About Me
A graduate of the Master of Arts degree from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham UK; the BA(H) Dramatic Art program and BFA(H) Acting program from the University of Windsor; and certification from Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium (GLMCC) in educating actors on the Michael Chekhov Technique. A classically trained actor and director with a focus on Shakespeare, opera and musicals. Dissertation focus: The use of Shakespeare's works in witnessing, acknowledging and archiving traumas in marginalized communities or The Other paying close attention to intersectional trauma and reflexivity within the performance of those traumas.
Participant in workshops with Michael Chekhov Canada and has completed workshops with the Stratford Festival in directing and with Shakespeare In the Ruff (Toronto) in acting. Education includes undergraduate research alongside Lionel Walsh, Assistant Vice-President, North American Recruitment at University of Windsor and co-founder of GLMCC and Michael Chekhov Canada, investigating the techniques of Vakhtangov’s practice of fantastic realism and organic acting. Graduate research supervised by world renowned faculty members of the Shakespeare Insititute. Co-founder and creative director in residence with Seven Siblings Theatre, a Toronto based independent theatre company that developed young artists through the Michael Chekhov Technique. Opera directing (assisted) debut with the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, continuing this journey with Abridged Opera and Opera Laurier.
My passion remains in service to the arts and community engagement through performance art and education. I find that most of the shows I work on involve young artists which has given me the practice and skill to educate, coach and direct through performance art.
Participant in workshops with Michael Chekhov Canada and has completed workshops with the Stratford Festival in directing and with Shakespeare In the Ruff (Toronto) in acting. Education includes undergraduate research alongside Lionel Walsh, Assistant Vice-President, North American Recruitment at University of Windsor and co-founder of GLMCC and Michael Chekhov Canada, investigating the techniques of Vakhtangov’s practice of fantastic realism and organic acting. Graduate research supervised by world renowned faculty members of the Shakespeare Insititute. Co-founder and creative director in residence with Seven Siblings Theatre, a Toronto based independent theatre company that developed young artists through the Michael Chekhov Technique. Opera directing (assisted) debut with the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, continuing this journey with Abridged Opera and Opera Laurier.
My passion remains in service to the arts and community engagement through performance art and education. I find that most of the shows I work on involve young artists which has given me the practice and skill to educate, coach and direct through performance art.
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Reviews
"Cymbeline, now getting a divinely inspired production at the Stratford Festival, is the everything bagel of Shakespeare’s canon...While its jam-packed action and ever-shifting genre has sometimes given Cymbeline a reputation as a difficult play to stage or follow, everything is crystal clear..." - J. Kelly Nestruck The Globe and Mail
The central virtue of [the] Stratford production of “Cymbeline” is that [they] roll with the play’s stylistic and thematic improbabilities and excesses, embracing audience laughter as revelations pile up and leaning into the swooniness of the more fancifully romantic bits... it makes for an entertaining evening overall. - Karen Fricker The Toronto Star
"From the grey mists that suffuse the stage during the production’s opening tableau to the ornate costumes that add the the play’s sense of grandeur, the audience quickly becomes immersed in a world where nothing is exactly as it seems... as “the magic within,” the cast and crew help foreground what’s magical about this play to create an enthralling production. Beautifully acted and wonderfully staged, Cymbeline is not to be missed."
- Bruce Urquhart Stratford Beacon Herald
- Bruce Urquhart Stratford Beacon Herald
"Edward Albee’s play is a marvelously absurdist, funny, dramatic and out of the natural and logical world. Erika Downie directs an energetic and superb production that revels in the theatricality, mystery and enigmatic variations of the play." - James Karas Reviews and Views
"This (Seven Siblings') production took me on a roller-coaster of emotions: from wistful and tender to confused and melancholic."
"This is a complex script with a lot of depth, and I think that director Erika Downie's take on it really fleshed out its layers."
"The action of the play is little more than talking and drinking, but the overall affect is quite persuasive due to some very dynamic body language and blocking. Director Erika Downie keeps the momentum up and never wastes any part of the space."
- Mooney on Theatre
"This is a complex script with a lot of depth, and I think that director Erika Downie's take on it really fleshed out its layers."
"The action of the play is little more than talking and drinking, but the overall affect is quite persuasive due to some very dynamic body language and blocking. Director Erika Downie keeps the momentum up and never wastes any part of the space."
- Mooney on Theatre
"Seven Siblings Theatre opened their production of Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby, directed by company co-founder Erika Downie... to a sold out house" - Life with More Cowbell