“Pursue your drafts and one day you will realize your dreams.”
Robin Breon is an independent arts journalist with a publishing history spanning many years. He holds an undergraduate degree in theatre and communications and a masters degree in education. His reviews, articles and cultural essays have appeared in a wide range of media, including the popular press as well as academic journals. He was a founding member of the Toronto Drama Bench (1972) and currently serves on the executive board of the Canadian Theatre Critics’ Association, the successor organization to the TDB. Over the years his work has appeared in Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre History in Canada/ Recherches théâtrales au Canada, The Globe and Mail, American Theatre, Chronicle for Higher Education, TDR-Drama Review, Toronto Star, Muse, The Toronto Review, Our Times, Critically Speaking, Critical Stages, rabble.ca, ArtsJournal, Our Schools Our Selves, and others. From 1981 to 1988, he was administrator and publicist for Black Theatre Canada and from 1988 to 2008 he was program administrator for the Museum Studies Program at University of Toronto where he also taught arts journalism for the U of T’s School of Continuing Studies. As a playwright, he authored The African Roscius (Being the Life and Times of Ira Aldridge), produced by Black Theatre Canada at the Alumnae Theatre in 1986 (see Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre, OUP).
Currently, Robin is collaborating with composer Joe Sealy (C.M.), Juno award winner for best contemporary jazz album, Africville Suite, and actor/director/playwright, Andrew Moodie (Chalmers Award winner for Riot), on the libretto and score for a new musical entitled, Chappie Johnson and His (almost) All Colored All Stars inspired by the dramatic play, Ain’t Lookin’ by John Craig and George Luscombe which was based on Craig’s semi-autobiographical novel, Chappie and Me.