Toronto director Ravi Jain, who founded Why Not Theatre, wins Canada's top theatre honour

“Ravi Jain is a creator of remarkable range and audacity, whose career has consistently redefined what Canadian theatre can be,” said jury chair Guillermo Verdecchia. “His works span the intimate and the epic, yet each bears the imprint of a restless curiosity and a refusal to repeat established formulas.”

Jain was previously shortlisted for the Siminovitch Prize in 2016, 2019 and 2022. He also won the Canada Council for the Arts John Hirsch Prize for direction in 2016. 

The three other finalists for this year’s Siminovitch Prize are Anne-Marie Olivier, a Quebec-based playwright, actor and director; Estelle Shook, artistic director of Caravan Farm Theatre in British Columbia; and Adrienne Wong, a trailblazer in participatory and digital performance who hails from Alberta and British Columbia. Each will receive $10,000. 

Jain, who was born in Etobicoke, trained at the London Academy of Music and the Dramatic Art, and at New York University. He later studied at École Jacques Lecoq, an avant-garde academy in France specializing in physical theatre. 

In 2007, he established the boundary-pushing Why Not Theatre, which has since debuted more than 50 new works.

The company’s production of “Mahabharata,” which Jain co-adapted with Miriam Fernandes from the Sanskrit epic of the same name, recently toured to London, New York City and Perth after premiering at the Shaw Festival in 2023. Its run in Toronto also picked up five Dora Awards earlier this year. 

Jain’s other major accomplishments include directing Factory Theatre’s 2016 revival of the Canadian classic “Salt-Water Moon,” which was picked up by Mirvish the following year as part of the off-Mirvish season. More recently, he also co-wrote and directed “What You Won’t Do For Love,” an autobiographical play starring environmentalist David Suzuki and his wife, Tara Cullis. 

Fernandes, who serves as Why Not Theatre’s co-artistic director alongside Jain, was selected as Jain’s protégé for the prize. She will receive $25,000.