Congratulations to alum Lennette Randall (MIO ’17) who was recently named the 2026 Governor General Performing Arts (GGPAA) Mentorship Protégé!
In sharing the news with us, Lennette had this to say about her achievement and her time at BADA:
“The rigour, mentorship, and clarity of craft I experienced during the 2017 Midsummer in Oxford Programme continue to shape how I approach my work as an artist. The training I received there remains deeply present in my practice, informing not only what I create, but how and why I create it.
I’m pleased to share that I have been selected as the 2026 Governor General Performing Arts (GGPAA) Mentorship Protégé. This opportunity feels like a natural extension of the values emphasized during my training at BADA—artistic discipline, generosity of practice, and the responsibility to remain in dialogue with those who come after us.”
The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) are proud to feature a unique Mentorship Program that provides a way for past GGPAA recipients to inspire the next generation by offering guidance to talented Canadian artists in mid-career. The program serves as a creative catalyst and an investment in future Canadian artistic achievement.
Each year, a past laureate of the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award or the National Arts Centre Award is invited to act as the program’s mentor. In consultation with the National Arts Centre’s artistic leadership, the mentor selects an artist from the same performing arts discipline whom he or she would like to have as a protégé. Each year’s Mentorship Program is as unique as the artists themselves, but the aim is the same: both mentor and protégé enjoy a unique opportunity to share, learn and grow from each other’s experience and insights. In addition to receiving artistic guidance and an honorarium, each protégé is invited to participate in the GGPAA celebrations.
Lennette Randall is an interdisciplinary creative whose cosmopolitan background profoundly influences her worldview, fuelling a deep passion for storytelling that reflects and interrogates diasporic, cross-cultural, and intergenerational narratives.
Her work as an actress, director, writer, speaker, singer, and educator is deeply rooted in ethnic storytelling techniques. Through hybrid art forms, she strives to create theatre that is both colossal in scope and rich in detail, blending movement, music, and technical artistry to engage audiences on multiple sensory levels.
Ms. Randall holds a BA (Honours) in Applied Communication from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, an MA in Classical Acting (Distinction) from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and a Master of Studies (MSt.) in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Further training includes Rosebud School of the Arts (Rosebud, AB), New York Film Academy (Los Angeles), Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), and the British American Drama Academy (Oxford, UK).
Her artistic collaborations encompass Rosebud Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, Theatre Calgary, Grand Theatre, Obsidian Theatre’s Young, Gifted and Black, Canadian Stage RBC Emerging Director Intern, and Stratford Festival’s Langham Directors’ Workshop.
Lennette Randall’s accolades include the Black Shoulders Legacy Award (2024), Black People Making History in Calgary (2023), the FDC Jacie Levinson Memorial Award (2017), and the Stephen Hair Emerging Actor Award (2014).
