Born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario, Daryl Cloran was the founder and first Artistic Director of Toronto-based Theatrefont. Graduating from Queen’s University, Daryl continued his education at the Canadian Film Centre and the New York Film Academy. Daryl has also directed for many theatres across Canada, including Theatre Calgary, The National Arts Centre, the Shaw Festival, and Neptune Theatre.
Daryl became the Artistic Director of Western Canada Theatre in 2010. Daryl Cloran's term through to 2016 was a time of great growth for the theatre and our engagement with the community of Kamloops and the Thompson-Nicola region.
Under Daryl’s direction, WCT’s audiences responded with great enthusiasm, and numbers, to the introduction of spectacular holiday musicals, such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat, Fiddler on the Roof (co-produced with the Kamloops Symphony), and Les Misérables. Audiences also welcomed explorations of the human condition, such as Where the Blood Mixes, Liberation Days and Educating Rita (starring Holly Lewis, Daryl’s wife), and laughed along with the zany antics of Made in Italy, Noises Off, Boeing Boeing, and The 39 Steps. At WCT, Daryl directed Peter and the Starcatcher, Les Misérables, Boeing Boeing, Fiddler on the Roof, and UBUNTU (The Cape Town Project), amongst others.
Daryl’s talent in matching the right shows to our community drew new audience members, with record audience numbers set last season, our 40th Anniversary, which was anchored by the immensely popular Mary Poppins. Subscriber, donor and sponsor numbers also grew as did their confidence in our consistent high quality.
WCT’s and, by extension, Kamloops’ national presence greatly expanded as our profile rose during Daryl’s tenure, with co-productions, tours and invited presentations taking our shows to audiences coast-to-coast, with many a stop in between.
Beyond the plays themselves, Daryl’s passion for providing opportunities for young, emerging, and regional talents has touched many areas of our organization, on stage and off. WCT’s Stage One Theatre School grew significantly, offering classes year round. We also introduced the TRU/WCT Young Company to provide young artists their first professional opportunities and a dedicated Family Series of shows to introduce young audiences to the wonder of live performances.
We continued WCT’s strong emphasis on the development and production of new plays by playwrights from this region, including world premieres of In A Blue Moon, Liberation Days and Never Shoot A Stampede Queen, and main stage premieres of new work by local playwrights Janet Michael (Habib’s Unforgettable All Night House Party) and Alan Corbishley (Silent Chap), as well as the introduction of our 40th Anniversary New Play Commission Program.
Continuing to build on WCT’s national reputation as a company dedicated to developing work by First Nations Artists and featuring Indigenous artists on our stage, we are proud of our incredible productions of Where the Blood Mixes, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, Betrayal, and Dreary and Izzy and our recent High-Wire developments of The Language Reclamation Project and Children of God.
Daryl left WCT to a position as Artistic Director of the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton. He returned twice in the 2016-17 season to direct our productions of The Comedy of Errors and The Cure for Death By Lightning (also adapted by Daryl).
Daryl has received the Canada Council’s John Hirsch Prize for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Director, the Toronto Emerging Theatre Artist Award, a Robert Merritt Award for Outstanding Director (Halifax), and numerous Dora Award nominations. In addition to his artistic skill, Daryl was honoured as one of Kamloops Business Magazine’s Top 10 Under 40.
Adapted from the Board's press release of May 2016.