Obsidian Theatre - Big Change At The Top
Phil says goodbye and Mumbi says hello
The Obsidian
Theatre, the country's leading culturally diverse theatre company is now
going through a major change. After
twenty years, the theatre’s founder and CEO has retired. He has been replaced
by a young African Canadian director who will take over the running of the
company in August.
Philip Akin has been acting and
directing for over 40 years. In 2000, he was a founding member of Obsidian
Theatre, Canada’s leading black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic
Director since 2006.
Earlier this week Obsidian announced that Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is the new Artistic
Director of the Obsidian Theatre. In a
press release issued by Obsidian Ms. Otu “was raised in Kenya and Victoria, BC.
She is a critically acclaimed Toronto-based stage director with over a decade
of professional experience and is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Dora
Nominated experimental theatre company IFT (It’s A Freedom Thing) Theatre.”
Mumbi Tindyebwa
Otu will join the company after directing a string of successful productions,
including: Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape, Obsidian Theatre/Soulpepper; Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom and Trout Stanley, Factory Theatre. All of these plays
have been reviewed by The Caribbean Camera and can be found on our website.
“I am deeply honoured to be the next leader of
this incredible company!” she said. “Over the course of my career I have been
passionate about creating work that explores the depth and breadth of the Black
voice in its many artistic dialects, and having an opportunity to continue to
do this within the context of Obsidian is such a gift.”
She is the
recipient of the Artistic Director’s Award (Soulpepper), the Pauline McGibbon
Award, the Mallory Gilbert Protege Award, a Harold Award, and has been twice
nominated for the John Hirsch Directing Award. She is a graduate of Soulpepper
Academy, York University and the
by stephen weir
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