Mansel Robinson of Chapleau named to short-list for 2011 Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize, the largest in Canadian theatre

Chapleau's Mansel Robinson has made the shortlist for the 2011 Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Canadian Theatre, the largest prize in Canadian theatre.

BMO Financial Group, the sponsor of the prize announced that Mansel, a graduate of Chapleau High School, is one of six playwrights who have made the short-list. 

The winner will receive $100,000, of which $25,000 will be awarded to a protege or organization of the recipient's choice. The prize will be presented on November 7, 2011 at a ceremony in Toronto.

Mansel has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Arts Degree from Concordia University.

In an interview with Dan Davidson of the Klondike Sun in 1999 after he became writer-in-residence at Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, Mansel said he had done many things including working in a lumber mill, fighting fires, running a blast furnace, working the rails and doing a lot of backstage work at theatres.

Mansel told  Davidson in the interview that, "I grew up listening to my father tell stories and his father and great uncles and stuff."

When I read this comment, I immediately recalled the time I first heard his father, Mansel Robinson, tell a story to a group, and sat in wonder as he told it. His father was an amazing storyteller.His father, a CPR railroader,  who served as chair of the Chapleau Board of Education for many years, was also not keen on having his son work on the rails. 

He also related that his father was a "history freak" adding that "his trick was to send me to the library to find some history books he hadn't read. But he had read everything..."

Mansel also gave credit to his mother, Isabel (Collinson)  for creating his interest in stories, saying, "Even as a kid I could sit and listen to my mother and her friends have a coffee and a chitchat".

However, in his own right, Mansel has achieved great success. His  plays include Bite The Hand, Scorched lce, Street Wheat, Downsizing Democracy, The Heart As It Lived, Collateral Damage and Colonial Tongues. He has won the City of Regina Writing Award, Geist Magazine's Award for Distance Writing and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Manuscript Award. 

He is a two-time winner of the John V. Hicks Award, most recently for Two Rooms, which also won the 2010 Uprising National Playwriting Competition.

In 2007, Picking up Chekhov was selected as one of five Canadian plays to be introduced and promoted into the German market. In 2008, Prise de Parole published Roc & Rail, Jean Marc Dalpe's French translation of Ghost Trains and Spitting Slag - the work was short-listed for the Governor General's Award for Translation.

Mansel has been writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton, the University of Windsor, the Regina Public Library and the Surrey Public Library. He is a past president of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre and is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Writers' Union of Canada.

"The jury was thrilled with the range and quality of the work of all the playwrights nominated this year," said jury chair Maureen Labonte in a news release announcing the short-list.. "The finalists demonstrate passion and imagination in their writing, as well as extraordinary voice and vision all of which contribute to building a strong Canadian theatre scene.

"The Prize recognizes both excellence within an evolving body of work as well as innovation, exploration and risk-taking. It opens up the possibility of making a real difference in the recipient's art and help further their pursuit of creativity and excellence."

The Jury reviewed nominations of professional Canadian playwrights who have advanced Canadian theatre through a body of work achieved in recent years while influencing and inspiring younger theatre artists. The jurors assessed the nominees' originality, sense of evolution, growing maturity, continuing experimentation, impact upon audiences, and/or influence upon younger artists. They also considered whether the artists were at a point in their professional career where the recognition and resources associated with the prize would make a significant difference, allowing and encouraging the artist to go further in the pursuit of his or her craft.


The Siminovitch Prize in Theatre was introduced in 2001 and dedicated to renowned scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, a playwright. Sponsored by BMO Financial Group, Canada's largest annual theatre arts award recognizes direction, playwriting and design in three-year cycles.

The other finalists of 23 nominated are Robert Chafe, Newfoundland; Jasmine Dube, Quebec; Greg MacArthur, Alberta/Quebec;  Joan MacLeod, British Columbia; Larry Tremblay, Quebec.

Congratulations Mansel and all the best. Somewhat ironically, Mansel and one of his team-mates on the 1970-71 Chapleau Midgets, Armand Ruffo,  a hockey team I coached, have both been very successful in the arts community achieving national and international recognition for their work. Nobody from the team played in the National Hockey League, but to this day, all the players, are still among my favourite people. My email is mj.morris@live.ca