Richard Rose (director)

Richard Rose CM (born January 18, 1955) is a Canadian theatre director, most noted as the former artistic director of the Toronto theatre companies Necessary Angel and Tarragon Theatre.^[1]

Background

He was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and raised in Sudbury, Ontario.^[2] He studied theatre at York University.^[3]

Career

He was the founding artistic director of Necessary Angel in 1978.^[1] The company's first production, Aeschylus's Oresteia, was not well-regarded by critics but telegraphed the company's high ambitions.^[1]

Necessary Angel rose to critical and popular favour with the breakout success of John Krizanc's play Tamara in 1981,^[4] which won numerous Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 1982 including Best Director for Rose.^[5] Following the success of Tamara, he collaborated with Thom Sokoloski, the artistic director of Theatre Autumn Leaf, to create Autumn Angel Repertory,^[6] who won the Dora for Outstanding New Play in 1984 for Mein.^[7]

In 1989 he attracted acclaim for his theatrical adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel Coming Through Slaughter, cowritten with Ondaatje and D.D. Kugler.^[1] In 1992, Rose and Kugler debuted another stage adaptation, of Timothy Findley's novel Not Wanted on the Voyage.^[8]

He also directed the short film Giant Steps, which screened at the 1992 Toronto International Film Festival,^[9] and served for three years as director of the youth company at the Stratford Festival.^[1]

In 2002 he was appointed artistic director of Tarragon.^[10] His role with the company was marked by brief controversy in 2012 when Michael Healey resigned as the company's playwright in residence after Rose declined to produce his play Proud,^[1] but Rose remained with the company until his retirement in 2020.^[11]

In 2024, he was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto.^[12]

Awards

Award	Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref(s)
Dora Mavor Moore Awards	1982	Outstanding Direction of a Play, General Theatre	Tamara	Won	[5]
	1983	Best Original Play, General Theatre	Censored	Nominated	[13]
	1984		Mein with Stewart Arnott, Ines Ruchli, Mark Christmann, Dorian Clark, Denis Forest, Maggie Huculak, Tanja Jacobs, Susan McKenzie	Won	[7]
	1989	Outstanding Direction of a Play, General Theatre	The Possibilities	Nominated	[14]
	1990	Best Original Play, General Theatre	Coming Through Slaughter with Michael Ondaatje, D.D. Kugler	Nominated	[15]
		Outstanding Direction of a Play, General Theatre	The Europeans	Nominated	[16]
	1993	Outstanding Direction of a Play, Midsize Theatre	Glenn	Nominated	[17]
	1996		Seven Lears	Won	[18]
	1998	Outstanding Direction of a Play, General Theatre	Inexpressible Island	Nominated	[19]
	2004		Remnants	Won	[20]
			Simpl	Nominated	[21]
	2006		Léo	Nominated	[22]
	2007		Scorched	Won	[23]
	2010		Courageous	Nominated	[24]
	2014		A God in Need of Help	Nominated	[25]
	2015		An Enemy of the People	Nominated	[26]
	2018		Hamlet	Nominated	[27]

References

1. Craig Walker, "Richard Rose". The Canadian Encyclopedia, January 20, 2014.
2. Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof, "Rose, Richard". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, August 23, 2024.
3. Robert Crew, "Rose puts fresh bloom on theatre". Toronto Star, December 31, 1998.
4. Salem Alaton, "Tamara plays to a full house in all 20 rooms". The Globe and Mail, June 20, 1981.
5. Carole Corbeil, "An outstanding night for Tamara". The Globe and Mail, November 16, 1982.
6. Carole Corbeil, "A new theatrical pairing". The Globe and Mail, December 7, 1982.
7. Stephen Godfrey, "Jungle of Cities wins four Doras". The Globe and Mail, October 23, 1984.
8. "Findley novel headed for stage". Toronto Star, September 18, 1990.
9. H. J Kirchhoff, "Festival ushers in 69 Canadian films". The Globe and Mail, July 30, 1992.
10. "Tarragon Theatre names new artistic director". The Globe and Mail, June 12, 2002.
11. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Richard Rose set to retire from Tarragon Theatre". The Globe and Mail, June 27, 2020.
12. "Appointments to the Order of Canada – December 18, 2024".
13. Ray Conlogue, "Thomson, Phipps take Doras for outstanding acting". The Globe and Mail, October 11, 1983.
14. Isabel Vincent, "And the Dora nominees are . . .". The Globe and Mail, May 13, 1989.
15. Ray Conlogue, "Dora nominations harvested from sparse crop of new plays". The Globe and Mail, May 15, 1990.
16. Ray Conlogue, "Dora nominations harvested from sparse crop of new plays". The Globe and Mail, May 15, 1990.
17. Liam Lacey, "Bob's Kingdom and Ratbag lead Dora nominees". The Globe and Mail, May 11, 1993.
18. "Dora Mavor Moore Awards announced". Montreal Gazette, June 27, 1996.
19. "Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star, May 27, 1998.
20. Kamal Al-Solaylee, "The Producers lost at box office but wins big at Dora awards". The Globe and Mail, June 29, 2004.
21. Robert Cushman, "The Doras: and the winner is ...: Odd nominees make predictions difficult". National Post, June 26, 2004.
22. Robert Cushman, "Some nods are inexplicable: A desperate season, a desperate slate of Dora nominees". National Post, June 24, 2006.
23. Guy Dixon, "Scorched wins best play at Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail, June 25, 2007.
24. Robert Cushman, "Navigating the nominations; Our critic predicts Dora winners and laments overlooked performances". National Post, June 26, 2010.
25. Robert Cushman, "Best in shows; The Doras have a weak field to choose from this year, but they've chosen well". National Post, June 21, 2014.
26. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Soulpepper leads in Dora Award nods". The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2015.
27. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Soulpepper's 13 nominations lead general theatre division of Toronto's Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail, May 31, 2018.