Don Rubin

Don Rubin (1942-) is a Canadian journalist, critic and academic.

Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, where he trained as an actor. He later moved to Canada where he became a founding member of the Department of Theatre and of York’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Chair of the Department for three years, and later Founding Director of the Graduate Program in Theatre Studies (MA and PhD), his areas of specialization today include Canadian Theatre, African Theatre, Criticism, Theatre Theory, and Modern Drama.

A key achievement in theatre studies has been Routledge’s prestigious and encompassing World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre (1994) which Rubin intiated and edited. He was also the founding editor of the national theatre journal Canadian Theatre Review. He is a member of the Executive Committee of IATC and Reviews Editor for their journal Critical Stages and he was also on the editorial board of the South African Theatre Journal.

Don is married to Patricia Keeney, a poet, novelist and theatre critic.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Among his many interests are African and South African theatre, and he and his wife spent 6 months in South Africa in 2006, Rubin teaching at the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department. Volume 3 of his World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre (1997) is focussed on Africa and contains a substantial section on South African theatre.