David Rotenberg Popular Books

David Rotenberg Biography & Facts

David Charles Rotenberg, was a Canadian author and professor emeritus of theatre studies at York University, where he taught graduate students for over 25 years, as well at the Professional Actors Lab in Toronto, which he founded as the artistic director. David Rotenberg has been referred to as one of Canada's "most notable acting teachers and coaches," and may be the nation's best known master acting teacher. During the formative part of his career, he was a theatre director in New York City and staged two Broadway shows, returning to Toronto in 1987. In 1994, he directed the first Canadian play to be staged in the People's Republic of China, which inspired his career as a novelist, beginning with the five Zhong Fong mysteries set in modern Shanghai as well as the historical fiction novel Shanghai. After writing a series of speculative thrillers set in The Junction, Toronto, he began a science fiction series in 2017. He passed away on Nov 9, 2023. Early life and education David Charles Rotenberg was born and raised in Toronto, with three brothers. He is the son of Jewish parents: Dr. Cyril Rotenberg, a physician, and Gertrude Ruth (Gertie) Rotenberg, described as a "woman of initiative, of new ideas and steady values." David Rotenberg attended the University of Toronto and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He left Toronto in 1971. One of his younger brothers is the criminal lawyer and crime novelist Robert Rotenberg. Career Theatre director and graduate work (1971–1987) David Rotenberg went to British Columbia, teaching and setting up the acting programme at Simon Fraser University, staging a production of Bertholt Brecht's Baal in 1973. Rotenberg moved to the US, where he lived for fourteen years. He pursued graduate studies at the Yale Drama School, obtaining his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1976, specializing in directing. He lived ten years in New York City, with lots of freelance directing, plenty of regional theatre, and two Broadway shows: The News, and The 1940's Radio Hour. Having lived in Manhattan for many years, its influence continued to form the base for some of his work even after returning to Canada. Rotenberg moved further south, to New Orleans, where he was on the faculty of Tulane University. York University "lured him back to Toronto" with a job he "could not turn down". On a more personal level, Rotenberg moved back to Toronto because he wanted to be closer to his parents and three brothers, and he felt Toronto was a good place to raise children. Acting teacher and international director (1987-2023) Rotenberg made the move back to Toronto in 1987, where he began to teach graduate students. He had expected also to resume his directing career in his hometown, but he got a rude awakening, recalling: "I was effectively shunned," and was told to forget directing in Canada; there was no directing work, and he did not know why: "Perhaps if I'd gone to, let's say, Czechoslovakia to work, I'd have come home hailed as a hero. But that Broadway stint seemed to rankle those who were handing out directing jobs here."I was a professional theatre director ... with two Broadway shows to my credit, dozens of regional theatre credits and I ran a major American regional theatre so it was a bit of shock to me when I returned to Canada, where I'd been born and raised, to find that the Canadian theatre community wanted nothing to do with me. Apparently I was a traitor. If I had spent twenty minutes directing in Eastern Europe rather than twenty years directing in America I believe I would have been welcomed back by the Canadian theatre with open arms. Rotenberg continued occasionally to direct plays and television in Canada and abroad. In 1994, he was asked if he would be interested in directing a play to be produced in Shanghai, in Mandarin. Rotenberg imagined they wanted Shakespeare or a modern master, but it turned out to be Canadian George Ryga's The Ecstasy of Rita Joe: "Apparently, Ryga's play was the only Canadian play they had at hand in translation ... They wanted a Canadian director with varied skills and solid street creds, and someone who could work with students." Rotenberg accepted the engagement to put on the production at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the first Canadian play to be produced in translation in China with a Chinese cast and creative team. In 2012, Rotenberg recalled that on arrival, he was told "You must remember that you can always be replaced". The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is a contemporary story about a young First Nation woman who leaves the reserve for the big city, but the subject matter was not understood by the Chinese: "They didn't comprehend it at all ... When the set designs arrived, there were Indians with head dresses and war paint." Despite such cultural differences and working in a completely foreign language, the production was nevertheless a "limited success." Other teaching projects and screen coaching In 2000, David Rotenberg, together with David Julian Hirsh and entertainment lawyer Michael Levine, sent a proposal to the Canadian Film Centre to create a high-level training program modelled on New York's Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and on British companies that were training actors who could cross between stage and screen. Eight years later, the CFC announced the creation of a new actor's conservatory to train and market future stars of screen and stage, the first of its kind in Canada, as well as a separate international co-production training program, the Canada-U.K. Script Incubation Program, designed to foster cross-Atlantic collaboration between script writers with support from the BBC and CanWest. In the meantime, in 2004, Rotenberg had founded the Professional Actors Lab, Canada's most successful actor training program, with nearly 200 actors per term. For some time, two evenings a week, he has also been teaching a group of about a dozen hand-picked students in a small room "tucked into the basement" of St. Anne's Parish Hall, in Toronto's West End: Equity Showcase Theatre's Acting for the Camera class. Between the three institutions in which he has been directly involved, Rotenberg typically spent between 25 and 40 hours every week training and prepping actors. At any given time, Rotenberg was working personally with about 75 actors: "Hundreds of his St. Anne's alumni currently work full-time on projects in Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto and Vancouver." Among them are Canadian actors Tatiana Maslany, Rachel McAdams, Scott Speedman, Sarah Gadon, Ennis Esmer, Patrick J. Adams, David Julian Hirsh, Jonas Chernick, Shawn Doyle, Polly Shannon, and Demore Barnes. Many travel back to Toronto for Rotenberg's advice. Rotenberg has also taught at the National Theatre School of Canada, the University of Cape Town, and Princeton, and regularly teaches professional classes in other cities in North America. He served as acting coach for My Secret Identity and Friday the 13th: The Series and as a .... Discover the David Rotenberg popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Rotenberg books.