We are pleased to transform the Fringe New Play Prize into the Kathleen Flaherty Prize, in honour of a foundational dramaturg and a leader of PTC from 2012-2020. Kathleen was an early steward of the prize, setting the precedent for the dramaturgy and development of artists entering their theatre and performing arts careers. With great love and gratitude, we are proud to name this prize as a memorial to her legacy. To learn more about Kathleen, read more here.
The Kathleen Flaherty Prize is a reimagined artist development program designed to elevate bold, new voices in live performance. Open to emerging* artists across British Columbia working in any genre — from theatre and clowning to drag, burlesque, music, and more — this program supports the creation of original work and champions innovation, inclusion, and artistic growth.
Applications for 2027 – 2028 open in spring 2027. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates and news.
2026-2027 Prize Winners
Female Listeria by Dorothy Droste, Amélia Simard, Torien Cafferata, and Yasna Khademian
About Female Listeria
The play follows four influencers celebrating the recent brand deal of their friend, who has been tasked to choose one of the four women to bring alongside her on a sponsorship campaign. However, the celebrations come to a crashing halt with the discovery of their dead friend. Things escalate quickly, resulting in each of them starting to eat each other alive – literally.
Female Listeria is a microcosm of the internet we’ve come to inherit, translated for the stage as a satirical simulacrum of influencer culture.
Learn more about the Female Listeria team here.
What the Kathleen Flaherty Prize offers:
- 13 months of dramaturgy with PTC Dramaturg, Davey Samuel Calderon
- Minimum 3 weeks of free rehearsal space to bring your vision to life
- Production mentorship for the dedicated producer-collaborator or producing teams (including grant writing workshop, production plan development, and fundraising support)
- Artist passes for the 2026 Fringe Festival
- A free and guaranteed space at a 2027 Vancouver Fringe Festival mainstage venue
All told, the KFP is a juicy package valued at $16,000: ($45 Fringe application fee, $850 Fringe participation fee + $2,500 Fringe venue costs + $2,230 in studio space + $4,500 of dramaturgy + $3200 of production mentorship + $2,675 script copying + promotion + fundraising support).
(Above costs are in-kind support and resources, not a cash prize. All production costs not listed above are the responsibility of the prize winner.)
Whether your project is rooted in storytelling or spectacle, this is your chance to develop it with guidance and resources from the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Playwrights Theatre Centre, two leading organizations in BC’s performing arts scene.
*We define “emerging” as any artists or playwrights who identify early in their performing arts career, and have had less than 5 years of publicly doing their practice.
2025-2026 Winner
Live in Hell by Marita Michaelis with Lauren Han and Alexandra (Ali) McDougall
In this solo performance, a she-devil takes accountability for all the abject horrors of the world, taking credit for her many terrible, sinful, and undeniably cool inventions. She pulls us into a makeshift hellscape full of pointing fingers, vulgar gestures, and self-obsession. Tongue-in-cheek, LIVE IN HELL asks: how can we grapple with the evil of the everyday in a world where “bad” things are good and the status quo is a death machine?
2023-2024 Winner
God’s A Drag by Jessica Lemes da Silva
God’s A Drag follows Neveah, a young queer woman in Mission, BC whose genderqueer pastor starts a Drag prayer hour in their church. This little piece of heaven, a place where Neveah affirms her queerness and spirituality, doesn’t last long as protestors show up. After some unexpected consequences — and guided by two queer saints — Neveah goes on a journey of self-discovery. With a sprinkle of Drag as prayerful worship, this story celebrates what it is to be unapologetically queer and holy.
2021-2022 Winner
The Frontliners by Zahida Rahemtulla
Vancouver, British Columbia—Late January 2016. Canada is in the throes of resettling the first wave of 25,000 Syrian refugees. As three frontline workers battle Vancouver’s housing crisis to move families out of an East Van hotel, their lives are brought together in ways that irreversibly shape them.
2020 Winner
Catalina La O Presenta: Now With Me by Jk Jk (khattieQ and Jenny Larson-Quiñones)
Catalina La O presenta: Ahora Conmigo, draws inspiration from Puerto Rican musical legends Myrta Silva, Lucecita Benitez, and Yolandita Monge. This interactive, bilingual cabaret performance is part (physical) clown show, part punk rock performance, y todo emoción performed by khattieQ.
2019 Winner
Mx by Lili Robinson
Mx is an intense and intimate play written and featuring Studio 58 graduate Lili Robinson. Having no qualms with confrontation or opaque autobiographical findings, it personifies the struggle between the black and white expectations placed on mixed-race main character Max (later called Mx, pronounced mix).
2018 Winner
Poly Queer Love Ballad by Anais Mateusz West & Sara Vickruck
Poly Queer Love Ballad is a bold, intimate new musical, merging slam poetry with catchy pop-folk tunes. Nina, a polyamorous bisexual poet, meets Gabbie, a monogamous lesbian songwriter, at a Cafe Deux Soleils. With two microphones, a loop pedal, and array of instruments, they struggle to reconcile their fierce mutual attraction with their opposing perspectives on love. The show explores polyamory and queerness, while aiming to create a new representation of intimacy that isn’t confined by genre, medium or societal obligations.