Announcing the PACT Green Award 2026 Recipient

April 27, 2026

Toronto, Ontario. (April 27, 2026) – Each year, the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) presents the Green Award to a theatre company, organization, or individual who engages with the climate crisis in creative and exciting ways, honouring initiatives, projects, productions or other achievements which demonstrate outstanding commitment to taking action against climate change. The 2026 Green Award was presented to Neworld Theatre for their recent project, 'Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Stories’. Also recognized as runner-up for their achievement was the newly completed Centre for The Arts building project by Mulgrave Road Theatre in Nova Scotia. Both recipients were announced at PACTcon 2026, the annual national conference which took place in Whitehorse, YT this year.

"This year the committee was truly inspired and impressed by the applications for the PACT Green Award. All the applicants proved to be leaders of our industry, and creative innovators in their approach to environmental stewardship and integration into theatre production and practice. What impressed us most is how the work of our top candidate was truly integrated in many ways; from  communications to production, community engagement, to the art itself. These green initiatives are well worth celebrating and using as guideposts to what is possible moving forward." 

– Laura Caswell, chair of the PACT Environmental Stewardship Committee

2026 PACT Green Award Recipient: Neworld Theatre
Based in Vancouver, Neworld Theatre serves a city whose residents were subjected to the deadliest weather-related disaster in Canadian history. The 2021 Western North America heat wave killed 619 people and was exacerbated by climate change. The company partnered with the University of Victoria’s Climate Disaster Project, where student journalists used trauma-informed techniques to co-create survivor testimonies. Neworld commissioned writers to draw from 88 first-person accounts from people impacted by that heat wave, as well as the 2021 Pacific Northwest floods and the 2021 British Columbia forest fire season, and crafted Eyes of the Beast. 
The 33 survivors featured in the play tell the story of a province and a people under pressure from a warming world. The Vancouver premiere was a student/professional hybrid in partnership with Simon Fraser Unviersity (SFU)'s School for Contemporary Arts, at the Fei and Milton Wong Theatre, June 18-22, 2025. Each of the performances featured a talkback session where the audience was invited to reflect on their own climate disaster experiences and what they think can be done to help survivors. A policy listener was invited to speak after each talkback session and reflect in a non-partisan manner on the play. Listeners included Scientific Director of Environmental Health Services at BC CDC Sarah B. Henderson, Vancouver City Councillors Sean Orr and Mike Klassen, Councillor of District of Squamish Jenna Stoner, and Mayor of Lytton Denise O’Connor.

Eyes of Beast blends performing arts with climate journalistic science, and delivers quantitative results on the effectiveness of the arts to affect people's behaviour towards positive climate action. 

“Neworld Theatre adopted Climate Action as one of our core values in 2022, and we've worked hard to ensure that our storytelling reflects that priority. We know that theatre is a powerful tool in fighting the climate crisis we're in, so we take this responsibility seriously. Huge thanks to our wonderful partners, the Climate Disaster Project (University of Victoria) and the SFU School of Contemporary Arts, as well as our staff and artists for supporting the rewarding process of producing Eyes of the Beast. We've been honoured to showcase climate disaster survivors' stories and are very proud that our work is being recognized nationally with the PACT Green Award.”

- Alen Dominguez, Managing Director of Neworld Theatre

2026 PACT Green Award Runner-Up: Mulgrave Road Theatre's Centre for The Arts building project 
PACT congratulates the runner-up for the 2026 PACT Green Award: Mulgrave Road Theatre (MRT)'s Centre for The Arts building project. This building is designed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions both during construction and throughout its operational lifespan. It will reduce pollution and waste and prioritize occupant health and well-being by maintaining excellent indoor air quality and using low-carbon construction materials.

The Mulgrave Road Theatre took possession of the former Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) building in Guysborough, N.S. in January 2020. With the subsequent onset of COVID-19, MRT saw an opportunity to bring community members together out of isolation to host art shows, artistic outreach projects, collaborations, and low-cost rental opportunities. It became clear that there was a need for a proper gathering centre to support further artistic expression and innovation. The vision for a theatre space evolved into a vision for an Arts Centre, and MRT began fundraising immediately.  After ten years of visioning, planning, consultation, and raising over $8 million in funds, MRT broke ground in July 2024 for the Mulgrave Road Theatre Centre for the Arts — the first purpose-built theatre creation centre in Atlantic Canada receiving Zero Carbon Building Design Certification from the Canada Green Building Council. 

The Centre showcases the intersection of the arts and environmentalism by demonstrating what is possible for new ways of green thinking within artistic infrastructure. MRT will now have a professional, dedicated home: a black-box theatre with 75 retractable seats, a sprung floor, two catwalks, a control booth and a technical workshop. The new Centre serves as a prime example of green infrastructure, demonstrating how community-serving arts organizations can integrate sustainable building practices into long-term planning, reduce operational emissions, and create healthier, more resilient public spaces. As a leading zero-carbon theatre facility, the Centre provides a roadmap for other cultural institutions seeking to transition toward net-zero or low-carbon infrastructure.

“This facility is the product of artistic visioning, strategic planning and grit; supported by the contributions of countless people over several years. Not only will it be an important arts venue for rural Nova Scotia, it leads the way in community development and responsible environmental stewardship.”

- Emmy Alcorn, Executive & Artistic Director, Mulgrave Road Theatre

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