Richard Rose Receives TAPA's 2012 Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award

By: Jun. 05, 2012
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Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award was inaugurated in 1996 and is given to a Canadian artist who demonstrates excellence in the performing arts and is dedicated to advocating and being an ambassador for the arts in Canada. The Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award is sponsored by the City of Toronto, and the recipient is awarded with a scroll and a cheque for $1,000 from the City.

The Award was established to recognize Barbara Hamilton's illustrious career and her remarkable canon of work. A list of previous winners reads as a who's who of legendary Canadian performers: Don Harron, George Luscombe, John Neville, Douglas Campbell, Mervyn Blake, Charmion King, Maureen Forrester, Eric Peterson, William Hutt, Martha Burns, Albert Schultz, Karen Kain, Fiona Reid, Colin Mochrie, R.H. Thomson and David Ferry.

The winner of this year's Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award is Richard Rose, an award-winning and celebrated director, artistic director and dramaturge. Known for bringing new and innovative works to the stage, he founded the groundbreaking Necessary Angel Theatre Companyin 1978 and remained as Artistic Director until 2002 when he was appointed to his current position as Artistic Director of Tarragon Theatre. At the Stratford Festival, where he directed for 10 seasons, he was Associate Director in 1991 and Director of the Stratford Festival Young Company as well as the John Sullivan Hayes Training Program, which he founded, from 1994-96. He was also Associate Director at Canadian Stage from 1996 to 1997. 

For Necessary Angel, Richard Rose directed over 30 plays including the internationally renowned Tamara, co-conceived with writer John Krizanc (produced around the world in a variety of languages, Dora Award and a Drama Critics Award for direction in Los Angeles where the production ran for 10 years), David Young's Inexpressible Island (which opened in London's West End as Antarctica, the first Canadian drama to do so in many decades), adaptations of Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter and Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, as well as plays by other important playwrights such as Jason Sherman, Colleen Murphy and Colleen Wagner. Rose also brought a range of challenging interNational Theatre to notice, such as the work of Milan Kundera and introduced the astonishing work of British playwright Howard Barker to Toronto audiences in the 1980s, including The Castle, The Possibilities, the North American premiere of Seven Lears and the world premiere of The Europeans.
 
During his tenure as Artistic Director of Tarragon, he continues to create new Canadian work, providing long-term dramaturgy through various play development programs and working with young artists - instilling in them a life-long commitment to the arts - while presenting new plays from all parts of the country as well as contemporary and classical work from around the world. Under his direction, the theatre nurtures the next generation of Canadian playwrights such as Hannah Moscovitch, Brendan Gall and Rosa Laborde among others, alongside supporting the work of senior artists such as Daniel MacIvor, Joan MacLeod, John Mighton,  Morris Panych, Wajdi Mouawad and continues the theatre's legacy of presenting the work of Michel Tremblay.

Throughout his distinguished career, Rose has directed at theatres throughout Canada including at Toronto's Canadian Stage, Ottawa's National Arts Centre, Blyth Festival, Theatre Calgary, the Charlottetown Festival and Manitoba Theatre Centre, among others. Rose has also directed productions for seven opera companies and taught at a number of universities and schools including York University, where he is Adjunct Professor in the York Theatre Program since 2001.

Noted for the high artistry and the technical quality of its productions, last year Tarragon was listed on the shortlist of five arts organizations for the Premier's Award for the Arts.  Nationally, Tarragon is recognized by colleagues and audiences alike as one of the most vibrant and prolific theatre companies in the country, and a long-standing champion of new Canadian plays. In 2011, Richard Rose was awarded theCanada Council's Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in Performing Arts. 

This prestigious prize recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and career achievements by Canadian artists working in the disciplines of dance, theatre or music. The Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award is administered by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). The Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award selection committee is chaired by Jim Roe and comprised of Martha Burns, Jacoba Knaapen and Eric Peterson.
The Dora Mavor Moore Awards is a program of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA).TAPA is an arts service organization that represents nearly 200 professional theatre, dance and opera companies in Toronto. In addition to the Doras, other programs and services provided by TAPA include: T.O. TIX - Toronto's Official One Stop Ticket Shop at Yonge-Dundas Square and online at www.totix.ca; Toronto's official Theatre Guide; hipTIX, offering $5 tickets to students; citySPECIAL; the Commercial Theatre Development Fund; and the Travel Retreat Initiatives Program. For more information visit www.tapa.ca and www.totix.ca


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