Ashlie Corcoran - Artistic Producer
Originally from White Rock, British Columbia, Ashlie is a co-founder and co-artistic producer of Theatre Smash. For Theatre Smash, she has directed both Abi Morgan’s Tiny Dynamite, the company’s Dora-nominated inaugural production, as well as the staged reading of Lukas Bärfuss’s The Bus, co-produced by Theatre Smash and the Goethe Institute. Ashlie produced Theatre Smash’s second mainstage production, Norway.Today, and is directing Tijuana Cure.
A former Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio intern director, Ashlie directed the COC’s production of William Walton’s The Bear, and apprentice directed Ring Cycle, Faust and La Traviata. Ashlie has assistant directed for both the COC and UK’s Opera North.
Other directing credits include: The Secret Garden for Resurgence Theatre, Tijuana Cure for Summerworks Festival, Luminato Festival’s opera concert Luna, A Boy Called Newfoundland with Gateway Theatre, Electronic City for the Goethe-Institut, The Futures Market for The Wrecking Ball, Be Kind to Mimes with Alumnae Theatre, The Play About the Baby at the Battersea Arts Centre, Moo for Beyond Chutleigh Productions, Sad, Lion and Haunted for Driftwood Theatre Company, Jabberwocky for Studio 102, Heart’s Desire and The Lesson for Queen’s Drama. She has worked as an assistant director at Tarragon Theatre, (No Great Mischief, assisting Richard Rose), the Shaw Festival, (Afterplay, assisting Daryl Cloran), and Theatre by the Bay, (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet, assisting Daryl Cloran and Mark Wilson).
Ashlie began her training at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Drama. She received a Master’s Degree in Directing, awarded with distinction, from the University of London. These studies were funded through a British Foreign & Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship.
Other awards/grants Ashlie has received include: Theatre Ontario Professional Theatre Training Program Grant, Herstmonceux Castle International Study Centre Award and the Queen’s University Lorne Greene Award (given to a graduating student for excellence in theatre practice). Ashlie is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and has participated in a Goethe-Insititut / ITI directing internship at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.