In The Noam Chomsky Lectures—an angry, funny, political tirade—Brooks and Verdecchia challenged audiences to wake up. With Insomnia, the duo’s latest collaboration and a much darker show, awakening has become a curse. John is a man skeptical to the point of tyranny. So rigorously demanding of the world and himself that he has lost the power to sleep, he is driving himself and his wife to distraction. "Insomnia turns Chomsky’s politics inward—at what point, Insomnia asks, do healthy skepticism and reasonable doubt turn into paranoia and paralysis? Unfolding in a series of ever more surreal vignettes, Insomnia employs a powerful brand of non-linear, disorienting story-telling that skilfully focuses an audience’s attention."—NOW

Daniel Brooks has worked as a director writer, actor, producer, and teacher. He is a mainstay of this countryâ??s theatre, working with a network of Ontario-based writers, playwrights, and directors who virtually define the current scene (Guillermo Verdecchia, Daniel MacIvor, and John Mighton among them). He has been co-director of the Augusta Company and da da kamera, and playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre. He is currently Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company.

Among his works as a writer are The Return of Pokey Jones (Poor Alex Theatre, 1985), The Noam Chomsky Lectures (with Verdecchia, Great Canadian Theatre Company, 1992), The Lorca Play (with MacIvor, Theatre Centre, 1992), Here Lies Henry (with MacIvor, Buddies in Bad Times, 1996), and Insomnia (with Verdecchia, Theatre Centre, 1997).

He has also directed several works, notably MacIvorâ??s House (1992), Mightonâ??s Possible Worlds (1998), Faust (Tarragon Theatre, 1999), Soulpepperâ??s production of Becketâ??s Endgame (1999), and Mightonâ??s Half Life.

Daniel has won several awards, including the Chalmers (for Noam Chomsky, Here Lies Henry, House), the Dora Mavor Moore Award three times for directing, the Edinburgh Fringe First Award (Here Lies Henry); and has been nominated for the Governor Generalâ??s Literary Award (Noam Chomsky). In October 2000, he won the Capital Critics Circle Award for his direction of Possible Worlds. In October 2001, he received the first Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.

Daniel has also worked in film, notably with Bruce McDonald (whose film Highway 61 was inspired by Pokey.)

His highly innovative work has travelled across Canada and around the world. He is married to Jennifer Ross. They have two daughters, and live in Toronto.

Daniel Brooks' profile page

Guillermo Verdecchia is a writer of drama, fiction, and film; a director, dramaturge, actor, and translator whose work has been seen and heard on stages, screens, and radios across the country and around the globe. The author, or co-author, of, among other works, The Noam Chomsky Lectures and Insomnia (with Daniel Brooks); Fronteras Americanas, The Terrible but Incomplete Journals of John D., bloom; A Line in the Sand (with Marcus Youssef), and the controversial Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil (with Camyar Chai and Marcus Youssef). He is a recipient of the Governor General’s AWard for Drama, a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, a recipient of Dora and Jessie Awards, and sundry film festival awards for his film Crucero/Crossroads, based on Fronteras Americanas and made with Ramiro Puerta.

He lives in Toronto with Tamsin Kelsey, his partner of many years, and their two children.


Awards and Recognition*
Chalmers Canadian Play Award (1997) A Line the Sand with Marcus Youssef
Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, Community Recognition Award (1994)
Chalmers Canadian Play Award (1994) Fronteras Americanas
Governor General’s Award for Drama (1993) Fronteras Americanas
Governor General’s Award for Drama, Finalist (1992) The Noam Chomsky Lectures with Daniel Brooks
Chalmers Canadian Play Award (1992) The Noam Chomsky Lectures with Daniel Brooks
Chalmers Canadian Play Award (1990) i.d.

Guillermo Verdecchia's profile page