Jackie Maxwell

Artistic Director

Jackie Maxwell, celebrated director and dramaturge, is entering her seventh season as the Shaw

Festival’s Artistic Director. Previously for The Shaw, she has directed Picnic, Candida, Merrily We Roll

Along, The Three Sisters, The Coronation Voyage, Pygmalion, Rutherford and Son (which later played at

the National Arts Centre in Ottawa), Gypsy, Bus Stop, Arms and The Man, and The Magic Fire. In 2007,

Ms Maxwell directed an acclaimed production of Saint Joan, which traveled to the Chicago Shakespeare

Theater. Last season Ms Maxwell directed Mrs Warren’s Profession and the North American premiere of

The Stepmother. For the 2009 Season Ms Maxwell directs the Tonight at 8:30 production Brief

Encounters, by Noel Coward, and John Osborne’s The Entertainer.

Born and educated in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jackie Maxwell studied Drama at the University of

Manchester. She acted in both Ireland and England before coming to Canada in 1978. Throughout her

long and varied career in Canada, Ms Maxwell has worked extensively as a freelance director and been

instrumental in programme creation at many theatre companies. She first worked in Canada for the

National Arts Centre as Assistant, then Associate Director, where she set up and ran both an Apprentice

Training and New Play Development Programme. In 1982 she headed to Toronto to become Associate

Director at Factory Theatre, where she later became Artistic Director (1986 to 1994). While at Factory, Ms

Maxwell created, developed and produced works by some of Canada’s most respected and vital

playwrights such as George Walker, Michel Marc Bouchard, Sharon Pollock, Ann-Marie MacDonald and

Michel Garneau. Since 1994, Ms Maxwell has been able to further explore her passion for classical and

international contemporary work as a busy freelance director. She also held the position of Head of New

Play Development at the Charlottetown Festival (1997 to 2000) where she created a new programme to

foster mainstage Canadian musicals.

Of her many productions in theatres across Canada, Ms Maxwell’s selected credits include: The Weir and

Dancing at Lughnasa for Canadian Stage Company; Elisa’s Skin, Motel Hélène, The Four Lives of Marie

and The Memory of Water (later remounted for Mirvish Productions at the Elgin/Winter Garden) for

Tarragon Theatre; Emily and Johnny Belinda for the Charlottetown Festival; The Orphan Muses and Past

Perfect for Montreal’s Centaur Theatre; Susannah for Opera Ontario; Goodnight Desdemona (Good

Morning Juliet) for London’s The Grand Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Young People’s

Theatre; Doc for Manitoba Theatre Centre; and among many for Factory Theatre, Zadie’s Shoes (also

remounted for Mirvish Productions at the Elgin/Winter Garden), Stone and Ashes, Still Alive, Girls in the

Gang and Moo. Upcoming projects include directing Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol for Pittsburgh Irish

& Classical Theatre, her U.S. directorial debut.

Ms Maxwell has been dramaturge and teacher for such institutions as the Banff Centre for the Arts, York

University, George Brown College, Queen’s University, and especially the National Theatre School in

Montreal. For eight years she was Guest Artist/Lecturer at the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the

University of Toronto. In October 2005 Ms Maxwell was the recipient of the National Theatre School’s

prestigious Gascon-Thomas Award, in June 2007 she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of

Humanities from the University of Windsor and in 2008 she was awarded the Herbert Whittaker/Drama

Bench Award, all in recognition of her exceptional achievements in Canadian theatre.