Ken Schwartz
| Ken Schwartz | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
December 3, 1969 Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Residence | Annapolis Valley |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | National Theatre School |
| Occupation | Theatre director, playwright |
| Spouse(s) | Chris O'Neill |
| Children | 3 |
Ken Schwartz (born December 3, 1969 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian theatre director, playwright and arts activist.
Schwartz was born and raised in Halifax, NS, graduating from the Halifax Grammar School in 1987, then moving to Montreal to study at the National Theatre School in 1987. He was accepted to the acting, technical theatre and directing sections of the conservatory, graduating from Technical Production in 1990 and from the Directing Section in 1992. After an internship year in Ireland and Northern Ireland, he returned to NS to start Two Planks and a Passion Theatre with his wife, Chris O'Neill. They settled in the Annapolis Valley and have three children.
Schwartz began acting in High School, from which he took a short leave in his senior year to be on the professional stage at Neptune Theatre in a production of Tartuffe directed by Richard Ouzounian.
After graduation from the National Theatre School, he and his wife spent a year interning with theatre companies in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He watched directors like Paul Mercier, who wrote and directed the Passion Machine's Studs, Charabanc Theatre's Bondagers and was an intern under playwright and director Frank McGuinness for the Druid Company's production of Carthaginians about Bloody Sunday in Derry, which was hailed by critics and which toured to Derry. The choice of Ireland was deliberate because of its similarity to Nova Scotia. It too had a largely rural population with one large city and he chose to work with companies which were creating their own text-based work, often borne of important events in their history and touring it, because of his and his partner's vision for a new theatre in Nova Scotia.
In 1992 they returned to Nova Scotia after a five-year absence and settled in Sheffield Mills, a hamlet close to Wolfville, surrounded by fields and farms. Using the Sheffield Mills community hall for their rehearsal base, Schwartz and O'Neill incorporated Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Association as a non-profit within the province of Nova Scotia.
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