Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia

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Wright, Janet

Accomplished, versatile actor and director for stage and television, born in 1945 in Farnborough, England, died November 14, 2016 in Vancouver. Her family moved to Calgary in 1946, then to Saskatoon Saskatchewan. With her siblings Susan Wright, Anne Wright (b. April 1, 1957 d. March 23, 2023), and John Wright, she indelibly marked Canadian theatre, especially that of Western Canada.

Janet Wright acted lead roles in many of the country's top venues, including the Arts Club Theatre (Memoir, The Club, Miss Margarida's Way, Hedda Gabler); Neptune Theatre (The Seahorse); Theatre Calgary (Moon for the Misbegotten); Vancouver Playhouse (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Lie of the Mind); Manitoba Theatre Centre (Not Wanted on the Voyage); and at the Stratford Festival (Uncle Vanya, Shirley Valentine, King John, Eddy, Hamlet, The Bacchae, and the celebrated production of Les Belles-soeurs with her sisters Susan and Anne.

She also directed several important productions including the touring production of Ken Mitchell’s Cruel Tears; the Arts Club Theatre productions of Glengarry Glen Ross, Mabel Leaves Forever, and Fool For Love; the Grand Theatre, London, productions of Dancing at Lughnasa and Wrong for Each Other; as well as several productions for Persephone Theatre which she co-founded. In 1998, she directed the Stratford production of Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and in 1999 Stone Angel at Canadian Stage. She also appeared in the latter company's Les Belles-soeurs.

She appeared often in film and television, including a lead role in the popular CTV series, Corner Gas (2004-2009).

Her son, with former husband Brian Richmond, is playwright and actor Jacob Richmond.

Last updated 2024-04-03

Wright, John

Actor John Wright was born in 1951 and studied at the University of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. He died in Edmonton of kidney disease on January 26, 2025. Although based in Edmonton, Alberta for most of his acting career, he worked in theatres across Canada, from Halifax's Neptune Theatre to the Vancouver Playhouse.

A fifty-year veteran of the Canadian stage, he appeared in many productions of new Canadian plays: at Theatre Network in Excavations (2002) and All Clear (2004) by Eugene Stickland, and Palace of the End (2008, dir. Marianne Copithorne) by Judith Thompson ; at Alberta Theatre Projects in The Drawer Boy (2001) by Michael Healey, and Still Desire You (2007) by Paul Ledoux and David Young; at Workshop West Theatre in The Mighty Carlins (2008) by Collin Doyle, and The Seed Savers (2009) by Katherine Koller; and at Shadow Theatre in David Belke's That Darn Plot, and in Michael Melski's The Flyfisher's Companion (2007).

For Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, he played Sammy in W.O. Mitchell's Who has seen the Wind?; Peter Stockman in Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People; Scrooge in Tom Wood's adaptation of A Christmas Carol (2010); and Beverly Weston in August: Osage County (2011). He also performed in Of Mice and Men for Theatre Calgary and Canadian Stage.

With his partner Marianne Copithorne, he was a regular performer in the Free Will Players Shakespeare Festival in Edmonton since 1995, appearing in over fifty productions of Shakespeare's plays: Prospero in The Tempest (2012), Macbeth in The Scottish Play, Titus Andronicus, Leontes in The Winter's Tale, Claudius in Hamlet, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (2004 and 2017), King Lear (2013), and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet (2016). In 2011 a scholarship for needy children to attend Camp Shakespeare was named in his honour.

He exceled in idiosyncratic roles - the curmudgeonly, irascible, anti-social individual - but he had a wide range. Of his role as Dr. David Kelly in The Palace of the End, critic Liz Nicholls wrote: "John Wright fashions a portrait of guilty decency and atonement, coloured in pathos. His Kelly is addled and rather sweet, in the way of English storytellers. The effect is infinitely sad." (Edmonton Journal 1 Nov 08)

John Wright was also a television and film actor. His credits include: Mentors, MacGyver, The Beachcombers, Danger Bay, Ray Bradbury Theatre, and Small Sacrifices.

He was member of a talented and highly-regarded Canadian acting family, with sisters Anne Wright, Susan Wright and Janet Wright, and he was a four-time Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards (Sterling Awards) winner. In 2015, after announcing his retirement from the stage, he was awarded a Sterling Award "In Recognition of a Career of Extraordinary Performances." Despite his intention to retire, however, he continued to act in summer productions by Free Will Players, including a moving reprise of Shylock in 2017. His unforgettable performances in a wide range of plays - from Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies to new Canadian plays, were a catalyst for a thriving and diverse Alberta theatre community.

Profile by Anne Nothof, Athabasca University

Last updated 2025-01-27

Wright, Susan

Acclaimed actor, born in 1947, died tragically in a house fire in Stratford Ontario in 1991. She was a member of the Wright family from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who have indelibly marked Canadian theatre, especially that of Western Canada, including siblings Janet Wright, Anne Wright, and John Wright.

Susan co-founded Persephone Theatre with Brian Richmond and sister Janet, acting in, among others, the touring production of Ken Mitchell’s Cruel Tears. She played leading roles with most major companies across the country, including the Shaw Festival, Vancouver Playhouse, Neptune Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, and Grand Theatre, London.

In the 1980s, she played seven seasons at the Stratford Festival, including roles as Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor; Queen Margaret in Richard III; Paulina in The Winter’s Tale; Mrs. Webb in Our Town; the Citizen’s wife in The Knight of the Burning Pestle; and as Germaine Lauzon in an acclaimed production of Les Belles-soeurs with her sisters Anne and Janet. Her powerful and moving interpretation of the tragic protagonist in Brecht’s Mother Courage (1987, dir. John Neville) is particularly noteworthy. Her extensive tour in the one-woman play Shirley Valentine in 1991 was also highly acclaimed.

She won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for best actress in Lie of the Mind and New World.

She also had a solid career in television and film, including principal roles in Thick as Thieves, The Wars, and the series Adderly, and she won a 1985 ACTRA Award as Best Actress for the role of Elizabeth in CBC's Slim Obsession.

Profile by Anne Nothof, Professor Emerita, Athabasca University

Last updated 2024-04-03