Sprung, Guy, 1947- : Guy Sprung (b. Ottawa, 1947) is a Canadian director, producer, playwright, dramatist, actor, teacher, and literary critic. He completed his postsecondary education at McGill University in Montreal where he directed numerous productions of the McGill Players' Club (1968-69) and founded the Theatre XV company (1969). After graduating, Sprung travelled to Germany in 1970 where he began working as Assistant Artistic Director of the Shiller Theater in what was then West Berlin. In 1971, he moved to London, England, where he co-founded Half Moon Theatre with Maurice Colbourne and Michael Irving in 1972. He became its first artistic director, directing several professional and community play productions until 1975.
After returning to Canada in 1976, Sprung became active as Stage Director in several theatre companies. He gained a national reputation by directing iconic theatre plays of acclaimed Canadian playwrights such as W.O. Mitchell's Back to Beulah (Theatre Calgary - 1976) and The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon (Lennoxville - 1980), David Fennario's Nothing to Lose (Centaur Theatre -1976), Balconville (Centaur - 1979), Rick Salutin's Les Canadiens (Centaur Theatre - 1977), Ann Chislett's Quiet in the Land (Blyth Festival - 1982), as well as the touring production of Paper Wheat by the Toronto Free Theatre in 1979.
In 1982, Sprung was named Artistic Director of the Toronto Free Theatre and ensured its artistic management until 1987 - 88. During the same period, he also founded "Dream in High Park" or "Shakespeare in High Park" (1983), a free summer Shakespeare festival in Toronto's High Park, and worked as Associate Director at the Stratford Festival. In 1986-87, Sprung was appointed Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse, and then participated in the merger of the Toronto Free Theatre with Toronto's Centre Stage to create the new Canadian Stage Company (1988). He would eventually act as Artistic Director of the Canadian Stage Company along with Bill Glassco from 1988 to 1992.
Thoughout the 1980s and 1990s, Sprung continued to work as a stage director and directed well received and acclaimed productions, notably Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at Toronto's Alexandra Theatre, starring R.H. Thomson (1986) and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream presented in 1989 for the Pushkin Theatre in Russia.
Sprung was the Artistic Director of Theatre 1774 and of Infinithéâtre/Infinitheatre in Montreal from 1997 to 2021, directing numerous plays in both English and bilingual formats, notably Brecht's Endgame in a bilingual version that was presented at the Cairo Festival of Experimental Theatre in 2001.
Throughout his career, Guy Sprung has performed many times on stage, in film, and in television, and has done voice and narration work. He has also directed radio dramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, written and directed several documentaries in English and French, as well as produced a feature film, The Hat Goes Wild (2013), featured on the Movie Network in Canada.
Sprung has written several scripts for television and film, stage plays as well as adaptations and translations of plays (Will Wat, If Not, What Will? - 1972, Ripper! Get Off My Back - 1973 (co-written at Half-Moon theatre), Death and Taxes (2005) Prescription for Murder (2007), Fight On! (2016-2017). He has written a certain number of books and participated in several collective studies (Hot Ice, Directing Shakespeare in Moscow, 1992; The School (about the National Theatre School); The Art of W.O. Mitchell), as well writing book and theatre reviews for the Montreal Gazette. He has been a frequent contributor and commentator for various Canadian publications, including the Montreal Star, Maisonneuve Magazine, JEU, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Canadian Theatre Review.
Sprung has taught theatre and mentored at the Stratford Festival Youth Company, Vancouver Playhouse theatre School, Ryerson Theatre School, National Theatre School of Canada as well as at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal.
Guy Sprung has received a National Broadcasting Award for his radio drama On Guard For Thee (1995) and has been nominated several times for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for his theatre direction. Many of the plays he researched, developed, and directed the first productions of went on to win a Governor General's Award for Drama (Sharon Pollock's Doc and Quiet in the Land by Anne Chislett).
