Hannah Moscovitch


Hannah Moscovitch is a Canadian playwright who rose to national prominence in the 2000s. She is best known for her plays East of Berlin, This Is War, "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, for which she received the 2021 Governor General's Award for English-language drama.

Life and career

Today based in Toronto and Halifax, she was born in Ottawa. Her father, Allan Moscovitch, is a social policy professor at Carleton University. Her mother, Julie White, is a labour researcher. Both have long been active in left wing politics. Moscovitch's father is Jewish, of Romanian and Ukrainian background, while her mother is from a Christian background. Moscovitch was "raised as an atheist", and has said that there is "implicitly Jewish sensibility" to her plays. She studied at the National Theatre School in the acting stream.
Moscovitch gained considerable notice for two short plays written for Toronto's SummerWorks. In 2005 she presented Essay, a play about gender politics in modern academia. The next year at the festival The Russian Play premiered, a romance set in Stalinist Russia. Both were well received by critics and audiences. In 2007 her first full-length play, East of Berlin, premiered at the Tarragon Theatre. The play focuses on the legacy of the Holocaust on the children of those involved. The main character is the son of a Nazi war criminal who grows up in Paraguay. He eventually travels to Berlin and meets the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor. The play was acclaimed for its complex subject, humour, and characters and was also a popular success, returning to Tarragon in winter 2009 and 2010.
2013 saw the premiere of This Is War, a play depicting the lives of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. This Is War won multiple awards with one reviewer writing "Moscovitch shines a light on massive issues like sexual harassment within the military without making her play a morality tale or exposé. It’s a story about four good people in a bad place and all the gray area that that produces." In 2015, Moscovitch wrote the play Infinity about a physicist who becomes involved in a love story while contemplating the nature of time. She collaborated with Lee Smolin to lend verisimilitude to some of the theoretical ideas.
Moscovitch's plays have been widely produced across Canada, including at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company, The National Arts Centre, Toronto's Factory Theatre, Edmonton's Theatre Network, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver's Firehall Arts Centre, the Alberta Theatre Projects, and Montreal's Imago Theatre. Moscovitch is currently playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre and was previously a contributing writer to the CBC radio drama series Afghanada.
She has been dubbed "an indie sensation" by Toronto Life Magazine; "the wunderkind of Canadian theatre" by CBC Radio; "irritatingly talented" by the now defunct Eye Weekly; and the "dark angel of Toronto theatre" by Toronto Star. The National Post, The Globe and Mail, and Now Magazine have all hailed Moscovitch as "Canada's Hottest Young Playwright".
In 2021, Moscovitch and Jennifer Podemski created the drama series Little Bird for Crave.

Works

Plays

Essay – 2005The Russian Play – 2006East of Berlin – 2007In This World – 2008The Children's Republic – 2009Little One – 2011Other People's Children – 2012This Is War – 2012I Have no Stories to Tell You – 2013Infinity – 2014What a Young Wife Ought To Know – 2015

Awards and honours

Moscovitch won Dora Mavor Moore Awards for In This World and "Infinity". She won both the Trillium Book Award and Toronto Critic's Awards in 2014 for This Is War. She has won the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award for "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and the SummerWorks Prize for Best Production for The Russian Play.
She received the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in the Drama category, becoming the first Canadian woman to win the prize.
She was the winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2021 Governor General's Awards for her play Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.
Award nominations received by Moscovitch include the Siminovitch Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Carol Bolt Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the KM Hunter Award and the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award.
YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.
2005SummerWorks Contra Guys AwardBest New ScriptEssayWon
2006SummerWorks Jury PrizeOutstanding New ProductionThe Russian PlayWon
2007Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist AwardNomitated
2008Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayEssayNomitated
2008Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayEast of BerlinNomitated
2008The K.M Hunter Artist AwardNomitated
2009The K.M Hunter Artist AwardNomitated
2009Carol Bolt AwardEast of BerlinNomitated
2009Governor General’s Literary AwardDramaEast of BerlinNomitated
2010Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeEast of BerlinNomitated
2010Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New Play for Young AudiencesIn this WorldWon
2010Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New ProductionThe Huron BrideWon
2010Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayThe Huron BrideNomitated
2013Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayLittle OneNomitated
2013Carol Bolt AwardThis is WarNomitated
2013Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest Canadian PlayThis is WarWon
2014Trillium Book AwardOutstanding work of literature in OntarioThis is WarWon
2015Siminovitch Prize
2015Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlayInfinityWon
2015New York Fringe Festival Overall Excellence AwardLittle OneWon
2015Gascon-Thomas AwardAward for Revitalizing Canadian Theatre
2016Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes DramaEast of BerlinWon
2016Nova Scotia MasterWorks Arts AwardWhat a Young Wife Ought to Know
2017Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe FestivalOld Stock: A Refugee Love StoryWon
2017Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Fringe FestivalOld Stock: A Refugee Love StoryWon
2017Siminovitch Prize
2018Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Book of a MusicalOld Stock: A Refugee Love StoryNomitated
2018Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest Touring ProductionWhat a Young Wife Ought to KnowNomitated
2018Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest Canadian PlayBunnyWon
2018Nova Scotia MasterWorks Arts AwardLieutenant GovernorOld Stock: A Refugee Love StoryWon
2019International Opera AwardsWorld Premiere CategorySky on SwingsWon
2019Toronto Theatre Critics’ AwardBest New Canadian MusicalOld Stock: A Refugee Love StoryWon
2019Governor General's Literary AwardsWhat a Young Wife Ought to KnowNomitated
2019Dora Mavor Moore AwardBest New PlaySecret Life of a Mother
2021Governor General’s Literary AwardDramaSexual Misconduct of the Middle ClassesWon
2022Jim Connors Dartmouth Book AwardFictionSexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes
2024Canadian Screen AwardsBest Drama SeriesLittle Bird