Touchstone Theatre Announces New Artistic Director

Roy Surette | Photo via Touchstone Theatre

Roy Surette will take the helm again as artistic director at Touchstone Theatre in Vancouver next summer, following the departure of former AD Katrina Dunn. 

Surette is completing the 2016/17 season as artistic and executive director of Montreal’s flagship English language company, Centaur Theatre, where he has spent the past nine years. For Centaur, Surette directed many innovative, challenging, and acclaimed productions, several of which were huge box office successes of world premiere productions including The Saint Leonard Chronicles, Schwartz's: The Musical, Last Night at the Gayety and Triplex Nervosa. 

In the early 1980's Surette was associate artistic director for Carousel Theatre in Vancouver and Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops. He became Touchstone Theatre’s artistic director in 1984, directing many award-winning productions including Whale Riding Weather, Lion in the Streets, When We Were Singing, The Three Penny Opera, and The Number 14. He then went on to become artistic director for Victoria's The Belfry Theatre in 1997, where he directed over 25 plays.

He has directed at the National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Alberta Theatre Projects, Axis Theatre, The Arts Club Theatre Company, Carousel Theatre, The Kay Meek Centre, The Globe Theatre, Melbourne, The Kings Theatre, Glasgow, The National Theatre School, UBC, U Vic, and Studio 58.

“Although I have not lived in Vancouver in almost twenty years I have always considered it my home and am thrilled with this opportunity to return to the city and to the artistic community where I began my life in the theatre,” said Surette in a press statement. “To return to Touchstone is a huge gift and I am awed. I have immense respect for this dynamic and audacious company and the vital role it plays in Vancouver and the nation’s theatre ecology, and I love the myriad of ways Touchstone has evolved, matured and focused during Katrina Dunn’s impressive tenure. I adore the resilient and hugely talented West Coast artistic community, its collaborative spirit and incredible creative resourcefulness. I am very excited to begin interacting with Touchstone’s excellent staff, board and audience and to immerse myself into an innovative theatre scene that is dear to my heart.”

Surette will return to his hometown of Vancouver to assume the position at Touchstone as of July 2017.