Guest Artist Spotlight: Erin Brandenburg
As we draw closer to our end-of-year shows featuring the Fourth Year Acting Class, we’re delighted to be shining the spotlight on all the magnificent guest artists who are making it all happen. Check out our prior articles on Logan Cracknell, Aaron Jan, Nancy Perrin, Sam Ferguson, and Melanie McNeill!
Erin Brandenburg (she/her) is a theatre director and writer originally from Essex County, Ontario. Based in Toronto, she works with the multidisciplinary collective Kitchenband (external link) . Erin is a graduate of the directing program at the Soulpepper Academy, winner of the Enbridge Emerging Playwright’s Award, a finalist for the Gina Wilkinson prize, participant of the Stratford Playwright’s Retreat, and The Banff Playwright’s Lab and the upcoming Longbourough Lake Writer's Retreat with Crow's Theatre and Mongrel Media. Erin’s directing work has spanned from Summerworks to Soulpepper, and now she joins the School of Performance as the director for Knives in Hens.
“A career as an artist is always unpredictable,” Erin shares, “so I'd say the last few years, although incredibly challenging, were good preparation” for graduates and emerging artists. “I see students already doing the things that will help them in their careers - creating their own work, collaborating with other students and artists, with other departments and working together to create something meaningful.”
“What is especially inspiring for me is the generosity and interest in collaboration that I see - of working with each other, supporting each other and exploring ways of using new tech or other disciplines to find ways to push forms of storytelling. On an individual level, finding what drives you as an artist or what questions compel you for your own work can help sustain a career and give you a reason to keep working or dreaming when things get challenging.”
Everything I Couldn't Tell You, by Jeff D'Hondt at RISER, photo of PJ Prudat by Ross Spencer
Erin believes the world need artists, now more than ever. “Artists are very good at making connections, listening to others, and collaborating on complex projects with complicated emotional implications. While most humans want to ignore difficult feelings or smooth out the complexity, we are experts in sitting in that uncomfortable place, exploring those situations and turning them into a form that can help others - or at least help someone feel less alone.”
“There is no shortage of challenges facing our world right now, and artists are needed to help make sense of it. This is why it is so important that new voices and perspectives are a part of the conversation and the future of theatre.”