Chris Abraham (born 1974) is a Canadian theatre director, most noted as the artistic director of the Crow's Theatre company in Toronto, Ontario since 2007. [1]
Originally from Montreal, Quebec, he studied theatre at the University of Toronto and the National Theatre School of Canada. [1] He was subsequently one of the founding partners in Go Chicken Go, a theatre company of recent NTS graduates. [2] Productions he directed for Go Chicken Go included Peter Handke's Offending the Audience, [2] Anton Piatigorsky's Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension, [3] Darren O'Donnell's Boxhead, [4] and Abraham's own adaptation of Georg Büchner's Lenz. [1]
In 2001 he was the director of Kristen Thomson's stage play I, Claudia . [5] He subsequently also directed a film adaptation, which premiered at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival [6] and was named to TIFF's year-end Canada's Top Ten list. [7]
He took over artistic direction of Crow's Theatre in 2007, following the retirement of the company's founding artistic director Jim Millan. [8]
He is married to actress Liisa Repo-Martell. [9]
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dora Mavor Moore Awards | 1999 | Best Direction, Independent Theatre | Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension | Won | [10] |
| Outstanding Set Design, Independent Theatre | Nominated | [11] | |||
| Outstanding New Play or Musical, Independent Theatre | Lenz | Nominated | |||
| 2001 | Best Direction, Independent Theatre | Boxhead | Nominated | ||
| 2003 | Best Direction, General Theatre | Russell Hill | Nominated | [12] | |
| 2006 | Best Direction, Independent Theatre | Cringeworthy | Nominated | [13] | |
| 2007 | Best Direction, General Theatre | Insomnia | Nominated | [14] | |
| 2009 | I, Claudia | Nominated | [15] | ||
| Best Direction, Independent Theatre | Eternal Hydra | Won | [16] | ||
| 2013 | Best Direction, General Theatre | The Little Years | Won | [17] | |
| Someone Else | Nominated | ||||
| 2020 | Julius Caesar | Nominated | [18] | ||
| 2024 | The Master Plan | Pending | [19] | ||
| Gemini Awards | 2005 | Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series | I, Claudia | Won | [20] |
| Siminovitch Prize in Theatre | 2001 | Protégé | Self | Won | [21] |
| 2013 | Recipient | Won | [22] |
I, Claudia is a one-woman play starring Kristen Thomson, which was subsequently adapted into a film that premiered at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival and was subsequently shown on CBC Television's arts anthology series Opening Night.
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