Festival 2019 — St. John's
April 21-27, 2019
Awards
- Off·Broadway Players, Corner Brook - “The Pillowman”
- Stephen Perchard - Off·Broadway Players, Corner Brook - “The Pillowman”
- Ruth Simmons - Northern Lights Theatre Company, Labrador West - as Mary Johnny in “A Skull In Connmara”
- Mike Payne - Off·Broadway Players, Corner Brook - as Kasturian in “The Pillowman”
- Michelle Lambert - School Zone Productions, St. John's - as Freeman Bennett in “Jack Meets The Cat And Other Tales”
- Marty Byrne - Northern Lights Theatre Company, Labrador West - as Martain Hanlon in “A Skull In Connmara”
- Colin O'Keefe - St. John's Players, St. John's - as Mercutio of Verona in “The Maltese Bodkin”
- Jenelle Welshman, Jackie Hibbs & Carolann Hayden - St. John's Players - “The Maltese Bodkin”
- Sheldon Parsons - Off·Broadway Players, Corner Brook - “The Pillowman”
- Lou McDonald - Off·Broadway Players, Corner Brook - “The Pillowman”
- Jamie Skidmore - School Zone Productions, St. John's - “Jack Meets The Cat And Other Tales”
- Jon Aylward - St. John's Players - as Donaldbain & Sir Richard Ratcliffe in “The Maltese Bodkin”
- Emily Philpott - Mokami Players - Happy Valley·Goose Bay - as Lauren “Circle Mirror Transformation”
Adjudicator Discretionary Awards
- Deanna Skinner & Elaine Condon - School Zone Productions, St. John's - “Jack Meets The Cat And Other Tales”
- Mokami Players - Happy Valley·Goose Bay - “Circle Mirror Transformation”
David Ferry – 2019 NL Drama Festival Adjudicator
Profile by Anne Nothof, Athabasca University. Additional information from Richard Ouzounian. Toronto Star 2 Aug 2008.
Updated by David Ferry, October 2015.
David Ferry grew up in St. John's. His first stage role was in the St. John's Players production (Tomorrow Will Be Sunday) that opened the A&CC May 22, 1967 to launch the Centennial Year Dominion Drama Festival finals. In fact, David was honoured to speak the first dramatic words on the A&CC stage (well if you don't count Joseph Smallwood's opening remarks..with his patented dramatic delivery!)
David went on to become the first NL actor (along with the late Brenda Devine) accepted to attend the National Theatre School of Canada. He has gone on from his graduation from the NTS to become an award winning director, actor and dramaturge. David has worked extensively as an award winning actor on stage in Canada and the U.S. in a career that has spanned 50 years, performing on and off Broadway, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and at all the major Canadian regional and alternative. David acted in London, L.A., Toronto (Royal Alex) and five cities in Australia in The Last Confession starring famed British actor David Suchet . He also performed in the Modern Times Theatre production of The Lesson for which he received a Best Actor DORA award nomination. He played Romeo in 2014 in The Last Days of Romeo and Juliet, a rendition of the classic which is set in a retirement home.
Other Recent Theatre Credits include: Layer 1 in Out the Window for Toronto's Luminato Festival; James Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night (Victoria Critics Award); George in Of Mice And Men; Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (Victoria Critics Choice Best Performance Award.) The Man in Jez Butterworth's The River for Coal Mine Theatre. He featured in Richard III and Titus Andronicus and played Captain Ahab in Morris Panych's adaptation of Moby Dick for the Stratford Festival. In Toronto David won the Toronto Critics Best Actor award for his performance in Blackbird. He has been nominated multiple times for DORA best actor awards, winning for his work as Edward in Someone To Watch Over Me; Ian in the Canadian Premiere of Sarah Kane's Blasted (for which he won the inaugural Toronto Critics Best Actor award;) Shannon in Night of the Iguana; Iago in Othello; Mike Daisey in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs; Gordius Carbuncle in Eternal Hydra. In May David starts rehearsal for the title role in Ibsen's The Master Builder in Victoria.
He has worked extensively in film and TV as well including a recurring role in the 2017 hit Marvel/FX Network series Legion; as well as a recurring role in the new CTV series The Detail. Recently he has played leading roles in Ransom; Designated Survivor; Mary Kills People; Hell on Wheels and Mr D. He guest starred in an episode of Private Eyes and featured in the web series Cold. He appeared in an episode of Matthew Weiner's The Romanoffs on Amazon Prime. He featured in An Officer and a Murderer; Man of the Year (with Robin Williams); Dolly in the cult hit Boondock Saints and its sequel All Saints Day. David was a regular on the CTV series Dan for Mayor and has appeared in Suits, Haven, The Republic of Doyle, and was a regular in Across the River in Motor City. He has been nominated for Genie and Gemini awards.
David first acted professionally in Radio Drama in 1967 in St. John's out of the old CBC radio studios and has acted extensively in that genre over his whole career, including starring in the CBC series Midnight Cab penned by James Nicol as taxi-driving sleuth Walker Devereaux for 5 seasons. He won the ACTRA Radio Best Actor Nellie award for his work in JOHN on CBC's Canadian Free Theatre. Recently David has directed the audio book adaptation of Margaret Atwood's graphic novel series Angel Catbird for Audible. He has recently finished reading the Audio books Sweetland (Michael Crummey) and First Snow, Last Light (Wayne Johnston) and has directed seven other audio books for Penguin including Crummey's The Wreckage and his latest novel, The Innocents.
David is also an award winning theatre director who has worked in Canada and abroad.
He recently directed Freud's Last Session in Toronto; Breathing Corpses for Coal Mine Theatre as well as the sell-out hit production (to universal rave reviews) of BULL at The Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto. He directed another hit, David Hare's Stuff Happens at The National Arts Centre main stage in Ottawa (Ottawa Critics Best Production award.) In late 2014 he directed, designed and co-starred in Blackbird in Toronto which earned best production and direction nominations at the 2014 MyEntertainmentWorld awards, and for which David won best actor. He also was nominated for a DORA best director award (and designed sets and lights) of Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie for RedOne Theatre in Toronto. He also directed the new works Life of Jude and Entitlement as part of Toronto's 2013 Summerworks Festival. He directed Daniel MacIvor's Inside as a Luminato Festival commission as well as a production of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie and he directed and dramaturged the first developmental workshop of Come From Away. He won a best direction DORA award for his direction of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for which he also co-won a best lighting design award. He directed the world premiere in Italian (and its successful remount) of Alias Godot for Festival Intercity in Florence, Italy.
He is a published writer and editor- most recently his short story April's Fool was published in Riddle Fence and he edited a history of Theatre Passé Muraille (Beyond Walls) for Porcupine's Quill Press. He is currently developing a theatre adaptation of Ron and Connie Hynes CD 11/11. He has also produced a collection of Canadian dialects for actors titled Canajun, Eh?
David currently volunteers as a reader/recording technician for CNIB (following in the footsteps of his father Denys who read books for CNIB St. John's for years.)
