RTS Graduate Lisa Codrington Nominated for
Governor General’s Award
Toronto, ON, November 20, 2006 … Lisa Codrington, a recent graduate of Ryerson
Theatre School’s four-year BFA acting program has been nominated as a finalist for the
2006 Governor General’s Literary Awards for Literature for her play Cast Iron. A
total of 68 books have been nominated for this year’s awards in the categories of fiction,
nonfiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation. The
winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 21.
One of five nominees in the English drama section, Codrington’s play was praised as a
“a luminous, one-woman memory play, relating the life story of Libya Geraldine Atwell.
Through the musicality of Bajan dialect, Libya embodies the many characters who shaped
her history, from the cane fields of Barbados to her nursing home in Winnipeg. Codrington
conveys the tragic story of Libya’s life with rich layers of wit and contradiction.”
Codrington first began writing Cast Iron for her performance studies class with Sheldon
Rosen at Ryerson Theatre School. He encouraged her to develop the idea, and eventually
she performed Cast Iron herself in the 2002 Toronto Fringe Festival. The play was further
workshopped through Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program, and was presented
at Tarragon Theatre in 2005 by Nightwood Theatre in association with Obsidian Theatre.
Cast Iron toured Barbados last year.
Lisa Codrington is playwright-in-residence at Theatre Direct for the 2006/2007 season. She
is also co-director of Youth Initiatives at Nightwood Theatre, where she now coordinates the
Write From the Hip program. Currently, Lisa is performing in Trey Anthony’s 'da kink in my
hair in London’s West End.
Under the direction of Chair Perry Schneiderman since 2000, Ryerson Theatre School
(RTS) continues to build a national reputation as a centre of excellence for the training of
actors, dancers and production personnel. Celebrating its 35 th Anniversary this season, the
Theatre School has developed a reputation for providing rigorous training while encouraging
students to become independent, self-initiating artists.
-30Media contact:
Luisa Trisi
Director of Public Relations, Ryerson Theatre School
(416) 979-5118