Irene Sankoff
Irene Sankoff is a Canadian librettist and composer-lyricist, best known for co-writing the Broadway musical Come from Away with her writing partner and husband, David Hein.[1]
Sankoff was born in North York, Ontario, and double-majored in psychology and creative writing at York University, where she met Hein.[2] After graduating, the couple moved to New York City in 1999 where he worked at a music studio and she studied at The Actor's Studio and performed in theatres. They were in New York during the September 11, 2001 attacks.[2]
After spending several years studying and working in New York the couple returned to Toronto where Hein wrote a song, "My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding", about his mother and her later life partner. Sankoff and Hein expanded the song into a play that became a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2009 and then picked up by Mirvish Productions for a run at Toronto's Panasonic Theatre before touring Canada.[3][4][5]
As a result of My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding's success, theatre producer Michael Rubinoff approached Hein and Sankoff with his idea about a show based on Operation Yellow Ribbon in which residents of Gander, Newfoundland, housed 7,000 airline passengers who had been stranded at Gander Airport as a result of the grounding of all North American air flights following the September 11 attacks.[6] The couple visited Gander in 2011 during the 10-year reunion of passengers and locals, and subsequently wrote Come from Away based on the stories they learned there.[7]
Awards
Drama Desk Award
- Come from Away (Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical), 2017[8]
References
- ^ Morrow, Martin (March 30, 2017). "Q&A: Irene Sankoff and David Hein, creators of the Toronto-born Broadway hit Come From Away". Toronto Life. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Nestruck, J. Kelly (February 17, 2017). "Landing on their feet". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ "W5: My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding hits main stage". CTV News. November 21, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ "Review: My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding". CBC News. May 11, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ Ouzounian, Richard (December 14, 2015). "From Sept. 11 tragedy, a theatrical triumph". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ Wong, Tony (November 13, 2016). "From Gander to Broadway". Toronto Star. p. E2. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ "From Gander to Broadway" Archived November 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Toronto Star, November 13, 2016, Page E2. Tony Wong.
- ^ "Irene Sankoff Biography on BroadwayWorld.com". www.broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
External links
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- 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- Actors Studio alumni
- Canadian songwriters
- York University alumni
- People from North York
- Drama Desk Award winners
- Canadian musical theatre librettists
- Canadian musical theatre composers
- Canadian musical theatre lyricists
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- Female songwriters
- Canadian female musicians
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