Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Kramer, Greg
Actor/director/writer/magician, born in Hertfordshire, UK, 11 March 1961; died 8 April 2013 in Montreal. Greg Kramer trained at Mountview Theatre School, UK. He toured with Incubus Theatre in Europe in 1980-81 before emigrating to Vancouver in 1981. He spent seven years on the west coast, a decade in Toronto and since 1999, made Montreal his home.
His credits cover twenty-five years and well over one hundred productions across the country, including work at the Vancouver Playhouse, Arts Club Theatre, Theatre Passe-Muraille, the Globe Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Young People’s Theatre, Théâtre Lac-Brome, Centaur Theatre, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Crow’s Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, and the National Arts Centre.
His novels The Pursemonger of fugu (1995), Couchwarmer (1997), and Wally (2004), and a collection of short stories, Hogtown Bonbons (1999) are all published by Riverbank Press, an imprint of Cormorant Press, As of 2006, he was listed in Canadian Who’s Who.
Notable performances include the title role in Richard III (Firehall Theatre, Vancouver, 1984), Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew (Ottawa Shakespeare Festival, 1994), Gollum in The Hobbit (YPT, 2000), The Devil-dog in Peter Hinton’s otherwise all-female production of The Witch of Edmonton (Harbourfront, Toronto, 1993), and a dying sailor in the Chalmers Award-winning Ditch (1994) by Geoff Kavanagh.
Directorial credits include Kit Brennan’s Tiger’s Heart at the Centaur Theatre (2004), an updated interpretation of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (TLB, 2000), the documentary play Seeds (2005) and Peter Weiss’ Marat ... De Sade which was nominated for Toronto’s Dora Award (Outstanding Production) in 1991. In March 2006 he directed the premiere of David Sherman’s, Have a Heart for the Centaur Theatre.
He is wrote a new play about Isadora Duncan, entitled Isadora Fabulist for Imago Theatre; and Sherlock Holmes for Segal Centre for Performing Arts, in which he was to play Inspector Lestrade at the time of his death.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois
Last updated 2021-12-09
Kramer, Ken
(Photo provided by Sarah Kramer)
Actor/director and co-founder and artistic director (until 1990) of the Globe Theatre, Regina, Saskatchewan.
He was born in 1940 in Canada, and was studying theatre in England when he met and married Sue Richmond (Sue Kramer). They worked together in Edmonton and on the West Coast before they formed the Globe Theatre in 1966 as a children's touring company. By 1970, the Globe was adding adult productions, and in 1974 mounted a full adult season, including at least one new Canadian play in the lineup.
Ken Kramer acted in or directed many of the Globe's ambitious productions, including Macbeth (1985), Cyrano de Bergerac (1986), and King Lear (1986).
He was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Regina in 1985. In 1988, he was named to the Order of Canada; and in 1990, he received a Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts by the Saskatchewan Arts Board. He currently lives in Toronto.
Information provided by Sarah Kramer, and by Joyce Doolittle in The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre. Eds. Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1989.
Last updated 2021-02-22
Kramer, Sue
Co-founder and co-artistic director with husband Ken Kramer of the Globe Theatre. Sue Kramer was born in 1939, in Northampton, England; died of cancer in Regina, Saskatchewan, 1978.
She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and toured in children's theatre. While doing this, she met Ken, a Canadian actor, and they returned to Canada to establish the Globe Theatre for Youth. In twelve years, until her death, the company grew into a subscription house for adult theatre, a creative dramatics school and a touring company.
Her many outstanding roles include the protagonist in Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan (1968); Lady Macbeth (1972); and Aggie in The Boiler Room Suite (1977) by Rex Deverell.
Sue Kramer was a committed social activist who spoke through the theatre productions she created.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois
Last updated 2021-02-22
Since October 2002, Athabasca University has hosted the web site, with an editorial board of theatre scholars from across Canada.
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Email your submission to: Anne Nothof, Professor Emerita, Athabasca University.
The Encyclopedia collects and disseminates information on plays, playwrights and theatre practitioners. It does not respond to requests for information, auditions, bookings, or tickets.
The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
