Touchstone Theatre director Katrina Dunn has received an award for supporting and promoting the work of Canadian female playwrights--in other words, the playwrights who made up her entire season.

On June 11, at a showing of Herr Beckmann's People at the PTC Studio (a coproduction between Touchstone and the Playwrights Theatre Centre), she received the Bra D'Or (Golden Bra) prize from the Women’s Caucus of Playwrights Guild of Canada.

The certificate praises Dunn with these words: "Without fanfare, she has championed, developed, and produced plays by established and emerging playwrights. Katrina Dunn is helping to bring female playwrights into the mainstream for which we are extremely grateful.”

In a printed response to the award, Dunn said: "It is the most cherished of the awards I have found myself holding so far in this lifetime. With the many challenges we’re faced with as Artistic Directors it is deeply satisfying to come through the morass of financial and administrative constraints with programming that has integrity and meaningful impact. When I realized I was programming a whole season of Canadian women playwrights I was absolutely thrilled. I didn’t realize that so much of my audience and colleagues would also find it thrilling. It was one of the most successful seasons in Touchstone’s history. I want to thank you for your efforts raising the profile of women writers in the theatre. I look forward to the day when an award like this will be unnecessary and redundant.”

Herr Beckmann's People, by Sally Stubbs, is the 15th play written by a Canadian woman that Dunn has programmed at Touchstone in her 12-year tenure.