The recipient of the 2018 Silver Ticket Award is the highly acclaimed and esteemed actor David Fox, who is widely known for his remarkable and carefully crafted performances, as well as for his unwavering commitment to new Canadian work and his mentorship of younger artists. The Silver Ticket was presented to Mr. Fox at the 39th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards, held Monday evening, June 25, in the Winter Garden Theatre of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre.
A high school teacher prior to his first performance in Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Farm Show in 1972, forty-six years later, in 2018, he is still working at his craft. Over the course of a long and varied career, David Fox has traveled across Canada from coast to coast and worked in every conceivable theatrical space possible – from the Stratford Festival and Royal Alexandra Theatre to the tiniest of alternative venues, in both his home base of Toronto as well as elsewhere. David has made immense contributions to original Canadian plays through new play workshop processes where his skill and long experience as an actor provide an invaluable dramaturgical resource.
Many of David Fox’s memorable characters and performances are found in the countless plays in which he originated roles; and which went on to become some of the most iconic works in Canada. In addition to The Farm Show, he performed in the premieres of other historically significant collective creations under Paul Thompson’s direction for Theatre Passe Muraille including 1837: The Farmer’s Revolt and Them Donnellys. Other premieres of major Canadian works include Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy for Theatre Passe Muraille (1999 – for which he earned a Dora Award for his performance as the gentle Angus), George F. Walker’s The Art of War (1983, Factory Theatre), Nothing Sacred (1988, Canadian Stage), and David S. Young’s adaptation of the great Alistair MacLeod novel No Great Mischief (2004 and 2012, Tarragon Theatre), among others.
In tandem, David Fox has created memorable characters in works from all over the globe such as: the unrequited lover in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca (Soulpepper Theatre, 2014), the second-hand furniture dealer in Arthur Miller’s The Price (Soulpepper, 2011), the aging and terrifying “patriarch” in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child (National Arts Centre, 2009), the 30- something stewardess and others in Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon (Tarragon 2012), and many more.
Recently, David brought his talent, skill and passion to bear to create an unforgettable King Lear in a production by North Bay’s Watershed Shakespeare Collective at Theatre Passe Muraille (2015) which he followed in 2017 with his powerful, self-produced, oneman presentation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner at Toronto’s diminutive Red Sandcastle Theatre. He also won Edmonton’s Sterling Award for the Citadel Theatre’s The Invention of Poetry by Paul Quarrington as well as a Robert Merritt Award for Michael Cook’s Jacob’s Wake in Nova Scotia. David Fox’s colleagues in the theatre community are unabashed fans who speak about his unwavering principles, extraordinary humour, kindness, generosity and immense talent. He has played both mighty and modest roles; critics have hailed him as “venerable,” “watchable no matter what,” “remarkably versatile,” “utterly captivating,” and more. He is integral to Toronto’s theatrical history and has been committed throughout his career to a vibrant Canadian theatre.