The Atlantic Canada connection

Atlantic Canada has a flourishing art scene which is both rich and distinctive. The Banff Centre has welcomed talented individuals from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick as participants and faculty, inspiring creative work in the areas of dance, theatre, music, film, television, visual arts, and literature.

Notable Banff Centre alumni and faculty from Atlantic Canada include:

In theatre arts

• Playing lead roles in Neptune Theatre’s 2006/07 season, Tanja Jacobs (The Little Years), Deborah Allen (Oliver), Leisa Way (The Love List), and Martha Irving (Beauty and the Beast).
• Artistic Fraud theatre company’s artistic director Jillian Keiley (winner of the 1998 John Hirsch prize and the 2004 Simonovitch Prize), irector/producer/lighting designer Danielle Irvine (winner of the 2000 John Hirsch prize), marketer/producer/actor Anna Stassis, musical Director/composer Petrina Bromley, writer/actor Robert Chafe, and musician/writer Sean Panting.
• Theatre Newfoundland Labrador artistic director Jeff Pitcher.
• Playwright Catherine Banks (Three Storey, Ocean View and Bone Cage).
• Actor/manager Gay Hauser, co-founder of Eastern Front Theatre.
• Performer/playwright Anne Johnson-MacDonald (The People of Preston North).
• Actress/instructor Marguerite McNeil (Marion Bridge, New Waterford Girl, and Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion).
• Fredericton-native, set and costume designer Paul Daigle, has worked with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
• Actor/theatre manager Leslie Yeo (1915 – 2006), founder of The London Theatre Company, St. John’s.
• Actor/director Richard Donat (The Real Great Escape and The Sea Hunters).

In literary arts

• Canadian writer and international literary star Alistair MacLeod (No Great Mischief).
• Award-winning writer/journalist Russell Wangersky (The Hour of Bad Decisions), editor-in-chief of The Telegram in St. John’s.
• Author Michael Winter (The Big Why & This All Happened).
• St. John’s-based writer/editor Stan Dragland founder Brick magazine and Brick Books.
• Cape Breton Island-native and poet Don Domanski, short-listed for the Governor General’s Award for Wolf-Ladder and Stations of the Left Hand.
• St. John’s-based author Lisa Moore, nominated for the Giller Prize for Open and Alligator.

In music

• One-third of Symphony Nova Scotia including principal cello Norman Adams, principal flute Patricia Creighton, principal oboe Suzanne Lemieux, principal bassoon Ivor Rothwell, and principal timpani/percussion Michael Baker.
• Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra players including concertmaster/violin Alison Black, concertmaster emeritus/violin Peter Gardner, principal cello Theo Weber, principal oboe Valerie Holden, and principal horn Victoria McNeill.
• PEI Symphony Orchestra players including clarinet Karem Simon, piano/keyboard Frances Gray, and cello Danise Ferguson.
• Halifax native, musician/composer Emily Doolittle.
• Pianist and Associate Professor of Piano at Memorial University of Newfoundland Timothy Steeves.
• Pianist and University of Prince Edward Island music faculty Frances Gray (Poems for Piano & Evocative Piano)
• Halifax-based, concert pianist and composer Peter Allen.

In dance

• The Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada company dancers Kostyantyn Voynov and Louis-Phillippe Dionne.
• Dancer/choreographer Susan Cook, has performed at the Symphony Nova Scotia New Music Festival and the Atlantic Canada New Dance Festival.
• Professional dancer Martin Vallée, artistic associate for Kittiwake Dance Theatre and co-founder of Dance Studio East. In visual arts
• New media/television producer Michael-Andreas Kuttner, co-founder and chief operating officer of Halifax-based Collideascope.
• Professional fine art photographer and St. John’s-native, Sheilagh O’Leary.
• Visual artist Peter Powning, recent winner of the 30th annual Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in the crafts.
• New Brunswick-based textile/embroidery artist Anna Torma.

Published: Summer 2007.