Awards | Sunny Drake

Sunny Drake is a playwright, theatre creator and performer. He has toured his theatre works to over 80 venues in 55 cities across Canada, Australia, the US, and Europe, bringing challenging work to a wide range of audiences from elderly ladies in regional theatres to queers in underground warehouses. Touring highlights include: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), San Francisco International Arts Festival, Espace Libre (Montreal), Northern Arts & Cultural Centre (Yellowknife & Fort Smith), Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia), Nuovo Cinema Palazzo (Rome), The Basement Theatre (Brighton, UK), and he has been presented three times by the USA National Queer Arts Festival. His plays have been translated into 4 languages: French, Spanish, German and Italian. He has been in residence with the Stratford Playwrights Retreat (2018), Theatre Passe Muraille (2018/19), Nightswimming (2018), Factory Theatre (2017), Yaddo (New York, 2018), Playwrights Theatre Centre’s WrightSpace (2016), and one of his new plays, CHILD-ISH, is currently part of the National Arts Centre’s Collaborations. In 2019 he will be in residence at The Arctic Circle (onboard a tall ship in the high arctic), Djerassi (California) and Klaustrid (Iceland). He currently has six new theatre works in various stages of development. Sunny was the Director of the Emerging Creators Unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from 2015-2018. He was born and grown in Australia and is has lived in Toronto since 2011.

Sunny Drake is a playwright, theatre creator and performer. He has toured his theatre works to over 80 venues in 55 cities across Canada, Australia, the US, and Europe, bringing challenging work to a wide range of audiences from elderly ladies in regional theatres to queers in underground warehouses. Touring highlights include: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), San Francisco International Arts Festival, Espace Libre (Montreal), Northern Arts & Cultural Centre (Yellowknife & Fort Smith), Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia), Nuovo Cinema Palazzo (Rome), The Basement Theatre (Brighton, UK), and he has been presented three times by the USA National Queer Arts Festival. His plays have been translated into 4 languages: French, Spanish, German and Italian. He has been in residence with the Stratford Playwrights Retreat (2018), Theatre Passe Muraille (2018/19), Nightswimming (2018), Factory Theatre (2017), Yaddo (New York, 2018), Playwrights Theatre Centre’s WrightSpace (2016), and one of his new plays, CHILD-ISH, is currently part of the National Arts Centre’s Collaborations. In 2019 he will be in residence at The Arctic Circle (onboard a tall ship in the high arctic), Djerassi (California) and Klaustrid (Iceland). He currently has six new theatre works in various stages of development. Sunny was the Director of the Emerging Creators Unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from 2015-2018. He was born and grown in Australia and is has lived in Toronto since 2011.

Awards & Awarded Residencies

(inaugural) Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize 2019 - $25,000 award
Stratford Festival playwright in residence 2019
Invited member of The Collaborations with the National Arts Centre (with my new work CHILD-ISH)
Stratford Playwrights Retreat 2018
Playwright/creator in residence Theatre Passe Muraille 2018-19
Playwright/creator in residence Nightswimming 2018
2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival semi-finalist (San Francisco, 2018)
K. M. Hunter Theatre Award finalist 2018
Natural Resources playwrights unit (for mid-senior level playwrights) - Factory Theatre 2017
Spark Box Studio National Award, 2017
Dora Award Juror 2017-18 season
Calgary Critics Award Nomination for Best Technical Design for “X”, 2015
TELUS Newcomer Professional Artist Finalist 2014
SummerWorks RBC Professional Arts Award 2013
“Outstanding Performance” and “Outstanding Design” for “X” by NOW Magazine, Toronto, 2013
Other awarded residencies: Djerassi (California, Sept 2019), Klaustrid (Iceland, Oct 2019), The Arctic Circle (The High Arctic, 2019), Yaddo (NY, 2018), Spark Box Studio (Canada, Sept 2017); Ucross Foundation (Wyoming, April 2017); PTC Writers Colony (Vancouver, Dec 2016); Blue Mountain Centre writer’s residency (NY, June – July 2016); Patio Taller (Puerto Rico, Sept 2013 & invited back Sept 2015); The Garage Theatre residency (San Francisco, Mar-June 2008)