The Vancouver Fringe & Playwrights Theatre Centre Announce winner of the  2026 Kathleen Flaherty Prize

Female Listeria by Dorothy Droste, Amélia Simard, Torien Cafferata, and Yasna Khademian

The Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society and Playwrights Theatre Centre have jointly announced the winner of the  2026 Kathleen Flaherty Prize. 

On September 18th, 2026, the Fringe and PTC announced playwright Dorothy Droste with director Amélia Simard and producing team Yasna Khademian and Torien Cafferata won the Prize for their project, Female Listeria. 

Female Listeria will receive dramaturgy and production mentorship from Davey Samuel Calderon and presentation support from the Vancouver Fringe Festival. The prize fosters the work of emerging theatre artists creating work that embodies the spirit of Fringe and continues on the legacy of renowned PTC dramaturg, Kathleen Flaherty, who stewarded this prize with dramaturgy support and launched the career of several artists, including Derek Chan, SNAFU Dance Theatre’s Ingrid Hansen and Rod Peter Jr, and Deneh’cho Thompson. Female Listeria will premiere at the 2027 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

“Female Listeria embodies the kind of works we are thrilled to see coming to the Fringe” said Duncan Watts-Grant, Executive Director of the Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society. “Sharp, biting, and current, it’s a piece that will resonate and engage with our audience.”

“For over 9 years, PTC has led a prize for an emerging theatre artist to create a new and bold Fringe piece.” said Joanna Garfinkel, the Artistic Director and Dramaturg at Playwrights Theatre Centre. She explained, “The prospective show receives extensive dramaturgy, production mentorship, and a guaranteed spot at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.”

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.

About the Team

Dorothy Droste is an emerging writer and dramaturg looking to spread like prions. Their interests lie in exploring the absurd and morose. They were given the opportunity to develop such stylings in PTC’s Block A workshop and the Art’s Club’s LEAP program respectively. They are the playwright for ‘Female Listeria’. They are currently living, collaborating, and storytelling on the stolen and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Amélia Simard (they/them/iel) is an emerging French-Canadian filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist based in so-called Vancouver. They have completed their BFA in Film at Simon Fraser University and they have since written and directed and written many short films and plays. Recent theatre ventures include completing Playwrights Theatre Centre’s Block A playwriting program and a development residency at Premier Acte in Québec City to develop their multilingual play Cornouillère. In their practice, Amélia explores themes of gender and language through metaphors based in memory, nostalgia and the fantastical. They are the director of Female Listeria, selected for the 2027 Kathleen Flaherty Prize.

Torien Cafferata (they/he) is an AuDHD interdisciplinary artist originally from Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 territory where they trained as a performer, playwright, director, dramaturge, and educator before coming to Simon Fraser University for their MFA. Their arts practice spans a host of forms: devised theatre, social practice, site-specific, mixed-reality, game design, ludology, and Pochinko clown. He is an avid trifler with digital platforms and lo-fi aesthetics, often using them in explorations of labour, play, madness, interpassivity, non-places, and hauntology. As co-Artistic Director of It’s Not A Box Theatre they have toured performances and installations to the Prague Quadrennial, SummerWorks, and across Fringe Festivals. Torien is a co-producer for Female Listeria.

Yasna Khademian (any/all) is an emerging producer and theatre artist whose work often centres intergenerational dynamics, relationships between women, and chosen family. A 2026 Fellow at Lambda’s Writers Retreat, Yasna is also a 2026 Creation Lab playwright with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. Born in the Midwest as a second-generation Iranian in the diaspora, Yasna’s work is deeply informed by immigration and the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class. They are so excited to be a co-producer on ‘Female Listeria’ for the 2027 Fringe. Yasna lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.