Toronto’s Brendan Healy becomes Festival’s Artistic Director

The Board of Directors of Magnetic North Theatre Festival is delighted to announce that Toronto’s Brendan Healy will take the helm as Artistic Director of the Festival as of November 1, 2016.

Between 2009 and 2015, Brendan was the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, during which time the company experienced an unprecedented period of artistic growth and stability, with a string of celebrated productions including PIG, The Gay Heritage Project, Arigato, Tokyo, Obaabermina, Of a Monstrous Child: a gaga musical, The Silicone Diaries and Blasted.  The company also embarked on four national tours that brought Buddies’ work to stages across the country, including two stops at the National Arts Centre and an appearance at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. 

Known for his notable work as a director, Brendan has been the recipient of Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the Pauline McGibbon Award and the Ken McDougall Award.

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Brendan recently completed a Masters in International Arts Management, which brought him to three of the world’s most prestigious business schools: the Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas), the HEC (Montreal), and SDA Bocconi (Milan, Italy).

The Magnetic North Theatre Festival, established in 2002, is Canada’s national festival of English language theatre.  An annual event, the festival alternates between Ottawa and a different Canadian city each year.  In addition to its main stage performances, the festival is a national forum for Canadian theatre professionals to market their work to national and international presenters.

For 2017, the Festival will be in Ottawa from June 17 to 25. Magnetic North Theatre Festival is produced by the Canadian Theatre Festival Society and co-presented by the National Arts Centre English Theatre.

To read the complete media release, please click here.