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Bio

Dorothy Dittrich is an award winning playwright, composer, sound designer, and musical director. Her most recent play, The Piano Teacher, is the recipient of the Governor General’s award for English-language drama. An Arts Club Theatre Silver Commission, it went on to win the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script. Other of Dorothy’s plays include The Dissociates, Lesser Demons, Two Part Invention, and If the Moon Falls. Her musical When We Were Singing has been produced across Canada from The Belfry, to Buddies in Bad Times, the National Arts Centre, and in the U.S. It was workshopped at the Manhattan Theatre Company in New York City.

Dorothy’s work – including sound design and musical direction – has garnered her a number of Jessie Awards and nominations including two Dora Mavor Moor nominations for When We Were Singing. She is the proud recipient of the Sydney J. Risk Prize for Emerging Playwright.

A graduate of Simon Fraser University, Dorothy has a Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies. Originally a Vancouver resident, Dorothy has recently moved to Vancouver Island where she continues to write and play music.

Published Plays

The Piano Teacher – Talonbooks

Awards & Nominations

The Piano Teacher 

  • Governor General’s Award for English speaking Drama – 2022
  • Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script
  • Nominated for Best Actress and Sound Design

When We Were Singing

  • Jessie Richardson Award for Best Original Script
  • Jessie Richardson Award for Musical Direction
  • Jessie Richardson Award for Ensemble
  • Nominated for Best Production
  • Nominated for two The Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Musical Direction and Best Production

Dorothy has also received three additional nominations for Sound Design, Original Composition and Musical Direction.

  • Academic Award – The Paul Tai Yip Ng Memorial Award from SFU – an annual awarding of a prize to a student who has composed an outstanding paper on intercultural issues, particularly as they apply to people in or from Canada and the Asia Pacific region.
  • The Sydney J Risk Prize for Emerging Playwright

Writer in residence at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto where the first draft of “The Dissociates” was written.

"As a piece of writing, The Piano Teacher is an impressive accomplishment"

Colin Thomas