Urjo Kareda

Who was Urjo Kareda?

Urjo Kareda was a Canadian theatre and music critic, dramaturge and stage director.

After working as a theatre critic for the Toronto Star in the early 1970s, Kareda was Literary Manager at the Stratford Festival during the tenure of Artistic Director Robin Phillips. He and a team of three other directors were hired to lead Stratford's 1981 season after Phillips' resignation, but the subsequent dismissal of the team a few months later caused a huge national uproar and caused several Stratford veterans to work away from the Festival for several years.

He was artistic director of the Tarragon Theatre of Toronto from 1982 until his death on December 26, 2001, of cancer. Kareda also wrote for several publications and was an arts commentator for the CBC. He served for many years as the Toronto correspondent for Opera News magazine.