Rachel Ditor

Rachel Ditor has been a freelance dramaturg and director in new play development for companies across Canada since 1992.  Including work with: Playwrights Workshop Montreal, the National Arts Centre, Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Electric Company, Theatre Replacement, Ruby Slippers, Gateway Theatre, faculty dramaturg for the Banff PlayRites Colony, and the resident dramaturg for Touchstone Theatre and Rumble Theatre.

For 17 years Rachel was the literary manager and dramaturg at the Arts Club Theatre (ACT) in Vancouver.  Under her guidance the company developed and produced 39 new plays.  There she also launched the LEAP teen playwriting program, the Silver Commissions program, UBC/ACT theatre production student internships, the Play Club discussion group, and the annual ReAct public reading series. ACT dramaturgy highlights include: The Piano Teacher by Dorothy Dittrick, Onegin by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille, Thanks For Giving by Kevin Loring, Poster  Boys by Michele Riml, Helen Lawrence by Stan Douglas and Chris Haddock,  The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan, Tear the Curtain! by Kevin Kerr and Jonathon Young with Kim Collier, Paradise Garden by Lucia Frangione, The Patron Saint of Stanley Park by Hiro Kanagawa, and Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock.

Rachel’s eclectic taste is reflected in directing credits that cover everything from Shakespeare to new plays.  Some highlights include: Romeo and Juliet (Mount Royal Shakespeare Company), All’s Well That Ends Well, The Merchant of Venice, and Findlay’s Elizabeth Rex (Bard on the Beach), Hippies and Bolsheviks by Ami Gladstone (Alberta Theatre Projects), Tiger of Malaya by Hiro Kanagawa (Gateway Theatre), How Has Your Love Affected Me? by Marcus Youssef, The Men in White by Anosh Irani, My Turquoise Years by MAC Farrant, as well as Calendar Girls, Other Desert Cities, Good People, The Diary of Anne Frank and Shaw’s The Philanderer (Arts Club Theatre).    

For over a decade Rachel taught dramaturgy at UBC and has been a guest lecturer in theatre at McGill University, Concordia University, University of Lethbridge, Emily Carr, and Simon Fraser University.  She has contributed several articles on theatre in BC for Canadian Theatre Review, as well as articles for Theatre Topics (John Hopkins University Press), the LMDA Review, HowlRound, and is the editor of The Arts Club Anthology: 50 Years of Canadian Theatre in Vancouver (Playwrights Canada Press).

In 2013 Rachel was awarded the Bra D’Or from the Playwrights Guild of Canada for her work supporting women playwrights.  She has twice been a juror for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre and has served on numerous juries and panels speaking about the strength and vision of Canadian theatre artists.  The focus of her teaching and creative work continues to explore and invent ways for artists and audiences to challenge their assumptions and encounter plays with an open and curious mind.

She makes her home in Victoria with her husband Ken, children Jonah, Mira, Toby, and pup Daisy.