This year’s Tom Hendry Awards recognize several Canadian playwrights, including an Intermission staff writer
iPhoto caption: Nathaniel Hanula-James at the Tom Hendry Awards. Photo by Hanula-James.
The Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) has announced the recipients of the 2026 Tom Hendry Awards, which celebrate notable new works for the stage. Among the winners is Intermission staff writer Nathaniel Hanula-James, who took home the comedy award for Agency, a contemporary screwball comedy set in a queer-owned boutique advertising agency.
Jury members Jivesh Parasaram, Norman Yeung, and Laura Teasdale praised Agency for its “laugh-out-loud humour and… strong comedic mechanics.” Hanula-James also won the auxiliary prize of a place as participant at the 2027 Banff Playwrights Lab.
The other 2026 Hendry-winning works are Rez Gas by Cale Crowe and Genevieve Adam (Carol Bolt award); The Ghosts of Mariupol by Christopher Morris (drama); Lamb by Sepehr Reybod (emerging playwright award); The 7 Fires: A New Musical by Dillan Meighan Chiblow and Landon Doak (musical); and Caged by Rachel Aberle (theatre for young audiences).
Launched in 2002 and named for one of the PGC’s founder members, the Hendry awards have become an important national recognition of playwriting excellence.
Learn more about the Tom Hendry Awards here.
This news story is unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
Karen Fricker
Karen Fricker is Intermission’s editorial director and adjunct professor of Dramatic Arts at Brock University. She has worked as a critic in Toronto, London (UK), Dublin, and New York City, and has a PhD in theatre studies from Trinity College, Dublin. Sustaining the field of theatre criticism in our digital age is a big focus of her work, through academic research projects and training/mentorship ventures including Page Turn and Youareacritic.com. She is co-director of the international research network Circus and its Others, and has researched the Eurovision Song Contest for two glorious decades and counting.
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