Richard Greenblatt

Richard Greenblatt is an actor, director, writer and musician who has been a professional theatre artist for the last 37 years. He was born in Montreal and studied piano for 10 years with the late Professor Dorothy Morton of the McGill Conservatory of Music. He received his acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. Upon graduating, he worked at Leeds Playhouse for a season, returning to Canada in 1975. Since then, he has performed in theatres in Toronto, across Canada, and abroad, playing such diverse roles as Henry David Thoreau, Spinoza and Sam Goldwyn, as well as in feature films, television and radio. Other favourite roles include The Fool in King Lear, Creon in Antigone, The Concierge in The Gladstone Variations and Galbraith in Essay.

He has directed well over 100 productions for theatres across the country, the vast majority being original and/or Canadian works, including plays by George F. Walker, Judith Thompson, Jason Sherman, Adam Pettle, Michael Healey, Diane Flacks, Shirley Cheechoo and Rob Fothergill, amongst numerous others. Classical works he has directed include plays by Shakespeare, Chekov, Shaw, Brecht and Shepherd, amongst many others.

As a writer, he wrote or co-wrote 2 Pianos 4 Hands, Sibs, The Theory Of Relatives, i.d., Letters From Lehrer, Care and Soft Pedalling. 2 Pianos 4 Hands has played on five continents and in more than 150 cities since it opened at the Tarragon Theatre in April 1996. Greenblatt himself has performed the play with co-creator Ted Dykstra a staggering 750 times across Canada and in New York City, Washington D.C., London and Tokyo.

A mentor and teacher to young talent, he has taught acting, directing and play creation at most of the theatre training institutions in Canada, including Ryerson University, University of Alberta, George Brown College and the National Theatre School of Canada.

He has also directed the premieres of many groundbreaking and award-winning plays for young audiences, including Seesaw, Mirror Game, Misha, Danny, King Of The Basement, Wrecked, The Incredible Speediness Of Jamie Cavanaugh and Kindness.

Most recently, Greenblatt co-directed and starred in Yichud (Seclusion) at Theatre Passe Muraille/Magnetic North Theatre Festival, appeared in the four parts of The Mill for Theatrefront, and toured to Galway, Ireland with MackenzieRo’s production of Enda Walsh’s bedbound. For the past two summers, he has played leading roles in productions at 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ontario.

He has been Resident Director at Young People’s Theatre, Deputy Artistic Director at Canadian Stage and Artistic Director of The Hour Company. He has received numerous nominations for his work, and has won six Dora Awards and two Chalmers Awards.

He lives in Toronto with partner Tanya Greve and their two-year-old daughter, Amelia, and is the proud father of Natasha, Will and the dearly missed Luke Greenblatt.