Event: 2012 Tent Talks, The Toronto Fringe

Part speak-easy, part soap-box, part art-experiment, the Fringe Club is the beating heart of the Fringe Festival. Located behind Honest Ed’s, the Fringe Club is abuzz with excitement from early afternoon until the wee hours of the morning. Visual artists hock their wares at the Fringe Artist Alley, local musicians showcase their talents on the Artist Alley Outdoor Stage (from 6pm to 7pm nightly),  micro-plays bring tents and sheds to life as part of the AlleyPlays series, industry types argue “Theatre is dead…Long Live Theatre!” at the Tent Talks Series, drinks are on ice and you are in the middle of it all.  ALL EVENTS ARE FREE.  Food service and bar service will be available every evening.

Thurs July 5th: Theatre is Dead
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Sky Gilbert (playwright/director/actor)
• Shannon Litzenberger (dancer/arts policy advocate)
• Host = Matt Baram (National Theatre of the World)
• Daniel Brooks (writer/director)

Theatre is Dead. Prove us wrong. A panel of cultural programmers and industry VIP “pessimists” dissect exactly what’s broken in the theatre community.

Friday July 6th: TAPA & The Audience Project
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Jacoba Knaapen (TAPA)
• Additional panelists TBD

Inspired by their immersive study on audiences, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) curates a dynamic panel on audience development. Should we change the way we work, the way we market, the way we “sell” theatre?

Saturday July 7th: How to Talk to a Sponsor
4:00-5:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Alan Convery (TD Bank)
• Michael Jones (Metcalf Foundation)
• Additional panelists TBD

Alan Convery, National Manager of Community Relations for TD Bank, moderates a panel of potential sponsors who will share how they like to be approached by artists.

Sunday July 8th: How to Find the Best Grant for You and GET IT
4:00-5:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Margo Charlton (TAC)
• Bushra Junaid (OAC)
• Meredith Potter (Volcano Theatre)
• Aurora Stewart De Peña (Birdtown and Swanville)

Margo Charlton from the TAC, Bushra Junaid from the OAC, and local artists offer guidance on how to select the appropriate grant for your project and get your application to the top of the pile.

Monday July 9th: How Indie is Going to Save Theatre
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Gideon Arthurs (Fringe)
• Julie Tepperman (Convergence Theatre)
• Michael Wheeler (Praxis Theatre)

After piloting Toronto’s largest indie theatre institution for 5 years, Fringe Executive Director Gideon Arthurs leads an “Indie Producing 101” discussion, followed by an informal reflection on the indie theatre movement.

Tuesday July 10th: Healing Through Theatre
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Daniel Stolfi (Cancer Can’t Dance Like This)
• Host = Brian Smith (Second City alumni)
• Zal Press (Patient Commando)
• Dr Jeremy Rezmovitz (Sunnybrook Hospital)

Panel members from the health industry, show business and patient orgs tackle the topic of “Healing Through Theatre” in a riotous discussion. This is Laugh Therapy at its best. Moderated by Brian G. Smith, presented by PatientCommando.com

Wednesday July 11th: Theatre Artists are Apathetic!
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Brigid Tierney (Fringe)
• Liz Forsberg (Art Starts)
• Keith McNair (Jumblies Theatre)
• Leah Houston (MabelleARTS)
• Alexandra Draghici (MabelleARTS)

Theatre artists are self-centred. Narcissistic. Myopic. Hypocritical in their leftist, social justice veneer. Or are they? Our panel of community arts innovators and social justice advocates beg to differ.

Thursday July 12th: A Conversation with New Play Contest Winner Kat Sandler
4:30-5:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Glen Sumi (Now Magazine)
• Kat Sandler (playwright/actor)

Glenn Sumi (NOW Magazine) interviews emerging artist and Fringe New Play Contest winner Kat Sandler (of Theatre Brouhaha) about her winning play, Help Yourself, and about how to create accessible theatre for the “HBO generation.” Presented by macIDeas.

Thursday July 12th: When Do I Stop Emerging and Start Doing?
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Host = Michael Rubenfeld (Summerworks)
• Julia Lederer (actor/playwright)
• Jack Grinhaus (Bound to Create Theatre)
• Elenna Mosoff (Acting Up Stage/zed.to)
• Julian Sleath (Nuit Blanche)

What exactly is an “emerging artist”? Is it a pejorative term? Or is it something to milk as long as possible? Why does it take SO LONG for theatre artists to “emerge?” Discuss. Rant. Complain.

Friday July 13th: A Smorgasbord of People You Should Know
5:00-6:00pm

Panel:

• Natasha Mytnowych (Canadian Stage)
• Robin Sokoloski (Playwrights Guild)
• Noa Bronstein (Gladstone)
• Derrick Chua (entertainment lawyer/independent producer)
• Juilan Sleath (Nuit Blanche)
• Lynda Hill (Theatre Direct)
• Lucy Eveleigh (SummerWorks)
• Stephen Colella (Young People’s Theatre)
• Laura Nanni (Rhubarb Festival)
• Christine Gresham (Theatre Isn’t Dead)
• Kendra Fry (Theatre Passe Muraille)
• Margaret Evans (HATCH/Harbourfront)
• Martin Morrow (The Grid)
• Rupal Shah (Nightswimming)
• Erica Kopyto (Nightwood)
• Tara Beagan (Native Earth)

Artistic Directors. Cultural programmers. Theatre reviewers. We introduce you to the people you need to know to succeed in this industry. Followed by an informal mix and mingle from 6:00-8:00pm. All are welcome!

Saturday July 14th: WTF? Theatre Exists Outside Toronto!?!?!?
4:00-5:00pm

Panel:

• Jem Rolls (UK)
• Brendan Murray (Ireland)
• Paul Cosentino (New York)
• Host = TJ Dawe (B.C.)
• Kirsten Rasmussen (Montreal)

A panel of touring Fringe artists come together with local artists to discuss international theatre, the challenges and successes in their communities, and opportunities for international collaboration. Followed by an informal mix and mingle from 5:00-7:00pm. All are welcome!

Sunday July 15th: Long Live Theatre!
4:00-5:00pm

Panel:

• Group Reps from The Fringe 100 (youth entrepreneur mob)
• Host = Claire Wynveen (Fringe)

100 Young Theatre Entrepreneurs present their views on the future of theatre. How will theatre look in 20 years? 50 years? How are they going to save theatre and why is it worth saving?

Event: Night of the Assassins, Aluna Café

Aluna Café: Friday June 29th @ 7:30 p.m.

Come and celebrate the opening of our NEW STUDIO and the end of our season with the reading of:

Night of the Assassins
by Cuban playwrightJosé Triana
(Free Admission)

Set in a dingy, claustrophobic attic or basement, Night of the Assassins focuses on three adult children who live in a world of mysteries, a secret world. Triana’s dark drama has been widely acclaimed by foreign commentators, but it aroused suspicion in Cuba when it first appeared. By trapping spectators in a totalizing, closed world, the play deprives us of all external markers that might orient our judgment.  (In English)

Introduction by Toronto-based Cuban actor and playwright Simon Casanova.

Aluna’s studio: 1 Wiltshire Ave., studio 123 Toronto, ON, Canada    TEL.  416 203 2535

DIRECTIONS:
-Take bus #168 from the Dundas West Station
-Get off at the first stop AFTER Symington and Dupont
-Walk half a block south to Adrian and Symington, TURN LEFT
-Walk one block east to the STOP sign and you are at the Wiltshire Studios
-Turn Right into the Parking lot and go straight toward the train tracks
-TURN Left into the courtyard and look for STUDIO 123

And after the Café…
Join us for our Summer Party!

Celebrate with us the end of an incredible season and the beginning of Summer!

Job Posting: 4 Apprentice Positions, Crow’s Theatre

Crow’s Theatre is currently seeking the following positions for our 2012/2013 production of Someone Else, which will be produced in association with Canadian Stage as a part of the Berkeley Street Partnership.

• Apprentice Sound Designer (Designer Thomas Ryder Payne)
• Apprentice Lighting Designer (Designer Kimberley Purtell)
• Apprentice Set and Costume Designer (Designer Julie Fox)
• Production Management Intern (Production Manager Matthew Byrne)

Full descriptions for each of the positions along with submission requirements can be found at:

http://www.crowstheatre.com/about-crows/work-with-us/

Announcement: July TAPA Ticket Wiki Offers, TAPA

Are you an Arts/Industry Worker? Would you like discounted tickets to a variety of theatre, dance and opera productions? If so check out the TAPA Ticket Wiki! On the TAPA Tcket Wiki you will find a variety of discounted and complimentary tickets for Artists and Arts Workers to TAPA Member company productions for the 2011/12 season.

There are currently 6 offers posted to the TAPA Ticket Wiki for July including:

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Canadian Stage
• Life as a Pomegranate, Broad View Laundromat Theatre Company
• Wanderlust, The Stratford Festival
• Hirsch, The Stratford Festival
• The Best Brothers, The Stratford Festival
• Avenue Q, Lower Ossington Theatre

The TAPA Ticket Wiki is updated on an ongoing basis so make sure to check back often!

For more information about TAPA click Here

Volunteer: Volunteer Community Animator Program, Centre for Social Innovation

Join a community of innovators & get workspace!

Closing Date: Aug. 7, 2012

Wanna join CSI behind the scenes? Help build community while polishing your dishwashing skills? Support a community of world-changing innovators and their hard working administrative staff?

About the Volunteer Community Animator Program:
CSI’s Volunteer Community Animator Program is a work-exchange program that trades time for space.  We give you unlimited access to CSI Hot Desk space plus membership in our dynamic community and programming!  You get to be the face of CSI. Our expectation is that you will provide exceptional customer service while efficiently and gracefully handling whatever comes your way when you’re onsite. Specifically, you will:

• Run the Welcome Desk – Welcome every visitor to CSI with enthusiasm and energy. Handle phone and in person inquiries, manage and book meeting rooms, keep an eye on office supplies, making sure we’re always ready for anything!
• Be a Host – Be CSI’s number one fan; take visitors on mini-tours of the space, prep meeting rooms, help organize and participate in community events, ensuring all our services are offered in an appropriate and culturally competent manner to a culturally and socioeconomically diverse range of communities.
• Clean and Tidy! – What more is there to say? Maintain a spotless space ensuring everyone’s experience at CSI is awesome!
• Increase Efficiency – Suggest new work practices and processes to improve CSI’s flow and facilitate our mission.
• Offer IT Support – Support members using our photocopiers, printers, audio visual equipment, phones and teleconferencing equipment.
• ??? – Who knows? What else can you do to support our operations and our community?

If the above list sounds like you, and you can do it all with sincerity, care, fun and goodwill, then we want you!

This is volunteer work, but just so you know, we expect professionalism and we want to know you’re committed.

Starting: September 17, 2012
Ending: March 29, 2013

We’re looking for a reliable six-month commitment! This role is integral to our mission and we want to get to know you too, so please only apply if you are serious about the opportunity.

To apply, complete this form.

Event: The Business of Being an Artist, Toronto Fringe Festival

The Business of Being an Artist offers artists a chance to talk to specialists about everything from taxes to budgets to finding appropriate work space. If you’ve ever been daunted by the business side of artistic creation, this event is not to be missed.

Saturday July 7, 2012
6:00-9:00pm
The Fringe Club

Organizations in Attendance:

• TAPA
• Actor’s Fund
• STAF
• Theatre Ontario
• Playwright’s Guild of Canada
• Art Books
• Heather Young & Associates
• Star Company
• Canadian Actors’ Equity Association
• Prologue to the Performing Arts

Workshop: Playwriting and Directing for Actors, Convergence Theatre

A professional development workshop by Convergence Theatre artistic directors Julie Tepperman (actor-playwright) and Aaron Willis (actor-director)

DATES: Monday July 23 – Friday July 27
TIME: 10am-4pm
LOCATION: Theatre Passe Muraille’s rehearsal hall (3^rd  floor) 54 Wolseley Street (just north of Queen Street West, east off of Bathurst Street)
COST:  $375 (+ $48.75 HST)
20% DISCOUNT*: $300 (+ $39 HST)

DISCOUNT ELIGIBILITY:  CAEA & TAPA members OR actors who’ve graduated from a recognized theatre school training program in 2011 or 2012.

CLASS SIZE LIMIT:  12 people
CLASS ELIGIBILITY:  Actors who have graduated from a recognized theatre training program OR have been working professionally in theatre for at least three years.

If you are an actor who has never written or directed before, or are just beginning to explore writing and directing, this workshop is for you!

Actors tend to be curiously underused in a playwright’s development process.  Actors are actually a huge asset to playwrights and ‘new-play-development’, AND often make good writers themselves!  Together we’ll examine how actors can harness the skills they already have and apply them to writing.  We will experiment with a series of writing exercises that are “ways in”, and we’ll explore strategies for generating material, individually and collectively, and look at where you might go from there.  With every piece generated, rather than simply reading it out loud, we’ll get up on our feet and play with how staging the material can actually inform the direction of the writing.  This ‘on-your-feet’ component will illustrate, through practice, how physicalizing as part of the process can be of great value to the playwright, and that the skills we have as actors when we break down scenes and monologues, absolutely applies to the playwright too.

Actors often make the best directors.  Using the newly written material generated in the workshop, we‘ll look at how a director/dramaturge can usefully collaborate with a writer on new work, in both a workshop and rehearsal environment.  We’ll also use previously published texts, in order to explore methods of research, script preparation, ways to speak to actors (and your design team) in a helpful and useful way, as well as how to ask yourself the questions that will lead you to a clear vision of the play.

Also of interest…

• practical tips for finding and establishing healthy playwright-dramaturge-director relationships
• a review of grants available for playwrights and directors
• how to put yourself out there / how your agent can best help you get work as a writer/director
• things to think about if planning on self-producing
• current opportunities that exist for playwrights and directors who are seeking professional development / mentorship opportunities in and around Toronto.

APPLICATION PROCESS:  Please e-mail convergencetheatre@gmail.com with a headshot & resume, and a brief introduction outlining your goals for the workshop.

JULIE & AARON’S BIOS…
Julie Tepperman is an actor, playwright and educator; Aaron Willis is an actor, director and educator. Together they are co-artistic directors of Convergence Theatre, creators of the hit plays AutoShow, The Gladstone Variations and YICHUD (Seclusion).  They have been working professionally as actors since graduating from George Brown Theatre School in 2001 and started to work as playwright / director respectively in 2006 with the founding of Convergence Theatre.

Aaron & Julie’s acting credits range from productions at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, to Toronto mainstages such as Theatre Passe Muraille, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Roseneath Theatre, as well as countless indie theatres and Toronto theatre festivals such as  The Toronto Fringe, Next Stage, SummerWorks, Lab Cab, HATCH, Ashkenaz, Free Fall and TPM’s Buzz Festival.

As a Playwright, Julie wrote ROSY (for AutoShow), I Grow Old (for The Gladstone Variations – Dora nomination), YICHUD (Seclusion), which is published by Playwrights Canada Press, and a re-imagining of the August Strindberg play The Father, for Winnipeg Jewish Theatre / Manitoba Theatre Centre.

As a Director, Aaron recently directed Christopher Shinn’s play Other People (Mutual Friends Co-op), and Melody Johnson’s hit one-woman show Miss Caledonia (co-directed with Rick Roberts), which will be at Tarragon Theatre in the fall of 2012 and the NAC in the spring of 2013.  He was part of The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s inaugural Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Theatre Direction where he assistant directed Evita, as well as Much Ado About Nothing under the direction of the Shaw Festival’s longest-serving Artistic Director, Christopher Newton.  For Convergence Theatre:  AutoShow (co-directed with Rebecca Benson); The Tearful Bride (for The Gladstone Variations – Dora nomination), YICHUD (Seclusion) (co-directed with Richard Greenblatt).

Aaron & Julie combined have taught workshops for: The Stratford Festival’s Teaching Shakespeare School, Ryerson University / ACT 2 STUDIO, The Luminato Festival, The Toronto and Peel District School Boards, StudentWrites and The Sears Ontario Drama Festival.  Julie has taught playwriting workshops with Diaspora Dialogues, twice facilitated The Paprika Festival ‘Creators’ Unit’ and teaches ‘The Business of Acting’ at George Brown Theatre School.

OTHER:  Julie was nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s KM Hunter Artist Award in 2009, and was Playwright-in-Residence at Theatre Passe Muraille for their 2010-11 season. Aaron was nominated for the 2011 John Hirsch Directing Award and the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award.  He is currently the Artistic Producer for Theatre Passe Muraille’s ‘Beyond Walls’ season.  The Gladstone Variations was listed #2 in NOW Magazine’s “Top Ten Toronto Productions of the Decade”.

They have 5 Dora Award nominations between them.   Convergence Theatre is currently a Resident Company at Theatre Passe Muraille.

Announcement: Recipients of the 33rd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards Announced!, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts

The 33rd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2011/2012 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 25 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts’ Bluma Appel Theatre, hosted by Thom Allison, currently garnering raves as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the Shaw Festival’s production of Ragtime, directly after his Broadway turn in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

The Dora Mavor Moore Awards are produced and presented on behalf of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) and celebrate excellence in Toronto theatre, dance and opera. The 212 Dora-eligible shows opened between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012. A total of 35 Dora Awards plus the Silver Ticket Award, the Pauline McGibbon Award and the Audience Choice Award were given out.

Overall, Acting Up Stage Company and Theatre Passe Muraille tie for top spot with five Dora Mavor Moore Awards each: Passe Muraille receives four for Crash in the General Theatre Production Division while Acting Up receives four for Caroline, or Change (three in Musical Theatre Division and one in General Theatre Production Division) – and they both earn a fifth Dora in the General Theatre Production Division for Outstanding Touring Production for their co-production of Ride the Cyclone.

Following with three wins each are: Obsidian Theatre Company for Topdog Underdog in the General Theatre Production Division and the Canadian Opera Company with three wins over two divisions (Opera and General Theatre) for two shows.

Download the full Press Release
Download the Recipients List

The Dora Mavor Moore Awards is a program of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). TAPA is an arts service organization that represents nearly 200 professional theatre, dance and opera companies in Toronto. In addition to the Doras, other programs and services provided by TAPA include: T.O. TIX – Toronto’s Official One Stop Ticket Shop at Yonge-Dundas Square and online at http://www.totix.ca; Toronto’s official Theatre Guide; hipTIX, offering $5 tickets to students; citySPECIAL; the Commercial Theatre Development Fund; and the Travel Retreat Initiatives Program. For more information visit www.tapa.ca and www.totix.ca

Announcement: Christopher House Awarded 2012 Silver Ticket Award, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts

One of Canada’s most respected dance artists and the Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT), Christopher House was presented with the Silver Ticket Award at the 33rd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards, held Monday evening, June 25, 2012 at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in the Bluma Appel Theatre.

Since 1980, the Silver Ticket Award has been bestowed to an individual who has excelled in their own career while also nurturing the development of Canadian theatre. Presented by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), the Silver Ticket Award winner is selected by a committee of previous winners and entitles the recipient to a lifetime of theatre tickets to any TAPA member company production.

A major contributor to Canada’s dance landscape for over three decades, Christopher House’s artistic influence has been immeasurable. Artistic Director of TDT since 1994 (rising from company dancer in 1979 and Resident Choreographer in 1981), he has enriched the Canadian dance community with his unique dance compositions and has mentored countless dancers. He is an accomplished performer, choreographer, teacher and administrator who is deeply curious about the world around him, revealing its complexities with an expressive and mature movement vocabulary that relentlessly pushes the art form of dance in new, more contemporary ways of communicating.

House has kept Toronto Dance Theatre at the forefront of the contemporary dance scene in Canada. The intelligence, passion and imagination that he brings to his prolific artistic practice is bar none. He has contributed over sixty works to the TDT repertoire including his recent choreographies Rivers (2012), Pteros Tactics (2010), Dis/(sol/ve)r (2009) and the “annotated remount” Nest Redux (2010).

At TDT, House has shown a deep commitment to the development of emerging choreographers. The choreographic development platform Four at the Winch has seen eleven installments and featured works by such artists as Peter Chin, Matjash Mrozewski, Sasha Ivanochko, Nova Bhattacharya and Andrea Nann. He has showcased new ideas and created opportunities for international collaborative exchange, with The Berlin/Toronto Project in 2009 and The Paris/Toronto Project in 2011. These initiatives offered Toronto audiences the unique opportunity to engage with innovative voices from global dance scenes.

He has created works for the ballet world and contemporary dance community, both at home and abroad including Lisbon’s Ballet Gulbenkian, the National Ballet of Canada, Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Ballet British Columbia, among others, and directed two collaborations with Toronto musicians Joel Gibb and The Hidden Cameras.

As a performer, Christopher House has enjoyed a celebrated career on stage performing in the choreography of a variety of artists such as David Earle, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, Sarah Chase and Deborah Hay as well as often appearing in his own works. House has participated three times as a dancer in the Solo Performance Commissioning Project with Deborah Hay in Findhorn, Scotland. He premiered his adaptation of News by Deborah Hay in 2006, presented five performances of this solo at the Canada Dance Festival in 2008 and performed his adaptation of Hay’s At Once in London and Brighton, UK, in December 2011.

As a dance instructor and advisor, Christopher House is in demand across Canada and frequently travels to give workshops and teach. Artistic Advisor of the Professional Training Program of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, House has taught technique, improvisation, repertoire and creative process at The School of TDT and at such institutions as the Juilliard School, Rotterdam Dansacademie, Jacob’s Pillow, and at Ryerson, Simon Fraser and York Universities. House is also an Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre. He has served on the Strategic Planning Committee of the National Ballet School, and, over the past decade, has mentored two young dance interns each season, many who have been invited to join the company.

As well as three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Choreography (Timecode Break, Artemis Madrigals and Green Evening, clear & warm), House has received the Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance in October 2009, and was made an honorary doctor of letters by Memorial University in his home province of Newfoundland in May 2010. He now becomes the first Toronto dance artist to be celebrated with the Silver Ticket Award.

The Dora Mavor Moore Awards is a program of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). TAPA is an arts service organization that represents nearly 200 professional theatre, dance and opera companies in Toronto. In addition to the Doras, other programs and services provided by TAPA include: T.O. TIX – Toronto’s Official One Stop Ticket Shop at Yonge-Dundas Square and online at http://www.totix.ca; Toronto’s official Theatre Guide; hipTIX, offering $5 tickets to students; citySPECIAL; the Commercial Theatre Development Fund; and the Travel Retreat Initiatives Program. For more information visit www.tapa.ca and www.totix.ca

Announcement: Ravi Jain honoured with 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award, Ontario Arts Council

Ravi Jain is the 2012 recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award. The award presentation took place today at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts Bluma Appel Theatre.

About the recipient:

• Ravi Jain is a Toronto-based theatre-maker, producer, educator, and arts-activist. Currently, he is Artistic Director of Why Not Theatre, which produces a wide range of acclaimed local and international shows.
• A graduate of the two-year program at École Jacques Lecoq (Paris, France), Ravi has trained with various members of Complicité (London, U.K.), Anne Bogart and the SITI Company (New York, USA) as well as Ariane Mnouchkine and Théâtre du Soleil (Paris, France).
• Ravi is also on the roster of clown/performers for Cirque Du Soleil.
• Selected acting and directing credits include Civility (workshop with Daniel Brooks), the Dora Award winning SPENT, A Brimful of Asha, The Prince Hamlet (2007), Winter Soldiers (2008), Streetscape: Living Space (2008), Greenland (winner of the top two prizes SummerWorks 2009) and No Entry (2011), among others.
• In 2010, Ravi was the Urjo Kareda Resident artist at Tarragon Theatre where he assisted Richard Rose on Michael Healy’s Courageous and developed A Brimful of Asha, with his mother.
• As a producer, Ravi facilitates master classes locally as well as internationally.
• Ravi is also engaged in several social and arts-related activities in Toronto and abroad, and is an advocate for youth effecting positive change through the arts. He has taught in various institutions, and sits on several committees and board, including the Regent Park Arts & Culture Centre programming committee, the artist advisory committee for ArtReach Toronto and on the board of the Laidlaw Foundation. He was a member of the DiverseCity Fellows Program, and is currently one of the ten resident artists at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

Quotes:

The 2012 jury noted: “The breadth of Ravi’s work is impressive. From arts activism to directing, producing and acting, his portfolio is extensive and he challenges  what theatre can be – with humor and intelligence, and is redefining the role it can play in audiences’ lives.”

“Pauline McGibbon was a strong supporter of the arts in Ontario. Like her, Ravi Jain recognizes the impact the performing arts can have on the well-being and cultural improvement of our communities. Congratulations to Ravi on receiving this wonderful award.” said Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Michael Chan.

About the Pauline McGibbon Award:

• Established in 1981, the award honours former Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon for her support and patronage of the arts. The award is given each year by the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport and includes a $7,000 prize and a medal designed by Dora de Pédery-Hunt.
• The award is presented to a member of Ontario’s professional theatre community in the early stages of his or her career who has displayed a unique talent and a potential for excellence.
• The award is cyclical in nature and recognizes the unique talents of artists who have contributed to the well-being of Ontario’s theatre community. The first year of the three-year cycle, the award goes to a designer, the second year to a director and the third year to a production craftsperson.
• The award is administered by the Ontario Arts Council.
• Past recipients of the Pauline McGibbon Award include the following directors: Brendan Healy (2009); Jennifer Tarver (2006) and Kelly Thornton (2003).  Access the full list of laureates here.
• This year’s jurors were: Kim Blackwell (Toronto); John Doucet (Ottawa); Sky Gilbert, 1985 McGibbon laureate (Hamilton) and 2003 McGibbon laureate Kelly Thornton (Toronto).