The artists on this call were candid and vulnerable. They spoke openly about their professional frustrations and challenges — and they weren’t shy about pinpointing the ways that mainstream anglophone Canadian theatre practices fail directors and artists more broadly. That said, I didn’t leave our chat feeling hopeless or cynical.
By Nathaniel Hanula-James /Oct 5, 2026
iPhoto caption: Headshots of Sophie Gee, Ray Hogg, Margot Greve, Leora Morris, and Jessica Carmichael.
It’s increasingly unlikely that directors will hone their craft through formal training. Relatively few post-secondary programs devoted to directing exist, and it seems to me that directing-specific mentorship programs are less common than similar initiatives for actors or playwrights. To convene a roundtable about director training, I reached out to five very different artists on a continuum of early- to mid-career.