Discipline Category: Live Performing Arts

Brenda Gorlick is a Winnipeg-based director, choreographer, performer, and educator whose professional career spans over fifty years across Manitoba, Canada, and internationally. Her work encompasses musical theatre, dance, performance, and arts education, with a lasting impact on professional training and inclusive arts practice. She has been affiliated with leading institutions including Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Stratford Festival of Canada, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Brenda served for over 20 years as Head of Musical Theatre at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, developing a program whose graduates perform on Broadway and international stages. In 2004, she founded Winnipeg Studio Theatre's StudioWorks Academy providing advanced triple-threat instruction to emerging artists.

Her commitment to accessibility led to the creation of All Abilities Dancers with Manitoba Possible and AIM 4 ALL – All Inclusive Musicals, the first program of its kind in Manitoba. Brenda leads the Dancing with Parkinson’s program with U-Turn Parkinson’s Manitoba.

In film, Brenda Gorlick has had principal roles in multiple Hallmark films. Her choreography credits include Seance, Time Cut, and the forthcoming feature November: 1963, as well as award-winning indies: If It Ain’t Got That and These Four Walls. A dedicated arts advocate, she was part of Creative Manitoba’s inaugural youth mentorship program and continues to serve as a mentor.

Brenda's honours include the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Honour Roll, Winnipeg Arts Council Career Achievement Award, YMCA/YWCA Women of Distinction, and Rainbow Stage's Wall of Fame. She continues to be a driving force in Manitoba’s performing arts community as an artist, mentor, and advocate for inclusive excellence.

Joseph is a Winnipeg playwright, composer and designer. His works include the play How the Heavens Go, and the musical Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare, which received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Outstanding New Musical. A veteran of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, Joseph is a two-time winner of the Harry Rintoul Memorial Award for Best New Manitoban Play, and the author of several hit Fringe musicals including Bloodsuckers!, Illuminati, and Lucrezia Borgia. He is a Playwriting graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

As a composer, arranger and sound designer, he has worked on several Winnipeg productions, including Jabber and Danny, King of the Basement for Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Ordinary Days for Winnipeg Studio Theatre and Liars at a Funeral for Prairie Theatre Exchange.

A lifelong computer geek with a B.Sc. in Computer Science, Joseph is also an avid coder, and is currently exploring the world of video game development and interactive storytelling.