Meet the Creators – 2 Pianos 4 Hands

Ted Dykstra

Ted’s professional career began in Edmonton at age 15. Since then he has gone on to play leading roles on every major stage in Canada, from Hamlet at Theatre Calgary to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at The Citadel Theatre, and often combining his musical skills in such roles as: Mozart in Amadeus; Cale Blackwell, a character based on Jerry Lee Lewis, in Fire (seven Canadian theatres); Shostakovitch in Master Class (Manitoba Theatre Centre); Glenn Gould in An Evening with Glenn Gould (National Arts Centre), Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Crow’s Theatre); and Cousin Kevin in The Who’s Tommy (Mirvish Productions). School children around the world know him as Bach in the film Bach’s Fight for Freedom. He is a veteran of both the Shaw and Stratford Festivals.

As well as directing dozens of award-winning shows across Canada, he has acted in dozens of films and TV shows including The Expanse, Orphan Black and Reign, and has also voiced countless cartoon characters. Currently he is the voice of Dad Tiger on Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood (PBS).

Ted is the co-founder, with wife Diana Bentley, of Toronto’s hottest new indie theatre The Coal Mine, and is a founding member of Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto. He has directed, acted, composed, and written for dozens of productions for both companies.

His new musical, the smash hit Evangeline, was produced in Charlottetown, PEI for two seasons, as well at the Citadel Theatre. Currently he is composing music for Dion, a rock opera based on The Bacchae.

Ted has received six Dora Mavor Moore Awards, as well as Gemini, Merritt, Sterling, and Chalmers Awards, and has oodles of award nominations for acting, directing, composing, writing, and producing.

For him, all of the above pales compared to being the proud father of Theo, Rosie and Henry.

Richard Greenblatt

Richard Greenblatt is an actor, director, writer, and musician who has been a professional theatre artist for the last forty-six years. He was born in Montréal and received his acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. Since graduating, he has performed in theatres across Canada and abroad, as well as in feature films, television and radio. Favourite roles include The Fool in King Lear, Spinoza in Spinoza, The Father in Enda Walsh’s bedbound, and Charles Wakefield Cadman in Jani Lauzon’s I Call myself Princess.

As a writer, he wrote or co-wrote many pieces in which he has also acted, including 2 Pianos 4 Hands (which he performed approximately 950 times around the world), Sibs (also made into a TV movie for the CBC), The Theory of Relatives, i.d., Letters from Lehrer, Care, Athabasca and Soft Pedalling. He has directed well over 130 productions for theatres across the country, the vast majority being original and/or Canadian plays, including works by George F. Walker, Judith Thompson, Diane Flacks, Julie Tepperman, Shirley Cheechoo, Michael Healey, Jason Sherman, and David S. Craig. Classical works he has directed include plays by Shakespeare, Shaw, Brecht, Shepard, and Chekov.

He has taught acting, directing and play creation at almost all of the major theatre training institutions in Canada, including the National Theatre School of Canada, Ryerson University, University of Alberta, Humber College, and George Brown College, and directed numerous shows at those institutions. He has also directed the premieres of many ground-breaking and award-winning plays for young audiences. He has won numerous Dora Mavor Moore Awards as an actor, director and producer, and several Chalmers Playwriting Awards.

His book, Text and Context, published by Scirocco Press, a handbook for script work and directing in the theatre, is available on Amazon. He is currently writing a personal anecdotal history of 2 Pianos 4 Hands entitled Two of the Best in the Neighbourhood. He lives in Toronto with his spouse Tanya Greve, who is the Coordinator of the Production Program at Humber College, and their daughter Amelia. He is also the proud father of Natasha, Will, and the dearly missed Luke Greenblatt.