Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Tributes poured in Friday for the late Iris Turcott, who was celebrated as a "force" in Canadian theatre and a nurturing creative influence for the country's stage talent.
The celebrated dramaturge died Thursday in Toronto.
Turcott, who was born in 1954, was the co-founder and co-artistic director of Playbill Theatre, and served as a company dramaturge at the Canadian Stage Company.
She worked with playwrights across Canada, including Adam Pettle, Joan MacLeod, Michel Marc Bouchard, Brad Fraser, Judith Thompson, Sunil Kuruvilla and Tomson Highway. She was also the dramaturge for Ronnie Burkett's internationally acclaimed Theatre of Marionettes.
Prior to her focus on dramaturgy — the craft or techniques of dramatic composition — Turcott worked as a freelance actor and director creating and producing new Canadian plays.
"The idea of a dramaturge is an odd thing in the first place, and Iris would be the first person who would say: 'Don't ask me what I do. I can't explain it,'" said actor and playwright Daniel MacIvor, who collaborated with Turcott on his upcoming solo show "Who Killed Spalding Gray?"
MacIvor said Friday that Turcott's work was akin to an editor of fiction, and that she would become "as invested in the play as the writer."
"In some ways, she would help us understand what we was writing about," said MacIvor, whose production will open at Toronto's Berkeley Street Theatre on Nov. 30.
"Sometimes you write intuitively, or you think you're writing about something, and you're actually writing about something else. And Iris would always figure out what you were trying to say and what the play needed."
Turcott was also involved in international co-commissions, including the Royal Exchange in Manchester, the Melbourne Festival and Dublin's Abbey Theatre, and served on the board of directors for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
She worked several times with the National Arts Centre, most recently as dramaturge for Artistic Fraud's production of "Oil and Water."
In 2008, she was awarded the George Luscombe Award for mentorship in theatre. In 2013, she was selected as Playwrights Guild of Canada's honorary award recipient for her devotion to Canadian theatre and her work with Canadian plays and playwrights.
Turcott also served as a company dramaturge at Toronto's Factory Theatre. Artistic director Nina Lee Aquino said Turcott was a personal mentor and demonstrated a passion for new Canadian plays.
"She ushered in some of the most important seminal Canadian works in our country, and worked with some of the most prolific — but also emerging — Canadian writers. She was also a nurturer of new work.
"She was a force in the Canadian theatre community. Everybody knew who she was and what she stood for and what she was passionate about."
The National Arts Centre in Ottawa is flying its flags at half-mast in her honour.
Turcott is survived by her son, Merrick.
By Lauren La Rose, The Canadian Press.
Photo: Iris Turcott.
2016-09-23
Toronto: Theatre community mourns death of dramaturge Iris Turcott