Urjo Kareda

Infobox actor
name = Urjo Kareda
birthdate = February 9 1944
location = Tallinn, Estonia
deathdate = death_date_and_age|2001|12|26|1944|2|9
deathplace = Toronto, Ontario
occupation = Theatre critic, stage director

Urjo Kareda (born, Tallinn, Estonia, February 9 1944; died, Toronto, Canada, December 26 2001) was a Canadian dramatist and theatre critic.

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 (Martha Henry, Pam Brighton, and Peter Moss) 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. [Martin Knelman, A Stratford Tempest. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982, 240 p. ISBN 0771045425]

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. His honours included the Order of Canada (1995); the City of Toronto Award for the Performing Arts (1999); and the Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction (2000).

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