Eric Rose is an award-winning director, deviser, playwright, educator, and Artistic Director of Ghost River Theatre (GRT), one of Canada’s leading companies creating interdisciplinary devised performance. Described as a “creative earthquake,” Rose’s practice is shaped by his dyslexic way of thinking, transforming seemingly impossible ideas into bold theatrical experiences. His work spans immersive, site-specific, sensory, and large-scale creation, driven
by collaboration, imaginative research, and experimentation.

As a creator and director, Rose has developed numerous acclaimed productions, including The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, GIANT, STRUCK, Tomorrow’s Child, Echoes of the Land, A World Without Them, and Soft Squishy Things. His work has toured nationally and internationally and is known for its inventive integration of design, movement, sound, technology, and live performance.

For more than two decades, Rose has developed and taught his own approach to collaborative creation. He is the founder of GRT’s National Devised Theatre Intensive and has taught with organizations including the Young Vic in London, the Prague Quadrennial, Kathy Knowles Theatre Company in Ghana, Revolutions International Theatre Festival in the United States, and numerous universities, festivals, and arts organizations across Canada and internationally. He has served as Playwright-in-Residence at Alberta Theatre Projects and as an Artist-in-Residence with Macromatter in Berlin. Mentorship and creating spaces where artists can take risks, question established approaches, and develop new artistic languages are central to his practice.

Rose’s contributions to Canadian theatre have been recognized with the Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Artist Award, multiple Betty Mitchell Theatre Awards including Outstanding Production, Direction, New Play, Musical Direction, and Ensemble, two AMPIA Rosie Awards, and Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40.

He is also the co-author of Three Impossible Plays and the co-creator/co-director of the awardwinning streaming series So Dark the Sky. Current and upcoming projects include the international premiere of Soft Squishy Things at Schaubude Berlin, the development of FLOAT, a new immersive 3D spatial-audio experience for GRT, the feature screenplay The Real Werewolves with filmmaker Kyle Thomas for North Country Cinema, and his book The Devised Theatre Handbook: Practical Approaches to Collaborative Creation