Stephen Hunt

Communications

ac00u5@r.postjobfree.com

587-***-****

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/stephen-hunt-1989bb

twitter.com/halfstep

instagram@halfstep86

thehalfstep.live

WHO AM I? A multi-media writer and digital content producer who has straddled every content platform ever conceived of, including digital and print journalism, playwriting, screenwriting, copywriting and radio. The result? A cross-platform skill set that has taught me the joy - and power - of saying things simply and clearly, with humour and humanity.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE: Author of hundreds of newspaper, and magazine articles, reviews, columns and blogs for some of North America’s largest media outlets, including the Calgary Herald, Toronto Globe & Mail, CBC Radio, the Los Angeles Times, New York Post and others. Content specialties include arts, sports, travel, technology, humour - and house and garden. (Copywriting on a number of ESPN television campaigns). Branded content/Storytelling. Experience with a variety of digital platforms, including Adobe Cloud, InSource, Wordpress, Merlin, and various social media. Editing, podcasting, photography, videography (Videolicious) and experience mentoring and guiding emerging writers. Editor of Critically Speaking, the quarterly newsletter of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, featuring award-winning writers such as J. Kelly Nestruck, Jamie Portman and Martin Morrow. Past editor of literary magazine Cunningham’s Grocery. Past copy editor of The Uniter, the student newspaper of the University of Winnipeg. Copywriting experience as freelancer for ESPN Television, and marketing and branding experience as owner/operator of Phyl’s Muffins, Winnipeg’s first street vendor, and later as playwright/freelance journalist/ in New York/Los Angeles between 1989 and 2006.

WORK HISTORY:

January 2017: Writer-in-Residence, High Performance Rodeo. Digital content producer for one of Canada’s longest-running international theatre festivals. Interviews, features, reviews, and digital content featuring a roster of international acts from the UK, Australia, USA, Portugal, Germany and across Canada.

March 2016- Ongoing Freelance writer and corporate communications. Clients include The Toronto Globe & Mail, CBC.ca, The Stage, The Banff Centre, Arts Commons, Travel Alberta, Postmedia, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Wordfest and Calgary Arts Development’s Storytelling Project (Living a Creative Life). Created digital and print content, in addition to hosting a number of public events for Alberta Theatre Projects, the CPO, and Wordfest, interviewing various authors, playwrights, conductors and a double bass player.

September 2007 - Ongoing Adjunct Professor, Playwriting, University of British Columbia. Instructor in optional residency MFA Program teaching graduate students stage writing. Part of the first wave of online teaching programs, I inaugurated a podcasting series that allows students to hear their work read aloud online. Past students include three winners of the Governor General Awards for Drama.

2015-Ongoing. Editor, Critically Speaking, Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Assigns stories, edits, layout and marketing of the newsletter of the national theatre critics. Branding efforts have led to articles being placed in the Globe & Mail, Canadian Theatre Review, and Britain’s The Stage - as well as Canada being selected to host the next gathering of the International Theatre Critics Association, in September, 2018 at the Banff Centre. (Volunteer position)

April 2006-January 2016 Entertainment reporter, Calgary Herald. Worked as reporter, theatre critic, and humor columnist at largest daily paper for 10 years, delivering crisply-written coverage of city’s performing arts scene, including the High Performance Rodeo, Theatre Calgary, the Alberta Ballet, Calgary Opera and Honens. I learned a lot about: learning to love relentless deadlines, tight word counts, trusting your gut, bag lunches, and team efforts. And classical pianists. And opera plots.

June 1998 - March 2006 Communications pro, Los Angeles. Producer’s assistant, Olmos Productions (ABC Television). Staff writer, comedyworld.com, content creator at mforma.com, writing home and garden mini-articles for smartphones. Commissioned to develop TV pilot for Warner Brothers Television and Quincy Jones based on my one-man show The White Guy, which was produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in New York. Hollywood stringer, the Globe & Mail, CBC Radio, Toro, Shift, Saturday Night, Hour Magazine (Montreal), Moving Pictures, Italian Rolling Stone, the New York Post, Sports Illustrated, the New York Press and others. Also worked as a dancing robot in a Rob Zombie video (Feels So Numb).

1989 - 1997 Writer, New York. Playwright most of time, with workshop productions at La Mama, Naked Angels, Soho Rep, Playwrights Row, Ensemble Studio Theatre, where I’m still a member, as well as the Joseph Papp Public Theatre, which produced The White Guy. Freelanced as a copywriter for ESPN and Air Force One, working on a number of ESPN TV campaigns, writing 30 second and one minute spots for a variety of campaigns, including the NIT Basketball tournament, the ESPY Awards and the NHL Players World Hockey Tour of 1994-95 ( a strike year).

Awards:

National Newspaper Award (for newsroom coverage of Calgary floods), 2014

Best American Short Plays 1997-98 (The White Guy), Applause Books

Best Short Story, University of Winnipeg

Reporter of the Year, University of Winnipeg

Education:

MFA Creative Writing, University of British Columbia 1989

BA Political Science/Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg 1985

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