We sat down with director Brendan Healy, dramaturge Daniel MacIvor, and writer/performer Daniel Brooks, for an inside look at the play, Other People.
Creating, rehearsing and opening a new play can be stressful under the best of circumstances. Daniel Brooks is doing it during a pandemic, and with a terminal cancer diagnosis. It’s a remarkable feat, and an unforgettable work.
But we’ll let the creative team speak for themselves.
The first time I met Daniel Brooks was through his work. When I was a young, aspiring artist, I saw a number of his productions, and they all inspired me in different ways, and really showed me the possibilities of what theatre could be.
He brings together in his theatre, great storytelling with deep ideas. He’s able to use storytelling to investigate, and express, and challenge big ideas. And that marriage of great storytelling and big thinking... it’s deeply inspirational.
– Brendan Healy
Daniel [MacIvor] and I have really grown up together in the theatre. So, I feel our artistic lives are very linked. There's a marriage of sorts, and a friendship that is very interested in being reckless with the boundaries between art and life. – Daniel Brooks
Daniel [Brooks] is, you know, my best friend, and my brother and so many things, I mean it. So, you can imagine the, the complexity of that, right? It's a very complex relationship with lots of deep, deep love and lots of prickliness and all kinds of strange things in it. So, I would describe Daniel as wildly, wildly intelligent, much more fun than people think people think he's very serious. But and but he's actually a bit of a goof. – Daniel MacIvor
In this issue of CS Grid, Topdog/Underdog Dramaturge Jordan Laffrenier touches on the relationship between brothers Booth and Lincoln and how their stories echo the realities of many. Jordan also offers insight on acclaimed playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and what she has said about plays’ ability to rewrite history while navigating between theatre and real life.
We’re celebrating 40 years of Dream in High Park by bringing back our inaugural Shakespeare production from 1983, A Midsummer Night’s Dream!
Making his High Park directorial debut, in this edition of CS Grid, we interviewed Dream in High Park veteran performer Jamie Robinson on his thoughts leading this milestone production, why this play is beloved by audiences and why you need to check it out.
Canadian Stage sends its love to the family and friends of Daniel Brooks who passed away peacefully on Monday. A beloved artist at Canadian Stage, Daniel was most recently on stage in 2022 with Other People, a play that he wrote and performed in. Our Artistic Director, Brendan Healy, shares some thoughts on his experience of working with Daniel on that show and on the generous gift of mentorship that Daniel offered him and others over two decades. Daniel will be greatly missed.
In advance of the premiere of No Save Points, “a play you can play,” in this edition of CS Grid, we catch up with artist Sébastien Heins and his mentor David Rokeby, BMO Lab Associate Director. We’re fascinated to learn more about the inner artistic workings behind this innovative new theatre production and how the Canadian Stage residency allowed Sébastien to expand on his artistic endeavours.
