Annual General Meeting & Banquet

Banquet Speaker

Eric Coates, director, administrator and actor

Walking the walk – a reflection on Indigeneity in colonial theatre

As a theatre artist who has lived and worked white for most of his life, Eric Coates experienced a profound shift in his own artistic practice and worldview when he connected to his extended family members of the Samish Indian Nation. This talk provides a candid view of the challenges and rewards inherent to meaningful activism within the established order of white colonial theatre. Eric Coates has worked as a director, dramaturg, administrator and actor since entering professional theatre in 1986. The bulk of his career has been spent working with playwrights to bring new scripts to production. To date, he has commissioned and/or developed and premiered over forty scripts. Most recently, he directed the premiere of Laura Michel’s Echoes of the Homesick Heart, a verbatim piece on Secwepemc language for Western Canada Theatre (WCT) in Kamloops. In Toronto this September, he directs the Young People’s Theatre premiere of Bentboy by Anishinaabe playwright Herbie Barnes. He served as the Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company and as Artistic Director of the Blyth Festival, where premieres included Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott by Beverley Cooper and Reverend Jonah by Paul Ciufo, both finalists for the Governor General’s Award. He has directed productions for the Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, Drayton Entertainment, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Lighthouse Festival, and CBC Radio. Eric served as the President of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) from 2009-2015. He is a tribal member and canoe skipper of the Samish Indian Nation and is an active participant in Straits Salish language revitalization.