When he was a child, Jonathan Christenson’s parents took him to the famous Stratford Festival in Ontario. “My parents would take me to see these huge Shakespearian productions,” he says. Productions that “imprinted on my imagination.” What he witnessed there not only inspired him, but, little did he know at the time, it led him towards a successful dramatic arts career.
It was 1993 when Jonathan entered the graduate program at the University of Alberta, focusing on Directing in the Drama Department — an opportunity “too good to pass up!” he says. It allowed him to “tell big stories … and recreate for audiences what I had experienced as a kid.” The experience was also a bit intimidating. “I had never really done any directing before,” Jonathan says. But, he also experienced a lot of freedom within the program.
He could work with large casts and rework classic plays, from tragic Greek tales to Shakespearian dramas. “At first, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this,’” Jonathan says, “but then, for me, it was like a fish to water. It just felt easy and natural.” Not long after graduating, Jonathan put his new skills to work as Artistic Director at Catalyst Theatre in 1996.
