Affiliation: Shaw Festival, Executive Director/ CEO
Areas of Expertise: Theatre Management, NFP Finance & Planning, Philanthropy in the Arts, Community Engagement, Arts Tourism, Human Resources Management
Board Committee(s) Serving on: All Board Committees, ExOfficio to Shaw USA Board and Shaw Endowment Foundation Board
Personal Statement: Running the Shaw is my literal dream job. It’s the only theatre I ever voiced a specific goal of managing and have focussed my career on building the skill set to do just that. While my earliest memories of theatre go back to the early 1970s, my interest in a career in theatre goes back to seeing a production of Cyrano here at the Shaw in the early 80s. That amazing production, and the many that followed, inspired me to pursue a career in production and as a producer, so that I could ensure great artists had the resources and expertise available to them to create great art. I have spent the last 35 years working exclusively in theatre and the performing arts, with a focus on creating a more equitable society through theatre art and have been lucky enough to have been directly involved with over two thousand productions and events in that time and to have produced over 200 of them. I believe deeply in the power of theatre to provoke civic dialogue, to build empathy and critical thinking and to bring people together around universal and difficult conversations. More than that, I believe Art – and specifically Theatre as an amalgam of many art forms – is and serves basic human needs, providing purpose, beauty, provocation and fulfilment to the lives of all people.
