The Walterdale Theatre is set to welcome a new artistic director

The Walterdale Theatre is welcoming a new artistic director for its 68th and 69th seasons. Joyanne Rudiak will take the reins of the theatre after the conclusion of the Walterdale’s current season.

Rudiak is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Arts in drama program and an after-degree in education. 

Growing up, she said that theatre always intrigued her. She was already a dance and music kid, but seeing a friend act out a scene in a festival sparked the idea of doing something in theatre herself. 

Rudiak worked her way up to the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) syllabus for speech arts and drama, and set her mind on being an actor at 15-years-old. An instructor later encouraged her to go into the U of A’s drama program.

“[The role] wasn’t really on my radar until a mentor of mine asked me if I was applying,” Rudiak said. “She said, ‘think about it, I think you’d be good for this.’”

So she started thinking about what a season could look like and how it would work.

“I’ve had plays and shows that I had been interested in or I worked on before, they were kind of flying into my brain. And the more I thought about it, I was like, you know what? I could really do this.”

“Even though I’ve been performing and directing and doing all sorts of things in the theatre community, I didn’t really know how a theatre itself or a theatre company worked,” she said.

She thought the role would give her an opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes of a theatre company.

“The more knowledge that you have in the industry that you work in, the community, then the better,” she said.

“There is a lot of talent and a lot of heart in the community,” Rudiak says

Theatre as a community-based art is a big focus for Rudiak.

“I hope that people see Walterdale as a place that is inviting, that is inclusive, and open to new ideas, new voices, and also recognizing that there is a lot of talent and a lot of heart in the community,” Rudiak explained. 

“Even though it is volunteer … the amount of work that goes into a season and each production and the resources that are available, I think is really quite special,” she said. “Highlighting those things, I think that’s kind of what I would want at the end of it.”

She said that theatre is also a way for people to hear new voices and to make them think.

“We get a really nice-cross section of our community and so that other people whose voices we haven’t heard as much of, maybe we get more people in that we haven’t represented before.” 

Ultimately, the overall goal is to produce good theatre that’s entertaining and bringing awareness to our social consciousness.