Jovanni Sy

Jovanni Sy is a Montreal-based playwright, director, and actor. He is the former Artistic Director of Gateway Theatre (Vancouver) and Cahoots Theatre (Toronto). Since his professional career began in 1992, Jovanni’s artistic mission has been to create bridges across cultures with a particular interest in reimagining Western classics through an Asian Canadian lens. Jovanni’s plays include: Salesman in China (co-written with Leanna Brodie); The Five Vengeances, a comic kung-fu adaptation of The Revengers Tragedy; Nine Dragons, a detective story set in 1920s Hong Kong; and A Taste of Empire. His plays have received a Jessie Richardson Award, a Quebec Writers’ Federation Playwriting Prize, and two Tom Hendry Awards. A Taste of Empire and Nine Dragons have been published by Talonbooks; Salesman in China will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in Spring 2025. A Taste of Empire has been translated into Cantonese by Derek Chan as well. Jovanni is currently developing several new works: The Tao of the World, Kowloon Bay (a prequel to Nine Dragons), a farce for the Arts Club Theatre, and a new interdisciplinary piece as the Resident Artist at Bishop’s University.