Poly Queer Love Ballad--a slam-poetry musical--has won the 2018 New Play Prize from the Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Vancouver Fringe Festival.

Its performers and cocreators, Anais West, an actor and playwright as well as associate artistic producer at Pi Theatre, and theatre artist and musician Sara Vickruck have earned the award for the work.

The prize includes a free Mainstage spot at the 2018 Vancouver Fringe  (September 6 to 16, 2018), the design and execution of a development process for the play with PTC’s Project Dramaturg Joanna Garfinkel, and a free spot in PTC’s how-to-produce-theatre seminar series, Block P.

Featuring a microphone, loop pedal, and array of instruments, the new musical is described as a mix of pop folk songs and spoken word "to create a raw, intimate, genre-bending theatre experience". The plot centres on Nina, a polyamorous bisexual poet, and Gabbie, a monogamous lesbian songwriter. They struggle to reconcile their fierce mutual attraction with their opposing perspectives on sex.