The LMDA Board of Directors is pleased to announce it has elected Brian Quirt to serve as the 2015-18 LMDA Board Chair.  Brian is the Toronto-based 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 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), Judith Thompson’s Such Creatures (Theatre Passe Muraille), Andy Massingham’s Rough House (national tour) and Richard Sanger’s Whispering Pines (GCTC). 

Brian has created seven of his own plays, most recently Why We Are Here! (with Martin Julien). His other plays include the 2009 Summerworks Festival hit Lake Nora Arms (adapted from Michael Redhill’s book with Jane Miller), Blue Note (with Martin Julien; Harbourfront Centre), The Death of General Wolfe (Theatre Passe Muraille), and adaptations of Jane Urquhart’s The Whirlpool (Tarragon Theatre), and the Iranian play Aurash (with Soheil Parsa; Modern Times Theatre in Toronto, Iran, Columbia, Cuba and Bosnia). With Nightswimming Producers Rupal Shah and Naomi Campbell he has led the company’s innovative Pure Research performance research workshops in Toronto and Vancouver since 2003.

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 HayesAward for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy. He has been nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, two for Direction and one for his adaptation of the Aurash.  He has also worked as a dramaturg for many independent companies and artists, from Mirvish Productions and the Manitoba Theatre Centre to directing national tours of two new works created with Ottawa’s Sleeping Dog Theatre. In addition to his theatrical work, Brian specializes in dance and choreographic dramaturgy, and is an adjunct professor at York University’s Department of Dance. His work as a dramaturg has been documented in numerous articles, journals and books, including recent publications such as The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, Dramaturgy in the Making, New Dramaturgy, Developing Nation: New Play Creation in English Canada, Theatre Topics, and the Canadian Theatre Review.