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Bryans, Joan

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Joan Bryans

Actor, producer, director and most recently playwright, Joan Bryans was born in Scotland and trained as a publicist. She is now very active in the Vancouver British Columbia theatre scene: she is the founder of the feminist company, Vital Spark Theatre (2002), which tells the overlooked or forgotten stories of women; co-founder (with Sally Stubbs) of Tightrope Productions; and president and publicist of United Players of Vancouver, a community theatre.

She has adapted and directed Birthright from American playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner's The Birthright (Vital Spark Theatre, Jericho Arts Centre, Vancouver, 2003). Birthright was published 2005 by Playwrights Canada Press.

In 2005 she wrote and directed Two Years in Nicola (Vital Spark Theatre, Jericho Arts Centre; St. Andrew in the Square, Kamloops). The play recounts the true story of Jessie and Annie MacQueen, two sisters from Nova Scotia who came west in 1887 and settled in the BC interior, and is based on their writings and contemporary sources.

In 2008, she wrote and directed By Some Divine Mistake (Vital Spark, Jericho Arts Centre), the story of Alma Rattenbury, songwriter, musician and accused murderer, told from her perspective, with an emphasis on her music.

Joan Bryans has created and directed for United Players of Vancouver several productions based on the life and works of Jane Austen: Jane Austen's Holiday Fayre (2003), Looking for Mr. Darcy (2004), and Regency Revels (2005). Past directing credits also include The Apartment (Women at Play(s) 3), Socrates on Trial (University of British Columbia), Shadowland, and Pride and Prejudice (United Players), Ladies Who Lunch (Metro Theatre), Under Milk Wood and My Mother Said I Never Should (Kamloops Players).

In 2019, she directed her verbatim play, Changed Utterly about the Easter 1916 Irish uprising, focusing on the heroic actions of Constance Markievicz (Vital Spark at Jericho Arts Centre).

Acting credits include Mama in Wreckage, Pegs in Judith Thompson’s I Am Yours, Gertie in Fuddy Meers, Clytemnaestra in Electra, Ruth in Joanna McClelland Glass’s If We are Women, and lead roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Trojan Women, and The Road to Mecca.

Last updated 2023-07-21