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Friedlander, Mira

Ontario -based critic born in 1952 in Jaffa, Israel, died in Toronto, May 10, 2000.

She studied at York University.

Among the outlets for which she wrote was the American Variety, where she championed Canadian theatre drawing attention, notably, to the work 2 Pianos, 4 Hands .

She was the winner of the Canadian Theatre Critics' Association's Nathan Cohen Award, twice, and served as the Association's president (1998/99). At her passing, Richard Monette , artistic director for the Stratford Festival , said to Canadian Press, "Because her writing was informed by a passionate love of the theatre and a firsthand knowledge of its creative process, her judgments - even at their most critical - were always founded in a solid understanding of the art and a great generosity of spirit toward its practitioners."

Ms Friedlander also reported for CBC Radio and wrote for The National Post, Performing Arts in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, and Scene Changes. A scholarship in her name was created at York University. In a final act of courage, during her treatment for the cancer which finally took her life, she agreed to have her mastectomy filmed for the Barbra Ames documentary, Wars: Dispatches From the Front.

She was married to Wayne Fairhead.

(Information provided by Jeniva Berger with additional information provided by Anton Wagner)

Sources: "Lives Lived" by David Prosser, The Globe and Mail, September 5, 2000

Last updated 2003-01-28