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Dorothy Dittrich

Playwright

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 DissociatesLesser DemonsTwo 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.

Works by Dorothy Dittrich

The Piano Teacher thumbnail

The Piano Teacher

By Dorothy Dittrich

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When We Were Singing

By Dorothy Dittrich

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Published Works

(Praise for The Piano Teacher:)

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

Colin Thomas

Moving and compelling. With this gorgeously written play, Dittrich has accomplished the remarkable. She brilliantly delves into a multi-layered exploration of love, loss, isolation and friendship, reaching beyond words to reveal the healing and redemptive power of music. She holds our hand on an unexpected journey through grief towards hope.

GG Books

(Praise for The Piano Teacher:)

Dittrich is a maestro in the art of capturing loss, composing a theatrical sonata stringing together the acts of grief. For the audience, it is a rich portrait of the realities of grief  that is sure to pull enough heartstrings to compose a song.

Cierra Bettens