“ ...no one is better at mounting a totally unique and exquisitely creative piece of work than Ghost River Theatre.”
Jessica Goldman, CBC Radio Reviewer
About Ghost River Theatre
MISSION AND VALUES
Led by Artistic Director Eric Rose and Executive Director Sharon Kahanoff, GRT is a devised theatre company that creates, develops, and produces live performance experiences through a significant investment in imaginative research and experimentation.
Ghost River Theatre is a catalyst for enriching Calgary’s thriving arts community. Our mission is to drive boundary-pushing and immersive creative experiences in original live performance.
We are CREATIVE in our artistry and our decision-making.
We encourage a diversity of perspectives and talents to come together to CO-CREATE
We act with COURAGE, willing to take the steps required to grow and (sometimes) leap into the unknown.
HOW WE MAKE THEATRE
GRT makes our work in a rigorous, supportive collaborative-creation environment that recognizes and utilizes the unique abilities of all participants, premiering our work in Calgary and then touring it nationally and internationally. We value the daring, the illuminative, and the surprising. Our work embraces a hybrid of high-tech visual spectacle with low-fi theatrical magic, constantly reframing and rediscovering what theatre is and is capable of.
Over our 32-year history, our unique creation process has yielded an impressive roster of critically acclaimed productions: ONE, The Highest Step in the World, Tomorrow’s Child, GIANT, The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, STRUCK, amongst many others. Our intention is to engage audiences in meaning-making experiences that push the boundaries of live performance, while wrestling with the complexities of our contemporary moment.
GRT is honoured to be an arts leader in the Calgary, Alberta, and national cultural ecologies. Each year GRT hosts and teaches artists from all over the world through our Devised Theatre Intensives. As a leader in our community, GRT co-founded and manages The West Village Theatre, an 80-seat black box performance and administrative space located in Calgary’s inner-city neighbourhood of Sunalta.
Our TeaM
Eric Rose: Artistic Director
Eric Rose is an award-winning director, deviser, playwright, educator, and Artistic Director of Ghost River Theatre, widely recognized as one of Canada's leading devised theatre companies. For more than two decades, he has developed a distinctive approach to live performance through image, sound, movement, technology, and materiality, creating work where meaning is often expressed beyond words.
Described as a "creative earthquake," Rose's artistic practice is informed by his dyslexic way of thinking, embracing the impossible and transforming it into bold, visually striking performances that challenge conventional approaches to storytelling. His work spans immersive, site-specific, sensory, and large-scale devised productions, emerging through deep interdisciplinary collaboration and a commitment to artistic experimentation.
As a creator and director, Rose has developed numerous acclaimed productions, including The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, GIANT, STRUCK, Tomorrow's Child, Echoes of the Land, A World Without Them, and Soft Squishy Things. His work has toured nationally and internationally and is recognized for its emotional depth, visual innovation, and inventive integration of design, movement, sound, and technology.
A sought-after educator, Rose has taught devising and collaborative creation methodologies for more than twenty years through Ghost River Theatre's acclaimed training programs and with organizations including the Young Vic (UK), Prague Quadrennial, Kathy Knowles Theatre Company (Ghana), Revolutions International Festival (USA), and numerous universities, festivals, and arts organizations across Canada and abroad. He has served as both Playwright-in-Residence and Artist-in-Residence and is deeply committed to mentorship and creating spaces where new artistic languages can emerge.
His contributions to Canadian theatre have earned widespread recognition, including the Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Artist Award, multiple Betty Mitchell Theatre Awards, two AMPIA Rosie Awards, and Avenue Magazine's Top 40 Under 40. He is also the co-author of Three Impossible Plays and the co-creator/co-director of the award-winning streaming series So Dark the Sky.
Through his artistic leadership, teaching, and creation of original work, Eric Rose has helped shape contemporary devised theatre practice in Canada while inspiring generations of artists to embrace collaboration, risk, and imagination as tools for social and artistic transformation.
Sharon Kahanoff: Executive Director
Sharon Kahanoff is a producer, media artist, filmaker, writer, and educator. Sharon has been producing and managing the productions of other artist's productions since 2004. These works have shown all over the world including the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Canada, and various film festivals in Germany, New York, Berlin, Belgium and Seoul. Her interests include theatricality in everyday social relations, and philosophies of time expressed through the moving image. Her own artworks have been exhibited in both cinemas and galleries in Canada, the United States, Finland, and the United Kingdom, and she has been published in books, exhibition catalogues, magazines, and other art publications.
Some recent credits include: As The Crane Flies (Producer), Untouring Paradise (Producer), Hanne on the High Seas (Producer), The Widows Pitch Video (Producer), Suddenly Slaughter (Producer), Records of Everything (podcast with Scott Massey), Rythmanalysis (public art), Now Then Flash Forward (Author), Untunnelling Vision (Author), and Talk; A Post Script (co-Editor).
Artistic Excellence
Accomplishments:
24 Betty Mitchell awards, 74 nominations.
52 original productions since 1992.
Appearances at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, underCurrents Festival, Belfry’s Spark Festival, High Performance Rodeo, Canada’s National Arts Centre, the Pride of Place Festival (UK), Summerworks National Series.
Winning 3 Betty Mitchell Awards for Outstanding Production of a Play for The Highest Step in the World (2010),ONE (2011) and The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (2015).
Receiving the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology’s Award of Merit for The Highest Step in the World. An award whose past recipients include Robert Lepage, Cirque du Soleil, and Ronnie Burkett.
Receiving the Calgary Critics Award for Best Technical Design for Tomorrow’s Child (2014).
Snezana Pesic’s design work for ONE (2011) was selected to represent Canada at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial.
Chosen as the first ever Company-in-Residence at the University of Calgary’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts (2015-16).
Patrick Du Wors design for Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst selected to represent Canada at the 2017 World Stage Design Expo and Competition in Taipei, Taiwan.
Recipient of Canada Council’s New Chapter Grant for our production, GIANT (2019).
Anton deGroot’s design for GIANT selected to represent Canada at the 2022 World Stage Design Expo and Competition at the University of Calgary.
Makambe Speaks chosen by The Canadian High Commission in the UK for Canada Spotlight Showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2021).
Tomorrow’s Child receiving a month-long presentation by Assembly at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023.
These kinds of accomplishments and accolades received by Ghost River Theatre are recognition of a deep ongoing commitment for achieving the highest in artistic excellence.