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Manitoba’s theatre community is mourning the sudden death of Ian Ross, a well-known Métis-Ojibway playwright, storyteller and educator who died Wednesday at the age of 57.
“It’s a massive, massive loss for everyone that knew Ian, for the theatre community and for the greater community,” Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre artistic director Kelly Thornton said.
“He had such a huge impact on so many people.”
Ross, who was born in McCreary, Man., in April 1968, later moved to Winnipeg and earned a bachelor’s degree in film and theatre from the University of Manitoba.
His play fareWel — a dark comedy about life on a fictional First Nations reserve — premiered at Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange in 1996 and went on to receive the Governor General’s Award for English Drama, making Ross the first Indigenous playwright to ever earn that honour.
That play was later invited to be performed the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001.
Ross was the author of several other plays including, The Gap, Heart of a Distant Tribe, An Illustrated History of the Anishinabe and Baloney, a play for young audiences that addressed themes of poverty.
More recently, his play The Third Colour premiered at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 2019.
Ross was also well known for creating the character “Joe from Winnipeg,” who appeared in segments he wrote and performed on CBC Radio and TV in the 1990s. Several of the Joe from Winnipeg monologues were also later published in two books, The Book of Joe and Joe from Winnipeg.
Playwright Ian Ross — in character as Joe from Winnipeg — weighs in on the Pokemon craze in this segment that aired on CBC Manitoba’s 24 Hours newscast on Nov. 16, 1999.
Despite those accomplishments, the Royal MTC’s Thornton said one of the things Ross was most proud and passionate about was his work to help educate and support other Indigenous playwrights in Manitoba, and help them to tell their stories.
In 2020, Ross began leading RMTC’s Pimootayowin Creators Circle program, which supports the development of new plays by Manitoba-based Indigenous artists, and has helped several local Indigenous artists see their plays produced for the first time.
“He empowered people in the way he taught them and the way he led them to find their stories, so it’s a terrible loss,” Thornton said.
“His work was not, by any means, done, which is the real tragedy of it all.”
Ross, who had also taught theatre at both the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, was also known for his lighthearted teaching style which often included humour and laughter, she said.
“He taught on Monday nights in our building, and just the laughter that goes on in that room when he’s teaching,” she said.
“He just left a lot of love behind, and that love is just going to continue to shine in his absence.”
When her own play, The Secret to Good Tea, premiered at RMTC in 2023 through the Pimootayowin Creators Circle, playwright Rosanna Deerchild — who hosts CBC Radio’s Unreserved — said she learned a lot from Ross.
“I refer to him as Ojibway-wan Kenobi, because he’s a Jedi knight,” she said at the time, in reference to the wise teacher from the Star Wars series.
“He told us to write the last scene first … because [then] you know the destination you’re trying to get to.”
In this segment that aired April 2, 1998, CBC arts reporter Robert Enright spoke with Ian Ross about his life and career, including his Governor General’s Award-winning play fareWel, his “Joe from Winnipeg” series on CBC, and Baloney, a play he wrote for young audiences.
Many will remember Ross as a “consummate storyteller,” said Thornton.
“Any opportunity he was ever given to tell a story, he would tell a story,” she said.
“And some of them would be long and winding paths, and finally you would get to, like, the source of knowledge and that little gem that he wanted to share with you.”
The Pimootayowin Creators Circle program will continue, in hopes of continuing Ross’s vision, she said.
“Indigenous storytelling is so essential,” she said.
“I value what he did coming here and starting Pimootayowin.… That legacy has to live on, and these stories have to be told on stages and shared together.”
