Lib Spry

Last updated
Lib Spry
Years active1986-pres.
Known forCo-founder of Company of Sirens
Parents

Lib Spry is a Canadian director, playwright, and academic. She is a co-founder of Company of Sirens and Straight Stitching Productions and served as the artistic director of Passionate Balance.

Contents

Career

In 1986, Spry co-founded the feminist theatre company, Company of Sirens, with Lina Chartrand, Aida Jordão, Catherine Glen, Shawna Dempsey, and Cynthia Grant. [1] With Company of Sirens, Spry created the play, The Working People's Picture Show, which was first staged in 1987. [2] [3] With Shirley Barrie, Spry co-founded Straight Stitching Productions in 1989. [4] Spry served as the artistic director of the Ottawa-based theatre company, Passionate Balance. In 1992, she co-developed, with Rob Thompson, the play Collateral Damages. The play used techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed. [5]

In 2012, Spry directed Where the Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring. [6] [7] In 2013, Spry was set to direct the mini-musical, Marg Szkaluba(Pissy's Wife), written by Ron Chambers, at the Rialto Theatre in Montreal; however, the show was indefinitely postponed when the show's star, Carolyn Fe, became ill. [8]

Spry has taught at the University of Ottawa, Queen's University, and Concordia University. She currently teaches at McGill University. [9]

Personal life

Spry has an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College [9] and a PhD in cultural studies from Queen's University. Her parents are Graham and Irene Spry and she has two brothers named Robin and Richard. [10]

Plays

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lepage</span> Canadian writer, actor, director

Robert Lepage is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.

Garth Drabinsky is a Canadian film and theatrical producer and entrepreneur. In 2009, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud and forgery. The sentence was reduced from 7 to 5 years in prison, on appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear a subsequent appeal. Drabinsky is currently raising funds for his legal battle with Actor's Equity in the USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Quilico</span> Canadian opera singer (1925–2000)

Louis Quilico, was a Canadian opera singer. One of the leading dramatic baritones of his day, he was an ideal interpreter of the great Italian and French composers, especially Giuseppe Verdi. He was often referred to as "Mr Rigoletto" in reference to the Verdi opera. During his 45-year-long career he shared performing credits with opera's greatest stars. He spent 25 consecutive years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After his retirement from the stage in 1998 he continued to perform and record, most often with his second wife, pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico,, with whom he made four CDs. The couple also toured together extensively in concerts until Quilico's death in 2000. Quilico received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in November 1999 for his lifetime contribution to classical music.

Alisa Palmer is a Canadian theatre director and playwright. She was the artistic director of Nightwood Theatre from 1993 to 2001. Palmer is currently the artistic director of the English section of the National Theatre School of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne Ackerman</span> Canadian novelist, playwright, and journalist

Marianne Letitia Ackerman is a Canadian novelist, playwright, and journalist. Mankind and Other Stories of Women, her fifth work of prose fiction, was published by Guernica Editions in 2016. Her play Triplex Nervosa premiered at Centaur Theatre in April 2015. Triplex Nervosa Trilogy was published by Guernica in 2020.

Paul Hopkins is a Canadian television, film and theatre actor. He is also a theatre producer and director.

Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' original intention, Nightwood Theatre has become known for producing feminist works. Some of Nightwood's most famous productions include This is For You, Anna (1983) and Good Night Desdemona (1988). Nightwood hosts several annual events including FemCab, the Hysteria Festival, and Groundswell Festival which features readings from participants of Nightwood's Write from the Hip playwright development program.


Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are a Canadian performance art duo who, since 1989, have collaborated on performances, films, videos, publications and public art projects. Both out lesbians, Dempsey and Millan collaborate most commonly on humorous performances addressing lesbian and feminist themes in a variety of media, including film, video and live performance poetry. Dempsey and Millan are based out of Winnipeg, and have toured and performed worldwide. Their work has been featured in four retrospectives.

Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) (1961) is a Canadian playwright, director, actor, and educator based out of Saskatchewan, Canada. She was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She has contributed significantly to the creation and performance of Indigenous theatre in Canada.

Araby Lockhart is a Canadian stage and television actress, best known for her performances in the films Capote and Police Academy and her stage performances as a member of Hart House Theatre and the Straw Hat Players. Lockhart has also served as President of the Actors' Fund of Canada.

Jean-François Bouchard is the co-founder of Sid Lee, the creative services agency he launched with Philippe Meunier in 1993. He later founded C2, a global platform and series of events exploring the intersection between creativity and commerce. He is also a visual artist whose contemporary photographic work has been exhibited in Montreal, New York, Toronto, Miami, and Paris.

Svetlana Zylin (1948-2002) was a Belgian-born Canadian theatre director and playwright. She was also the founder of the Women's Theatre Collective in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Cynthia Grant is a Canadian theatre director. Grant was a founding member of Nightwood Theatre and served as the company's first artistic director. Grant later co-founded Company of Sirens.

Company of Sirens is a Canadian feminist theatre company formed in 1986. Company of Sirens developed the feminist play The Working People's Picture Show.

Carolyn Fe is a Filipina singer and actress based in Montreal. She has released three full-length albums and an EP with the Carolyn Fe Blues Collective. Fe is also the recipient of 2018 Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Calpurnia.

Lina Chartrand (1948-1994) was a Canadian writer and theatre creator. She was a co-founder of the feminist theatre company, Company of Sirens. Her most famous work was the bilingual and partly autobiographical play, La P'tite Miss Easter Seals.

Aida Jordão is a Portuguese-Canadian playwright, theatre director, and academic. She is a co-founder of the feminist theatre group, Company of Sirens, and she co-created This is For You, Anna, a germinal Canadian feminist theatre play.

Shirley Barrie (1945-2018) was a Canadian writer. She was the co-founder of the Wakefield Tricycle Company and Tricycle Theatre. Her plays include Straight Stitching, Carrying the Calf, and Tripping Through Time.

Beverley Cooper is a Canadian actor, director, dramaturg, and playwright who works in film, radio, television, and theatre.

Guys in Disguise is an independent queer theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1987 by Darrin Hagen and Kevin Hendricks when they took their first show, Delusions of Grandeur, to the Edmonton Fringe. Guys in Disguise is best known for comedic and drag-based shows and has been credited for "exposing the voices of the drag and queer community to a wider audience."

References

  1. McGuigan, Lynn (2018-01-19). "Company of Sirens". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Athabasca University . Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  2. Bell, Laurie (1987). "Working People's Popular Appeal" (PDF). Broadside: A Feminist Review. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  3. Sweet, Lois (1987-02-27). "Show portrays women's issues in an entertaining manner: [FIN Edition]". Toronto Star . p. B4. ISSN   0319-0781.
  4. Nothof, Anne (2019-01-31). "Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia - Barrie, Shirley". www.canadiantheatre.com. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  5. Hawkins, Mary (1992). "Collateral Damages: Within and Without". Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada. 27 (4): 11.
  6. Donnelly, Pat (2012-09-13). "Where the Blood Mixes Traces the Aftermath of First Nations Residential Schools". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  7. Murdoch, Chandra (2012-09-17). "Review: Where the Blood Mixes". Cult MTL. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  8. Donnelly, Pat (2013-05-15). "Blues Singer Carolyn Fe Cancels Pissy's Wife Due to Allergies". montrealgazette. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  9. 1 2 Nothof, Anne (2020-06-12). "Spry, Lib". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  10. "Irene Mary SPRY Obituary (1998) The Globe and Mail". Legacy.com. 1998-12-18. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  11. Chan, Crystal (2013-05-30). "Stretch your festival stomach at the Montreal Fringe!". Nightlife. Retrieved 2022-01-05.