John Wright

John Wright began his professional career as an actor in Vancouver in the 1960s. In 1963 appeared in the iconic Canadian revue The Best of Spring Thaw with Dave Broadfoot, directed by Mavor Moore. His theatre directing credits range from Aeschylus to Ayckbourne, as well as film and television dramas and documentaries. He holds a BA from UBC and an MFA from Stanford. At the Vancouver Playhouse, as assistant to Artistic Director Joy Coghill, John developed stage 2 for the presentation of new Canadian plays. His work in film and television in the 70’s and 80’s has included directing episodes of The Beachcombers, as well as award-winning dramas and documentaries. He also wrote and directed a feature film, The Visitor, starring Eric Peterson. His most recent documentary was Children of Bach (introduced by Ben Heppner). A twenty year member of the Vancouver Cantata Singers, John co-produced (with Paddy Macleod) the Juno-nominated CD A Venetian Vespers of 1640. In 1985 he accepted a faculty appointment at UBC, and was Head of Theatre and Film from 1994 to 1999. During his tenure there he directed several notable productions of the classics at the Frederic Wood Theatre. In 2004 John co-founded Blackbird Theatre with Paddy Macleod, a professional company dedicated to performing the classics. For Blackbird he has directed Schiller’s Mary Stuart, Pinter’s The Birthday Party (with co-director Henry Woolf) Errol Durbach’s adaptation of Peer Gynt (which won the Jessie award for Outstanding Production of 2006/07), Euripides’ Hecuba, Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Durbach adaptation of Dickens’s Great Expectations.