Blackbird Theatre is a professional theatre company dedicated to performing the classics.
A classic play is a great house in which many people may live. It is also a human fable that time does not invalidate. We draw our inspiration from the great playwrights of the ancient and modern worlds, and from the community in which we live. Our plays will be chosen for the brilliance of their dramatic and comedic achievements and their relevance to contemporary life.
We invite you to join us in bringing the excitement, sophistication and profound pleasures of Blackbird’s classical theatre to Vancouver. If you wish to support Blackbird Theatre, or you would like to be kept informed about our activities, please contact us.
Board of Directors Christopher Armstrong, Chair
Leon Getz, Q.C., Secretary/Treasurer
David Cousins
Errol Durbach
Alicia Maluta
Beverley Shapiro
José Verstappen, CM
Founding Members John Wright, Artistic Director
Paddy MacLeod, General Manager
Marti Wright, Resident Designer Errol Durbach, Dramaturg
Nicola Cavendish
Jennifer Clement Bernard Cuffling
Stephen Heatley
Tom McBeath Camille Mitchell Gabrielle Rose Tom Scholte Del Surjik Johnna Wright Marti Wright
Honorary Patrons
Joy Coghill, C.M.
Mavor Moore
Honorary Members
Antony Holland
Norman Young
Advisory Council Stuart Aikins
Nini Baird, C.M.
Robert Gardiner
Jane Heyman
Pam Hawthorne
Donna Wong Juliani
Lorne Kennedy
Marietta Kozak
Don Paterson
Denis Pavlich
Eric Peterson
Goldie Semple
Jerry Wasserman
Anne Wheeler, O.C.
Blackbird Staff
Artistic Director John Wright began his professional career as an actor in Vancouver in the 1960s He has directed plays ranging from the work of Aeschylus and Sophocles to Neil Simon and Alan Ayckbourne, as well as many film and television dramas and documentaries. He holds a BA from UBC and an MFA from Stanford. At the Vancouver Playhouse under Artistic Director Joy Coghill, John developed stage 2 for the presentation of new Canadian plays. In Saskatoon he started a small professional company and following this directed at Theatre Calgary and the University of Calgary. In 1973 he wrote and directed The Visitor, a feature film starring Eric Peterson. John's most recent television documentary was Children of Bach (introduced by Ben Heppner). As a member of the Vancouver Cantata Singers, he co-produced (with Paddy Macleod) the Juno-nominated CD A Venetian Vespers of 1640. John was Head of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing at UBC from 1994 to 1999.Motivated as always by the resonance of classic works in the modern world, John founded Blackbird Theatre in 2004. He directed the inaugural production of Schiller’s Mary Stuart, followed by Pinter’s The Birthday Party (with co-director Henry Woolf) and Errol Durbach’s adaptation of Peer Gynt, for both of which he received Jessie Richardson Award nominations as Outstanding Director. Peer Gynt won the Jessie award for Outstanding Production of 2006/07.In 2007/08, John directed Euripides’ Hecuba for Blackbird and William Maranda’s The Eighth Land for Pi Theatre.
Dramaturge Errol Durbach (MA [Cantab.], PhD [London]) has been teaching at UBC since 1967, serving as Head of Theatre from 1987 to 1994 and Associate Dean of Arts between 1995 and 2000. His fields of interest concentrate primarily on Theatre History, Dramatic Literature and Dramaturgy, and his work on the playwright Henrik Ibsen has resulted in three volumes of critical analysis as well as an acclaimed adaptation of Peer Gynt, which was performed at the Telus Theatre at UBC under the direction of John Wright, and invited to the International Ibsen Festival in Norway. Errol has also appeared on stage at the Frederic Wood theatre in many roles, which include Kent in King Lear, Menelaos in The Trojan Women, Hamm in Endgame and The Button Moulder in Peer Gynt. Now retired from UBC, Errol is engaged in various pursuits in the professional community, including the adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations for a future Blackbird Theatre production.
Before becoming General Manager of Blackbird Theatre, Paddy Macleod had more than two decades of experience in Arts Administration, specifically in the music sector where she managed the Vancouver Cantata Singers. Well-known as an arts activist in Vancouver, Paddy has been President of several of the city’s prominent cultural organizations, including the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, the Coal Harbour Arts Complex Society and the Vancouver Music Alliance. She has also served on many other arts-related boards including Mayor Gordon Campbell’s Vancouver Arts Initiative and Festival Vancouver, where she is Vice President and Chair of the Programme Committee. Paddy's managerial experience extends into the realm of music recording, where she has produced and financed a number of CDs, one of which, A Venetian Vespers of 1640, was nominated for a Juno Award. Her early experience was in the fields of journalism and broadcasting, and prior to entering into Arts Administration she received an MA in English Literature from Simon Fraser University.
Resident Designer Marti Wright is a graduate in design of the National Theatre School of Canada. She is also a graduate in painting of Emily Carr College of Art and Design and has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre and Film Design from the University of British Columbia. Her set and costume designs have been featured in nearly every one of Vancouver’s theatres and also at Tarragon and the Factory Lab in Toronto, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, and the Centaur Theatre in Montreal. She received a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Reflections on Crooked Walking (Arts Club Theatre). Marti also works as a production designer in film. One of her more recent projects was Anne Wheeler’s feature film Marine Life. She has worked closely for many years in both theatre and film with John Wright, who is her brother. Her designs for Blackbird have included sets and costumes for Mary Stuart, The Birthday Party and Hecuba. Last year she designed the sets for Patrick Street Productions’ Into the Woods. Marti has taught at UBC, Emily Carr and the Vancouver Film School.
Honorary Patrons
Joy Coghill
Actor/director Joy Coghill has left an indelible mark on Canadian theatre.
She co-founded (with Myra Benson) the first professional children's theatre in the country, Vancouver's Holiday Theatre (1953). Since, she has played or directed in many of the country's major venues including the Vancouver Playhouse, the Globe Theatre, Muskoka Summer Theatre, the Frederic Wood Theatre, the Saidye Bronfman Centre and the Grand Theatre, London. Recently, she appeared in Wit at Canadian Stage and the Playhouse Theatre (March, 2001).
Her range extends from the modern classics (The Seagull, The Crucible) to the Canadian repertory (Michael Cook 's Head, Guts and Sound Bone Dance). Her performances are marked by a vivacious and inquisitive spirit. She has also performed frequently in film, television and on radio.
In 1994 she founded Western Gold Theatre, and in 2001 she co-founded PAL Vancouver (with Jane Heyman).
Joy is a member of the Order of Canada. She lives in Vancouver with her husband (since 1955), Jack Thorne.
IN MEMORIAM Mavor Moore,
1919-2006
Blackbird Theatre was honoured to count Mavor Moore among its early supporters.
Playwright, producer, actor, director, critic, composer, journalist and teacher, Mavor was the first artist to chair the Canada Council for the Arts. Professor Emeritus of Ontario's York University and from 1991-2001 Research Professor, Fine Arts and Humanities at the University of Victoria, he was also the founding chair, in 1996, of the BC Arts Council. He was CBC Television's first chief producer, an executive producer for the United Nations in New York, founding chair of the Canadian Theatre Centre, and founding director-general of both Charlottetown's Confederation Centre and Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. He sat on the boards of the Stratford Festival and the National Theatre School.
Mavor was the author of more than 100 plays, documentaries, musicals and opera librettos, some performed in the USA and Europe as well as Canada. He produced, directed and acted in theatres across Canada and appeared in some 60 films. In 1984, he became the Globe and Mail's first cultural affairs columnist. For Expo '86 in Vancouver, he hosted the World Conference on Politics, Business and the Arts, and in 1995 he was invited to address the World Commission on Culture and Development at the United Nations. Mavor was a Companion of the Order of Canada, and among other distinctions held the Order of British Columbia, the Queen's Medal, the Governor-General's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts, and honorary degress from eight universities.
Joy Coghill
