Patrick Conner Award
Patrick Conner (1964-2012) was a lauded Actor, Director, Dramaturg and Teacher who devoted his life to the Toronto theatre community. He was a co-founder of groundbreaking site-responsive theatre company, Die In Debt Theatre, a key collaborator with Theatre Rusticle, and a contributor to the works of VideoCabaret, Buddies In Bad Times, Threshold Theatre, and countless other companies.
The Patrick Conner Award was established in 2013 to celebrate the life and work of Patrick Conner, a Toronto-based activist, actor, director and a champion of ethical food systems. This award recognizes someone who, like Patrick, works to change the world through their practice; it comes with a cash prize of $2,500.
In 2018 The Patrick Conner Ticket was created. The honoree will be gifted with subscriptions to Toronto theatres for the year in which they were honoured.
The 2023 recipient of the Patrick Conner Award is Kevin A. Ormsby!
Kevin A. Ormsby is a Cultural Instigator & Arts Strategist in EDI change processes, Artistic Director of KasheDance and Program Manager at Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), where he delivers, presents, curates EDI programming for artists and organizations. He has extensive performance and research experience in Canada, USA and the Caribbean.
Kevin’s research and creative practice through his company’s technical approach to dance exists in a space of constant interrogation and navigation of Caribbean cultural nuances towards, a methodology of understanding space in creation, research, and presentation.
Kevin was a Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize 2023 nominee and finalist for the Arts Prize in 2021, recipient of Canada Council for the Arts’ Victor Martyn Lynch – Staunton Award, A Chalmers Fellow, an inaugural TAC Cultural Leaders Fellow, and he was a Guest Artist at the University of the West Indies, UW – Madison and Northwestern University.
He is the Chair of the Social Justice Committee and Corporate Working Group on the Board of TAPA, and on the Board of Dance Collection Danse. He was Chair of Nia Centre for the Arts; Canada’s first professional multi-disciplinary centre for African – Canadian art.
The 2023 Patrick Conner Ticket goes to Angela Sun! Angela Sun is a Mad/Disabled, plus-size, first generation/ settler actor, theatre creator, producer, playwright, model, and arts administrator of East Asian descent. Her multidisciplinary, multilingual artistic practice focuses on cultural dissonance and mental health. She is also known for her advocacy for cultural diversity, size-inclusivity, and access for the invisible disability community that prioritizes lived experience. Angela has worked with many emerging and established artistic organizations and companies throughout her career including: CBC Arts, the Bentway, Gardiner Museum, Theatre Passe Muraille, Cahoots Theatre, ReDefine Arts, Workman Arts, Generator, Reel Asian Film Festival, Toronto Fringe, SummerWorks, Factory Theatre, Political Movement, Outside the March, Theatre ARTaud, Broadleaf Theatre, and Children’s Peace Theatre. She is currently developing a one-person show on trauma, representation, and storytelling, The Glass Eye, which recently received support from Volcano Theatre, Why Not Theatre, and the Ontario Arts Council.
- Falen Johnson (2022)
- Njo Kong Kie (2020)
- Nikki Shaffeeullah (2019)
- Susanna Fournier (2018)
- Jennifer Dallas (2017)
- Georgina Beatty and Sarah Pittoello (2016)
- Aviva Armour-Ostroff and Kimberley Edwards (2015)
- Lea Ambros and Taarini Chopra (2014)
- James Davis and Estelle Shook (2013)
Past ticket recipients include Thomas McKechnie (2019), Mariah Horner (2018) and Lorena Torres Loaiza (2022).
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