Vanessa Porteous

Biography

I’m an experienced educator whose teaching practice is rooted in my career as a working theatre artist, primarily as a director, arts leader, and dramaturg, with a focus on new plays. Recently my projects have expanded to include writing (translation, prose, screenplay), filmmaking, and a budding arts consultancy practice. 

I’ve been an instructor at the School for Contemporary Arts at the University of Calgary, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses since 2018. This season I’m the dramaturg and playwright/mentor of Surviving My Queer Immigration by Geraldine Fuenmayor; working on promotion and distribution of my most recent short film Things I Know to be True, and in pre-production for my next, My Witch (working title) with Tin Foil Cup. I’m writing the first draft of my first novel in short stories, Hole in the Torso (Canada Council research grant). And I’m continuing my studies in the MFA in Creative Writing Program, Distance Education, at the University of British Columbia, where I hold a SSHRC Graduate Scholarship.

Recent seasons have included directing the baroque opera Venus and Adonis… and the Rest of Us and the public workshop of Book of Joan by Grant Tilly, both at the SCPA; and Richard III starting Bruce Horak at The Shakespeare Company. I founded my film and media company, Cloche Films; launched my first short narrative film, Still Life; completed two dramatic translations from French to English, Because of the Sun (Banff Playwrights Lab) and September (commission from Canadian Stage), both by Evelyne de la Chenelière; and co-created and directed The Yuletide Sessions, a concert film for Calgary Opera.

As an educator, I inaugurated You Are the Music While the Music Lasts, an Acting Intensive for Opera Singers, at Calgary Opera. During the pandemic I co-created and team taught an online delivery masterclass on the actor-director relationship with Jordan Pettle for Ghostlight.ca. I continue to teach workshops and masterclasses for many organizations including, most recently, Theatre Alberta. 

For Nightswimming’s Pure Research program, I led an exploration of silence as a creative tool in the rehearsal process. I’m proud of what we discovered and am keen to pursue this investigation.

Directing in recent seasons has included the world premiere of Between Us by Meg Farhall and Michael Rolfe (Handsome Alice), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Calgary Opera); the world premiere of Bronte: The World Without by Jordi Mand (Stratford Festival); The Humans (Theatre Calgary); the world premiere of the English language version of To the Light by Evelyne de la Chenelière, translated by John Murrell (Alberta Theatre Projects); and The Humans at Theatre Calgary. 

Other career highlights include directing the world premiere of Gracie by Joan MacLeod (Belfry Theatre/ATP); the world premiere of Cockroach by Jonathan Garfinkel, based on the novel by Rawi Hage (ATP), the English language world premiere of Christina The Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau (Stratford Festival), the English language world premiere of You Will Remember Me by François Archambault translated by Bobby Theodore (ATP), Red (Betty Mitchell Award, Directing, ATP), The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (ATP, Arts Club Theatre), When That I Was (Betty Mitchell Award, Directing, The Shakespeare Company), the world premieres of The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan (ATP, twice) and Pinocchio, both by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop (ATP, Magnetic North Theatre Festival), The Syringa Tree (ATP twice, and Thousand Islands Playhouse), and The Enchanted Child (L’enfant et les sortileges) (Calgary Opera). 

From 2009 – 2017, I was Artistic Director at Alberta Theatre Projects, after working for a decade at the company as a dramaturg and member of the leadership team. As a new play dramaturg I participated in the Banff Playwrights’ Lab (formerly the Banff Playwrights’ Colony) for over fifteen years. From 2017-2021, I was Jury Chair for the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s highest valued theatre award. 

I’m bilingual in English and French, speak and read Spanish, and read music. I’m a member of CAEA, LMDA, CGDC, ACCA, and an individual member of PACT.