Experience

Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity

• Canada
• Professional Training and Coaching
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Executive&Creative Director

  • 2013 - Present

  Working with a team to establish a unique national cultural hub/incubator for research and experimentation - inquiry for rural resilience in the 21st century.“Our task is to tell the story that lights the path to a better world - to be a part of re-invigorating the Commons.”George MonbiotCCRC ACTIVITIES:R2R CONFERENCES - a biennial gathering bringing people together from across the world to share ideas, participate in creativity, collaborate on new partnerships, and connect with those they mightn’t have otherwise connected with. (R2R22 happened in October of 2022 with the theme: Rural Today/Rural Tomorrow. The conference took place at the Four Winds Barn in Brussels, Ontario, Canada)CCRC INNOVATION HUB: is a workspace for learning, leadership training, and building social enterprise. Located in Blyth, Ontario, it will serve a broad constituency. CCRC RADIO/PODCAST - established in 2020 to inform, inspire, educate, and build on the multiple and diverse rural relationships of the CCRC, the radio/podcast will grow the rural network and participate in revitalizing the democratic Commons. The radio service is a bridge between the activities of the Centre and the content will continue to evolve and reflect the mission and vision of the organization. Following each live presentation - the program episode will be edited for re-broadcast and available to the world for review on CCRC Radio. THE CURIOUSITY PROJECT: arts, science, community. A project that grew out of R2R20 when we brought together 5 social scientists from Europe, Africa, South and North America, and put them together with 4 Canadian artists who interpreted their rural research. We are evolving the project: bringing people together who are curious about the world and through art, artfulness and science and engineering and Elder wisdom and serendipity and all the rest of it, learn, ask questions, and work toward leaving the place in better shape for future generations.



Utopia

• United States
• Financial Services

• Creative Consultant

  • Aug 2011 - Present

  a suite of options/services: from branding, to organization of events and conferences, strategy&planning, fundraising, project directing from concept to construction. Keynote addresses/workshops: speaking engagements have taken me across the continent from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to British Columbia, across Ontario, and Nova Scotia, and many places between. A story relating to a meaningful experience, to lessons learned, can remain in the heart long after the talk is over. Value add: Interactive and creative workshops that lead to action,+ Consultations - from feasibility to detailed project summary.



Utopia Road Pictures

• Producer/Writer

  • Jan 1989 - Present

  As a Producer, writer and director I've worked in television, film, and theatre from coast to coast to coast in Canada. I was writer/story consultant for APTN's THE TIME TRAVELER and co-created FRANK, a one-hour drama with producer Michael Weinberg, the creator of Heartland. I worked three seasons as a Senior Story Consultant and Writer on the one-hour drama The Guard (CanWest Global/ Halifax Film), and was Story Editor and Writer on the final season of ReGenesis (TMN/ Movie Central) I co-wrote/Executive Produced The Call for CBC. Other co-writing credits include; Eight Days to Live (Shaftsbury Films), the MOW aired on Lifetime USA and CTV in early 2006, breaking audience records for a Canadian made movie. It was nominated for a 2007 Canadian Screenwriting Award for Best MOW & Miniseries and 2007 Gemini Award for Best TV Movie. The original script, Tripping the Wire: a Stephen Tree Mystery (Pink Sky/Galafilm) was broadcast on Lifetime and CTV in 2005, winning that year's Gemini Award for Best TV Movie as well as a 2005 HUGO Award. I was commissioned by Geordie Productions in Montreal in 2014 to adapt the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY - both plays were produced at the Centaur Theatre and won a META award for best ensemble. For the Blyth Festival I was commissioned to write FURY about the great storm of 1913. It had its premiere in the 2015 season. I conceived, wrote, dramaturged and directed HOMETOWN for the Festival - 6 plays, 6 playwrights, from across Canada writing about their hometowns.I released my first mystery, AFTER THE DYING FALL, and have just completed the second in the series, CAPE NORTH. My non-fiction writing has been published in Prairie Fire, Theatrum, The Canadian Voice, and The Works.



Blyth Festival

• Canada
• Performing Arts
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Artistic Director

  • Aug 2013 - Sep 2014

  Responsible for all aspects of running the theatre company - from the creative to the administrative. Directed two productions, dramaturged five plays, in the 2014 season. Highlights: Falling: A Wake, Beyond the Farm Show. Responsible for all aspects of running the theatre company - from the creative to the administrative. Directed two productions, dramaturged five plays, in the 2014 season. Highlights: Falling: A Wake, Beyond the Farm Show.



Canadian Stage

• Canada
• Performing Arts
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Associate Artistic Director

  • Sep 1998 - May 1999

  Worked with the creative and artistic team to build a season of new Canadian work - duties: play development, dramaturgy, casting, workshopping. Highlight: directing the workshop for Mansel Robinson's play, Spitting Slag. Worked with the creative and artistic team to build a season of new Canadian work - duties: play development, dramaturgy, casting, workshopping. Highlight: directing the workshop for Mansel Robinson's play, Spitting Slag.



Playwrights'​ Workshop Montréal

• Canada
• Performing Arts
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Artistic Director

  • Sep 1994 - Aug 1998

  Providing artistic/creative leadership to a national theatre company. Highlights - 15 Minutes + the CEAD/PWM translations Project, + the Extended Workshops. Providing artistic/creative leadership to a national theatre company. Highlights - 15 Minutes + the CEAD/PWM translations Project, + the Extended Workshops.

• Artistic Director

  • Jan 1990 - Sep 1993

  Responsible for the creative and administrative of the Festival. Produced 21 plays over 3 years and developed new work for future seasons. Highlights include the Community Play - Many Hands - 140 actors, a dozen musicians, a parade each night, 5 stages at Hubbards' Rutabaga Plant for the presentation + producing and acting in Sean Dixon's play End of the World Romance.

• Associate Artistic Director

  • May 1988 - Sep 1990

  Working with the Artistic Director on all creative aspects of the company.



Alberta Theatre Projects

• Canada
• Performing Arts
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Resident Company Member: Actor/Director

  • Sep 1984 - May 1990

  A member of the resident company creating new work as a director, actor, dramaturge. Was a creator/actor/director for 4 Playrites Festivals - a national celebration of new work. Highlights include Human Remains by Brad Fraser, Warriors by Michel Garneau, Being at Home with Claude by Rene Daniel Dubois, and directing Rat in the Skull by Ron Hutchinson. A member of the resident company creating new work as a director, actor, dramaturge. Was a creator/actor/director for 4 Playrites Festivals - a national celebration of new work. Highlights include Human Remains by Brad Fraser, Warriors by Michel Garneau, Being at Home with Claude by Rene Daniel Dubois, and directing Rat in the Skull by Ron Hutchinson.



Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

• Canada
• Higher Education
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Actor/Director/Dramaturge

  • Nov 1984 - Nov 1988

  Was a member of the Playwrights Colony at the Centre for 4 years working with a crowd of seasoned and talented artists from across Canada and from the international community on new work. I was employed as an actor, director and a dramaturge. Was a member of the Playwrights Colony at the Centre for 4 years working with a crowd of seasoned and talented artists from across Canada and from the international community on new work. I was employed as an actor, director and a dramaturge.



Frontier College / Collège Frontière

• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Labourer/Teacher

  • Mar 1978 - Sep 1980

  By day I worked on a CPR Ballast gang on the Canadian Prairies - by night I taught English as a second language. I also did interviews for new Labourer/Teachers in the spring of 1980.Frontier College is Canada's original literacy organization, education for all is the philosophy. FC has a rich and storied history dating back to 1899. The Labourer/Teacher idea was born in the lumber camps of Northern Ontario and the concept has grown with Labourer/Teachers working in many different primary industries, in northern and remote communities, in prisons. Alfred Fitzpatrick started the College and Dr. Norman Bethune was one of the early Labourer/Teachers. information@frontiercollege.ca