The Harry S. Rintoul Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival was established by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights (MAP) to honour the memory of playwright Harry Rintoul. The award reflects what Harry felt most passionately about: emerging theatre artists creating new work.
The winner of the Harry S. Rintoul Award receives $750, and an honorable mention receives $250. MAP presents the award on the last night of the festival.
To enter the competition: the play must be in the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, either at a Fringe venue, or a Bring Your Own Venue. The play must be a previously unproduced Manitoba play (a previous workshop presentation or reading is permitted). The play must be original. Stand-up, improvisation, and sketch comedy are not eligible. You must send the following information to MAP by email to be considered: name of play, author(s), venue, and dates and times of performances. Do not send the script.
Full eligibility and entry information can be found here.
Harry Rintoul
Harry S. Rintoul was a noted Manitoba playwright who died suddenly on Monday, January 14, 2002 at age 45. He is survived by his wife Dolores, and daughter Linnaea. The Alberta-born, but long-time Manitoban was the founding Artistic Director of Theatre Projects Manitoba, a Winnipeg company that has been dedicated to Manitoba plays and performers since 1990. He had been involved with MAP since 1984, including serving on the Board of Directors. MAP workshopped several of his plays including Life and Times, refugees, montana, Brave Hearts, Jack of Hearts, The Convergence of Luke, and Lake Nowhere.
His most widely produced play, Brave Hearts, is in the collection Making Out, published by Coach House. A fixture on the Winnipeg theatre scene for 20 years, Harry spent his last four years running a general store/post office in the Lake Audy area near Riding Mountain National Park in western Manitoba. He remained involved with the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, running its Open Door playwriting program.
Though Harry had workshopped and even produced a play or two before the first Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1988, it was at the Fringe that he first made his mark on the theatre scene with the production of refugees. Harry believed the Fringe was a great showcase for emerging playwrights, and new plays generally, especially by Manitobans.
Winners:
2022: Winner - Sarah Flynn, Whatever Happens After? Honourable Mention - Jo Burdon, Victoria Emilie Hall, Edward Wiebe, & Tanner Manson, FERN
2021: The live version of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival postponed due to COVID-19
2020: The live version of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival postponed due to COVID-19
2019: Connor Joseph, Cuinn Joseph, and Jacob Herd, The Cause
2018: Duncan Cox, Tanner Manson, and Ben Townsley, The Ballad of Johnny Boy
2017: Wren Brian, Anomie
2016: Frances Koncan, zahgidiwin/love
2015: Sydney Hayduk and Justin Otto, Manic Pixie Dream Girl
2014: Bill Pats, Executing Justice
2013: Jessy Ardern and Ariel Levine, The Hound of Ulster
2012: Scott Douglas, The Touring Test
2011: Jessy Ardern and Ariel Levine, Sigurd the Dragonslayer
2010: Muriel Hogue, Scar Tissue
2009: Joseph Aragon, Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare
2008: Daniel Thau-Eleff, Remember the Night
2007: Ross McMIllan, The Ingrates
2006: Stefanie Wiens, Max and Mirabelle
2005: Jason Neufeld, The Rise and Fall of Bloody Redemption
2004: Daniel Thau-Eleff, Three Ring Circus: Israel, the Palestinians and My Jewish Identity
2003: Joseph Aragon, The Unlikely Sainthood of Madeline McKay
2002: Kevin Klassen, Aftertaste