Baņuta Rubess pioneered feminist theatre, diaspora theatre, and contemporary opera to national renown in Canada and Latvia. She has lived in four countries and writes in two languages. Her first work for the theatre was a musical written in Latvian called Varoņdarbi, written together with composer Dace Štauvere-Aperāne in 1978, and staged in Montreal, Toronto, and New York. Her second Latvian musical was Tango Lugāno, which toured to the Daile Theatre in 1990. She began her professional career in English with a theatre company which toured a translation of Aspazija’s The Silver Veil across England, Europe, and cities in North America.
In Canada, she created groundbreaking works for Nightwood Theatre, Theatre Direct, and Tapestry Opera Works. As Associate Artist at Theatre Passe Muraille, she threw open the doors to a new generation of theatre creators.
In 1998, she moved with her family to Riga, Latvia, where she created productions across the country, wrote opinion columns for the national newspaper Diena, and published a YA novel about a boy and his robot. An opera she directed in 2002, Putnu opera /The Birds’ Opera, continues to delight audiences to this day.
Baņuta returned to Toronto in 2012 where she is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto.
A Rhodes Scholar, she wrote her doctorate in history on the nationalism and socialism of the Latvian poet Rainis. Decades later, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph in 2020. She has been nominated for many awards and has won Best Play, Best Director, Best Short Story. She has published translations of the work of Andra Neiburga, Nora Ikstena, and Aleksandrs Čaks. Recently she shared the glory of a Best Series Award (Lielais Kristaps) for the Latvian television biopic, Emīlija. Latvijas preses karaliene / Emily, Queen of the Latvian Press, for which she wrote two episodes. In 2023 she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anšlavs Eglītis and Veronika Janelsiņa Foundation for her contribution to Latvian culture while living abroad. In 2024, Latvijas mediji published her documentary novel, Bruno Slept Here / Te bija Brunis, translated by Ieva Lešinska. Currently she is working a book about the personal cost of surveillance.
Prose
Te bija Brunis [Bruno Slept Here]. Riga: Latvijas mediji, 2024.
Labie Draugi: Nopērc kādu! [Good Friends: Buy One Today!]. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 2011 (under the pseudonym BNR.1).
Plays
Head in a Bag, published by Exile Editions, Toronto, 1996.
Boom, Baby, Boom!, published by Canadian Theatre Review, and in The CTR Anthology, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1993, as well as Exile Editions, 1996.
Smoke Damage: A Story of the Witch Hunts, published by Playwrights' Canada, Toronto, and Exile Editions, Toronto, 1995.
No. Here comes Ulrike Meinhof and Oblivion. The Story of Isabelle Eberhardt, published in ed. Ann Jansen, Adventures for (Big) Girls, Blizzard Publishing, Winnipeg,1993.
Pope Joan, a comedy, published in New Canadian Drama 6, Borealis Press, Ottawa, 1993.
This is for you, Anna, a spectacle of revenge. Created collectively with Ann-Marie MacDonald, Maureen White, and Suzanne Odette Khuri, published by Canadian Theatre Review and The CTR Anthology, University of Toronto Press, 1993.
Varoņdarbi (Heroica), a musical, staged at the Latvian Youth Cultural Festival, 1978-79.
Playwright-in-residence for Nightwood Theatre, the Great Canadian Theatre Centre, Theatre Direct.
Plays staged
Dickens Street: The Other, staged at the Melbourne Latvian House, 2024.
#7Love, verbatim dance theatre, staged at The Paddock Tavern, Toronto, Summerworks Festival, 2016.
Mrs. Benjamin. Tips for Modern Living staged in Riga, 2009-present, and USA, 2011.
Escape from Troy, staged at the European festival SEAS by the New Theatre Institute, 2004.
Oh Pilot, staged at the World Stage Festival, Toronto, 2005; Latvian National Opera Studio, 2007; Pasvalys music festival, Kaunas, 2009.
Fruits of the Earth, staged at the Latvian National Opera, Riga, 2003.
Smoke Damage: A Story of the Witch Hunts, staged at the Nightwood Theatre, 1995.
Froth, a show about shopping and hysteria, staged at the bankrupt store in Kensington Market, 1994.
Pope Joan, a comedy, staged at the Nightwood Theatre, 1993.
Boom, Baby, Boom!, staged at the Du Maurier World Stage Festival, 1993.
This is for you, Anna, a spectacle of revenge. Created collectively with Ann-Marie MacDonald, Maureen White, and Suzanne Odette Khuri, toured across Canada and the UK, 1993.
Head in a Bag, staged at Theatre Passe Muraille, 1992.
No. Here comes Ulrike Meinhof and Oblivion. The Story of Isabelle Eberhardt, series for Adventure Stories for (Big) Girls, CBC Radio Canada, 1990-1992.
Tango Lugano, staged at the Latvian Youth Festival, Montreal, 1989. Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto and tour to the Daile Theatre, Rīga, 1990.
Horror High, staged at the Theatre Direct, Toronto. 1989.
Thin Ice. A teen drama, co-written with Beverley Cooper, staged at the Theatre Direct, Toronto, 1987.
Books to fall for
Zanda Gūtmane, Vai kalns mani apēdīs? [Will the Mountain Eat Me?], review of "Te bija Brunis" [Brunis Was Here], 2025 [LV].
2023, winner in the 2023 CRAFT Hybrid Writing Contest for Four Words Whispered on a Smoky Field
2022, Winner of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for Flotsam, published in Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology
1987, Winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Theatre for Young Audiences and the Chalmers Children's Play Award for Thin Ice, a teen drama, co-written with Beverley Cooper
