Welcome to Equity in Theatre

Rita Shelton Deverell, C.M., Ed.D. Rita's career in journalism has been one of pioneering innovation and creativity. With an unceasing drive for social justice, she is one of the first Black women in Canada to be a television host and a network executive. A founder of Vision TV, the world's first multi-faith network, she held several senior positions there as well as the network anchor job. From 2002 until 2005 she was head of News and Current Affairs at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network mentoring her Aboriginal successor. In 2002 she was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame and in 2005 Deverell was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2007 she became the first CanWest Global Fellow at the University of Western Ontario.

In 2005 Rita determined to return to her first profession, drama. She has written and performed two one-woman plays, Smoked Glass Ceiling (2005) and McCarthy and the Old Woman (2006). In 2007-08 her 6-part series of solo television dramas, Solo Flight, went to air on OMNI, SCN, and APTN. She is currently working on a television docu-drama, Not a Drop, is a member of the Playwright's Unit of Obsidian Theatre, and is developing a 2-act version of McCarthy and the Old Woman with the assistance of Nightwood Theatre.