Andrea Donaldson is a Canadian theatre director and dramaturge. She is the current

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

Nightwood Theatre 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' ori ...

and was formerly the program director of Nightwood's Write From the Hip program.

Early life

Donaldson attended the Claude Watson School for the Arts for high school. She later attended the School for Contemporary Arts at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

and graduated with a BFA in theatre.

Career

From 2012 to 2016, Donaldson was the assistant/associate artistic director of

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

. Donaldson has directed several plays with Tarragon including

Anna Chatterton Anna Chatterton is a Canadian playwright,"Chatterton, Anna"
''Canadian Theatre Encyclo ...

's ''Within The Glass'' (2016) and Arun Lakra's ''Sequence'' (2017)''.'' Donaldson participated in the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

Michael Langham Michael Seymour Langham (22 August 1919 – 15 January 2011) was an English director and actor, who spent much of his career living and working in Canada and the United States. He was educated at Radley College and studied law at the Universi ...

Workshop for classical direction in 2012 and 2013. As part of the program, she assistant directed ''The Matchmaker'' and ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

.'' For her work at Stratford, Donaldson was awarded the Jean Gascon Award. From 2014 to 2019, Donaldson was the program director of Nightwood Theatre's script development program Write From the Hip. As part of Write From the Hip, Donaldson helped to develop Rose Napoli's ''Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells)'' which she later directed as part of Nightwood's regular season in 2017. Donaldson also developed Jane Doe's ''Grace'' and then and directed it for Nightwood's main season''.'' In 2019, Donaldson replaced

Kelly Thornton Kelly Thornton (born 13 April 1997) is an Irish actress who began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her roles as Corrina Mallon in the 2015 RTÉ drama '' Clean Break'' and Emma in the film '' Life's a Breeze'' (2013), which ...

as artistic director of Nightwood Theatre. Outside of Nightwood and Tarragon, Donaldson has directed

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the 197 ...

's ''The Possibilities'' (2004),

Erin Shields Erin Shields is a Canadian stage actress and playwright.

’ ''The Unfortunate Misadventures Of Masha Galinski'' (2007) and ''Beautiful Man'' (2019), and Harold Pinter's ''

Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. ...

'' (with

Soulpepper Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has sinc ...

, 2019). Donaldson is also an actor and has played such roles as the Prince in Shakespeare in the Ruff's 2016 production of ''

Romeo & Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

''. In addition, she sometimes teaches directing at the

National Theatre School of Canada The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS, french: École nationale de théâtre du Canada) is a private institution of professional theatre studies in Montreal, Quebec. Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants ...

Personal life

Donaldson is married to Rob Baker. She has a son, Theodore Fitz.

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, Andrea Women theatre directors Canadian theatre directors 21st-century Canadian women Simon Fraser University alumni Dora Mavor Moore Award winners People from Toronto Dramaturges Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian artistic directors