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Philip Akin

Performances

Philip Akin is an award-winning cultural leader and has been acting and directing for 46 years. He is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading Black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic Director from 2006 to 2020.

Selected Directing Credits:

Shaw Festival: Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress 

Shaw Festival: Gatsby Jazz, Sonny’s Blues by Jay Turvey/Paul Sportelli  

Young People’s Theatre: Million Billion Pieces by David Brock/Gareth Williams 

Obsidian Theatre: Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu 

Harold Green Jewish Theatre: Actually by Anne Zeigler

The Humans by Stephen Karam


Philip Akin has been the recipient of the Silver Ticket Award, the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award, the Playwrights Guild of Canada Bra d’Or Award, the William Kilbourn Award, the Herbert Whittaker/CTCA Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, as well as the Life Membership Award from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

He is currently the vice-president of the board for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (2009 to present) and a director on the boards of the Koffler Centre of the Arts, Against the Grain Theatre and the Shaw Festival.

His legacy awards program can be found at www.bsla.ca