John Hirsch Prizes

Current Winners

Alix Dufresne

Alix Dufresne’s artistic works reflect contemporary concerns. Her hybrid forms blend dance, theatre and other performance styles. Since graduating in stage direction from the National Theatre School of Canada, she has presented various works: Daniel Keene’s Les paroles at the Théâtre Prospero (2014); Nuits frauduleuses at the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (2016); Hidden Paradise (co-created with Marc Béland) at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA), the Festival d’Avignon and on tour in both Quebec and Europe (2016–22); Geneviève Pettersen’s La déesse des mouches à feu at the Théatre de Quat’Sous (2018); Noémie de Lattre’s Féministe pour Homme at Usine C (2021); and Malaise dans la civilisation (co-created with Étienne Lepage) at the FTA (2022). She recently became an associate artist at Usine C, where her works are included in its programming for the next three seasons (2022-25). 

Jenna Rodgers

Jenna Rogers is a mixed-race dramaturg and theatre director who gratefully resides on land called Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), on Treaty 7 Territory in Alberta. She is the founding Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre, the dramaturg for the Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the co-Board Chair of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and the director of Theatre Alberta. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School’s Artistic Leadership Residency (2020), of the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program (2019) and a member of the artEquity National Facilitator Training cohort (2018). She holds an MA in International Performance Research from the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and Tampere University, in Finland.