At Sheridan, creativity and innovation are key parts of our character and mission. Sheridan’s 2017-2022 Academic Plan affirms our commitment to scholarship, research and creative activities (SRCA) as one of our top academic priorities. As a learning community, Sheridan supports a differentiated SRCA culture that is inclusive, broad, and engages our students, professors and the communities we serve. This commitment gives our students opportunities to collaborate with world-class external partners in order to further their learning, and their contributions to society. Sheridan’s Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP), one of Sheridan’s five research centres, exemplifies these values and this commitment.
Launched in 2011 under the direction of Michael Rubinoff, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design, CMTP is Canada’s first incubator for the development of new music theatre works. Through CMTP, students in our Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program help Canadian and international composers, lyricists and book-writers develop their musicals through workshops and staged readings. Since its inception, students have participated in the creation of 19 new musicals at Sheridan through the CMTP, four of which have had professional premieres, including the Tony-winning musical Come From Away.
To further support our commitment to SRCA and CMTP, I am thrilled to announce that Michael Rubinoff has been appointed Producing Artistic Director, Canadian Music Theatre Project with continued responsibilities as the Producer of Theatre Sheridan.
In this new role, which reports directly to me, Michael will provide leadership and an entrepreneurial focus to both CMTP and Theatre Sheridan. He will cultivate new funding streams, and continue to work on attracting international scholars in musical theatre to work with our students and productions. He will also be involved in helping chart the course for musicals that have been incubated at Sheridan, as the innovation shifts from the creative process internally to commercial reality. To fuel all of this work, he will retain responsibility for selecting the musicals and writers to incubate their new work as part of CMTP, and will also be accountable for engaging guest artists and practitioners in order to create Theatre Sheridan productions.
Our goal is to build on and enhance lasting and meaningful connections to other institutions, theatre companies, theatre practitioners and arts organizations in Canada and around the world. Michael has already built strong partnerships in the music theatre profession, allowing students to participate in international exchanges and to benefit from performing on stages from Toronto to New York City.
Please join me in extending congratulations to him on this exciting opportunity to further Sheridan’s leadership in musical theatre in Canada, across the U.S., and increasingly, around the world.
Brian Jervis
Vice Provost, Research