Performance Matters wins Canadian Association for Theatre Research's Patrick O'Neill Award
The 2025 double issue of has won the 2026 from the Canadian Association for Theatre Research. This award is given each year to the best edited collection published in either English or French in the field of drama, theatre, and performance studies in what is now known as Canada.
This year we have chosen to honour Performance Matters, vol 11, no 1-2 on Dramaturgies of Accessibility with the Patrick ONeill Prize. We noted the leadership the Performance Matters team consistently show in adapting the form of their publication to suit the needs of editors and their projects. This special issue, edited by Pil Hansen and Jessica Watkin, features a clear and necessary centering of disabled artists and scholars, as well as inspiring and varied forms of collaboration. The ways in which accessibility is discussed and represented throughout the publication can serve as new benchmarks for our field, expanding our collective understanding about what is both possible and necessary moving forward in theatre and performance research. Rich in theoretical insight and lived experience, this is transformative work that will shape practice as well as discourse within Theatre and Performance Studies for years to come.