Local director awarded new job at Shaw Festival

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Winnipeg theatre vet Kimberley Rampersad has taken on an exciting new role: associate artistic director of the Shaw Festival.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/04/2020 (2378 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg theatre vet Kimberley Rampersad has taken on an exciting new role: associate artistic director of the Shaw Festival.

The news came just a few days after Rampersad won a Merritt Award for best direction for the Neptune Theatre production of The Color Purple, a job she repeated for the RMTC/Citadel Theatre production last fall.

Last year, Rampersad served as an intern artistic director at Shaw before she was elevated to the role of associate artistic director.

TARA WALTON PHOTO
Winnipeg’s Kimberley Rampersad was named associated artistic director of the Shaw Festival.
TARA WALTON PHOTO Winnipeg’s Kimberley Rampersad was named associated artistic director of the Shaw Festival.

In addition to her training as a dancer and actor, Rampersad also has a degree in political science form the University of Manitoba. Asked by the Free Press in October about how that degree affected her theatre career, Rampersad responded: “Directing plays and how they’re programmed is a political act. Directing for me is where my art meets my politics. We all have agency to tell stories and that’s why I am interested in artistic direction.”

Randall King

Randall King
Writer

Randall King writes about film for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

History

Updated on Monday, April 6, 2020 6:32 AM CDT: Adds photo

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Sharp script worthy of legendary large-nosed lead at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Cyrano de Bergerac

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Sharp script worthy of legendary large-nosed lead at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Cyrano de Bergerac

Ben Waldman 5 minute read 6:07 PM CDT

Cyrano de Bergerac can pick his nose, but he didn’t get to choose it.

Even if given the option of rhinoplasty, would the dashing, witty and macro-schnozzed 17th-century Frenchman (played with ardent panache by Jack Davidson) go under the knife? How about you?

Regardless of his preference that his work — his rapier wit, his legendary bravery and his mastery of swordplay — should earn him renown, it’s a bulbous bit of extra cartilage that obscures his inherent qualities.

For Cyrano de Bergerac, it’s not only a chip on the shoulder that shapes his self-perception and thus his erratic and entertaining behaviours, the nose is the leading sentence to a timeless underdog story written in playwright Jessy Ardern’s indelible ink.

Read
6:07 PM CDT

Orphaned polar bear cub has new home at Winnipeg zoo

Eva Wasney 16 minute read Preview

Orphaned polar bear cub has new home at Winnipeg zoo

Eva Wasney 16 minute read Updated: 4:06 PM CDT

It’s a grey September afternoon and a small group is gathered for a special behind-the-scenes visit with Assiniboine Park Zoo’s newest resident.

“Heeeeere, bubba,” animal-care specialist Caitlin Gordon-Hall hollers from between a double layer of chain-link fencing.

After a beat, a small white face appears at the entrance of the private enclosure. The polar bear cub sniffs the air before trundling toward the fence, where his keepers have been working to encourage calm behaviour around humans ahead of his public debut on Thursday.

Gordon-Hall offers sing-song affirmations while the cub, who is nearly 200 pounds and 10 or 11 months old, observes the fawning strangers with guarded curiosity.

Read
Updated: 4:06 PM CDT

Jets goaltender quickly taking on folk hero status with hot start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Jets goaltender quickly taking on folk hero status with hot start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:03 AM CDT

Stuart Skinner is giving the hometown crowd plenty to cheer about.

The Winnipeg Jets new No. 1 netminder came up with another brilliant performance, making 32 saves — including several of the highlight-reel variety — to propel his team to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre.

With each save he makes and each win he records, Skinner is doing what he can to help turn the page on the Connor Hellebuyck era.

“I would say that they are big shoes to fill 100 per cent, but I’m not looking into the scenario of filling his shoes,” said Skinner, who lowered his goals-against average to 2.62 and raised his save percentage to .920 through three starts. “My job’s the same job as any other goalie in this league. So it’s a little bit of a difficult question for me to truly answer.”

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 10:03 AM CDT

Powerful allegory, magic wonder as ballet takes on Stravinsky

Holly Harris 5 minute read Preview

Powerful allegory, magic wonder as ballet takes on Stravinsky

Holly Harris 5 minute read 6:50 PM CDT

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet opened its mainstage season with fire and ice Thursday, as it paid homage to Russian composer Igor Stravinsky with Stravinsky Stories.

Local balletomanes may remember Alexei Ratmansky as a principal dancer during the early 1990s. The internationally renowned dance artist returns in a full-circle moment to stage The Fairy’s Kiss, the 50-minute work his first collaboration with the RWB in more than 30 years. He began flexing his choreographic muscles in its downtown studios with an earlier, reimagined incarnation in 1994, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ice Maiden, in turn set to Stravinsky’s own tribute to Tchaikovsky’s lushly romantic ballet scores.

Its narrative follows the journey of a Young Man (newly minted principal dancer Skylar Campbell, with all leads alternating) saved — and kissed — by a Fairy (principal dancer Elizabeth Lamont, who rips off a dizzying set of “fouettes”) after his Mother (former principal dancer Vanessa Léonard adding her own gravitas) perishes in a blizzard.

After falling in love with his fiancée (principal dancer Alanna McAdie, infusing her character with innocent youthfulness grounded by intricate footwork), he is tricked on his wedding day by the now disguised Fairy who reveals her true identity — and his ultimate destiny.

Read
6:50 PM CDT

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Preview

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:09 PM CDT

Ride-service drivers have been defrauding Manitoba Public Insurance by improperly insuring their vehicles as for personal use.

The public insurer and the City of Winnipeg, which regulates ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, discovered the widespread fraud after MPI conducted a review in December last year.

“When a driver changes their coverage from ride-share insurance to a personal vehicle coverage and continues to operate as a ride-share driver, that is fraud, plain and simple,” said MPI chief executive officer Satvir Jatana at a news conference Thursday.

MPI’s review looked at a random sample of 408 ride-hailing vehicles and found 108 were operating without the proper vehicle-for-hire insurance coverage. In order to register with the city as a ride-service driver, a vehicle must have such insurance and proof must be provided to the ride-booking company.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 6:09 PM CDT

Booze sales down, gaming and cannabis up in Manitoba

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Preview

Booze sales down, gaming and cannabis up in Manitoba

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

MANITOBA Liquor and Lotteries delivered $724.1 million in profits to the province in 2025-26, with the lion’s share coming from alcohol, even as booze sales continue to shrink.

The Crown corporation’s contribution to Manitoba’s general revenues decreased by $6 million or 0.8 per cent from last year’s allocation of $730.1 million, its annual report shows.

That indicates stable overall performance “despite a changing operating environment,” the recently-released report said.

Those changes include the order from Premier Wab Kinew last year to remove U.S. alcohol from Liquor Mart store shelves after President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada as well as Manitobans’ changing tastes.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT