bio
Pronouns: she/her
Brenley Charkow is an award-winning Canadian director, dramaturge, producer, educator, and arts leader whose work has been experienced across Canada.
Recent directing credits include Seagulls (Shaw Festival); At the End of The Day (Toronto Digital Fringe); Look Up (Shaw Festival); The Ballad of Peachtree Rose (Workshop West); the North American premiere of Scorch by Stacey Gregg (Theatre Passe Muraille/ The Playhouse); Blood: A Scientific Romance (Maggie Tree); Sister Act! (Storybook Theatre), Spelling Bee (Concordia University); the Canadian premiere of Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day (Studio Theatre), If We Were Birds (Bleviss Laboratory Theatre) and Tom at the Farm (Bleviss Laboratory Theatre). Assistant directing credits include The Devil’s Disciple (Shaw Festival); the Canadian premiere of The Humans (CanStage/Citadel Theatre), Mamma Mia (Citadel Theatre/ Ashlie Corcoran), Parade (Studio 180 and The Musical Theatre Company), Hair (Grand Theatre).
As a former actor, Brenley has worked with companies across the country- from Stage West, and RMTC to Theatre Aquarius, Drayton Entertainment, the Grand Theatre, and the Charlottetown Festival (to name a few.)
Brenley holds an MFA in directing from the University of Alberta, and was part of the 2020-2022 Neil Munro Directing program at the Shaw Festival. She has served as a councillor for Canadian Actors' Equity, and was co-chair of the Ontario Advisory. Brenley has been a Dora juror (Independent Theatre Division) and grant assessor for the Edmonton Arts Council.
She is the Artistic Producer of Bustle & Beast Theatre, and freelance voice director for ECW Press and Penguin Random House Canada.