Theatre critic, writer and actor Jerry Wasserman is the winner of this 12 months’s Max Wyman Award in Important Writing.
The once a year award celebrates crucial remark at the visible, appearing and literary arts within the province of British Columbia.
It’s supposed to honour knowledgeable and compelling writing that stimulates crucial pondering, fosters ongoing dialogue concerning the position of arts and tradition in fresh society and demonstrates the worth of ingenious remark in our figuring out of the international round us.
The winner receives a prize of $5,000 and a gold and emerald pin designed through Vancouver artist Robert Chaplin. A mentee, named through the laureate, receives a $1,000 prize. This 12 months’s mentee is Angie Rico, an rising creator and media artist.
The award used to be established in 2017 through philanthropist Yosef Wosk to honour the profession and lifelong contributions of the Vancouver writer, arts critic and commentator Max Wyman. It acknowledges writers who’ve gathered a vital frame of labor. Eligible topics of complaint come with the visible arts, structure and design, theatre, literature, dance, track, movie and tv, in addition to extra common cultural remark.
Jerry Wasserman started operating as a theatre critic on CBC nationwide radio within the mid-Eighties and broadcast weekly evaluations on Vancouver’s The Afternoon Display from 1987-2003. He has since served as theatre critic for The Province and, recently, the Vancouver Solar. About 400 of his articles and evaluations have gave the impression in the ones papers. Since 2004, his site, www.vancouverplays.com, has won over 1.6 million visits. He taught English and Theatre on the College of British Columbia for over 4 a long time and served as head of the dep. of Theatre and Movie from 2007-2012. His performing resume contains degree appearances for the Arts Membership, Playhouse, Town Level, Westcoast Actors, New Play Centre, United Avid gamers and Western Gold Theatre, and over 200 movie and TV appearances, from The X-Information, Glance Who’s Speaking and Alive to I, Robotic, Watchmen and The Remaining of Us.
The jury quotation reads: “Jerry Wasserman’s outstanding profession in some ways embodies the goals of this award. His a long time as a trainer and as a performer give his writing concerning the theatre a sympathetic and considerate figuring out this is expressed in language this is vigorous, direct and deeply knowledgeable. The jury used to be unanimous in its appreciation of the way in which he has inspired and enhanced a much wider appreciation of the richness of the Vancouver arts scene and the abilities of those that make that richness conceivable—each thru his print and media evaluations and thru his site, which is a constant supply of knowledge and crucial context on all issues theatre in Vancouver.”
Yosef Wosk commented: “Jerry Wasserman’s voice has been a gradual and depended on supply of knowledge and context concerning the Vancouver theatre scene for many years. He treats complaint and remark as an integral a part of the cultural cloth, and sees the position of the critic no longer as an antagonist to the performer and author however as a collaborator. I’m extremely joyful that he’s to obtain this award.”
Earlier winners of the Wyman award are Dorothy Woodend, arts editor of the online mag The Tyee, freelance artwork critic Robin Laurence and writer, critic and previous UBC gallery director Scott Watson.
