Announcing the 10th recipient of the Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators: Katherine Turnbull

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and The Cole Foundation are thrilled to announce Katherine Turnbull as the 10th mentee OF the Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators.

Katherine Turnbull is a writer, translator, theatre creator, and actor.

She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts [Honours] in Acting with a minor in French Studies from the University of Windsor. Based in Montreal, she works in French and English in theatre and film. Katherine is fascinated by the messy and complex aspects of life, and so she explores the nitty-gritty of humanity in her projects.

In 2021, Katherine translated La nuit du 4 au 5 by Rachel Graton, commissioned by Talisman Theatre. The resulting translation, The Night From the 4th to the 5th, has recently been shortlisted for the Tom Hendry Best Drama Award. In May 2022, Talisman Theatre presented it as a digital reading, which has since won awards at the 2023 Snow Leopard International Film Festival (Madrid, Spain) & Sweden International Film Festival for Best Drama, Best Black and White Film, and Best Stage Play. It also received four (4) nominations at the 2023 MAGMA Film Festival (Best Feature & Experimental Film, Best Directing, Best Original Concept, and Best Ensemble).

She is honoured to have been selected as the 10th mentee of the Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators and thrilled to dive into this process working on Rachel Graton’s 21 under the mentorship of Maureen Labonté.


Supporting the translation of new work for the stage is a core part of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal’s (PWM) programming. Since its inception in 2013, the Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators has been guiding the next generation of French to English theatre translators.

With the skilled guidance of acclaimed translator Maureen Labonté and in partnership with the Cole Foundation, PWM has built a program that mentors emerging translators through every stage of their process in writing a new translation of a play. The successful applicant to this year’s program receives a $1,500 honorarium and a mentorship with Maureen Labonté, which includes a workshop with actors and a reading. Learn more about the program here.

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