Kit Brennan has been a full-time faculty member at Concordia since 1993. She currently coordinates Concordia's BFA Major in Playwriting.
Her award-winning plays have been published and produced across Canada.Titles include Tiger's Heart (Centaur Theatre, The Ship's Company, Great Canadian Theatre Company and Women in View Festival), Spring Planting (Hudson Village Theatre, The Ship's Company, Western Canada Theatre Company, Theatre Orangeville and Elora Community Theatre), The Invisibility of Eileen(Great Canadian Theatre Company), Hunger Striking (Theatre Passe Muraille), Magpie (25th Street Theatre) and Having (Centaur Theatre). Brennan also edited the anthology Going It Alone: Plays by Women for Solo Performers (Nuage Editions) as well as anthologies Two Hands Clapping (Plays for Two Actors), Three on the Boards (Plays for Three Actors), Things That Go Bump in two volumes (Vol. 1 - Plays for Young Adults; Vol. 2 - Plays for Young Audiences), Out on a Limb: Short Plays by New Writers, and One for the Road: New Plays for One Actor, all for Signature Editions.
Recently, Kit is in the midst of writing a series of novels based on the life of a Victorian danseuse/theatrical adventuress, in Whip Smart: The Lola Montez Series. It is currently a trilogy. Whip Smart: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards (Book One), Whip Smart: Lola Montez and the Poisoned Nom de Plume (Book Two), and Whip Smart: Lola Montez Starts a Revolution (Book Three) have been published by Astor and Blue Editions in New York, NY. Two further Lola novels are in the works.
Education
MFA (Playwriting), University of Alberta
BA (Hon. Drama and English), Queen's University
Research interests
- playwriting
- Canadian theatre
- storytelling
- narrative traditions and oral histories
- Canadian fiction
- history, particularly Victorian era and its personalities
New creative research projects
Currently researching 1850s New York, Panama and California's Gold Rush, and beginning first draft of the fifth Lola novel, Whip Smart: Lola Montez Seduces America.
