Announcing the 2025 Lee Playwriting Prize for New Canadian Plays
2025 Lee Playwriting Prize for New Canadian Plays has been awarded to Ken Beatty for his play War Artist.
Department of Drama - 19 August 2025
This year’s jury is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025 Lee Playwriting Prize for New Canadian Plays is War Artist by Ken Beatty.
Jury members said that “the concept was unique and the writing was very clear and polished. The characters were intriguing, authentic, and surprising. The play explores the complexity of war via the relationship between participant and artistic documenteur by offering life changing transactions between seven artists and seven soldiers in seven wars all linked by the relationships between participants and witnesses of violence." The jury felt the play would be "an excellent audience experience.”
The playwright, Ken Beatty, describes himself as a “proud Canadian living in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his artist wife and two sons. [He] completed an MFA in Theatre, as a playwright, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics. So far, he’s spent a third of his life wandering abroad, at universities in Beijing, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi. At age 7, he first took to the stage as Frosty the Snowman, costumed in a sheet, performing for chaotic confused kindergarteners who drowned out his feeble song with shouts of "Ghost! Ghost!” This experience instilled in Ken a lifelong terror, wonder and respect for the power of theatre.
The jury gave honourable mentions to Settle Down, Ellie by Step Taylor and Flightless by Jessica Lowry.
The jury for this year’s prize consisted of:
- Darrin Hagen, the 2024 Lee Playwright in Residence and a theatre maker with a list of work too long for this paragraph
- Josh Languedoc, Edmonton -based Anishnawbe playwright and theatre creator
- Mukonzi Musyoki, PhD candidate at the 海角社区 who is originally from Kenya
- Heather Inglis, current Artistic Producer of Workshop West Playwrights Theatre and long time director and developer of new Canadian work
- Kate Weiss, a professor in the Drama Department with an extensive professional career as a director.
The jury would also like to thank Tonya Chrystian for her administrative prowess.
The Lee Playwright in Residence and the Lee Playwriting Prize were created to nurture and celebrate Canadian playwriting and created from a generous gift from the Clifford E. Lee foundation.