ABOVE: One Yellow Rabbit co-founder Michael Green was killed in a car crash on Tuesday. Jayme Doll reports.
CALGARY – A well-respected member of Calgary’s arts community has been killed in a car crash in Saskatchewan.
Michael Green was the co-founder and co-artistic director of popular Calgary theater company One Yellow Rabbit, and the founder of their annual High Performance Rodeo arts festival.
High Performance Rodeo publicist Todd Hawkwood confirmed on Wednesday that Green was one of five people killed in a car crash north of Regina on Tuesday.
In a statement posted on their Facebook page, One Yellow Rabbit called Green a “proud ambassador for Calgary and a vital force in creating the cultural milieu that is Calgary today.”
“He was an exuberant spirit who embraced the exceptional and the unusual and wanted to share it with as many people as possible,” continues the statement. “He inspired many with his originality; and he created much with his vision. We are grateful to him.”
“His loss is felt deeply by all of us whose lives he touched.”
These sentiments were echoed by the Artistic Director of Theater Calgary, who spoke to Global News.
“The overwhelming feeling I have today is that the father of creativity in our province is gone,” said Dennis Garnhum. “And that loss – we’re going to feel for an extraordinarily long time. No matter what we say, it’s going to change us, and we’re gonna miss him terribly.”
“You only feel this sad when someone is that extraordinary.”
The crash also claimed the lives of three other members of Canada’s artistic community; Lacy Morin-Desjarlais, Michele Sereda and Narcisse Blood.
Morin-Desjarlais, who was 29, worked on plays and powwows at the University of Regina.
Sereda, who was 49, was the artistic director of the experimental Curtain Razors theatre company.
Blood, who was 60, was a leader and elder in the Blood Nation, an award-winning filmmaker, and an eminent scholar and instructor at Red Crow Community College.
RCMP say although the cause of the crash is still under investigation, road conditions may have been a factor.
Tributes began pouring in over social media on Wednesday amid news of the death:
Green worked as a member of One Yellow Rabbit’s performing ensemble and created characters in memorable shows including Doing Leonard Cohen, In Klezskavania and Somalia Yellow.
According to their website, Green began his theater career with Ikarus, perhaps Calgary’s first avant-garde theatre company, writing, directing, producing and acting in more than fifteen productions between 1975 and 1983.
WATCH: Michael Green joined Global Calgary on January 7th, 2015 with details on High Performance Rodeo:
– With files from The Canadian Press
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