Photo by Kristen Sawatsky
Cherissa Richards is a Dora Award winning director and an actor who has been working at theatres across the country for over 20 years. Her love affair with directing began in 2015 when she was asked to direct Michel Miller’s The Power of Harriet T at Manitoba Theatre for Young People. Since then, she has worked coast to coast as a director.
For the 25/26 season Cherissa will be directing the following projects: Stag and Doe at Thousand Islands Playhouse, Serving Elizabeth at Prairie Theatre Exchange, The Lightning Thief at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, The Last Wife at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and a co-production of Primary Trust with The Grand Theatre and Crow's Theatre.
Her production of the Canadian Premier of Red Velvet at Crow's Theatre received 6 Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, winning Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production in the General Theatre category.
Other past projects Cherissa is proud to have directed include Shedding a Skin Co-Pro with Nightwood/Buddies in Bad Times, Controlled Damage Co-Pro with Neptune/NAC Rapunzel: A Merry (Hairy) Holiday Panto with Capital Theatre Port Hope, Deadline with the National Theatre School of Canada, Sleuth at Vertigo, the World Premiere production of Fall on Your Knees as Assoc. Director, Julius Caesar and Harlem Duet with Bard on the Beach, Trouble in Mind-Co-Pro with RMTC and Citadel, Meet Me at Dawn with Theatre by the River, and the world premiere of Backstage at Carnegie Hall an Opera with Montreal’s BW Workshop.
She has completed directing internships with The Stratford Festival, The Shaw Festival, and Bard on the Beach, and have assisted a number of renowned directors across Canada. Cherissa is the 2021 recipient of Crow’s Theatre’s RBC Rising Star Emerging Director Prize, and was one of the directing fellows in Why Not Theatre’s 2021 This Gen Fellowship. She holds a directing diploma from The National Theatre School of Canada’s Independent Study program, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from York University.
As a Black mixed race female director Cherissa's mandate to do work that challenges her, inspires her and allows her to bring all of herself, her culture and her soul into the room. Collaboration is in the forefront of her practice and engaging with a team to create brave, exciting work that connects with audiences and invites them to deeply engage with the art is why she creates theatre.
Mentorship is Cherissa's greatest passion and she strives to uplift artists of colour, and give artists of the next generation the opportunity to share their voices and tell their stories.
For the 25/26 season Cherissa will be directing the following projects: Stag and Doe at Thousand Islands Playhouse, Serving Elizabeth at Prairie Theatre Exchange, The Lightning Thief at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, The Last Wife at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and a co-production of Primary Trust with The Grand Theatre and Crow's Theatre.
Her production of the Canadian Premier of Red Velvet at Crow's Theatre received 6 Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, winning Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production in the General Theatre category.
Other past projects Cherissa is proud to have directed include Shedding a Skin Co-Pro with Nightwood/Buddies in Bad Times, Controlled Damage Co-Pro with Neptune/NAC Rapunzel: A Merry (Hairy) Holiday Panto with Capital Theatre Port Hope, Deadline with the National Theatre School of Canada, Sleuth at Vertigo, the World Premiere production of Fall on Your Knees as Assoc. Director, Julius Caesar and Harlem Duet with Bard on the Beach, Trouble in Mind-Co-Pro with RMTC and Citadel, Meet Me at Dawn with Theatre by the River, and the world premiere of Backstage at Carnegie Hall an Opera with Montreal’s BW Workshop.
She has completed directing internships with The Stratford Festival, The Shaw Festival, and Bard on the Beach, and have assisted a number of renowned directors across Canada. Cherissa is the 2021 recipient of Crow’s Theatre’s RBC Rising Star Emerging Director Prize, and was one of the directing fellows in Why Not Theatre’s 2021 This Gen Fellowship. She holds a directing diploma from The National Theatre School of Canada’s Independent Study program, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from York University.
As a Black mixed race female director Cherissa's mandate to do work that challenges her, inspires her and allows her to bring all of herself, her culture and her soul into the room. Collaboration is in the forefront of her practice and engaging with a team to create brave, exciting work that connects with audiences and invites them to deeply engage with the art is why she creates theatre.
Mentorship is Cherissa's greatest passion and she strives to uplift artists of colour, and give artists of the next generation the opportunity to share their voices and tell their stories.
