Sunil Kuruvilla is a Canadian playwright from Waterloo, Ontario."Kuruvilla, Sunil". encyclopedia.com, 2009. He is most noted for his play Rice Boy, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2003 Governor General's Awards."Waterloo playwright makes illustrious literary list". Waterloo Region Record, October 21, 2003.
Educated at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Windsor and Yale University,"Young playwright holds a winning hand". The Globe and Mail, November 17, 2001. he first emerged as a playwright in the early 1990s when he won a Shaw Festival competition with his play Fight of the Century. His plays Bulldogs and Firetrucks (1994)"A winning play". Waterloo Region Record, December 3, 1993. and Ears to Glass, Glass to Ground (1996)"Playwriting competition". The Globe and Mail, December 9, 1995. were both selected for the prestigious Vancouver New Play Festival.
Rice Boy was first staged by the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2000 while Kuruvilla was a student there,"Riceboy". Variety, October 26, 2000. and received a production in Los Angeles by The Actors' Gang in 2001."Rice Boy". Variety, April 30, 2001. In 2001, his play Fighting Words was staged by Toronto's Factory Theatre,"Down for the count". Toronto Star, November 18, 2001. and his play Minus 1 was staged at the Toronto Fringe Festival."A part of Kitchener is going to The Fringe; Local director, actor bring Minus 1 play to Toronto festival". Waterloo Region Record, June 15, 2001. In 2002, his play Snapshot was staged in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rice Boy was produced by Canadian Stage in 2003,"Play sparkles with warmth, humanity". Toronto Star, April 4, 2003. and was a Governor General's Award nominee that year following its publication by Playwrights Canada Press.
In 2009, Rice Boy was staged by the Stratford Festival, the festival's first-ever production of a play about the immigrant experience."Beautiful memory play shows its local roots". Waterloo Region Record, August 24, 2009. At that time, Kuruvilla was named one of Wilfrid Laurier University's ."Setting the scene". Laurier Campus, Summer 2009. top 100 graduates in the university's 100 year history. Since then, he has become a television writer and college professor.
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