JANET AMOS,
Honourary Member of ACTR / ARTC
Anne Nothof

Janet Amos is a woman for all seasons who has contributed abundantly to the life and vitality of playmaking in this country.  Her career as actor, director and educator has been an integral part of the development of Canadian theatre, including the “alternative” theatre scene in Ontario in the 1970s, the regional theatre scene in New Brunswick, the drama education scene at the National Theatre School in Montreal, and the community theatre scene at Blyth.  She has worked across Canada, helping to establish a network of play development and production – bringing Albertan plays and actors to the Blyth Festival in Ontario, and now, in her role of Assistant Professor at the University of Regina, bringing to the West a wealth of theatre history and experience from the East.

Janet was born in 1945, and began acting at the age of eight with Dora Mavor Moore in the New Play Society in Toronto.  She also studied with Marjorie Purvey at the Toronto School of Radio Drama in the fifties.  She graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in 1967, and in 1991 she completed a B.Ed. at the U of T.

During the 1960s Janet played at the Red Barn Theatre on Lake Simcoe, along with Martha Henry and Timothy Findley.  Her first professional acting engagement was with Theatre Toronto in 1968.  From 1972 to 1976 she appeared in Theatre Passe Muraille’s productions of The Farm Show, 1837, The Farmer’s Revolt, and Them Donnellys.  She also directed, stage-managed, and ran the lights for Operation Finger Pinky, a collaborative play about the problems and struggles of clerical and secretarial workers in the hierarchy of academia, focusing on the move toward unionization of the staff association at York University.

In 1979 she became Associate Director with James Roy of the Blyth Festival, and remained as Artistic Director until 1984, returning in 1994 to 1997 to reinstate the Festival’s artistic and financial health.  At Blyth she focused on commissioning and developing new Canadian plays relevant to the rural life and traditions of the community – by Ted Johns and Anne Chislett, for example.  As an actor at Blyth, Janet is probably best known for her role as Mrs. Aylmer Clarke in He Won’t Come in from the Barn by Ted Johns.  In its 33 seasons, Blyth has premiered 90 Canadian plays, many of which have been performed across Canada and abroad.  

From 1984 to 1988 Janet was Artistic Director of Theatre New Brunswick, where she again promoted Canadian plays.  Jamie Portman pointed out in 1984 that she was “the first woman to be entrusted with the artistic leadership of a major regional company.”  In an interview published in CTR in 1985, Janet explains that she is primarily interested in the people of Canada in her work – who they are and how they are different from each other.  For Janet, when a play that really works, “people are lined up to see it; and when they do, they laugh, they cry, they cry out, they shout, they stand up at the end, they argue about it, they are just wild about it.”

Janet has acted at the Shaw Festival, the Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Stage, and at Theatre New Brunswick as Maureen in Chislett’s The Tomorrow Box, and as Marilla in Anne, bringing “great restraint and discipline” to the role, according to one local critic.  

Her directing credits include a wide spectrum of Canadian plays such as Hunger Striking by Kit Brennan at Theatre Passe Muraille’s backspace in 1998; The Buz’Gem Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor at the Lighthouse Theatre, Port Dover in 2001, and Gone the Burning Sun by Ken Mitchell for the Globe Theatre, Regina.  She has also directed at the Grand Theatre in London, the Citadel Theatre and Stage West in Edmonton, Young People’s Theatre, the National Arts Centre, the National Theatre School, and George Brown College.    

Her investment in Canadian theatre history has come full circle with her appearance in The Clinton Project, a film which documents the creation of The Farm Show in a small community in Western Ontario, not far from the town of Blyth.  

Janet is also a playwright.  Her third play, Small Virtues, is about the mysterious disappearance of millionaire theatre owner, Ambrose Small, in 1919.  

In 1994 Janet was presented with a Blyth Citizen of the Year Award, and 1998 she received an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario.  In recognition of her significant contributions to Canadian theatre, the Association for Canadian Theatre Research has presented Janet Amos an honorary membership.