Sunny Drake is a playwright, theatre creator and performer. He has toured his theatre works to over 80 venues in 55 cities across Canada, Australia, the US, and Europe, bringing challenging work to a wide range of audiences from elderly ladies in regional theatres to queers in underground warehouses. Touring highlights include: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), San Francisco International Arts Festival, Espace Libre (Montreal), Northern Arts & Cultural Centre (Yellowknife & Fort Smith), Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia), Nuovo Cinema Palazzo (Rome), The Basement Theatre (Brighton, UK), and he has been presented three times by the USA National Queer Arts Festival. His plays have been translated into 4 languages: French, Spanish, German and Italian. He has been in residence with the Stratford Playwrights Retreat (2018), Theatre Passe Muraille (2018/19), Nightswimming (2018), Factory Theatre (2017), Yaddo (New York, 2018), Playwrights Theatre Centre’s WrightSpace (2016), and one of his new plays, CHILD-ISH, is currently part of the National Arts Centre’s Collaborations. In 2019 he will be in residence at The Arctic Circle (onboard a tall ship in the high arctic), Djerassi (California) and Klaustrid (Iceland). He currently has six new theatre works in various stages of development. Sunny was the Director of the Emerging Creators Unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from 2015-2018. He was born and grown in Australia and is has lived in Toronto since 2011.
Sunny Drake is a playwright, theatre creator and performer. He has toured his theatre works to over 80 venues in 55 cities across Canada, Australia, the US, and Europe, bringing challenging work to a wide range of audiences from elderly ladies in regional theatres to queers in underground warehouses. Touring highlights include: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), San Francisco International Arts Festival, Espace Libre (Montreal), Northern Arts & Cultural Centre (Yellowknife & Fort Smith), Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia), Nuovo Cinema Palazzo (Rome), The Basement Theatre (Brighton, UK), and he has been presented three times by the USA National Queer Arts Festival. His plays have been translated into 4 languages: French, Spanish, German and Italian. He has been in residence with the Stratford Playwrights Retreat (2018), Theatre Passe Muraille (2018/19), Nightswimming (2018), Factory Theatre (2017), Yaddo (New York, 2018), Playwrights Theatre Centre’s WrightSpace (2016), and one of his new plays, CHILD-ISH, is currently part of the National Arts Centre’s Collaborations. In 2019 he will be in residence at The Arctic Circle (onboard a tall ship in the high arctic), Djerassi (California) and Klaustrid (Iceland). He currently has six new theatre works in various stages of development. Sunny was the Director of the Emerging Creators Unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from 2015-2018. He was born and grown in Australia and is has lived in Toronto since 2011.
Photo: Luis Mora
"One of Canada's brightest playwrights"
(Broadway World)
“Dazzling, unique, creative and innovative… ” (Calgary Sun)
“Theatrically sophisticated and accomplished” (RealTime Arts Australia)
Awarded the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize (2019)