An acclaimed director and an innovative administrator with international connections and deep roots in Toronto’s performing arts scene: Canadian Stage’s announcement of Brendan Healy as its new artistic director is a sigh of relief. 

As recently as last week, the Luminato Festival became the latest major performing arts organization in Toronto to have its leadership up in the air with the resignation of Josephine Ridge. ( Soulpepper is likewise still in the process of finding replacements for former artistic director Albert Schultz and executive director Leslie Lester.)  So far, the arts community has been vocal about wanting leadership that reflects the city and the art made here, and the concern about these influential positions going to candidates from the United States, Europe or Australia. 

But Healy’s tenure at Canadian Stage will be a warm welcome back to Toronto, after three years away.  Having served six seasons as artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, where he led the LGBTQ+ company through a period of financial and artistic success (while directing memorable productions of Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Nina Arsenault’s The Silicone Diaries, and Tim Luscombe’s PIG), Healy left the company in 2015 to earn a master’s degree in international arts management through a joint program with the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the HEC Montréal, and SDA Bocconi in Milan. 

Article Continued Below

He then took up the position of artistic director for Ottawa’s Magnetic North Theatre Festival, which abruptly closed approximately five months later in March 2017, due to its deficit.  And just over a year ago, Healy became artistic director of the Rose Theatre in Brampton, where he crafted a 2018/2019 season that features a mix of celebrity, music and comedy and independent Toronto theatre favourites, such as Ravi Jain’s A Brimful of Asha and Trey Anthony’s How Black Mothers Say I Love You. 

Though Healy’s time at the Rose was brief, he says he’s excited to return to Toronto. “ I love my city,” he says. “ I feel very honoured and very privileged to be taking on the role.” 

“We’ve seen a huge shift in that company’s history over the last 10 years,” Healy said, referring to departing artistic director Matthew Jocelyn’s massive revisioning of the company’s programming, pushing it towards challenging, director-led pieces with an emphasis on visual esthetics and international tours.  It’s one thing Healy says he is looking forward to continuing about Jocelyn’s legacy, and one that fits well with Healy’s own work as a director with a particularly keen skill at gritty, visceral theatre. 

“I also think that Canadian Stage is really leading the conversation about what the performing arts are and will be in the future in this country … My interest is in amplifying the cross-pollination aspect of its international focus.  How does international elevate our ecology and complicate our ecology and improve our ecology?” 

Article Continued Below

Canadian Stage’s recent shift toward promoting international work garnered critical praise, but was sometimes criticized for seeming out of touch with the community — which came to a head with the #Canadian StageSoWhite reaction against a season with an all-white roster of Canadian directors, playwrights, choreographers and translators. 

Click to expand

“One of the great things that we feel Brendan is bringing is his track record of commitment to integrating diverse voices into the art, and to bringing the art to diverse communities,” said Alexandra Baillie, co-chair of the Canadian Stage board of directors.  She said this was one value among many that the search committee prioritized in choosing the next artistic director, including a track record that balances “a bold artistic vision with the financial and administrative needs of a company.”  After all, Canadian Stage is facing a deficit of $1,648,343. 

Though there’s much to celebrate about Healy’s new position, the board opted not to pursue an alternative organizational model, which could actively move the company away from the patriarchal top-down model of an artistic director, even if they’re equally matched with an executive director (a search for which is also underway since general manager Su Hutchinson’s resignation, with executive producer Sherrie Johnson has been pulling interim double duty for the last few months).  But Baillie also says that Healy was intentionally chosen for his collaborative style. 

“What you see this across the board in the cultural sector is the diversification of curatorial voices inside organizations, moving away from the visionary, quote unquote, to an understanding that co-creation is the thing,” Healy said. 

The Canadian Stage 2018/2019 season is now officially underway with Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream running in rep in the company’s annual Shakespeare in High Park series, and Healy officially starts his new job on August 7.  In the meantime, Toronto can celebrate a top job going to one of our own.