Malazdrewich, Heidi2025-08-212025-08-212025-10-192025-08-19http://hdl.handle.net/1993/39241The role of the director in Anglophone Canadian theatre has undergone a transformation. Beginning around 2014, this shift saw the hierarchical model of the position come into question from multiple sources resulting in the development of a suite of new methodologies and creative collaborators that are actively shifting the role of the director into a malleable process structure accountable to both the artistic ensemble and the audience. This new liminal reality reflects a more peaceable sensibility. This study begins with an exploration of the development of professional Anglophone direction in Canada, linking back to the European tradition with a focus on the rise of the professional director, the birth of the Stratford Festival, and the impact of Tyrone Guthrie on the profession. The next six chapters each represent one methodology or position that is functioning to dismantle or re-shape the previously idealized model of the hierarchical director. The first of these chapters, Chapter 4, focuses on decolonization and Indigenization within the process of theatrical direction. Chapter 5 charts significant milestones in antiracist practices in professional directing in Canada. Chapter 6 chronicles the emergence of cultural consultants as new collaborators within the field of professional theatre. Chapter 7 is an inquiry into accessibility practices that inform professional directorial processes while highlighting disability justice frameworks and the social model of disability. Chapter 8 is dedicated to presenting how trauma informed practice/care is changing the way directors are interacting within rehearsal halls and auditions. Lastly, Chapter 9 provides an overview and outline of the profession of intimacy direction and reflects on how this new position alters the role of the director. The conclusion offers examples of how public calls for change within the culture of professional theatre in Canada have reshaped how directors are working. It proposes the new term “peaceable direction” (a liminal process structure that values flexibility over hierarchy) as a container for all these changes, calls attention to two new collaborative artistic positions, and posits that previously marginalized equity-based artistic practices have become part of mainstream directorial process since 2014.engCanadianTheatreDirecting