Following an international search over the last several months, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company announced Ashlie Corcoran as its new artistic director.
Corcoran will replace Bill Millerd, who has served in the capacity for the last 45 years. Corcoran will assume the artistic leadership of the Arts Club in October, when she will begin programming the 2018–2019 season.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Ashlie to the Arts Club as my successor this fall,” says Millerd in a media release. “Ashlie is an award-winning director with the ability to excite audiences whether she is directing large musicals, classical dramas and comedies, or experimental new work. She is also passionate about new play development and education initiatives, two programming areas where the Arts Club has invested energy and resources for many years.”
Currently artistic director with Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ontario, Corcoran was born in White Rock, and attended Queen’s University where she graduated in 2001 with an honours degree in Drama. Corcoran continued her education, earning her Master of Arts in Directing from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2004.
Returning to Canada in 2005, she founded Theatre Smash in Toronto, and launched a successful freelance directing career in both theatre and opera. The Dora Award–winner completed the Urjo Kareda Residency for emerging theatre artists at Tarragon Theatre in 2011 before joining the Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2012. Earlier this month, she opened the Shaw Festival’s 2017 season in the musical Me and My Girl.
“I am ecstatic to be joining the Arts Club Theatre Company, an organization I deeply care about, in a city that I love,” says Corcoran. “This will be a homecoming for me – born and bred in White Rock, BC, I am thrilled to once again live in my home province close to my family. I can’t wait to get started!”