Guy Sprung (born on April 17, 1947, in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Canada) is a film and theatre director. He lives in the

Mile End Mile End is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is east of Charing Cross. Situated on the part of the London-to-Colchester road ...

area of Montreal and was the artistic director of Infinitheatre for 22 years. He retired and was succeeded by Zach Fraser in March 2021.

Career

Theatrical career

Before founding the

Half Moon Theatre The Half Moon Theatre Company was formed in 1972 in a rented synagogue in Alie Street, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. ''Half Moon Passage'' was the name of a nearby alley. The founders, Michael Irving and Maurice Colbour ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, Sprung was an assistant director at the Schiller Theater in Berlin. As director of ''

Balconville ''Balconville'' is a bilingual play by Canadians, Canadian playwright David Fennario. It is a two-act drama that is considered to be Fennario's best known play. ''Balconville'' was the first bilingual play in Canadian theatre history, and about ...

'' by

David Fennario David William Fennario (born David Wiper, 26 April 1947 – 16 September 2023) was a Canadian playwright, best known for ''Balconville'' (1979), his bilingual dramatization of life in working-class Montreal, for which he won the Floyd S. Chalmer ...

, Sprung traveled with the company on an international tour to England and Ireland. Guy Sprung co-founded Half Moon Theatre in 1972 with

Maurice Colbourne Maurice Colbourne (24 September 1939 – 4 August 1989) was an English stage and television actor who starred as Tom Howard in the BBC television series ''Howards' Way''. He is also known for roles in other television series such as ''Gangster ...

and Michael Irving and was the first Artistic Director. He directed the opening production of '' In the Jungle of the Cities''. Other productions he directed included ''Will Wat, If Not, What Will?'', ''Fall In and Follow Me'', ''Get Off My Back'', ''Ripper!'', ''The 3p Off Opera'' and ''Paddy''. He also directed the community productions ''Spare Us a Copper'' and ''Driving Us Up the Wall''. Sprung was co-founder and first Artistic Director of the

Toronto Free Theatre Canadian Stage is a Canadian non-profit contemporary theatre company, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History The company was founded in 1988 with the merger of Centre Stage and Toronto Free Theatre. Canadian Stage has produced more than 3 ...

from 1982 to 1988. During this time, he conceived and founded the outdoor Shakespeare in High Park. He was an Associate Director at the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a repertory theatre organization that operates from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shak ...

and interim Artistic Director of the

Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company ("The Playhouse") was a regional theatre company, producing plays since 1962. Its first production was '' The Hostage'' by Brendan Behan, which opened on October 2, 1963. The company performed out of the V ...

, and he has taught at the

National Theatre School of Canada The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS, ) is a private institution of professional theatre studies in Montreal, Quebec. Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants awarded by the Government of Canada and cultural ...

and the

Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal The Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal is a Canadian government-funded dramatic school founded in 1954. The first director was Jan Doat. He was succeeded by Jean Valcourt in 1955 on the condition that a branch also be opened in Quebec Cit ...

. In 1990, Sprung was invited to direct ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'' at the

Pushkin Theatre The Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russ ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. The production ran in the repertoire for eleven years to sold-out houses. His experience in Russia inspired the work ''Hot Ice: Shakespeare in Moscow, A Director's Diary'', "a combination of a travel journal, personal memoir, autobiography, manifesto, and director's notebook". In 2001, his Montreal theatre company,

Infinithéâtre Infinithéâtre is an anglophone theatre located in the Mile End area of Montreal. It was founded in 1988 by Marianne Ackerman and Clare Schapiro as "Théâtre 1774", and its name was changed to Infinithéâtre in 1997, when Artistic Director Gu ...

, was invited to represent Quebec and Canada at the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre in Egypt with its bilingual production of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's '' Endgame/Fin de Partie''. Sprung created the bilingual version, directed the production, and also played the part of Nagg when Marc Gélinas was in poor health condition to play the role he originated. Sprung is fluent in French and German and became proficient in Russian while directing in Moscow. He also played Achenar in the 2004 adventure video game '' Myst IV: Revelation''.

Literary career

Sprung was a theatre critic for the ''

Montreal Star ''The Montreal Star'' was an English language, English-language Canada, Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike. It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950 ...

'' in the 1970s and a literary columnist for the ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'' in the 1990s. His published works include ''Hot Ice'', a diary of directing Shakespeare in Russian at the Pushkin Theatre, and the plays ''Death And Taxes and Fight On!''.

Personal life

He was briefly married to actress

Kate Trotter Kate Trotter (born February 5, 1953) is a Canadian film, television and stage actress. Career Trotter has over 100 credits in film and television. She won a Gemini Award for Guest Actress in a Dramatic Series in 2003 for '' Blue Murder''."A love ...

in the 1980s. He has three children.

Sources

External links

Guy Sprung fonds (R15968)
at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprung, Guy Canadian theatre directors Living people People from Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian artistic directors