DIANE BROWN
MFA Directing Candidate Diane Brown, Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre, joins forces with Zee Zee Theatre to proudly present the North American premiere of Brad Fraser’s 5@50, an ensemble tour-de-force about friendship, addiction and co-dependence.
“It’s always unique when two indy companies come together to produce something. Ruby Slippers Theatre and Zee Zee Theatre tell stories that are intimate yet expansive. Artist driven and collaborative in spirit, our two companies are coming together to produce 5 @ 50 because this project resonates with personal and social significance. With this co-production, we are doing something revolutionary…something that no one else is doing on Canada’s mainstages; we are putting five women of diverse background over 40 years of age onstage. That’s it. That, sadly, is revolutionary. The other two taboos we are soundly smashing is allowing these women to actually have a mid life crisis, and to talk about it. Secondly, they get to be unattractive and funny and flawed and, well, utterly human.”
-Ruby Slippers Theatre & Zee Zee Theatre
5 @ 50 stars Diane Brown, Deborah Williams, Veena Sood, Donna Yamamoto and Beatrice Zeillinger. Directed by Cameron Mackenzie, 5 @ 50 boasts a highly accomplished design team: Kyla Gardiner (Lighting Design), Marina Szijarto (Set & Costume Design) & Sarah Mabberley (Sound Design) and plays at the PAL Studio Theatre May 12-28, 2016.
Tickets are available at http://tickets.theatrewire.com/shows/5%20@%2050/events
www.rubyslippers.ca http://www.zeezeetheatre.ca/
PHOTO CREDIT: Victoria Black.
Actors L-R: Beatrice Zeillinger, Deborah Williams, Veena Sood, Diane Brown and Donna Yamamoto
Diane’s BIO:
Diane is a multi award-winning director, actor, and the Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre.
She has also freelanced across Canada and the United States. This work included four seasons with The Actors Shakespeare Company in upstate New York as an actor and a director, and work with The Sacramento Theatre Company. Diane co-created several interdisciplinary performance works that she then directed which were showcased abroad and at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa.
For Ruby Slippers Theatre, Diane has commissioned many English language translations of the best in contemporary French Canadian plays. She has proceeded to also produce and direct their award-winning English language premieres in Vancouver. Her affinity for the best in the French Canadian canon in English translation has resulted in critically heralded productions that include Down Dangerous Passes Road by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, The Winners by Francois Archambault, translated by Shelley Tepperman, Life Savers by Serge Boucher, translated by Shelley Tepperman, and The Leisure Society by Francois Archambault, translated by Bobby Theodore. In 2015 she commissioned the English language translation for Aprés Moi by Christian Bégin, translated by Leanna Brodie, and produced / directed the premiere. This resulted in five Jessie Award nominations including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production. That same year she was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for The Duchess a.k.a. Wallis Simpson.
Other directorial highlights include award winning productions of The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer (Canadian Premiere), The Cat Who Ate Her Husband by Drew McCreadie (World Premiere), Trout Stanley by Claudia Dey (Vancouver Premiere) and Hotel Bethlehem by Drew McCreadie which has since been picked up three times. Ruby Slippers Theatre’s landmark production of Daniel MacIvor’s A Beautiful View saw four remounts in four years, including five weeks at The Centaur Theatre in Montreal and a showcase at The Goldcorps Centre for the Arts Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre in downtown Vancouver. Ruby Slippers’ equally successful production of Communion by Daniel MacIvor was produced in association with Pacific Theatre.
Diane and Ruby Slippers Theatre have created seven full-length new Canadian works, and toured nationally three times. She and RST have earned the reputation for being Vancouver’s premiere producers of French Canadian plays in English translation, and perveyor’s of smart social satire that is infectiously entertaining. The company has garnered 40 nominations and 16 professional theatre awards in the last 10 years.
Diane is very active in the Vancouver cultural community. She heads up Theatre Cares Vancouver, a volunteer organization that raises funds and awareness for people living with HIV/aids, sits on Studio 58’s Theatre Advisory Committee, the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre’s national Advocacy Committee, was a founding member and Past President of the See 7 Performing Arts Society, is currently on the steering committee for the Theatre Engagement Project, and is involved with several environmental and social justice initiatives.
Diane is a graduate of Simon Fraser University, and is currently working toward her Masters Degree at the University of British Columbia.
