Ensemble Bios

Alisa Palmer

Ms Alisa Palmer returns to the Shaw Festival for her eighth season to direct A Man and Some Women.

Alisa’s selected credits for The Shaw include The Women, Sunday in the Park with George, the remount and original production of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s gothic comedy Belle Moral: A Natural History (2008/2005 premiere, which was also presented at the National Theatre Centre), Bernard Shaw’s The Philanderer, the Rogers and Hart musical Pal Joey, as well as the Canadian premiere of Diana of Dobson’s by Cicely Hamilton.

An internationally award-winning theatre director, playwright and theatre producer, Ms Palmer’s work crosses genres, including classics, contemporary plays, creation projects, musicals and operas. Ms Palmer’s work is characterized by vivid performances, a bold use of music, powerful visuals and a passionate commitment to our stories.

As a director, recent productions include The Children’s Republic by Hannah Moscovitch for Tarragon Theatre; Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill for Mirvish Productions; the world premiere of Mimi, The Poisoner’s Comedy, by Rick Roberts, Melody Johnson and composer Allen Cole, also for Tarragon; the world premiere of The Bricklin, a disco-funk musical based on the true story of a love affair between a politician and a sports car, by Paul LeDoux and Allen Cole, for Theatre New Brunswick; The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, ’Night Mother by Marsha Norman for Soulpepper; and Sara Ruhl’s The Clean House at Canadian Stage. Ms Palmer is currently directing Mrs Warren’s Profession by Bernard Shaw for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, with Seana McKenna in the title role.

Ms Palmer’s acclaimed production of Top Girls by Caryl Churchill for Soulpepper garnered her a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction, was remounted the following year and is the subject of a documentary film, Girls on Top. Her production of East of Berlin by Hannah Moscovitch, toured Canada for three years and ran at the Tarragon Theatre for an unprecedented three seasons. Known for her work with creation-based projects, Ms Palmer has directed the creation of numerous landmark plays that have toured nationally, including Diane Flack’s Random Acts, Sibs (by Richard Greenblatt and Flacks), and Smudge, the first professional play by a blind playwright. Ms Palmer directed the creation, premiere and seven subsequent productions of The Attic, The Pearls & Three Fine Girls, (published by Scirocco Press), as well as its sequel, More Fine Girls.

Ms Palmer has received seven Dora Awards, including Dora’s for Outstanding Direction of a Musical, (Anything That Moves, recently revived at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria), and Outstanding Direction of a Play (Top Girls), as well as Dora Awards for playwriting and production. She is the recipient of two Chalmers Awards for plays she has written (i.d. and A Play About the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), and has been named Finalist, three consecutive times, for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize for Directing. Ms Palmer was awarded the New Brunswick Award of Excellence in the Arts, as well as a Harold Award for her work in Independent Theatre. Oh My Irma, a new one-person show by Haley McGee directed by Palmer, was recently awarded Best Productions at New York City’s United Solo, North America’s largest solo festival. It begins touring Russia, Germany and Spain this fall, preceding a return engagement in New York City.

Ms Palmer teaches and directs at universities across Canada, including the University of Toronto, Victoria, Waterloo, Ryerson University, and the National Theatre School of Canada. In 2005, she was Resident Director for the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings, then the largest production in English theatrical history, for Mirvish Entertainment. From 1994 to 2001, Ms Palmer was Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre, Canada’s foremost women’s theatre company, where she oversaw the development and production of numerous award-winning and critically acclaimed plays. At Nightwood she founded “Write from the Hip”, a program for young women writers, now in its fourteenth year. Ms Palmer is currently at the helm of a new company, Vita Brevis, where she is directing the creation of a musical stage adaptation of the novel Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald, as well as an adaptation of Hamlet, featuring the music of the independent band STARS for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.