TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 05/26/10 -- BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO)(NYSE: BMO) announces the members of the jury for the 2010 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, taking place November 1 in Toronto. The distinguished panel of theatre experts will select this year's recipient of the $100,000 prize - the largest prize in Canadian theatre.

The deadline for nominations for the Siminovitch Prize is Friday, June 4th. This year's award honours a professional director advancing Canadian theatre through a body of work achieved in recent years. The Prize allows and encourages the artist to go further in the pursuit of their craft. A short list will be announced in September, and the recipient revealed in November, with $25,000 of the prize money awarded to a protege of the recipient's choosing.

BMO Financial Group, a founding sponsor, will host the award ceremony. "BMO is proud to contribute to the continued advancement of Canadian theatre and culture," said Gilles Ouellette, President and CEO, Private Client Group, BMO Financial Group. "This award nurtures, promotes and preserves the great work being done by countless men and women in theatres across the country."

Maureen Labonte, will preside as jury chair for the second consecutive year. Ms. Labonte is a past Siminovitch Prize jury member, with extensive theatre experience in English and French communities across the country.

"This year's jury encompasses a wealth of knowledge and experience in Canadian theatre," said Ms. Labonte. "We look forward to the challenge of recognizing the exceptional work achieved by these directors, whose passion for Canadian theatre is displayed in full force through their work."

The other members of the jury are:

Marie Clements - an award-winning, BC-based Metis performer. She is also a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and founding Artistic Director of urban ink productions, whose mandate is to encourage and support the pursuit of artistic excellence in the development of new aboriginal and diverse cultural works.

Jillian Keiley - Artistic Director of Newfoundland's Artistic Fraud. Her work has been seen in theatres and festivals across the country. She was artistic director and producer of a Victory Ceremony Celebration at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Ms. Keiley is also a past winner of the Siminovitch Prize for directing.

Alain Jean - presently Director of Development Projects at the Association des theatres francophones du Canada. He will take over as its Director General as of June 2010. From 2002 to 2009, Alain Jean was coordinator of play development at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in Montreal and, from 1997 to 2002, Artistic Director of the Theatre de la Seizieme (Vancouver).

Marti Maraden - a well-known actress and director who was Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre from 1997-2005. This summer she will direct The Winter's Tale for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she has spent 18 seasons.

Marcus Youssef - Artistic Producer of Vancouver's Neworld Theatre, and Artistic Associate of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Ottawa. Mr. Youssef's 2009 production of Are We There Yet? won three Jessie Richardson Awards - Best Directing, Acting and Production.

(Please see biographical notes below.)

About BMO Financial Group's support of Canadian Arts and Culture

BMO Financial Group is one of Canada's largest corporate benefactors, and a major contributor to arts and culture. In 2009, BMO contributed more than $55 million in donations and sponsorships. BMO's funding supports numerous cultural charities and organizations, ranging from grants for music and art programs in schools, to sustaining grants for national cultural institutions.

About the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre

The Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre honours professional directors, playwrights and designers by acknowledging excellence and encouraging further exploration in Canadian theatre. The Siminovitch Prize was created in 2001 and is dedicated to distinguished scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, a playwright. A jury awards the $100,000 prize annually. For further information about the prize, please visit www.siminovitchprize.com.

Brief Biographies of Jury Members

Maureen Labonte is Co-Director of the Banff Playwrights Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She became co-director in 2007 after working at the Colony as a dramaturge and program coordinator since 2002.

She was recently named Jury Chair for the Siminovitch Prize. She is also a translator, teacher, and has coordinated a number of play development programs in theatres and playwrights' centres across the country.

She has worked in theatres across Canada including the National Arts Center (Ottawa), the Stratford Festival, Alberta Theatre Projects (Calgary), Playwrights Workshop Montreal, the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (Montreal) and the Great Canadian Theatre Company (Ottawa). From 2001 to 2003, she was Literary Manager at the Shaw Festival, and from 1994-2002, she was a program coordinator (directing and playwriting) at the National Theatre School of Canada. Maureen has translated more than thirty Quebec plays into English. She lives and works in Montreal.

Marie Clements is an award-winning performer, playwright, screenwriter, producer, and co-director of Frog Girl Films, and the newly formed Red Diva Projects. Her twelve plays - including Copper Thunderbird, Burning Vision, and The Unnatural and Accidental Women - have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and International work, garnering numerous awards and publications including the 2004 Canada-Japan Literary Award, and two short listed nominations for the Governor General's Literary Award. Recently Marie wrote and directed her commissioned works The Edward Curtis Project, and The Road Forward, as a part of the Cultural Olympiad 2011 and will be developing her latest script Tombs at the Vanishing Indian with Native Earth and Native Voices in San Diego at the La Jolla Playhouse. She is currently working on a feature film and six-part documentary series with Frog Girl Films.

Jillian Keiley is Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, winner of the Canada Council's 1996 John Hirsch Prize, the 1996 NLAC Emerging Artist Award, Calgary's 2006 Betty Mitchell Award for directing and the 2004 Siminovitch Prize for Directing. Selected Artistic Fraud productions include Afterimage; Emile's Dream; In Your Dreams Freud; Under Wraps: A Spoke Opera; The Cheat; Belly Up; Fear of Flight; and The Chekhov Variations. Jillian directed Jack Five Oh for Sheila's Brush, and Tempting Providence for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, both of which continue to tour nationally and internationally. Other productions include Tilt with Teatro Sotteraneo in Florence, Italy; a reworking of Gluck's Orpheo for Cork Opera Works, Ireland; Sailor Boy for Ghost River and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop in Calgary; The Syringa Tree for Regina's Globe Theatre; and the premiere of the opera Ann and Seamus for Shallaway Youth Chorus. She directed Creon from The City of Wine Cycle for Grenfell College, Dr. Faustus with Queen's University, Metamorphoses with York University and Cabaret with NTS.

She was the Artistic Director and Producer of a Victory Ceremony Celebration at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Jillian holds an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is a regular instructor with the National Theatre School.

Alain Jean has been the Coordinator of Development Projects at the Association des theatres francophones du Canada since November 2009 and will take over as its Director General this June. From 1997 to 2009, he was dramaturge and Coordinator of Play Development at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD), Quebec's prestigious play development center located in Montreal. Alain was also Associate Director of the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques (since renamed Festival TransAmeriques) for the event's 2002 edition. From 1997 to 2001, he was the Artistic Director of the Theatre la Seizieme in Vancouver. Previous to that, Alain worked as a stage director, actor and acting teacher in Quebec City where he studied at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique.

Marti Maraden was Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre for eight years from 1997-2005. She is a well-known actress and director, having directed for the Shaw Festival where she was also part of the acting company. This summer she will direct The Winter's Tale for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival where she has spent eighteen seasons, having been a member of the acting company, a director of several productions, Director of the Young Company in 1991 and 1992, and an artistic director for the 2008 season.

She was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival for which she serves with Cindy Reid as co-chair of the National Resource Council. Her work in classical and contemporary theatre has also been seen at The Arts Club Theatre; The Vancouver Playhouse; Theatre Calgary; The Citadel; The Manitoba Theatre Centre; The Canadian Stage Company; The Tarragon Theatre; The Saidye Bronfman Centre; Theatre New Brunswick; The Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and the Childrens' Theatre Company of Minneapolis.

Marcus Youssef is currently Artistic Producer of Neworld Theatre in Vancouver and Artistic Associate of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Ottawa. A recipient of the Alcan Performing Arts Award, and the Chalmer's Canadian Play Award, Marcus' plays include: Ali and Ali and the aXes of Evil, Ali & Ali 7, Adrift, The Bobsledder of Baghdad, 3299: Forms in Order, Apathy House, A Line in the Sand, and over a dozen radio plays for CBC. His plays have been produced at theatres and major festivals across North America and Europe, and are published by Talonbooks.

As a director, Marcus' 2009 production of Are We There Yet? won three Jessie Richardson Awards, for Directing, Acting and Best Production. Marcus' fiction and non-fiction have been broadcast on many CBC radio and TV programs, including the Roundup where he was Writer in Residence; in Coming Attractions (Oberon), Grain, the Vancouver Sun, This Magazine, GEIST, Vancouver Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and Crank Magazine, which Marcus co-founded with Matt Hern. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.