Mary Kerr on the set of The Toy Castle
Mary Kerr

BFA University of Manitoba
Professor
Design

Phoenix Building, Rm. 130
By appointment | Phone 250-721-7995
Marykerr@highspeedplus.com

Areas of Research & Creative Activity

  • Set and costume design: theatre, musical, dance, opera, film, television and video development of new productions in theatre, dance, ballet, film, musicals and opera.
  • Cultural anthropology, visual communication and aesthetics in 20th, 21st century.
  • Spectacle, special event and exhibit design.
  • Children’s entertainment.

Courses
THEA 261/361: Costume Design
THEA 355/356: Aesthetics/Ways of Seeing
THEA362/363: History of Costume
THEA 365: Assisting the costume designer
THEA 397: Directed studies in costume design
THEA 464: Special pursuits in costume design
THEA 465: Costume design for production
THEA 399/499: Theatre laboratory
Graduate design courses

Brief Biography

Mary Kerr has a distinguished career in Canadian and international theatre, dance, opera, feature film and television, as well as exhibition and special events design. As a production designer she has created for such companies as the Canadian Opera Company, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Danny Grossman Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, and most of this country’s regional theatres. In 1994 she was production designer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

Professional acknowledgements include seven Dora Mavor Moore Awards (14 nominations), and three Sterling Awards. Mary has represented Canada at such juried international design competitions as the Prague Quadrennial (1983 and 2003), and World Stage 2005. Design credits in television include The Toy Castle, a children’s dance series that is shown daily on PBS and around the world, and which in 2003 won the Gemini Award for Best Children’s program. She is the subject of special archival collections at the Metropolitan Toronto Library and The Paris Opera Archival Museum.

Mary's world premières include George F. Walker’s Nothing Sacred, The Big Top Ballet and Anne of Green Gables for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Christopher Butterfield’s dada opera, Zurich 1916, at the Banff Centre. Other acclaimed productions include CanStage’s Three Penny Opera, and Desert Song at the Shaw Festival. Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Mary is one of seven designers featured in Natalie Rewa’s Scenography in Canada (U of T Press, 2004). Mary is currently working on a new piece about Norval Morrisseau for The National Arts Centre.

Selected Professional & Creative Achievements

Recent scholarly publications

  • “Destinations, Navigations, Illuminations.” Review of Pat Martin Bates Exhibition. Border Crossings. November, 2005:102-103.

Recent professional achievements

  • Copper Thunderbird.Production Designer. National Arts Centre(opens May 2007).

  • The Toy Castle Stage Show. Production Designer. Toured five states of the U.S.A. including performances in New York City and Toronto (2005—2006)
  • The Toy Castle. Production Designer. Sound Venture Productions/Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Broadcast around the world on YTV, PBS, the Nursery Channel, Channel 12, TV12 (Israel), including India, Mexico, Singapore, Arab Territories, and Great Britain (2000-2005)
  • The Tin Soldier. Costume Designer. Sound Venture Productions/Ottawa Ballet (1993-2003)
  • The Big Top. Production Designer. CBC/Royal Winnipeg Ballet (1989-03)
  • Danny Grossman Dance Theatre. Production Designer. 28 world premières between 1975 and 2000 with international tours to Great Britain, U.S.A., France, Cuba, and Russia.
  • Creative Process of Mary Kerr. Art Director. May Street Productions/Bravo! TV. Shown at film festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and in New York City at  the Museum of Modern Art.
  • Into The Woods. Designer. Citadel Theatre (2000)

Recent awards and honours

  • Named a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada, the highest honour given for scholarly achievement in Canada (2010).
  • Chosen as one of eight University of Victoria researchers profiled in the Vice-President’s annual Research Report (2006)
  • Awarded $8,000 Laidlaw Grant to create Colours of Love, a piece about Bella and Marc Chagall with Theresa Tova and Jen Herszman Capraru (2005—08).

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