Twitter Project: Brian Quirt

Bio: Brian Quirt is the Artistic Director of Nightswimming, which has commissioned and developed more than 30 new plays, dance works and musical pieces since 1995. Brian also serves as Director of the Banff Centre Playwrights Colony, which he has expanded to incorporate international guest artists, creation company residencies and diverse approaches to theatre making. With more than 25 years experience as a dramaturg, Brian has worked with many of Canada’s leading playwrights. As a director, his recent credits include premieres of these Nightswimming commissions: Anita Majumdar’s The Fish Eyes Trilogy (2014/15 national tour) and Same Same But Different (Theatre Passe Muraille/Alberta Theatre Projects), Carmen Aguirre’s Blue Box (2012-2014 national tour), Anosh Irani’s Bombay Black (Cahoots Theatre and tour), and Judith Thompson’s Such Creatures (Theatre Passe Muraille). He has created seven of his own plays, most recently the pop-up choir performance Why We Are Here! (with Martin Julien), which runs again this spring in Toronto. Brian has been Interim Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Company Dramaturg at Factory Theatre, Dramaturg at the Theatre Centre and Dramaturgical Associate at the Canadian Stage Company. He is a Board member and a past-President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and two-time recipient of LMDA’s Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy.

Questions from LMDA:

What is your definition of dramaturgy: I resist defining this practice, as most narrow definitions fail to capture the breadth of what we dramaturgs do. At Nightswimming, we use the following: dramaturgy is the exploration of how stories are told on stage.

What is your favorite project? One of the productions that I've found most inspiring as a dramaturg and a theatre maker, and which I return to as a source of ideas and process was my show with Martin Julien called Blue Note

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