His greatest legacy is his work developing and directing a trilogy about Ontario’s notorious Donnelly clan, written by James Reaney, part of a wave of new Canadian plays about Canadian subjects
Director Keith Turnbull shook up Canadian theatre and contemporary opera, while remaining passionately devoted to new work as a director, translator, educator and administrator. He believed new Canadian theatre needed to be seen by all Canadians, despite the country’s daunting geography.In November of 1973, a new kind of Canadian play came roaring onto the stage of Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre.
Mr. Turnbull, who died on June 2 in Montreal at the age of 79, would go on to shake things up in contemporary opera as well, while remaining passionately devoted to new work as a director, translator, educator and administrator. “He was one of the giants of Canadian theatre, but also one of the true greats of new opera and music theatre,” said his long-time collaborator, Welsh-Canadian composer John Metcalf. “His work was endlessly fascinating and exciting.”
It was a sometimes frustrating but ultimately fruitful tenure. Alberta’s Conservative government was slashing public spending at the time and the arts and education were among the victims. When the Banff Centre’s budget-chopping administration put its long-standing but non-revenue-generating playwrights’ colony on the block, Mr. Turnbull saved it by forming a funding partnership with Calgary’s Alberta Theatre Projects.
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