Participants of the 2026 Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac

We’re pleased to welcome Maureen Labonté as the new Glassco Translation Residency host and translation dramaturg!

Maureen Labonté is a dramaturge, translator and teacher. She has coordinated a number of play development programmes in theatres and play development centres across the country including at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in Montreal, the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal. She has also worked as a dramaturge in many Franco-Canadian theatres, such as the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (Sudbury), Théâtre-Action (Ottawa), the Cercle Molière (Winnipeg) and L’Escaouette (Moncton).

Maureen has also worked extensively as a translation dramaturge. With Emma Tibaldo, she helped set up the Playwrights Workshop Montreal/Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators in 2012, and is still involved as mentor and dramaturge. This highly successful programme is now in its eleventh cycle.

Maureen was the Jury Chair for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre from 2009 to 2012.

From 2006 to 2011, she was Co-Director of the Banff Playwrights Colony at the Banff Center for the Arts. Prior to that, she worked at the Colony as resident dramaturge and then as Head of Program (2002-2005).

Maureen also worked at the National Theatre School of Canada for more than 20 years. In the mid-90’s, she set up and ran a pilot two-year Directing Programme and then went on to coordinate the Playwriting Programme and Playwrights’ Residency. She has taught at NTS-ENT in the Playwriting, Directing and Mise-en-scène programmes.

She now teaches master classes in Text Analysis in both French and English across the Country.

Maureen Labonté has translated more than fifty Quebec plays into English. One of the main focuses of her work has been in the area of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). Also, And Slowly Beauty, her translation of Michel Nadeau’s Lentement la beauté was short-listed for the 2014 Governor General’s Award in Translation.

She lives in Montreal.

Aki is a biracial, Japanese-Canadian (nisei, second generation) dramaturg and arts educator raised in Ottawa and Tokyo within a family of pedagogues.

Aki’s love for theatre began in her formative years at a francophone Arts High School in Ottawa. She completed a Bachelor’s of Arts specialised in theatre, during that time, she participated in an international exchange studying for a year at the University of Birmingham, UK to immerse herself in English and European Theatre. In the years that follow, Aki completed her Masters of Arts in Theatre Theory and Dramaturgy, successfully defending her Thesis that examined the Intercultural Adaptations of Japanese Post-War Theatre Director, Suzuki Tadashi. Since moving to Montreal Aki has worked with emerging theatre artists in training at the National Theatre School of Canada.

Aki is fascinated by intercultural performance, as it fosters an exchange and seeks out connection between seemingly disparate entities, looking at the world through the lens of wanting to understand each other’s humanity across geographic, cultural, linguistic, temporal and cultural boundaries. Intercultural performance resonates deeply with Aki as a bi-racial artist whose mixed-identity has always been a centre point of her existence.

Aki has been engaging in dramaturgical collaboration apprenticeships for a number of years following her studies. Since joining PWM, Aki has collaborated with a number of artists in developing their projects and is continuously discovering new elements of her artistic process with every new collaboration.