DEVISOR. DIRECTOR. DRAMATURGE. TRANSLATOR. ACTOR. CREATIVE PRODUCER.
Jack Paterson Theatre
“…you’ve never imagined it like this before…this is the magic of theatre.”
Jerry Wasserman, The Province
A Year in Review
From Global Stages to Local Stories:
A 2025 Year in Review of Boundary-Pushing Theatre
2025 was a year of global engagement, creative boundary-pushing, and significant new work development across Canada, Asia, and Europe. I was thrilled to play a part in successfully launching vital transnational projects, facilitated new play and translation development, and fostered cross-cultural exchange.
2025 Highlights
International Exchanges and Creations
2025 was a landmark year for international collaboration, launching vital transnational projects and fostering cross-cultural exchange across Asia and Europe.
Diving into AERO: A European Refugee Odyssey
APPLIED THEATRE
AERO: MEETING POINT #1
Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2025
theater:playstation
Valencia, Spain
New Translation Development – Italy
SILENZIO
By Trina Davies
Translated to Italien by Carolina Migli
Teatro di Grazzano Visconti
Oct. 13 – 25, 2025
Celebrating the 2024-2025 Korea-Canada Year of Cultural Exchanges
“…an unforgettable performance! Blending powerful storytelling with youthful energy and cross-cultural collaboration…”
– Embassy of Canada (Korea)
뮤지컬 R;LINK THE MUSICAL
Written & Directed by 김가람 Kim Ga-ram
Co-Written with Tyrone Perreault (Cowessess First Nation)
Composed by 김준호 Kim Jun-ho
Seoul, Korea: July 26 & 27, 2025
Vancouver, Canada: Aug. 15 & 16, 2025
Bali Canada Cross Cultural Exchange 2025
Conceived by Jack Paterson, I Nyoman Sedana, & I Made Sidia
Considered one of the longest uninterrupted performance traditions in the world, the Balinese traditional performing arts are unique, rich, and complex.
April 2025
Rural Curation & Creation
Through my role as Creative Producer for the Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival, the year saw a deep commitment to fostering the arts in rural British Columbia. This work encompassed diverse activities, including the curation of touring theatre productions like DEAFY, championing new works through play commissions, new play and translation development workshops, hosting author readings and Q&A sessions, and offering a free skills development workshop for young artists (Ages 17-29). This effort successfully showcased diverse, powerful voices and supported the development of new work in the rural community.
Theatre Curation – Rural Arts
DEAFY
Created & Performed by Chris Dodd
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Saturday, September 20, 2025 | 7 PM
Centre Stage
(9518 Main Street, Summerland B.C.)
New Play Development – Rural Arts
WINGS (WORKING TITLE)
By Isobel Rondeau
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Sept 16-21, 2025
Author Reading & Workshops – Rural Arts
C. E. GATCHALIAN
Reading: Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man
Workshop: Writing the Unraveling Self
Friday, September 19, 2025
Ssummerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Author Reading & Q&A – Rural Arts
BRIAN THOMAS ISAAC
Award-Winning Author of “All the Quiet Places”
Hosted by Jack Paterson
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Friday, September 19, 2025 | 1 PM
New Translation Development – Rural Arts
FACELIFT
By Nathalie Boisvert
Translated by Johanna Nutter
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Sept. 18, 2025 | 1 PM
Skills Development Workshop (Ages 17-29) – Rural Arts
CREATING THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
Lighting, Projections & QLab
FREE WORKSHOP
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Saturday, September 21, 2025 | 11 AM
Centre Stage
(9518 Main Street, Summerland B.C.)
New Play Commission – Rural Arts
WINGS (WORKING TITLE)
By Isobel Rondeau
“..a play that centers on forgiveness, within yourself and with others. Armed with this base knowledge, you can continue learning the Seven Grandfathers’ Teachings.” – Isobel Rondeau
Summerland’s Ryga Arts Festival
Research & Access
A significant portion of 2025 was dedicated to creative access research, focused on breaking down barriers in creation and participation for artists and audiences. This work included developing new approaches for senior artists in rural touring, undertaking in-depth creative research on Active Access Design for Senior Artists, and conceiving new pathways for disability-identifying creators. This research is central to ensuring equal and full participation in the independent performing arts.
The Ballad of Georges Boivin – Ignite the Arts Festival
“…explores with great insight thematic territory I’ve never seen covered before…”
– Colin Thomas, colinthomas.ca
Sunday, March 30 | 2:00-3:00pm
Tempest Theatre
125 Eckhardt Ave E, Penticton BC V2A 1Z5
Active Access Design for Senior Artists
CREATIVE RESEARCH
PAL Theatre
Western Gold Theatre
Oct.- Dec. 2024 & March 2025
Towards an Inclusive Theatre (Vancouver CAN)
AAD+ LABS: REMOTE ACCESS FOR DISABILITY IDENTIFYING (& OTHER) CREATORS
Conceived of by Jack Paterson & Hannah Siden
Aug. / Sept. 2024
Presentation House Theatre
(North Vancouver BC)
Knowledge Sharing
The year included significant knowledge sharing, with research and practices presented at major national and international forums. This work included the innovative approaches to Active Access Design for Senior Artists, Cross-Cultural Devised Creation, and Creative Translation.
The Creatus Project featured at CART2025 Conference (CAN)
Julia Henderson presents a paper on The Creatus Project at Canada’s leading Theatre Research conference.
May 26-27, 2025
Sharing Creative Access Practices at The All Inclusive Kongress (DE)
Conference on the state of contemporary disability & inclusive performing arts in independent theatre in Europe.
May 22.- 24, 2025
Sharing in Each Other’s Songs at the flausen+ kongress (DE)
Artistic Freedom, Cultural Political Resistance, and Self-Empowerment through International Alliances in Times of Crisis.
May 20 – 22, 2025
New Translation Canada featured at 2nd CRLCC International Conference
New Translation Canada invited to speak on “Creative Translation” in theatre and our interprovincial work.
May 9-10, 2025
Glendon College, York University (Toronto, CAN)
National Catalyst: New Translation Commissions
Co-founded with Johanna Nutter (QC), Yolanda Ferrato (PEI), New Translation Canada is a national project celebrating great Canadian theatre in both official and other Canadian languages. This independent project works to ensure that the leading voices in Canadian playwriting are translated and promoted to create a truly national theatre community. This year, we were thrilled to commission the following creative translations:
Arts Across Canada – New Translation Commission
carried away on the crest of a wave
By David Yee
Translated to French by Maryse Warda
New Translation Canada
Arts Across Canada – New Translation Commission
Offensive to Some
By Berni Stapleton
Translated to French by Sonya Malaborza
New Translation Canada
Arts Across Canada – New Translation Commission
blood.claat
By d’bi.young anitafrika
Translated to French by Djennie Laguerre
New Translation Canada
Arts Across Canada – New Translation Commission
Granite
By Mishka Lavigne
Translated to English by David Gagnon Walker
About
Jack Paterson (he/him) is an internationally recognized and multi-award-winning theatre maker and creative producer with over two decades of experience with a profound commitment to inclusive, innovative, and globally conscious theatre making. With projects spanning Canada, Asia, Europe, South America, the USA, and the UK, his expertise lies in creating dynamic and distinctive theatre, including transcultural and multi-disciplinary devised works, fostering creative access, developing new works, and presenting contemporary interpretations of classics.
His productions have garnered over 30 professional theatre award nominations, with numerous wins for “Outstanding Direction” and “Outstanding Production,” and he is a distinguished recipient of the “Ray Michal Outstanding Body of Work Award” and the “John Moffat & Larry Lillo Outstanding Body of Work Award.” His comprehensive international training includes notable institutions such as Circle in the Square (USA), Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (Moscow, RU), Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ID), and an MFA in Direction from East15 Acting School & University of Essex (UK).
Portfolio
Jack’s projects have ranged from devised, cross-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-disciplinary events and installations to contemporary new work & translations, and classical theatre in contemporary form.
International Creation
ATLANTIDE
(Teatro Trieste 34, Italy)
“…smashing nationality and access borders in a Total theatre.”
IMA Magazine
NEW WRITING
Walt Whitman’s Secret
(a frank theatre, Canada)
“…beautifully produced and performed…gorgeous…”
Colinthomas.ca
Translations
The List
(Ruby Slippers Theatre, Canada)
“…elegant, essential
and poetic…”
The Vancouver Sun
Classics in contemporary form
Romeo & Juliet
(Cardiff Open Air, Wales)
“…innovative…daring…taking the leap into the unknown…”
MyTheatreMates.com
Articles
Jack’s writing on theatre and reviews have been published on such performing arts websites and commons as Howl Round, Theatreartlife, Biz Books, Plank Magazine and Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Association Blog.
Oberammergau Passionsspiele: Exploring a Sacred Theatre (Part 9)
LESSONS & REFLECTIONS
Several hundred years ago, the Passionsspiele was performed by Catholic farmers isolated in the mountainside. Passion plays were the few opportunities for local people to engage with their spiritual and religious stories in their own voices, their own their own languages, and their own words, rather than the Latin of the pulpit. For those of the Christian faiths, this interaction remains true today.
Francophone New Writing: An Interview with Festival du Jamais Lu (via TheatreArtLife)
Founded by artists Marcelle Dubois and Julie Gagné and cultural administrator David Lavoie to forge a relationship between today’s contemporary writers and the public, Jamais Lu, which means “never read,” supports and promotes Quebec, Canadian and international dramaturgy.
In Search of Taksu: Cross Cultural Explorations in Bali (via TheatreArtLife)
Cross Cultural Explorations in Bali
The performing arts of Bali are rich, vast and complex. Virtually every form of music, dance, drama and puppetry has its origin as a function of ritual. Practices such as wayang kulit (shadow puppetry) reach back thousands of years.
Exploring Disability Arts: Theater HORA in Zurich (via TheatreArtLife)
With over 50 productions since its inception in 1993, Zurich’s Theater HORA is the only professional theatre company in Switzerland whose ensemble members all have a state recognized disability. I hopped a Flixbus to Switzerland to learn more about this unique company.
Translations
Francophone Canadian new writing is on the for front of international practice. Born of unique circumstances, the unique “Langue D’Auteur” has nothing quite like it in Western English Language theatre. The poetic, abstract or expressionistic are side by side with gritty realism and the mundane often becomes the fantastical.
Western Gold: The Ballad of Georges Boivin
By Martin Bellemare
(Quebec, Canada)
“…a theatrical road-movie brimming with vulnerability…”
Alix Forgeot, L-Express.ca
Master Karim The Partridge
By Martin Bellemare
(Quebec, Canada)
“…a singular text…a fierce work on a topical subject, exile.”
SADC Award Jury
Asteroid B612
By Eric Noel
(Quebec, Canada)
“…a true pleasure for the eyes and the heart.”
Alexandre Cadieux, JEU: Revue de Theatre
The Naughty Children's Bedtime Stories
By Étienne Lepage
(Quebec, Canada)
“…what a clever, funny, edgy piece!”
Tessa Mendel, Halifax Theatre for Young People
KIWI
By Daniel Danis
(Quebec, Canada)
Recipient of The Cole Foundation Award for Emerging Translators
(Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal)
Press
“…Jack Paterson’s crisp, imaginative direction…makes the point with wonderful theatricality.”
The Province – Banana Boys, Firehall Arts Centre
“…one of the most consistently pleasing shows in recent memory.”
The Province – The Pitmen Painters, United Players
“…a deeply satisfying work…one of the best shows in a strong season.”
The Georgia Straight – Titus Andronicus, Jericho Arts Centre
Land Acknowledgement
Jack’s activities take place on or are launched from the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish People: the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We recognize and honour the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation commission and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous sovereignty on this unceded territory.
*A territorial or land acknowledgement is an act of reconciliation that involves making a statement recognizing the traditional territory of the Indigenous people who called the land home before the arrival of settlers, and in many cases still do call it home.
For more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada click here.