Darren O'Donnell
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Darren O'Donnell (born 1965) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, performance artist, playwright, director and actor.
He is the artistic director of theatre company Mammalian Diving Reflex, has written many plays including A Suicide-Site Guide to the City, White Mice, Who Shot Jacques Lacan?, Radio Rooster Says That's Bad, Over, [boxhead] and pppeeeaaaccceee, and has published one novel entitled Your Secrets Sleep With Me. In addition to the novel he has published three other books with Coach House Books: Inoculations, pppeeeaaaccceee and the most recent Social Acupuncture (2006)
Social Acupuncture is both the title of his book and a wing of Mammamlian Diving Reflex where O'Donnell creates work that engages the public and claims to prove the "generosity, abundance and power of the social sphere." The book is an extended essay outlining the possibility for a civically engaged artistic practice as well as an in-depth description and analysis of his work in this field. Social Acupuncture projects include The Talking Creature, Home Tours, Q&A and Haircuts by Children. With Haircuts by Children O'Donnell worked with a grade 5/6 class at Parkdale Public School in Toronto and Luther Burbank School in Los Angeles, trained them and provided free haircuts to the public by 10-year-olds. During Toronto's Nuit Blanche, an all-night art event, he presented Ballroom Dancing, a dance-party DJed by ten-year-olds in a gymnasium filled with thousands of rubber balls. O'Donnell describes this work as providing the opportunity to trust children and give them some agency and power.
He has collaborated with other artists across Canada including Karen Hines, Daniel MacIvor and da da Kamera, One Yellow Rabbit, Rumble Productions, Theatre Replacement, Instant Coffee, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Passe Muraille, Go Chicken Go, Factory Theatre, the Theatre Centre and Downstage Theatre.
His writing has appeared in Public Access, the Canadian Theatre Review, Daily News and Analysis India, Descant, C Magazine, uTOpia and The New Quarterly.
He was the 2000 recipient of the Pauline MacGibbon Award for directors, and has also been nominated for several Dora Awards for his writing, directing, and acting. He has won one of these awards for design. He also received a 2000 Gabriel award for excellence in broadcasting with his CBC piece Crazy Like a Fox.
