Faith Deficit Episode 014: Darren O'Donnell

Faith Deficit

My guest today is Darren O'Donnell. Darren O’Donnell is a novelist, essayist, playwright, director, designer and performer. His books (published by Coach House Press) include: Haircuts by Children and Other Evidence for a New Social Contract (2017), Social Acupuncture (2006), which argues for aesthetics of civic engagement, and Your Secrets Sleep with Me (2004), a novel about difference, love and the miraculous. His stage-based works include White Mice (1998), [boxhead] (2000), and All the Sex I’ve Ever Had (2012), all produced by Mammalian. Darren was the 2000 winner of the Pauline McGibbon Award for directing and has been nominated for a number of Dora Awards for his writing, directing, and acting, winning (with Naomi Campbell) for their design of White Mice. His play [boxhead] was nominated for a Chalmers Award and he received a Gabriel Award for excellence in broadcasting for his CBC radio piece Like a Fox. Under his directorship, Mammalian won the 2010 Mayor's Arts Award for Youth, and his Mammalian Protocol for Collaborating with Children was awarded the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children Supporter Award in 2012. Darren has an MSc. in urban planning, a BFA in acting and studied shiatsu and traditional Chinese medicine at The Shiatsu School of Canada. Follow Darren on Twitter: @darrenodonnell Instagram: @o.darren Periscope: @darrenodonnell Snapchat: photoshine

In this episode, we discuss Darren's work in theatre, his unusual casting choices, and how a psychotic breakdown when he was younger lead to a spiritual awakening.