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Martha
Ross & Leah Cherniak
Martha
Ross and Leah Cherniak come to us from
Toronto for a two day residency in May 2006 to look at an Ibsen
project that they're developing.
Leah Cherniak and Martha Ross are the founders of Toronto's Theatre
Columbus. They create original works that explore the relationship
between laughter and pathos, in what have been called "serious
comedies", with such subjects as love, anger, paranoia and
betrayal. The company is committed to the collaborative process,
using socially relevant issues and Ross and Cherniak’s background
in physical theatre. Though primarily known for their original comedies,
they have been inspired by the classics, producing inventive adaptations
of Twelfth Night, The Barber of Seville and Peer
Gynt. The company has created over 25 new and original plays
over its 21 year history among them The Anger in Ernest and
Ernestine, The Attic, The Pearls and
Three Fine Girls, Hotel Loopy, The Betrayal (winner
of 1999 Chalmers Canadian Play Award) and Gynty.
As well as performing, Martha has written several plays, including,
Dr. Dapertutto (nominated for the Floyd S.Chalmers Best
New Play award in 1990) ; Ratbag, a musical about the Industrial
Revolution, which she wrote with her composer husband, John Millard;
and The Dog and the Angel for the Caravan Farm Theatre
Co. (1999). She just returned from Alberta Theatre Projects that
workshopped her recently written farce, Flight. Martha
also teaches Shakespeare to children and young teens. One of the
high points of her career was creating and performing the character
of Ernestine.
Leah also directs for theatre companies across Canada, most recently
Past Perfect at The Tarragon and coming up, Schoolhouse at The Blyth
Theatre Festival. She teaches clown for The Ryerson University Theatre
Program and George Brown College. Leah also teaches at The National
Theatre School in Montreal.
Daniel
Danis
Daniel
Danis had an in-house workshop on his latest work, Lights
After Life, between May 4 and 9, 2006. This workshop brought
together Daniel, Cathie Boyd, Artistic Director of Theatre Cryptic
in Glasgow, Scotland and composer Yannis Kyriakides
from Amsterdam, to work with three actor/singers on developing this
new piece of music theatre, slated for production in the fall of
2007 in Edinburgh.
A writer and a sculptor, Daniel Danis wrote his first play, entitled
Celle-là, in 1993; it earned him the Governor General’s
Award. For Cendres de cailloux, his second play, he received
the Radio-France International award, as well as several others.
His third play, Le chant du Dire-Dire, was created at l’Espace
GO in 1998 and at the Théâtre de la Colline (Paris)
in 1999. His text Le langue-à-langue des chiens de roche
has won him the 2002 Governor General’s Award. The author
has also written Le pont de pierres et la peau d’images
(for young audiences). His play, e, roman-dit, was created
at Théâtre de la Colline (Paris) in 2005 and won the
Grand Prix littéraire dramatique in France in 2006. He recently
directed and performed in Sommeil et Rouge at Usine C in
Montreal this past April.
Besides
being staged in Québec, his plays have been produced in Toronto,
Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, and inScotland, Ireland, Germany,
Italy, Belgium and France.
Louis
Negin
Louis
Negin spent 4 days in Montreal to workshop and perform
a public reading of his one-man show Polo's Fantasy.
Louis
can be seen in the recent films of Guy Maddin: The Saddest Music
in the World; Cowards Bend the Knee; and Sissy
Boy Slap Party. He recently guest starred on ReGenesis
and Slings and Arrows for television. In the film 54
he appears as the writer Truman Capote. He has also played opposite
Joan Collins and Dame Edna. Forty years in the theatre have taken
him the world over, including 7 years at the Stratford Festival.
He presently commutes between Montreal and Toronto with a dog and
two cats.
Christian
Murray and David Warburton
Christian Murray
came from Halifax for a week long residency (March 2006) to work
on his script of Bone Boy, and to work on an adaptation
with David Warburton (from Winnipeg).
Christian Murray is an actor, writer,
physical comedian and director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He
is a founding member of Jest in Time Theatre, and a protégé
of the late great Tony Montanaro. He has
travelled throughout the world for the past twenty years, performing
Jest’s original style of physical comedy. Highlights include
a 2002 tour of Japan, performances at the Sydney Opera House, the
Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal,
the Order of Canada performance at the Royal Alex in Toronto and
a performance for Queen Elizabeth in Nova Scotia. Jest's production
of Trip won the Robert Merrit Award in 2002 for Best Nova
Scotia Production and in 2004 Jest received a Merrit for Life Time
Achievement. Other credits include Henry Hackmore in Seduced
at Neptune, Ernest in The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine
at Neptune and Ian in Eastern Front’s production of Strange
Humors.
In 2001 he won a Gemini Award for
his writing work on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. In the spring
of 2003, Christian directed Marty Burt’s one man show Mad
Dog Racing which played to sold out houses at the Jest Studio
and was critically acclaimed at the Summer Works Festival 2003 in
Toronto. In May 2005, Christian was invited to the Banff Centre
to workshop his play Bone Boy, which will be read as part
of the On The Verge Festival 2006 in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
David Warburton
has spent the last twenty five years working as an actor, director
and writer specialising in performing and creating new work for
children. He recently directed Dying To Be Thin by Linda
Carson and Smokescreen by David S. Craig. After studying
Community Theatre Arts and Theatre In Education (T.I.E.) at Rose
Bruford College, he toured the Alternative Cabaret Circuit in London,
created a mobile arts workshop for The G.L.C. Playparks and was
a founding member of Crucible T.I.E Sheffield, which toured England
extensively and eventually Canada with the award winning Plague
Of Innocence by Noel Grieg. He has lived in Winnipeg for the
last 15 years undertaking many artistic adventures and tours with
Manitoba Theatre for Young People, performing in their signature
piece Comet In Moominland and as Max in Where the Wild
Things Are a co-production with Carousel Players. As for grownups,
his work as a freelance actor has been seen at such companies as
Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, The Banff Centre, Great
Canadian Theatre Company, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Belfry, MTC,
The National Arts Centre and The Stratford Festival. When not working
David is a keen but unsuccessful fisherman.
Ken
Gass
Ken
Gass received an In-House workshop on his latest script,
Gulag America in February 2006.
Ken
Gass is a recognized Canadian writer and director. He was founder
and Artistic Director of the Factory Theatre from 1970-79 and, since
his resumption of the Artistic Directorship three years ago, he
has led Factory Theatre from the brink of financial ruin to making
a $1.2 million purchase of the building in which it is housed. Ken
is also the Artistic Director of Canada Rep Theatre. He is past
chairperson of the Canadian Guild of Playwrights and has directed
for stage, television, radio and film. Many of his plays (Hurray
for Johnny Canuck, Claudius, and Amazon Dream,
for example) have been performed all across Canada.
Linda
Gaboriau and Pan Bouyoucas
Linda
Gaboriau’s English translation of Pan Bouyoucas’
Le Cerf-volant (The Paper Eagle) received a workshop
in February 2006.
Linda
Gaboriau – see below
Pan
Bouyoucas was born in Lebanon, of Greek parents, and came to Canada
in 1963. After studies in architecture in Montreal and New York
City, he obtained a BFA (theatre and film) at Concordia University,
and worked for a few years as a film critic. In 1977, he left on
a 3-year journey across Europe and Greece. When he returned to Montreal,
he wrote mostly for the theatre, in English and French, as writer-in-residence
at Centaur Theatre, then at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui.
Since 1995, he has written five novels, a collection of short stories,
and a book for children. Pan is also a talented translator (fifteen
books thus far) from English to French and recipient of the 2002
Quebec Writer's Federation Prize for translation.
Michael
Mackenzie
Michael
Mackenzie’s play, It, was workshopped in
December 2005.
Michael
Mackenzie’s first feature film as writer/director, The
Baroness and the Pig, produced by Media Principia played at
the Boston International Independent Film Festival, as well as at
the Toronto International Film Festival (2002), Festival de nouveau
cinema et media (Montreal 2002) where it was the closing film, Sundance
Film Festival (2003) and San Francisco Film Festival (2003). It
was nominated for Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Editing
for the Quebec Jutra Awards (2003). The Czech production of one
of his plays has been running for two years in Prague; another (Hungarian)
production recently closed in Budapest after three years. Other
recent productions have been in German (Stuttgart), Portuguese (Faro),
and in Hebrew (Tel Aviv). His plays have also been produced at the
Bristol Old Vic as well as on BBC radio in the UK. On this side
of the pond, Michael has directed theatre productions in Toronto,
Montreal and New York, has worked with Robert Lepage as dramaturge,
and has served as coordinator of the Playwriting Program at the
National Theatre School of Canada. Scripts he has worked on as co-writer/script-doctor
include Robert Lepage’s Polygraph and the recently
released The Favourite Game (based on Leonard Cohen’s
novel, prod. Cine Qua Non). Michael teaches in the Humanities Department
at Vanier College.
Alexandria
Haber
Alexandria
Haber’s play, C, had an In-House Workshop
at PWM in December 2005.
Alexandria
Haber is a Montreal based writer and actress. Most recently, Loved,
a short story was selected as one of three winners of the CBC/QWF
2004 short story competition. Her work has been published in several
anthologies including: She Speaks, Going it Alone and Short
Stuff: New work from Quebec Writers. Plays and radio dramas
include: Dying to see you again, Ordinary Times,
The Full Molly, Arrhythmia and Birthmarks
(published by Playwrights Canada Press), The Very Little Girl
(winner of CBC radio’s New Voices) and most recently,
A Grown Girl’s Guide to an Almost Perfect Existence
(CBC radio).
Greg
Kramer
Greg
Kramer’s play, Death of a Fabulist: the Myth
of Isadora Duncan, received an In-House Workshop in December,
2005.
Author,
director, actor, musician, illustrator and magician, Greg Kramer
was born in the UK, ran away from home in his early teens, attended
theatre school and eventually landed in Canada in 1981. He spent
seven years in Vancouver, a decade in Toronto, currently resides
in Montreal, and can order his meals in French. His novels include
Wally, Hogtown Bonbons, Couchwarmer: A Laundromat
Adventure, and The Pursemonger of Fugu: A Bathroom Mystery.
Jean-Rock
Gaudreault and Linda Gaboriau
Jean-Rock
Gaudreault’s Deux pas vers les étoiles
(2 Steps from the Stars) had a workshop of the English
Translation by Linda Gaboriau.
Linda
Gaboriau – see below
Jean-Rock
Gaudreault
2
Steps from the Stars: With a disarmingly simple plot and two
children, Jean-Rock Gaudreault evokes the dreams that are a part
of every childhood, without preaching or sentimentality. This play
for young readers succeeds in touching even the most hardened adult
heart in harkening back to an age where the world was still a mystery
and everything seemed possible.
Jean-Rock
Gaudreault, a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada
in playwriting, won the first prize of the Belgium competition Une
scène pour la démocratie en Belgique in 1996,
and the R.F.I. Theatre for young audiences competition in March
1997. His first play, La Raccourcie, was created by Théâtre
Les Gens d’en bas in 1997 and was then produced by the Festival
de Théâtre des Amériques in Montreal, and the
Quinzaine de théâtre francophone in Ottawa in 1999.
His first play for young audiences, Mathieu trop court, François
trop long (R.F.I.-Youth Award in 1996 and Rideau-OFQJ award
in 2000), was nominated for best original text at the Masques ceremony
in 1999. An English version was produced in Canada, and in the United
States at the New Victory Theatre in New York. His second play for
young audiences, Deux pas vers les étoiles, toured
for over 200 presentations in Quebec and in France between 2002
and 2004. The play won the Rideau Vox Pares award and the Masque
award for the Best Theatre for Young Audience’s production
in 2003. Jean-Rock received the Governor General’s Award in
2003 for Deux pas vers les étoiles, which was produced
in French in Tokyo in 2004. He also writes for television and radio.
He is the vice-president of CEAD (Centre des auteurs dramatiques).
Darrell
Dennis and Olivier Choinière
Darrell
Dennis’ Conte d’un indien urbain (Tales
of an Urban Indian), translated by Olivier Choinière,
was workshopped in conjunction with Ondinnok Theatre. It will be
produced by Onidnook in May 2006 at the McCord Museum
Tales
is a one-man show following a young Native man, Simon Douglas, on
his journey from the rez to the east side of Vancouver to self-respect.
Darrell
has had two plays produced (Trickster of Third Avenue East
and Tales of an Urban Indian) and wrote the short film
Mocassin Flats that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Darrell has recently been named one of Ken Gass' Protégé
Award Winners. He has been commissioned, along with four other emerging
playwrights, to develop a manifesto on the future of Canadian theatre.
He has also won a coveted position within Factory Theatre's ScriptLab
Program, where he will create and develop new work alongside some
of Canada's most popular new playwrights. Darrell is also back as
the zany host on the third season of Bingo and a Movie
on APTN, and continues making people laugh with his comedy troupe
Tonto's Nephews. Away from the world of entertaining, Darrell spends
most of his time studying at the University of Toronto where he
is on full scholarship completing a double-major Honors B.A in Aboriginal
Studies and Literature.
Graduating
from the playwriting program of the National Theatre School in 1996,
Olivier Choinière has since written over
15 plays and 5 translations of works for the stage. His play Le
bain des raines was nominated for The Governor General’s
Award in 1998. Jocelyn est en dépression premiered
at the Laboratoire de l'AQAD, in 2001; and was subsequently revived
in 2002. Jocelyn was the French Language Transmissions
selection for 2003.
Linda
Griffiths
Linda
Griffiths came to PWM for two weeks in September to workshop
her new play, The Unsexed, and participate in a Soundings.
The Unsexed was presented as a staged reading at Monument
National on September 30th, 2005 under the direction of Kelly Thornton.
Playwright/actor
Linda Griffiths is the winner of five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, a
Gemini award, two Chalmer's awards, the Quizanne International Festival
Award for Jessica, and Los Angeles' A.G.A. Award for her title performance
in the John Sayles' film Lianna. She has twice been nominated
for the Governor General’s Award (The Darling Family,
Alien Creature). Her nine plays include Chronic, Alien
Creature, The Duchess: a.k.a Wallis Simpson and Maggie
& Pierre. She is the co-author of a unique theatre book,
The Book of Jessica (with native author and activist Maria
Campbell). Griffiths has created collective work (Paper Wheat,
Les Maudits Anglais), published short stories (The Speed
Christmas, Spiral Woman) and continues to perform. Her company,
Duchess Productions develops her work, including a unique class,
Visceral Playwriting. A partial anthology, Sheer Nerve: Seven
Plays by Linda Griffiths is available through Playwrights Canada
Press.
Lois
Brown
Lois
Brown will
be at PWM on an extended residency from September until December,
2005.
Born
in Corner Brook, Lois Brown is a seventh generation Newfoundlander.
Educated in Drama at the University of Alberta, Ms. Brown returned
to St. John’s where she has directed over thirty new works
by Newfoundland artists, served as Artistic Animateur of RCA Theatre
Company, and curator for Neighbourhood Dance Works. Ms. Brown also
works in other performance-driven mediums, including film. With
co-creator Barry Newhook she wrote, directed and performed in the
first digital feature made in Newfoundland, The Bingo Robbers
(2000, producer Dana Warren). It won several awards including Best
Original Screenplay at The Atlantic Film Festival and Best Feature
at the Toronto International DV Film Festival. Ms. Brown’s
current projects include a public installation/performance called
stringart, a new play titled Will the Boy on the Raft
Please Come to Shore and her research in comedy with The White
Hags. She earned the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award, presented
by The Canada Council for the Arts to an outstanding mid-career
artist in theatre in 2005. This spring, she was recognized for her
contribution to the arts in Newfoundland with an Artist Achievement
Award.
Linda
Gaboriau and Michel Tremblay
Linda
Gaboriau's translation of Tremblay's new play, L'Impératif
Présent (The Driving Force) received a workshop in September
2005.
Linda
Gaboriau was born in Boston and moved to Montreal in 1963.
She has been active in Canadian and Quebec theatre for over twenty
years as a critic, journalist, broadcaster and consultant. Her award
winning translations of more than fifty plays include the works
of some of Quebec's most prominent playwrights. Stone and Ashes,
the translation of Daniel Danis' second play, won the 1996 Governor
General's Award for literary translation. She is the translator
of the Governor General's award nominated Down Dangerous Passes
Road by Michel Marc Bouchard. In 2002 she was nominated for
a Govenor General's Award for her translation of Michel Tremblay's
Impromptu on Nuns' Island. Most recently Linda Gaboriau
has translated Jean Marc Dalpé's Scattered in a Rising
Wind.
Michel Tremblay
was born in 1942, in Montreal. While in high school, he began writing
poems, plays, short stories and novels. He has written 20 plays,
three musicals, nine novels, three collections of short stories,
seven film scripts, the libretto of an opera, and 14 translations
and adaptations.
Joan
Sullivan and Bryan Hennessey
Joan
Sullivan and
Bryan Hennessey were at PWM for a week in early September
2005 to conduct a workshop (co-sponsored by the National Arts Centre)
of Joan's adaptation of Wayne Johnston's acclaimed novel, The
Story of Bobby O'Malley. Joan also performed her one-woman
show Your Only Life in PWM's studio space to an intimate
audience of members and friends.
Joan
Sullivan is a writer, director and actor. Her credits include
an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Richard III (Resource
Centre for the Arts, March 2003), working as an assistant director
with the National Arts Centre's production of Arms and The Man
(September 2003), and directing Stars in the Sky Morning
(TNL June 2003), Glengarry Glen Ross (Rabbittown Theatre,
April 2004), and Possible Maps (Open Actor's Studio, January
2005). In addition to The Story of Bobby O'Malley, she
is currently working on a script for Rising Tide Theatre, based
on the life of her grandmother, Rose Hoskins, a poet in Trinity,
NL.
Bryan
Hennessey was born in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1949.
After working as a musician for 20 years, he began a second career
as an actor in theatre, films, and television including his role
as "Calvin Pope" on the TV series Gullage's.
From 1990 to 1992, he served as Artistic Animateur of the Resource
Centre for the Arts Theatre Company in St-John's, Newfoundland.
In 2002 he was Artist in Residence with that same Company. As a
writer, he is the author of the poetry book Counting Gifts
(1978) and two books of short stories, Girleens in BeatleLove
(1990) and Waking Up in the City of Dreams (1997). As playwright,
he is the author of Jack of Hearts, produced by the RCA
Theatre Company in 2000. He has also co-written three stage plays:
The Gingerbread Men (1996), and Murder at the Royal
Cafe (1995) with his wife Joan Sullivan, and Hanlon House
(1991) with Greg Thomey. He is currently writing a new stage play
called 19 in '68 and a novel entitled Time On My Hands.
Check out some of the playwrights
we have worked with in our past seasons.
The
2004-2005 playwrights
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2006-2007 playwrights
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2007-2008 playwrights
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