Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed Canadian playwright, TV writer, and librettist whose work has been widely produced in Canada and around the world. Recent stage work includes Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (co-created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan). Hannah has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Trillium Book Award, the Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award, the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize administered by Yale University. She has been nominated for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Drama Desk Award, Canada’s Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, and the Governor General’s Literary Award. She is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. She lives in Halifax.
Alisa Palmer is an award-winning theatre director, playwright, and producer and has developed, premiered, and toured provocative and award-winning theatre creations for over twenty-five years. Her work crosses genres, including the classics, contemporary plays, collaborative creations, musicals, and operas and is characterized by vivid performances, a bold use of music, and a passionate commitment to the body politic. She is the recipient of numerous awards both in Canada and internationally, including multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards, two Floyd S. Chalmers Awards, the Robert Merritt Award, and a Harold Award for her contribution to independent theatre. She is a three-time finalist for the Siminovitch Prize and a recipient of the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. She was the artistic director of Nightwood Theatre, where she oversaw the commissioning and development of landmark plays including Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears and Smudge by Alex Bulmer, the first professional play by a blind playwright. She has spent eight seasons at the Shaw Festival and three seasons at the Stratford Festival, where she directed the world premiere of Hamlet-911 by Ann-Marie MacDonald, developed through Vita Brevis Arts. Ms. Palmer was Executive Artistic Director of the National Theatre School of Canada and Director of the Acting and Artist Residency Programs between 2013 and 2024, where she led the revitalization of the English Section through the creation of new programming and pedagogy focused on accessibility, equity, and, sustainability of artistic practices, for which she was honoured with Les prix Mosaïque from the Union des artistes. Ms. Palmer is Artistic Producer and Founder of Vita Brevis Arts. She is married to author Ann-Marie MacDonald, with whom she has two children.
