Company History

Workshop West’s 4th Artistic Director is Michael Clark. He returned to Edmonton in 2006 after seven years in Whitehorse, Yukon as artistic director for Nakai Theatre.

At Nakai, he developed and produced new plays by Sally Clark, Mitch Miyagawa, Patti Flather, Dean Eyre, and Sara Graefe. He also directed The Drawer Boy, Vigil, Perfect Pie, and Snowman. Between 2002 and 2006, four of Nakai’s new plays received subsequent productions from nine “southern” theatre companies. Miyagawa’s The Plum Tree went to ATP’s playRites Festival, then five other companies. Flather’s West Edmonton Mall toured to Toronto, and his other play Where The River Meets The Sea won the 2005 National Playwriting Competition. To Nakai’s new play development work, Michael added national and international presenting, a children’s theatre festival, a cabaret, a new works festival and a comedy/arts festival with a large theatre component. The company nearly tripled in budget size, increasing its audience from under 1,000 annually to over 6,000.

A graduate of the U of Alberta’s MFA Directing program, Clark has directed in Edmonton, Calgary, Banff, Whitehorse, New York, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. He’s trained and taught in Italy, New York City, and several Canadian cities at the U of A, the Café La Mama International Symposium in Spoleto, Italy, the Director’s Lab at New York’s Lincoln Centre Theatre and the Juilliard School, the Directors’ Master Class in Toronto’s World Stage Festival and the Tapestry New Opera Works directors’ intensive, also in Toronto. Clark was the Directing Intern at the Cleveland Play House.

Names Clark can drop include workshops with Peter Brook, Polly Teale, Arianne Mnouchkine, Yoshi Oida, Philleda Lloyd, Mike Alfreds, Tadeusz Bracecki, Richard Scheckner and others. He’s studied Shakespeare with John Barton, Cecily Berry, David William, Patsy Rodenberg, Robin Phillips, Michael Langham, Carl Hare and Nicholas Hytner. A 1997 John Hirsch Emerging Director Award nominee, Clark has directed over forty productions.

In January 2000, Ron Jenkins became the Artistic Director of Workshop West. Ron’s mandate for the company has been to develop and produce works by Alberta playwrights and present a showcase of Canadian theatre performance through KaBoom!and the Springboards Festival, which presents brand new plays by established Canadian playwrights in a staged reading presentation.

Some of the plays produced during Ron’s tenure areIlsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp, Respectable,Mesa, Apple, Mary’s Wedding and The Red Priest,My One and Only, 17 Dogs and The Emperor of Atlantis.During this time Workshop West Theatre has presented plays by Daniel MacIvor, Marie Brassard, Mieko Ouchi, Sue Huff, Lyle Victor Albert, Joan MacLeod, Stephen Massicotte, Ron Chambers and Ken Cameron to name just a few....

Playwright development initiatives continue into Ron’s tenure. The Playwrights Garage, an emerging playwrights’ course, was developed for 2001 with Workshop West’s Playwright in Residence Vern Thiessen. The company remains committed to Canadian plays, playwright development and presentation into its 27th Season.

In 1994, David Mann became the Artistic Director of the company and remained steadfast in his dedication to the production and presentation of Canadian work and new plays. David continued with play development through programs such as Springboards, the Mentor Program, the Playwrights Unit and the establishment of a Playwright in Residence.

Plays he developed and directed during his tenure at WWT included MoonReachers by Janet Hinton,Exit Othello and Selling Mr. Rushdie by Clem Martini, The Old Boys' Club by Marty Chan,Homesick by Conni Massing, Summer People by Gordon Portman, Blowfish by Vern Thiessen andJava Life by Aaron Bushkowski

Other highlights during Mann’s tenure include the premieres of Poor Superman by Brad Fraser, Letters in Wartime by Ken Brown and Stephen Scriver, The Stone Angel by James W. Nichol, and A Christmas Carol adaptation.

Under Mann’s leadership WWT became a leading collaborator in Edmonton’s and Canada’s theatre scene. Atlantis by Maureen Hunter was co-production with Theatre Network and Western Canada Theatre, Exit Othello was co-produced with Union Theatre, Transit of Venus by Maureen Hunter was co-production with the U of A Drama Department, The End of Civilization by George F. Walker was co-pro with Theatre Network,

David also continued WWT’s tradition of bringing to Edmonton challenging touring work by Canada’s leading theatre artists. Banana Boots by David Fennario, Still Alive by Andy Jones, In the Wings of Eden by Theatre Smith Gilmour and The Wines of Tuscany by Wild Excursions all came to Edmonton under Mann’s watch.

Workshop West Playwrights' Theatre was founded in 1978 by Gerry Potter, who remained the Artistic Director for 17 years.  The initial inspiration for the company was to work with Alberta playwrights on new plays, testing and workshopping the material and presenting the best of these works as full productions. While these works were being developed, the company also presented some of the best new plays from across Canada.

Among these were memorable productions of David Fennario's On the Job, featuring a young Paul Gross, the same author's Balconville, Michel Tremblay's Hosanna, John Gray's Billy Bishop Goes to War and the award-winning production of David French's Of the Fields, Lately.

Workshop West offered playwriting courses, commissioned new works, gave public readings of new plays and workshopped new scripts. New plays produced included  Alan Filewod's Benny theBeaver and the Third World War, Gordon Pengilly'sFlibbertygibbet, Potter's own Gabriel The Outlaw Hero and Sharon Stearns' Hooking for Paradise.

In 1985, with the implementation of the Playmaking Ensemble, the company put additional resources into new work and began to experiment with collective creation, collaborations with playwrights, novel adaptations, and the pursuit of a highly theatrical style.  Out of this work a number of new productions emerged that cemented the company's growing reputation as a centre for exciting new theatre.  Potter and Joanne Osborne's adaptation of Henry Kreisel's novel The Rich Man was the first in a series of critical and popular successes of the late 80's and early 90's which included Frank Moher'sSliding for Home and Prairie Report, Blake Brooker'sBarbarians, Arthur Milner's Learning to Live with Personal Growth and Brad Fraser's Unidentified Human Remains and The Ugly Man.

Also during the late 80's and early 90's, WWT partnered with Teatro la Quindicina to produce a series of new Lemoine hits, including When Girls Collide and The Glittering Hear. Potter also brought to Edmonton outstanding touring productions from across Canada such as Ronnie Burkett's Fool's Edge and Robert Lepage's Polygraphe.