Jordan Tannahill

Jordan Tannahill is a Canadian playwright, filmmaker, and theatre director described by the The Globe and Mail as "the poster child of a new generation of artists for whom 'interdisciplinary' is not a buzzword, but a way of life".^[1] Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, he is currently based in Toronto.

Tannahill writes and directs performances for theatres, galleries, and found spaces. His work often contains elements of magic realism and explores themes of queer identity, youth subculture, and suburbia.^[2] For instance, in his play Concord Floral, a loose adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century allegory The Decameron, ten adolescents flee to an abandoned greenhouse when a mysterious plague is visited upon their suburban neighbourhood.^[3] Tannahill's play rihannaboi95, on the other hand, follows the dramatic fallout of a queer teenager's lip-synching video going viral, and was staged via live streaming.^[4]

A number of Tannahill's early theatrical works were created with, and sometimes featured performances by, non-traditional collaborators including night-shift workers (The Art of Catching Pigeons by Torchlight, 2009),^[5] frat boys (Takes Two Men To Make A Brother, 2009),^[6] preteens (Insurgency, 2010),^[7] and employees of Toronto's famed discount emporium Honest Ed's (Honesty, 2012).^[8]

Tannahill's production of Sheila Heti's play All Our Happy Days Are Stupid, which he directed and produced with frequent collaborator Erin Brubacher, premiered in 2014 at his storefront theatre Videofag, more than a decade after Heti first began the script. Heti's struggle to write the play is one of the central plot-lines in her bestselling novel How Should a Person Be?.^[9] The production, nominated for four 2014 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, was remounted at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and The Kitchen in New York City in 2015.

As a filmmaker, Tannahill's work has been presented in galleries and festivals across Canada and internationally, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Inside Out Film and Video Festival, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, and the British Film Institute^[10]

In the field of dance, Tannahill choreographed Rough House, a solo featuring Christopher House for the Toronto Dance Theatre in 2014,^[11] and wrote the text for The Dietrich Group's This Is a Costume Drama, which premiered at Harbourfront Centre's World Stage in April 2015.^[12]

Tannahill runs Videofag with William Christopher Ellis, an alternative arts space operated out of a defunct barbershop in Toronto's Kensington Market.^[13][14]

His non-fiction book Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama, was published in 2015 by Coach House Books^[15] and was called "essential reading for anybody interested in the state of contemporary theatre and performance" by The Globe and Mail^[16]

Plays

• Botticelli in the Fire (2016)
• Sunday in Sodom (2016)
• Total Liquidation (2015)
• Concord Floral (2014)
• Late Company (2013)
• rihannaboi95 (2013)
• Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes (2013)
• Feral Child (2012)
• Bravislovia (2011)
• Post Eden (2010)
• Get Yourself Home Skyler James (2010)

Films

• Father (2014)
• William Christopher Ellis Is Dead with William Christopher Ellis (2013)
• Plane of Immanence with Nina Arsenault (2012)
• Hunt^[17] (2012)
• Swim (2011)

Books

• Late Company (Playwrights Canada Press, 2015, ISBN 9781770914148)
• Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama (Coach House Press, 2015, ISBN 9781552453131)
• Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays (Playwrights Canada Press, 2013, ISBN 9781770911949)

Awards

Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays, a published compilation of Tannahill's plays Get Yourself Home Skyler James, Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes and rihannaboi95, won the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2014 Governor General's Awards.^[18]

In 2015 Tannahill won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for 'Outstanding New Play' and the Carol Bolt Award for Concord Floral.^[19] In 2014 Tannahill was named one of the 'Canadian Artists of the Year' by The Globe and Mail,^[20] selected as one of the Canadian art world's 30 Under 30 by ARTINFO,^[21] received the John Hirsch Prize for directing, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's inaugural Emerging Queer Artist Award,^[22] and the Toronto Arts Foundation's Emerging Artist Award. In 2013 Tannahill won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for his play rihannaboi95.^[23] His play Late Company won the 2013 Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition,^[24] the 2013 Best Production Award at the SummerWorks Performance Festival, the 2012 Uprising Playwriting Competition,^[25] and the 2012 Enbridge Emerging playRites Award.^[26] His play Post Eden was nominated for a 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award for 'Outstanding New Play' and was named one of The Globe and Mail's ten favorite Canadian theatre productions of 2013.^[27] In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Uppsala International Short Film Festival's 'The Uppsala Award in Memory of Ingmar Bergman' for his short film Hunt, while in 2011 he was the recipient of the Ken McDougall Award for Emerging Directors and the Inside Out Film and Video Festival's Emerging Canadian Artist Award.^[28]

References

External links

• Official website
• Suburban Beast
• Jordan Tannahill at the Internet Movie Database