Damien Atkins
| Damien Atkins | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1975 Australia |
| Occupation | actor, playwright |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 2010s-present |
| Notable works | Obaaberima |
Damien Atkins is a Canadian actor and playwright.[1]
Born in Australia in 1975 and raised in Edmonton, Alberta,[1] Atkins graduated from the musical theatre program at Grant MacEwan College in 1994[2] and moved to Toronto in 1996 after appearing in a Canadian Stage production of Into the Woods.[1]
Playwrighting
His first play, Miss Chatelaine, was staged at Theatre Passe-Muraille in 1999[3] following a successful run at the Toronto Fringe Festival.[2] In 2000, his musical cabaret show Real Live Girl was workshopped at Buddies in Bad Times,[4] before having its official premiere in December 2001. Also in 2001 he premiered Good Mother, starring Seana McKenna, at the Stratford Festival of Canada.[5]
Good Mother won the Elliott Hayes Playwright Development Award from the Stratford Festival and the Prism International Prize from the University of British Columbia,[4] and made Atkins one of the youngest playwrights ever to have a work staged at the festival.[4] Real Live Girl was later restaged by Buddies in 2010.[6]
His fourth play, Lucy, premiered at Canadian Stage in March 2007,[7] and was later staged at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City in November.[8]
In 2013, Buddies in Bad Times staged The Gay Heritage Project, a play in which Atkins and cocreators Andrew Kushnir and Paul Dunn dramatized various scenes about the historical and cultural meaning of being gay in contemporary society.[9]
Acting
In addition to his own plays, Atkins has appeared in productions of plays and musicals such as Frost and Nixon,[6] Seven Stories,[6] The Way of the World,[6] London Road,[10] Angels in America,[11] Shopping and Fucking,[4] Hamlet,[4] Fiddler on the Roof,[4] The Alchemist,[4] Macbeth,[4] The Tempest,[4] Titus Andronicus,[4] Elizabeth Rex,[4] Our Country's Good and The Chocolate Soldier.[4]
His roles in film and television have included Angel Square, The Art of Woo, Children of My Heart, Take This Waltz, Slings and Arrows and The Matthew Shepard Story.
Awards and nominations
Atkins won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2002, in the categories of Best New Musical and Outstanding Male Performance in a Musical, for Real Live Girl.[12]
He was nominated for the Dora for Outstanding New Play, but did not win, in 2007 for Lucy.
He won a Dora in 2014, in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male - Musical, for London Road.[10] He was also nominated, but did not win, in the categories of Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Principal Role – Play for Angels in America: Perestroika,[11] and Outstanding New Play for The Gay Heritage Project.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Damien Atkins stands out". NOW, November 14, 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Be grateful these Children's Theatre alumni will be home for solstice". Edmonton Journal, December 20, 2007.
- ↑ "One-man marathon steers clear of tired old gay routes". Eye Weekly, January 14, 1999.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 "Madly musical about the girl". NOW, December 7, 2000.
- ↑ "Another Mother". Jam!, August 24, 2001.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Damien Atkins reprises torch song tribute for Buddies". Xtra!, February 24, 2010.
- ↑ "Autistic 'Lucy' fails to reach us". Jam!, March 10, 2007.
- ↑ "Ensemble Studio Theatre to Present U.S. Premiere of Atkins' Lucy". Playbill, October 4, 2007.
- ↑ "The Gay Heritage Project". NOW, November 25, 2013.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Of Human Bondage and London Road win big at Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2014.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Dora nominations announced in Toronto". The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Musical captures four Dora awards". The Globe and Mail, June 18, 2002.