Darrell Wasyk is a Canadian film director.

Biography

Darrell Wasyk was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He worked extensively in both theatre and opera before making the transition to film.

Film

Making his feature film debut with H

H (1990 film)

-Plot summary:H is about two heroin addicts, Michele, Pascale Montpetit and Snake, Martin Neufeld, who struggle to withdraw from the drug. They do it “cold turkey”. Snake nails the apartment door shut: they are determined to come clean. Michele awakens to discover she has been “betrayed” by her...

, it won the Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

. The film was presented at several Festivals that year including the Berlin International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival

The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...

, the Hong Kong International Film Festival

Hong Kong International Film Festival

The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...

, the Vienna International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival

Palm Springs International Film Festival

Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January...

, the Birmingham International Film and Television Festival, and the Locarno International Film Festival

Locarno International Film Festival

The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...

, where it picked up two major awards, making it the first Canadian feature film to win an official prize in the festival’s 47 year history. In Canada, H was presented at the Montreal World Film Festival

Montreal World Film Festival

The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...

, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Festival International du Film de Québec, and the Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...

, where it won the Best Canadian Screenplay Award.

At the 12th Genie Awards

12th Genie Awards

The 12th annual Genie Awards were held on November 26, 1991, and honoured Canadian films released in 1990. The awards were moved from their previous March date after the disastrous ratings of the previous awards. The format was also changed and the eligible voters reduced to 130. The ceremony was...

 the film won a Best Actress Award for Pascale Montpetit

Pascale Montpetit

Pascale Montpetit is a French Canadian actress, born in 1961. In 1990 she won a Best Actress Genie Award for Darrell Wasyk's H and in 2002 for Mario Azzopardi's Savage Messiah, 2 Gémeaux Awards, a Jutra Award and a Mons International Festival of Love Films award. She is also a well-known stage...

, and also received two nominations one for Best Direction and the other for Best Original Screenplay.

Mustard Bath

Mustard Bath (film)

Mustard Bath is a 1993 Canadian film written and directed by Darrell Wasyk.-Plot:Matthew, a young medical student from Toronto, Ontario, returns to his birthplace in Guyana on receiving a letter from his mother three months after her death...

, Wasyk’s second feature film, made its world premiere at the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival, and then made its North American premiere at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, where it won a Gold Prize for the Best Dramatic Feature Film. Back in Canada, Mustard Bath screened at the Montreal International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

, the Festival International du Film de Québec, and at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

At the 15th Genie Awards

15th Genie Awards

-Best Motion Picture:*Exotica, Atom Egoyan and Camelia Frieberg, producers*Double Happiness, Rose Lam Waddell and Stephen Hegyes, producers*Louis 19, le roi des ondes, Jacques Dorfmann and Richard Sadler, producers...

 the film won a Best Supporting Actress Award for Martha Henry

Martha Henry

Martha Henry, is a Canadian stage, film, and television actress, who is best known for her appearances at the Stratford Festival.-Background:...

.

Television

In television, Wasyk has directed five episodes of Ridley

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

 and Tony Scott

Tony Scott

Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...

’s Scottfree/Telescene Film Group’s Showtime original series The Hunger, starring David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 and Terence Stamp

Terence Stamp

Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...

. Episodes include: Sloan Men, Anais, and The Lighthouse (1998), and The Suction Method and The Perfect Couple (1999).

Art

Wasyk’s art installations include Intermission, List, Intermezzo, Middle, and Liszt, Franz at the Wynick/Tuck Gallery

Wynick/Tuck Gallery

Wynick/Tuck Gallery is a privately owned Contemporary Art Gallery based in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The gallery has an active exhibition program for contemporary art in Canada...

, as well as On Going at the YYZ Artists' Outlet

YYZ Artists' Outlet

YYZ Artists' Outlet is a gallery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It displays visual art as well as artists’ film and video. It also publishes works on Canadian art and culture.-External links:*...

 both in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

.

Theatre

A student of the National Theatre School of Canada

National Theatre School of Canada

The National Theatre School of Canada is a private college located in Montreal, Quebec.Established in Montreal in 1960, the National Theatre School of Canada offers professional training in English and French in a setting that unites all the theatre arts: acting, playwriting, directing, set and...

 in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Wasyk went on to apprentice with Sir Peter Hall at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...

 on his productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

and Dame Janet Baker’s farewell performance of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Orfeo ed Euridice

Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...

. His apprenticeship with Sir Peter Hall continued on to the National Theatre of Great Britain, where he worked with Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

 on Other Places, and on Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

’s The Importance of Being Ernest

The Importance of Being Ernest

For the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest.For other uses see The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Ernest is an album by American country singer Ernest Tubb, released in 1959 ....

, both starring Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

.

In New York, Wasyk worked with Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

, directing the off-Broadway production of Out Cry

Out Cry

Out Cry is a play by Tennessee Williams which was one version of The Two-Character Play by Williams. Out Cry premiered at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago on July 8, 1971. It debuted on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre with a preview on February 28, 1973 and then ran from March 1-10...

. He continued studying at the Actors Studio

Actors Studio

The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...

, and later worked with Marshall W. Mason

Marshall W. Mason

Marshall W. Mason is an American theater director, the founder and for eighteen years, artistic director of the Circle Repertory Company in New York City....

 at the Circle Repertory Company

Circle Repertory Company

The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W...

.

Wasyk became the Associate Artistic Director of the Toronto Free Theatre from 1984 to 1986, as well as becoming the founding Artistic Director of his own theatre company 45.3, where he wrote and directed the Chalmers

Chalmers

Chalmers may refer to:* Chalmers, Indiana, a US town* Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden* Chalmers Automobile, a former U.S. car company* Chalmers , people with the surname Chalmers...

-nominated play In the Wee Hours. Other productions included Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

’s Baal

Baal (play)

Baal was the first full-length play written by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It concerns a wastrel youth who becomes involved in several sexual affairs and at least one murder...

, Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....

’s Ubu the King

Ubu Roi

Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the...

, Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

’s, Bluebeard’s Castle, and Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...

’s Killer’s Head. During the Shaw Festival

Shaw Festival

The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America...

’s 1984 season, Wasyk directed the first play reading series, New Works.

Feature films

Year	Film	Notes
1990 1990 in film The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....	H H (1990 film) -Plot summary:H is about two heroin addicts, Michele, Pascale Montpetit and Snake, Martin Neufeld, who struggle to withdraw from the drug. They do it “cold turkey”. Snake nails the apartment door shut: they are determined to come clean. Michele awakens to discover she has been “betrayed” by her...
1994 1994 in film 1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...	Mustard Bath Mustard bath A Mustard bath is a traditional English therapeutic remedy for tired, stressed muscles, colds, fevers and seizures. The mustard was thought to draw out toxins and warm the muscles, blood and body...

External links