Hannah Moscovitch (born June 5, 1978) is a Canadian playwright who rose to national prominence in the 2000s. She is best known for her plays ''East of Berlin'', ''This Is War'', "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and '' Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes'', for which she received the 2021

Governor General's Award for English-language drama The Governor General's Award for English-language drama honours excellence in Canadian English-language playwriting. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama was divided. Because the awar ...

Life and career

Today based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and Halifax, she was born in Ottawa. Her father, Allan Moscovitch, is a social policy professor at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Wo ...

. Her mother, Julie White, is a labour researcher. Both have long been active in left wing politics. Moscovitch's father is

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish, of

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

and Ukrainian background, while her mother is from a Christian background (of English and Irish ancestry). Moscovitch was "raised as an atheist", and has said that there is "implicitly Jewish sensibility" to her plays. She studied at the National Theatre School in the acting stream. Moscovitch gained considerable notice for two short plays written for Toronto's SummerWorks. In 2005 she presented ''Essay'', a play about gender politics in modern academia. The next year at the festival ''The Russian Play'' premiered, a romance set in Stalinist Russia. Both were well received by critics and audiences. In 2007 her first full-length play, ''East of Berlin'', premiered at the

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

. The play focuses on the legacy of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

on the children of those involved. The main character is the son of a Nazi war criminal who grows up in

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. He eventually travels to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and meets the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor. The play was acclaimed for its complex subject, humour, and characters and was also a popular success, returning to Tarragon in winter 2009 and 2010. 2013 saw the premiere of ''This Is War'', a play depicting the lives of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. ''This Is War'' won multiple awards with one reviewer writing "Moscovitch shines a light on massive issues like sexual harassment within the military without making her play a morality tale or exposé. It’s a story about four good people in a bad place and all the gray area that that produces." In 2015, Moscovitch wrote the play ''Infinity'' about a physicist who becomes involved in a love story while contemplating the nature of time. She collaborated with

Lee Smolin Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo and a member of the graduate faculty of the ...

to lend verisimilitude to some of the theoretical ideas. Moscovitch's plays have been widely produced across Canada, including at the

Magnetic North Theatre Festival The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is an annual festival celebrating theatre and related performing arts in Canada operated by the Canadian Theatre Festival Society in partnership with the National Arts Centre. The festival is held Ottawa ever ...

, Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company, The National Arts Centre, Toronto's

Factory Theatre Factory Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Factory Theatre Lab in 1970 by Ken Gass and Frank Trotz, and it was run for almost 20 years by Dian English. Factory was the first theatre to announce that it would e ...

, Edmonton's Theatre Network, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver's

Firehall Arts Centre The Firehall Arts Centre (also called the Firehall Centre for the Arts) is an arts centre in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The building also falls within the borders of Gastown. Firehall is a small building, original ...

, and the Alberta Theatre Projects. Moscovitch is currently playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre and was previously a contributing writer to the CBC radio drama series

Afghanada ''Afghanada'' is a Canadian radio drama which aired on CBC Radio One and Sirius Satellite Radio. The 103 episode series began on November 3, 2006, and concluded its sixth and final season on December 30, 2011. Overview The half-hour episodes were ...

(2006-2011). She has been dubbed "an indie sensation" by ''Toronto Life Magazine''; "the wunderkind of Canadian theatre" by CBC Radio; "irritatingly talented" by the now defunct ''Eye Weekly''; and the "dark angel of Toronto theatre" by ''Toronto Star''. ''The National Post'', ''The Globe and Mail'', and ''Now Magazine'' have all hailed Moscovitch as "Canada's Hottest Young Playwright". In 2021, Moscovitch and

Jennifer Podemski Jennifer Podemski (born January 1, 1974) is a First Nations (Canadian) film and television actress and producer. Her acting credits include starring roles in the television series '' Tin Star'', ''The Rez'', '' Riverdale'', ''Moccasin Flats'', ...

created the drama series '' Little Bird'' for Crave.Victoria Ahearn
"‘The Amazing Race Canada,’ ‘Letterkenny’ spinoff join upcoming Bell Media lineup"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', June 10, 2021.

Works

* ''Essay'' – 2005 * ''The Russian Play'' – 2006 * ''East of Berlin'' – 2007 * ''In This World'' – 2008 * ''The Children's Republic'' – 2009 * ''Little One'' – 2011 * ''Other People's Children'' – 2012 * ''This Is War'' – 2012 * ''I Have no Stories to Tell You'' – 2013 * ''Infinity'' – 2014 * ''What a Young Wife Ought To Know'' – 2015 *''The Kaufman Cabaret'' - 2016 - Commissioned by the University of Alberta * ''Bunny'' – 2016 * ''Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story'' - 2017 * ''Secret Life of a Mother'' - 2018 * ''Sky on Swings'' - 2019 * ''Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes'' - 2020 * "Post-Democracy" - 2021

Awards and honours

Moscovitch won

Dora Mavor Moore Awards The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped es ...

for ''In This World'' (2010) and "Infinity" (2015). She won both the Trillium Book Award and Toronto Critic's Awards in 2014 for ''This Is War''. She has won the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award for "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and the SummerWorks Prize for Best Production for The Russian Play. She received the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (2016) in the Drama category, becoming the first Canadian woman to win the prize. She was the winner of the

at the 2021 Governor General's Awards for her play '' Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes''."Inuk author Norma Dunning wins $25K Governor General's fiction prize"
. ''Coast Reporter'', November 17, 2021. Award nominations received by Moscovitch include the Siminovitch Prize, the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

, the Carol Bolt Award, the

Susan Smith Blackburn Prize The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is the largest and oldest playwriting prize for women+ writing for English-speaking theatre. Named for Susan Smith Blackburn (1935–1977), alumna of Smith College, who died of breast cancer. W ...

, the KM Hunter Award and the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award.

References

External links

*
Moscovitch is already famous
''Toronto Star'' October 20, 2007 *
Hannah Moscovitch: Playwright revisits the production that set her career in motion
''NOW Magazine'' January 16, 2008 *
Hannah Moscovitch: Hit factory
''The Globe and Mail.'' January 13, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Moscovitch, Hannah 1978 births Living people Canadian women dramatists and playwrights Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Dora Mavor Moore Award winners Canadian atheists Jewish atheists National Theatre School of Canada alumni University of Toronto alumni Writers from Ottawa 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian women writers Governor General's Award-winning dramatists