2025: A Year in Review
December 19, 2025
What a thrill to end the year with the news that Why Not Founder and Co-Artistic Director, Ravi Jain, is the 2025 Siminovitch Prize Laureate!
2025 began with a MAHABHARATA Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in preparation for an exciting year of touring. The acclaimed Why Not Theatre production opened the prestigious Perth Festival in Australia, marking its Asia-Pacific debut; was presented at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa; enjoyed its American debut at the exquisite Lincoln Center in New York; and with our incredible partners at Canadian Stage, MAHABHARATA triumphantly returned to Toronto for a hometown run which swept the Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Toronto Theatre Critics Awards.
Doras were awarded in the general theatre division for Outstanding Production (Why Not Theatre), Outstanding New Play (Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain), Outstanding Direction (Ravi Jain), Outstanding Performance (Miriam Fernandes), and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition (John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran).
The Toronto Theatre Critics Association also honoured MAHABHARATA with Best New Canadian Play (Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain), Best Production of a Play (Why Not Theatre), and Best Sound Design and Music of a Play or Musical (John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran).
Mahabharata was generously supported by Canada’s National Arts Centre and its National Creation Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Azrieli Foundation, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, and the Government of Canada. Additional support was provided by Deb Barrett & Jim Leech, Clearview Foundation, Nancy & Richard Hamm, Kingfisher Foundation, Lindy Green Family Foundation (International Partner), McLean Foundation, Meighen Family Foundation, Metcalf Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, Andrew & Valerie Pringle, TD Bank, TO Live, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Wuchien Michael Than Foundation.
Kevin Matthew Wong’s play BENEVOLENCE premiered at Tarragon Theatre on April 8 and enjoyed a sold-out run through May 4, 2025.
Vulnerable and epic, moving and playful, BENEVOLENCE is a powerful exploration of community, hybrid identities, and legacy. Tracing the roots of the Hakka 客家—one of the world’s most widely dispersed communities—Kevin embarks on a journey to untangle these threads within himself.
In the new year, BENEVOLENCE will receive its American premiere as part of Lincoln Center Presents/Under the Radar with more touring to come!
Benevolence has been developed through residencies with Tarragon Theatre, Why Not Theatre, and the Centre for Drama Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Toronto, and originally produced by Tarragon Theatre with Why Not Theatre and Broadleaf Creative.
After an epic 10-year development period for Mahabharata that rivaled the ancient Sanskrit poem itself, Why Not Co-Artistic Directors Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes are back in the studio again to begin exploring a number of new projects.
First up was a visit from renowned British theatre artist Kathryn Hunter who joined us in Toronto for a special commedia dell’arte infused workshop of Samuel Beckett’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece, ENDGAME featuring Ravi Jain, Diego Matamoros, and Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Michèle Smith and Dean Gilmour.
In November, a group of exciting artists gathered in an empty storefront and began with questions. At this phase of the creative process, we are much more invested in questions than answers. The time with our collaborators in an empty space was moving and inspiring, transporting us back to our roots and sparking our imagination.
Stay tuned for more information about what projects we’re cooking up in the new year!
New work development is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and Clearview Foundation. Why Not Theatre also warmly acknowledges our International Partner the Lindy Green Family Foundation for their generous support of international exchange.
In the fall, the 2025-2026 ThisGen Fellowship launched with six emerging Fellows focusing on producing for live performance. This celebrated, national initiative supports Black, Indigenous, Global Majority Women, and Non-Binary (trans-inclusive) performing arts practitioners in the next stage of their careers. Running over the course of eight months, ThisGen Fellowship 2025-2026 commences with an online training intensive featuring a faculty of both nationally and internationally renowned arts leaders, followed by an in-person residency in Ottawa hosted by the National Arts Centre. Fellows will then have the opportunity to apply their learnings as associate producers on workshop presentations of three new short works commissioned by Why Not Theatre.
ThisGen Fellowship is produced in partnership with the National Arts Centre. ThisGen Fellowship is made possible by the generous support of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Arts Training Fund, National Arts Centre, and RBC Foundation, with additional support provided by the Youssef Warren Foundation and core grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council.
Free space for artists. A simple, radical idea with the power to change lives. On a lovely late summer evening, friends and supporters gathered for a sharing of the Space Project findings, diligently collected by Mary Anderson, Lead Producer Space Project with Why Not Theatre, and her collaborators at Mass Culture, on how significantly fully-subsidized creative space impacts artists and their communities. In true Why Not style, it was a celebration of artists and art-making!
