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Jillian Keiley

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Jillian Keiley
Born1970 (age 53–54)
[Goulds, Newfoundland and Labrador]]
OccupationDirector

Jillian Keiley is a director from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, who was the founding artistic director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland. Since August 2012, Keiley has been the artistic director for English Theatre at Canada's National Arts Centre.[1]

Early life and education

Keiley was born in 1970 and raised in Goulds,[2] a small farming community just south of St. John's. She attended St. Kevin's High School, where her love of theatre was born. She enrolled at York University and completed the theatre directing program in 1994.

Career

While attending York, she spent her summers back in St. John's where, under the tutelage of Lois Brown (then artistic animateur of Resource Centre for The Arts Theatre Company (RCAT)), she founded the Splash Cabaret Series. The series fostered her direct artistic collaborations with the up-and-coming members of the St. John's theatre community. Upon her graduation from York, she moved permanently back to St. John's and set about her first major production In Your Dreams, Freud (1994), in which she brought together a cast of 45, many of whom she had come to know and work with under the Splash banner. Freud was first mounted in St. John's as fundraiser for RCAT. It was such a hit that it was remounted three months later. Keiley and the production crew of the show founded Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland as a company to facilitate this remount.[3] Keiley would go on to serve as Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland’s artistic director for 18 years.

Keiley's early work was marked by its size and its goals of mathematical precision. Her next piece following Freud was The Cheat (1996), a movement piece for 82 performers based on the music notation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Fugue in G Minor. In 1997, she created and premiered Under Wraps with Robert Chafe and Petrina Bromley. Under Wraps was Keiley's first collaboration with Chafe and Bromley.

For Artistic Fraud, Keiley has directed The Cheat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Burial Practices, Under Wraps, Salvage: The Story of a House, Icycle, Oil and Water, In Your Dreams, Freud, Afterimage, Fear of Flight, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and Between Breaths.

In 2002, Keiley directed Tempting Providence, Chafe's play which was commissioned and premiered by Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (TNL). The show was created for TNL's Gros Morne Theatre Festival, and it toured consistently from 2003-2014. During this period, Keiley was an annual instructor of chorus with the National Theatre School of Canada, and directed theatre and opera productions in Australia, Ireland, and across Canada.

Keiley succeeded Peter Hinton as the artistic director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre in 2012. For the NAC, she directed Metamorphoses, Alice Through the Looking Glass (with Stratford Festival), Tartuffe (adapted by Andy Jones) and Twelfth Night (January 2016). After reducing the scope of her role for the 2021/22 season with the introduction of a co-curation company in residence,[4] Keiley ended her tenure with the NAC in 2022.[5] She was succeeded by Nina Lee Aquino.[6]

For the Stratford Festival, she directed Alice through the Looking Glass (2014), The Diary of Anne Frank (2015),[7] and As You Like It (2016),[8] The Neverending Story (2019),[9] and Richard II (2023, forthcoming).[10]

Personal life

She is married to music producer, Don Ellis, with whom she has one daughter.[11]

Awards

  • Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Emerging Artist Award - 1996
  • Canada Council’s John Hirsch Prize - 1998
  • Siminovitch Prize for Directing - 2004,[12]
  • Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Direction (2006) [13]
  • Memorial University of Newfoundland Honorary Doctorate of Letters - 2009

References

  1. ^ "Q&A: Jillian Keiley, National Arts Centre’s incoming artistic director". National Post, March 27, 2012.
  2. ^ Joe Belanger (Mar 15, 2016). "To grow local culture, support it, Newfoundlander says". The London Free Press. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  3. ^ Artistic Fraud. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage, 2000.
  4. ^ Nestruck, J. Kelly (2020-12-21). "In reducing her own role, artistic director Jillian Keiley aims to share the spotlight at National Arts Centre's English Theatre". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  5. ^ Hum, Peter (2021-07-22). "Jillian Keiley to complete her tenure as NAC English theatre's artistic director in 2022". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  6. ^ Nestruck, J. Kelly (2022-01-06). "New English Theatre artistic director Nina Lee Aquino is a natural fit with the National Arts Centre". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  7. ^ Maga, Carly (2015-07-16). "How do you solve a problem like The Stratford Festival?". Torontoist. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  8. ^ Yeo, Debra (2015-07-01). "Theatrical version of Shakespeare in Love at Stratford Festival in 2016". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  9. ^ Nestruck, J. Kelly (2019-07-16). "Stratford and Shaw festivals 2019 guide: What to see and where to eat and drink". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  10. ^ Montanini, Chris (2022-09-21). "Stratford Festival unveils its new season. Here's what to expect". London Free Press. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  11. ^ "Keiley, Jillian". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Athabasca University. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  12. ^ "Jillian Keiley wins Siminovitch Prize". The Globe and Mail, October 26, 2004.
  13. ^ "Award History". The Betty Mitchell Awards. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
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