Kim Renders
Born(1955-01-14)January 14, 1955
Toronto, Ontario
DiedJuly 17, 2018(2018-07-17) (aged 63)
Kingston, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Ottawa
Known forFounding member of Nightwood Theatre

Kim Renders (January 14, 1955 – July 17, 2018)[1] was a Canadian writer, director, actor and designer and a founding member of Nightwood Theatre, the oldest professional feminist theatre company in Canada.[2]

Early life

Renders was born in Toronto, Ontario, on January 14, 1955, to parents Jo and Yolande Renders. She had two younger siblings, Micky and Peter.[3] Renders and her siblings were raised in Sarnia and Ottawa.[4]

Renders graduated from University of Ottawa in 1977 with a B.A. in drama.[5]

Career

In 1979, Renders co-founded Nightwood Theatre with Cynthia Grant, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White.[6] While working with Nightwood, Renders acted in such productions as The True Story of Ida Johnson (1979), Glaze Tempera (1980), Flashbacks of Tomorrow (Memorias del Mañana) (1981), Mass/Age (1982), Smoke Damage: A story of the witch hunts (1983) and The Edge of the Earth is Too Near, Violette Leduc (1986 - as Violette). Renders was involved in the collective creation of many of the works she performed in. In 1987, Nightwood performed The Kingdom of LoudAsCanBe, a show for children written and directed by Renders.[7][8] Of the four founding members of Nightwood, Renders was the only one to never hold the position of artistic director/artistic coordinator.[9] Renders left Nightwood's board of directors in 1989.[10]

In May 1980, Renders' play Soft Boiled premiered at the Rhubarb! Festival. She acted in the play alongside Maureen White. Soft Boiled #2, written and performed by White and Renders, premiered at the September 1980 Rhubarb! Festival.[7] Soft Boiled #3 premiered in at the November 1982 Rhubarb! Festival and featured Renders, White, and Cheryl Cashman.[11] The Soft Boiled shows were clown performances.[12]

In the 1980s, Renders was a member of the Toronto-based theatre company, Autumn Angel. Other company members were Richard Rose, Thom Sokoloski, Maggie Huculak, Stewart Arnott, Tanja Jacobs, Bruce Vavrina and Mark Christmann.[13]

She lived in Kingston, Ontario, where she was the artistic director of Theatre Kingston from 2007 to 2011. She was the artistic director of Chipped Off Performance Collective, a feminist/queer company that collaborates with local artists and community groups to create original performances that speak to the needs and concerns of marginalized Kingstonians.[14][15]

She also managed the TYA troupe Barefoot Players, and was a faculty member of the Queen's University Dan School of Drama and Music.[16] She acted in and directed works at the Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre and Nightwood Theatre in Toronto.[5][17]

Her one-woman show Motherhood, Madness and the Shape of the Universe was performed across Canada and Britain, and was adapted for CBC Radio; and her other one-woman show Waiting for Michelangelo opened at the Baby Grand Studio in the Grand Theatre Kingston in April 2009.[5]

In 2006, Renders became a professor at Queen's University in the drama department (Dan School of Drama and Music). She also taught in the department of gender studies.[18] In 2012, Renders was given tenure and appointed an associate professor.[3] Renders contributed several articles to the Canadian Theatre Review.

Works

Plays:

  • Gently Down the Stream[7]
  • Soft Boiled[7]
  • Soft Boiled #2 - co-written with Maureen White[7]
  • Soft Boiled #3[11]
  • Notes on a Tumour - co-written with Christopher Thomas[19]
  • Peace Banquet: Ancient Greece Meets the Atomic Age - co-written with Micah Barnes, Sky Gilbert, Dean Gilmour, Cynthia Grant, Charis Polatos, Judith Rudakoff, Philip Shepherd, and Maureen White[20]
  • The Kingdom of LoudAsCanBe[8]
  • Motherhood, Madness and the Shape of the Universe[21]
  • Waiting for Michelangelo

Canadian Theatre Review Articles:

  • "Required Reading" (2007)[22]
  • "Am I Seeing Double, or is This Shakespeare?" (2008)[23]
  • "In the Room the Women Come and Go, Talking of Growing Old" (2008)[24]
  • "My Uth Ink experience in Ottawa" (2011)

Awards

She was made an Honorary Member of the Association of Canadian Theatre Research for her role as founding member of Nightwood Theatre and was awarded the Maggie Bassett Award by Theatre Ontario for distinguished service to theatre in Ontario in 1995.[5]

Personal life

Renders married Robert Lindsay in 1987. The two met while performing As You Like It.[4] They had two children, Finn and Jill Lindsay.[3]

Renders died on July 17, 2018, in Kingston, Ontario, at age 63 due to complications from cancer.[25][26]

Legacy

The Storefront Fringe Festival installed "Kim's Couch" to honour Renders' contributions to theatre.[4] The Reelout Queer Film Festival named the Kim Renders Outstanding Performance Award after Renders.[27]

References

  1. ↑ Thornton, Kelly (July 17, 2018). "For Kim Renders". Nightwood Theatre. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. AU Press.
  3. 1 2 3 "Queen's remembers Kim Renders". Queen's Gazette. Queen's University. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Hendra, Peter (23 July 2018). "Friends, loved ones remember theatre pioneer, feminist, teacher Kim Renders". Gananoque Reporter. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Kim Renders". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. AU Press. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Nestruck, J. Kelly (6 December 2017). "For women's theatre, 'the game has changed'". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Scott, Shelley (1997). "Collective Creation and the Changing Mandate of Nightwood Theatre". Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada. 18 (2). Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  8. 1 2 Wagner, Vit (18 December 1987). "Director a natural for New Canadian Kid". Toronto Star. p. D12. ISSN 0319-0781.
  9. ↑ Scott, Shelley (1997). "Feminist Theory and Nightwood Theatre" (PDF). University of Toronto. p. 8.
  10. ↑ Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. Athabasca University Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-897425-55-8 – via Google Books.
  11. 1 2 Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. Athabasca University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-897425-55-8 – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. Athabasca University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-897425-55-8 – via Google Books.
  13. ↑ Kaplan, Jon (2001-02-15). "Looking for Richard". NOW Magazine. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  14. ↑ "About". Chipped Off Performance Collective. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018.
  15. ↑ Craig, Anne (2017-06-13). "Chipped Off returns to the stage". Queen's Gazette. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  16. ↑ "Kim Renders". Playwrights Guild of Canada. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  17. ↑ "Kim Renders Associate Professor". Queen's University Dan School of Drama & Music. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  18. ↑ Goulem, Brigid (30 July 2018). "Remembering Kim Renders". Queen's Journal. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  19. ↑ Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. Athabasca University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-1-897425-55-8 – via Google Books.
  20. ↑ Scott, Shelley (2010). Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. Athabasca University Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-897425-55-8 – via Google Books.
  21. ↑ Wagner, Vit (2 June 1994). "[Cobbling together one's personal observations about life, art or whatever ...]: [MET Edition]". Toronto Star. p. C9. ISSN 0319-0781.
  22. ↑ Renders, Kim (2007). "Required Reading". Canadian Theatre Review (132): 103–104. ISSN 0315-0836.
  23. ↑ Renders, Kim (2008). "Am I Seeing Double, or is This Shakespeare?". Canadian Theatre Review (33): 21–27. ISSN 0315-0836.
  24. ↑ Renders, Kim (2008). "In the Room the Women Come and Go, Talking of Growing Old". Canadian Theatre Review (135): 67–69. ISSN 0315-0836.
  25. ↑ Vilela, Cris (19 July 2018). "Kingston mourns the death of Kim Renders". Kingstonist News. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  26. ↑ Lin, Amanda (7 August 2018). "In honour of Kim Renders I am no longer keeping quiet". Kingston Theatre Alliance. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  27. ↑ "The 2019 Reelout Kim Renders Outstanding Performance Nominees Are In!". Reelout Arts Project Inc. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
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