Faculty and staff

Tetsuro Shigematsu, PhD, was born in London, England. At the age of 19, he became the youngest playwright and director to compete in the history of the Quebec Drama Festival. He has studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg, and Butoh with Kazuo Ohno. A former writer for ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’, Tetsuro was the first person of color to host a daily national radio program in Canada. His last three stage plays have received 21 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations, including three for “Best Original Script.” His solo work, ‘Empire of the Son’, was hailed by theatre critic Colin Thomas as “one of the best shows ever to come out of Vancouver. Ever.” His other solo piece, ‘1 Hour Photo’, was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General's Award for Drama. Tetsuro earned his MFA in Creative Writing, and PhD in Research-based Theatre at the University of British Columbia, where he was a Vanier scholar. Currently, he is co-leader of the LEAP program at The Arts Club, Creative Director of the Research-based Theatre Lab at UBC, and a teaching artist at the National Theatre School of Canada.