Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Dykstra, Ted
Dynamic radio<, film, television and theatre actor and director born in Chatham, Ontario in 1961. He made his professional début, at 15, in Frank Moher 's Odd Jobs .
Since his graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1984, Mr. Dykstra has been in great demand and has performed at many of the country's major theatres including the Factory Theatre (where he played the lead in the premiere of George F. Walker 's Criminals in Love ), Centaur Theatre (in Paul Ledoux and David Young's frantic musical Fire ), at the Shaw Festival , Theatre Passe Muraille , Canadian Stage , Neptune Theatre and at the Stratford Festival where he played many leads (including Mozart in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, Sloane in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and Bottom in Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream).
The true splash in Mr. Dykstra's theatrical career may have occurred in his performance in the Toronto mega- musical Tommy, when, as Cousin Kevin, many felt that he stole the show away from lead Tylie Ross . For this performance, Mr. Dykstra won a Dora Mavor Moore Award .
In 1995-98 Mr. Dykstra toured Canada and abroad with Richard Greenblatt in the musical they created, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands and for which they won the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Chalmers Award.
Mr. Dykstra appeared in the Suburban Motel series at Factory Theatre and is a founding member of the Soulpepper Theatre Company .
More recently, April, 2001, he appeared in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in Toronto.
As a director he has led David Widdcombe's Science Fiction (November, 2000, Factory) and the San Francisco and Australian productions of 2 Pianos...,
Source: "One body, many talents" by Michael Posner, The Globe and Mail, Toronto, November 29, 2000
(Additional information provided by David Baile and Joel Greenberg)
Last updated 2009-03-30
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