Winners of the 2018 Nathan Cohen Awards Announced

The Canadian Theatre Critics Association is pleased to announce that Karen Fricker and Barry Freeman have won the 2018 Nathan Cohen Awards for excellence in critical writing.

Fricker, theatre critic for the Toronto Star, won in the Short category for her review of Michel Tremblay’s classic Hosanna, as revived in 2016 by Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre.

Freeman, a drama professor at the University of Toronto and a Newfoundlander, won in the Long category for an essay dissecting the popularity of the musical Come From Away. It was published in the Summer 2017 issue of Canadian Theatre Review.

The biennial awards recognize work published over the past two theatre seasons. They were judged this year by Athabasca University professor emeritus Anne Nothof, a noted theatre scholar, broadcaster and currently editor of the online Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.

“I am impressed by the quality and depth of theatre criticism in Canada, despite the cuts to newspaper coverage,” Nothof commented. “The reviews were often very inspiring, coming from a range of backgrounds and perspectives.”

“Once again, we had a great response to the competition, with submissions from across Canada,” added CTCA President Martin Morrow. “The Long category, in particular, attracted quite a few entries, suggesting that critics are finding more room for in-depth criticism online.”

The Nathan Cohen Awards, established in 1981, are given out every two years to honour outstanding critical writing about theatre and performance in print and/or electronic media. They are named after the legendary Toronto Star and CBC critic Nathan Cohen (1923-1971). A history of the awards and list of past recipients may be found on the CTCA website.

This year’s awards will be presented at a luncheon in Toronto in December.

Karen Fricker’s winning entry, published Oct. 3, 2016 in the Toronto Star, may be read here.

Barry Freeman’s entry, published Aug. 21, 2017 in Canadian Theatre Review, may be read here.StarBuzzOnline