“Henrik Ibsen said that “when you write, you sit in judgement on your soul”. During my thirty-five year commitment to live theatre, I have grappled with the complexities and contradictions of my own soul/conscience and those of the communities I live in – globally, nationally and in my home. I believe theatre art is one of the great civilizing forces of our age because the audience is asked to sit in judgement on the lives and actions of the characters. As the Greeks knew, this process is, at its best, a profound act of citizenship and I have seen the proof of this over and over again. Theatre strengthens and challenges our accepted morality. It grays and laughs at the strident colours of fascism. It encourages compassion for what I firmly believe is our shared humanity. My contribution to this process as a theatre artist is to try, with all the resources at my disposal, to create plays and productions where every second of stage time is essential to itself, as a work of art, and to the lives of the audience it reaches.” – David S. Craig
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PLAYWRIGHT
Mr. Craig has written twenty-nine professionally produced dramatic works including the internationally produced comedy Having Hope at Home which has enjoyed eighteen productions to date. For Roseneath Theatre he has written the internationally acclaimed Danny, King of the Basement (Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Production) which has been seen by over half a million young people in North America alone. Other successful plays include Smokescreen, which has been translated in five languages and remains in the repertoire of the prestigious GRIPS Theater in Berlin. His adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s The Fan was nominated for a Rideau Award for Best Adaptation.
RADIO DRAMA
Mr. Craig has extensive writing credits in radio drama. He was the creator, story editor and principal writer for Booster McCrane, P.M. a fifteen-minute weekly political comedy series broadcast on CBC Radio’s Morningside. The series ran fifty-one episodes 1991-93. Sid Adilman, Entertainment Editor of the Toronto Star, described it as one of his favourite shows in 1992.
Between 1996 and 1998, he created and wrote the popular The Diamond Lane series for CBC’s Metro Morning (audience size: 400,000). Starring Fiona Reid, the series was broadcast live-to-air every Wednesday morning for a total of fifty episodes.
DIRECTOR
Directing highlights include Pinocchio for Young People’s Theatre, Rocket and the Queen of Dreams (Dora Nomination for Outstanding Production (TYA) and The Neverending Story (Canadian Premiere) for Roseneath Theatre and his adaptation of The Fan by Carlo Goldoni for Odyssey Theatre which was nominated for the Best Production by the Capital Critics Circle and for a Rideau Award in the same category.
ACTOR
Mr. Craig has been performing for young people and their families continually for over twenty-five years. He performed The Clown Who Laughed, (“The jumpy grace of a Red Skelton” – Jay Scott, Globe and Mail) over two hundred times throughout Ontario, Alberta, and in Montreal. His hit one-man show, Napalm the Magnificent has been performed extensively in Canada and Off- Broadway. In 1996, he was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actor. For Roseneath Theatre, Mr. Craig created the role of Yves in Head à Tête, Bruce in Health Class and Dib in Dib and Dob and the Journey Home. In 1998, he was invited to perform the title role in The Story of The Little Gentleman at the Manitoba Theatre For Young People, the production which opened their new theatre at the Forks of the Credit River. He has performed thousands of in-school performances as well as in glossy venues such as The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Centre, The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, The Milk Festival, The Edinburgh Children’s Festival and other venues from Yellowknife to Palm Beach and Happy Valley/Goose Bay to Seattle, Washington.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Mr. Craig has been an Artistic Director and producer of plays for young audiences (TYA) for thirty years. A tireless promoter and advocate of theatre for young audiences, he has extensive experience in small theatre management with particular skill in local, national and international touring. His productions have appeared at every festival and young audience series in Canada, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Centre, The New York International Arts Festival, The Kravis Centre (Palm Beach) and the Discovery Theatre (Anchorage) in the United States and at festivals in Scotland, Ireland, London, England and Singapore. During this period he has created and supervised award-winning teams of theatre artists including directors Richard Greenblatt, Jim Warren, Ed Roy and Leah Cherniak, designers Mary Kerr, Sue LePage, Glenn Davidson and Theresa Pryzbylski and actors Yanna MacIntosh, Ron Gabriel, Jordan Peddle, Helen Taylor and Derek Scott. In 1976, he founded Theatre Direct Canada which, in the following five years, attracted one of the largest audiences in Canadian TYA. He produced, wrote or co-wrote and performed in The Clown Who Laughed, The Great Canadian Energy Show, All For Beaver Hats, The Case of the Dreamburger Dilemma and The Railroad Story. He directed and co-wrote Morgan’s Journey which won the inaugural Chalmers Award for TYA.
In 1983, with Robert Morgan, he founded Roseneath Theatre. Together as producer, playwrights and performers they created a series of plays which consistently pushed the barriers of TYA in terms of style and content and which attracted a national and international audience. The Book of Miracles, Health Class, The Heart of Mine Tour, One Heart at a Time (for the Toronto L’Arche community), and Dib and Dob and the Journey Home (Chalmers and Dora Mavor Moore Award) were created during this early period.
In 2001, Mr. Morgan left the company and Mr. Craig became Artistic Director. He wrote and produced the internationally successful Danny, King of the Basement (Dora Mavor Moore Award, German Children’s Theatre Prize Nomination), Smokescreen, Rocket and the Queen of Dreams and Tough Case as well as producing and developing Wrecked (Dora Mavor Moore Award) and The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh by Chris Craddock. Under his leadership, the company grew to become the largest touring theatre in Ontario with an annual audience of over 100,000 people.
After twenty-eight years of service, Mr. Craig retired from his position as Artistic Director at Roseneath Theatre in 2011. He remains as Associate Director.
EDUCATOR
Mr. Craig is a popular workshop leader. He has taught for theatre professionals, teachers, and for students in junior, middle, secondary and post-secondary institutions.