Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Roy, Anusree
Playwright, actor, and director, born in Kolkata, India in 1982, and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1999 when she was seventeen. Anusree Roy graduated from York University in 2006 with a B.A., and from the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto with an M.A. She is currently based in Toronto Ontario.
She performed in her first play, a solo piece titled breathlessness for Tarragon Theatre’s 2006 Spring Arts Fair and for Hart House’s Diaspora Dialogues in January 2007.
Pyaasa (Theatre Passe Muraille 2007) won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Play in the independent category, and for Outstanding Performance for Roy’s portrayal of the play’s four characters. Set in Kolkata, Pyaasa (meaning “thirsty” in Hindi) portrays the injustices of the caste system in India through the life of 11-year-old Chaya, the daughter of an “untouchable” toilet cleaner, who lives in extreme poverty with her family under a bridge, but yearns to attend school. Each of the other three characters represents another caste. Roy reprised the role for TPM in 2016.
Letters to my Grandma (Theatre Passe Muraille 2008) was inspired by her grandmother’s life and her own immigration. It is set in Toronto in 2000 and in 1947 India, the year of partition from Pakistan.
Roshni (meaning “hope” in Hindi) premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2010 (dir. Thomas Morgan-Jones). It portrays the impoverished lives and stubborn hope of child beggars at Kolkata’s Howrah train station through portraits of two children, a blind girl played by Roy, and a boy aspiring to Bollywood stardom by Byron Abalos.
Roy's operas Noor over Afghan and The Golden Boy premiered at Opera Briefs in Toronto in 2011.
Also in 2011 Roy won the Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights for her play, Brothel #9 (Factory Theatre, dir. Nigel Shawn Williams), which also won the Dora Award for Outstanding New Play. It portrays the horrific life of women trapped in the sex trade in Calcutta, and Roy was again critically acclaimed for her acting.
Sultans of the Street opened at the Young People’s Theatre in 2014 (dir. Nina Lee Aquino). Set in contemporary Kolkata, India, the play focuses on two pairs of urban children: Brothers Prakash and Ojha are from an affluent family and play hooky from school to fly their kites; orphans Mala and her brother Chun Chun live on the street and dream of going to school. They are dressed as Indian gods to beg for money that their aunt confiscates.
In April 2017, her play Little Pretty and the Exceptional premiered at Factory Theatre (dir. Brendan Healy). It is set in a Sari shop in Toronto's Little India, run by an Indian immigrant and his two daughters: Jasmeet dreams about being a prom queen, and Simran is studying to be a lawyer. Simran struggles with anxiety and emotional problems, however, as a consequence of her mother's death a decade earlier. The play exposes "the taboo around mental health issues in the South-Asian community, and the power of familial ties in the face of adversity" (Factory Theatre website).
Sister tells the story of Millie and Rai, who have recently immigrated to Toronto from India with their father. "Set over the course of one evening at Tatos Laundromat in New Toronto, the sisters fantasize about what they will order at Tim Hortons, getting a cell phone, and how exciting their new life will be – as soon as their dad lands his first job. Their daydreaming is cut short when an event occurs at the laundromat, threatening not only their sense of security, but their ability to withhold secrets from each other" (Factory Theatre website). Sisters was produced as an audio podcast in March 2021, when theatres across Canada and around the world were closed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trident Moon was commissioned by Nightwood Theatre and premiered at the Finborough Theatre in London, UK, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India. Three Hindu and three Muslim women, hiding in a truck, flee the internecine carnage that erupted with the partition of India into two countries in 1947. It premiered in Canada at Crow’s Theatre and National Arts Centre in March 2025 (dir. Nina Lee Aquino).
Roy was a performer in the Dora nominated 9 Parts of Desire and Necessary Angel’s Tout Comme Elle. In 2016, she played the Queen of France in Breath of Kings at the Stratford Festival. For the 2017 Stratford season, she played an hilarious, energetic Dorine in Tartuffe, and Snake in The School for Scandal.
She was playwright-in-residence at the Canadian Stage in 2008-09, at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2009-10, and the Blyth Festival (2010-11).
She is also co-artistic director of Theatre Jones Roy.
Pyaasa, Letters to My Grandma, and Sultans of the Street are published by Playwrights Canada Press.
Profile by Anne Nothof, Athabasca University.
Last updated 2025-03-12
Roy, Denis
Quebec-based actor. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1980. Since graduating he has been very active on television, but also has been seen in important stage productions including: the premiere of Michel Marc Bouchard's Les Feluettes/Lilies (1987, National Arts Centre, directed by André Brassard); Lorca's Yerma (1993, Théâtre du Rideau Vert, directed by Guillermo De Andrea); Élisabeth Egloff's Le Cygne (1994, Théâtre Le Bic, directed by Claude Poissant); and Shakespeare's La Mégère apprivoisée/Taming of the Shrew (1995, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Martine Beaulne).
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois.
Last updated 2021-09-20
Roy, Gildor
Quebec-based actor/singer, born May 11, 1960 in Cadillac (now Rouyn-Noranda). He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
Gildor Roy has worked non-stop in theatre, as a country and western singer, television and film star from 1984 to 2018, and as a host of the radio show C't'encore drôle on CKMF, a regular on the comedy game show Piment Forthwaite, the host of the show L'île de Gildor (2002-03), and the host of a breakfast television program on TQS named Cafeine (2009). He is perhaps best known for his role as the Commander in the TV series, District 31 on Radio-Canada.
Among early stage productions in which he has performed were the revival of Michel Tremblay's Hosanna at Théâtre de Quat'Sous (opposite René Richard Cyr); Marcel Dubé's Un Simple Soldat at the Théâtre Populaire du Québec; David Mamet's Glengarry Glenn Ross at Théâtre la Licorne; and Ken Kesey's Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou/One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest at Compagnie Jean-Duceppe.
Gildor Roy has a huge stage presence and gives natural, even performances.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois.
Last updated 2021-09-21
Roy, James
Director born in Clinton, Ontario in 1953. He studied at York University with directing teacher David Calderisi, and his focus has always been on telling original Canadian stories.
James Roy is founding artistic director of the Blyth Festival (1975-79). He has also served as artistic director at Belfry Theatre, Victoria (1980-84) and Manitoba Theatre Centre (1984-86). He is founder and executive director of Really Exciting Play Productions (Toronto). Among the productions he has directed are the premieres of Margaret Hollingsworth's Ever Loving and War Babies, and several premieres of works by James W. Nichol. He has also directed at the University of Guelph (where he was artist-in-residence), McMaster University, Theatre Passe Muraille, Citadel Theatre and Centaur Theatre (among others).
From 1990 to 2005, Roy worked as an area executive producer at CBC radio, responsible for Sunday Showcase and Monday Night Playhouse. He commissioned the radio drama series, Afghanada (2006-11), and produced the plays for the first year. In 2015, he became president of Digital Reno Agency, which developes and produces innovative podcasts, video, and proprietary content platforms.
Roy has co-translated (with Yoshi Yoshihara) three contemporary Japanese plays into English. Two of these, Kanishibetsu and Ninguls, by Soh Kuramoto, have toured across Canada in productions by Kuramoto's Japanese company, The Furano Natural Studio.
He was married to playwright Anne Chislett and directed several premieres of her works.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois. Additional information provided by William A. McMaster.
Last updated 2021-09-21
Roy, Lise
Quebec-based actor, born in 1954, in Quebec City, who works comfortably in French and English. Lise Roy graduated from Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal in 1975.
She has worked at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert (Feydeau's Le Dindon directed by Denise Filiatrault); Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (Pirandello's Six personnages en quête d'auteur/Six Characters in Search of an Author, dir. André Brassard); Theatre 1774 (see Infinitheatre (Marianne Ackerman's L'Affaire Tartuffe, dir. Guy Sprung); and Centaur Theatre (Schmitt's The Visitor, dir. Daniel Roussel, 2013).
In 2010, she played la mère Agathe in Tom à la ferme by Michel Marc Bouchard (dir. Claude Poissant, Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui). For the same role in the subsequent film, she was awarded the prize for best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle in 2014.
Lise Roy has also performed often on television and in film.
Since 2016, she is a theatre professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof.
Last updated 2021-09-21
Roy, Stéphane
Quebec-based set designer and art director, born February 9, 1963. Since 1988 Stéphane Roy has worked on over 100 productions in Montreal and abroad.
Among the theatres in which he has worked are Théâtre de Quat'Sous (Mensonges/Deceptions, and René-Daniel Dubois' Et Laura ne répondait rien); Espace Go (Oh! les beaux jours/Happy Days, Inventaire, Normand Chaurette's Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j'avais 19 ans, Daniel Danis' Celle-là, and Ionesco's Le roi se meurt in April 1999); Nouvelle Compagnie Théâtrale / Théâtre Denise-Pelletier (Henry IV, Antigone, Caligula); Théâtre du Nouveau Monde/TNM (Le Prince Travesti, En Attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot, and the 1999 production of Roméo et Juliette); and Carbone 14 (Peau, chair et os).
He designed Cirque du Soleil's Dralion (April, 1999); L'Odysée (TNM, January, 2000); Varekai (2002); Zumanity (2003); Kooza (2012); and Kurios (2012).
He also designs for opera and dance.
Stéphane Roy's work is extremely pleasing to the eye, and historically researched without being distracting. His design for Le Prince travesti was simplicity itself but still managed to provide the elements of romantic mystery necessary to the works of Marivaux.
Website: http://stephane-roy.com.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois.
Last updated 2021-09-21
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The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
