, and a MEd.Counselling from Acadia

Aviva Armour-Ostroff (2015)

works in Toronto as an actor, director, writer and producer. She was recently nominated for a Dora Award for her performance in the ARC’s production of Moment. Other acting credits include He Left Quietly, winner of the SummerWorks Best Production Award, Annie Sullivan in Western Canada Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, and Layne Coleman’s film, The Shape of Rex. Aviva has been named one of Toronto’s Top Ten Theatre Artists and Best Producer of Works in Progress by NOW Magazine. Aviva was the founder and Artistic Director of The Lab Cab Festival and is a proud member of ARC (Actor’s Repertory Company).

Kimberley Edwards(2015)

Since completing her Masters in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability in Sweden, Kimberly Edwards has been working to create a sustainable future for seven years. Kimberly co-founded a charity called Free Spirit Gardens, teaching local students and residents how to grow their own food through workshops, newsletters, and farmer’s markets. In the winter months, she works as an entrepreneur at a local ski club, implementing sustainability-related projects and programs, and teaching yoga. Kimberly works even harder to live by example in her day to day actions and is seen as a leader in sustainability by her community.

Lea Ambros (2014)

Lea is a cook, theatre artist, food sustainability activist and queer mother. She co-founded Toronto’s Stranger Theatre and was co-founder & co-artistic director of The Cooking Fire Theatre Festival, a festival of original works by local, national and international artist-run companies produced in Dufferin Grove Park. She is currently Community Kitchen Co-Ordinator at The Children’s Storefront, a free service that provides support for parents and young children.

Taarini Chopra (2014)

Taarini is a researcher with Canadian Biotechnology Actions Network and publications coordinator with Seeds of Diversity which works, through a widespread and inspiring network of members and volunteers, to save heirloom and heritage seeds and to preserve the biodiversity in our food. She holds a Honours B.Sc from Trent University in Environmental Studies and Biology, and a Master’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo.

James Davis (2013)

James is the Founder and Director of the Toronto Bicycle Music Festival and works at FoodShare as a School Food Innovations Educator, where he uses his permaculture and carpentry background to come up with exciting ways for kids to grow food at school. In 2013, James spent two weeks cycling to Ottawa on the inaugural Tune Your Ride Tour. He and three musicians rode 500 km to Ottawa with a full PA system and instruments in tow, playing ten bike-powered shows in towns along the way.

Estelle Shook (2013)

Artistic Director of BC’s nationally acclaimed Caravan Farm Theatre from 1998 to 2010, Estelle Shook has produced, developed and directed over thirty outdoor productions for the company. Highlights include The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw, a “Bluegrass Opera” based on Goethe’sFaust, by Peter Anderson and John Millard;Cowboy King and IOU Land, two western tragedies by Linz Kenyon, adapted from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and Wagner’sRing Cycle; Shakespeare’s Macbeth andKing Lear, and Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, each of which employed the use of the famous Caravan Clydesdale horses as stage machinery; and Everyone, a modern morality play in seven horse-drawn acts created with six Vancouver theatre companies. Most recently she directed The Winter’s Tale for Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park. Currently, she is collaborating on a contemporary western horse opera with Linz Kenyon, about Alberta’s oil industry.