Newfoundland director to head NAC's English theatre

Jillian Keiley, an award-winning director from St. John's, Newfoundland, has been appointed the new artistic director of the National Arts Centre's English theatre department.

Keiley, the founder of Newfoundland's Artistic Fraud, has worked with artists and theatre organizations across the country, including collaborating with the playwright Robert Chafe to create Tempting Providence.

The play, which explored the courage of a London-born nurse who settled in rural Newfoundland, toured the country for a decade.

Keiley brought Tempting Providence and two other productions to Ottawa in recent years and worked at the NAC and the Great Canadian Theatre Company.

She will be directing Metamorphoses during her first season as Artistic Director of the NAC.

Keiley replaces Peter Hinton, who led the theatre program since 2005 but announced last year he was stepping down August 2012.

During his more than seven years at the NAC, Hinton shone a spotlight on both Canadian playwrights and aboriginal theatre.

He also is credited with reinstating the NAC's Resident English Theatre Company more than 20 years after it was initially disbanded due to cuts.