From June 12 to 22, Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, in partnership with the Cole Foundation, and with the support of donations in the memory of the great Canadian theatre artist, Bill Glassco, will host the 16th edition of the Glassco Translation Residency, taking place in breathtaking Tadoussac, Québec.
Under the mentorship of award-winning dramaturg Bobby Theodore, playwrights and translators will immerse themselves in an extraordinary 10-day retreat, creating new translations of works that will be produced on stages across the country.
This year’s residency welcomes four Canadian plays that will be translated into three different languages that include English, French, and Tagalog.
THE PARTICIPANTS
Play to be translated (English into French):
One Discordant Violin
MARYSE WARDA, TRANSLATOR
Maryse was born and raised in Egypt. In 1991, Pierre Bernard, artistic director of Théâtre de Quat’Sous, gave her a first shot at translation – Cindy Lou Johnson’s Brilliant Traces.
Since then, she has translated more than 60 plays. She was instrumental in bringing the works of English Canadian writers such as George F. Walker (Suburban Motel cycle), John Mighton (Possible Worlds and Half Life), Daniel Brooks (Insomnia), and Morris Panych (Vigil) to francophone audiences. She has also translated works from American and British playwrights such as Howard Barker, Margaret Edson, David Greig, David Hare, David Mamet, and Philip Ridley. Her translations are celebrated for being faithful to the original, while making effective yet unostentatious use of the Quebec idiom. Her translation of Walker’s Suburban Motel series earned her a Masque award in 2000 from the Académie québécoise du théâtre. In 2011, her translation of Greg MacArthur’s The Toxic Bus Incident earned her a Governor General’s Literary Award.
In 2018-2019, she did the translations of Erin Shields’ Unit B17-17, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Simon Stephens’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Tom Schulman’s Dead Poets’ Society, and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, among others. Many of her translations have benefited from the Tadoussac residency, such as Douglas Maxwell’s Promises, Promises.
ANTHONY BLACK, PLAYWRIGHT
Anthony is a versatile artist who for 20 years has worked as a writer, director, actor, designer and as artistic co-director of Halifax’s internationally acclaimed 2b theatre company.
His projects with 2b include: Invisible Atom, (writer/ performer) which toured for over a decade across Canada and around the world, in both English and French; When it Rains, (writer/ director/ performer), which has played across Canada and around the world- he also directed a Spanish Language version of the show in Buenos Aires; Homage (writer); The Observed Flight of Birds (co-director/ lead writer); Unconscious at the Sistine Chapel by Michael MacKenzie (director); Rebecca Reads Nora Reads Molly – text by James Joyce (concept/ direction) The Story of Mr. Wright (co-director/ co-creator); One Discordant Violin (based on a short story by Yann Martel – adaptor/ do-director/ performer/ set design)
Anthony’s work has won awards and critical acclaim around the world and has traveled to some of the world’s most prestigious arts festivals and venues, in cities across Canada.
Anthony is leader in the artistic community in Nova Scotia, mentoring artists, advocating for the sector, and provoking artistic discussion through 2b’s Colloquium series – a program dedicated to fostering better conversations about art-making.
Play to be translated (French into English):
Dehors
LEANNA BRODIE, TRANSLATOR
Leanna Brodie is a Vancouver-based writer, actor, and the translator of numerous Québec playwrights, including Hélène Ducharme (whose Dora-winning Baobab continues to tour internationally after more than 600 performances), Catherine Léger, Louise Bombardier, Larry Tremblay, and Christian Bégin (5 Vancouver Jessie Award nominations and two wins for Ruby Slippers Theatre’s After Me). You Are Happy, Opium_37, and My Mother Dog are published by Playwrights Canada Press. Her translation of Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms was the winner of the 2018 Safewords National New Play Prize.
Current projects include: Rébecca Déraspe’s Gamètes; Philippe Soldevila’s Tales of the Snow; David Paquet’s Wildfire and The Shoe; and Olivier Sylvestre’s Le Désert. The 2019-20 season will see the world English-language premieres of Sébastien Harrisson’s From Alaska and one other play (yet to be announced) in Vancouver, as well as productions in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Toronto, Chicago, and Montréal.
Brodie’s own plays and operas have been produced across Canada as well as in the UK, USA, and New Zealand, and on CBC Radio. She is currently an Associate at Playwrights Theatre Centre, co-writing Salesman in China (a play about Arthur Miller directing Death of a Salesman in Beijing in 1983) with Jovanni Sy.
GILLES POULIN-DENIS, PLAYWRIGHT
Originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Gilles is an actor, playwright, director, translator and dramaturg. His first full-length play Rearview was presented in both French and English versions in Sudbury in the fall of 2016. This was Rearview’s third production, after being produced in Saskatoon in 2009 and Brussels in 2013. Rearview is published by Dramaturges Éditeurs and was nominated in 2010 for the Governor general’s literary arts award. Wajdi Mouawad named Gilles as one of the resident playwrights at the National Arts Centre’s Théâtre français from 2008 to 2012, where he developed his play Dehors. Dehors was published by L’Instant-Scène in 2017. Gilles has collaborated on numerous devised pieces such as ishow, Après la Peur and Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show. Gilles is the artistic director of Productions 2PAR4 and currently lives in Vancouver.
Play to be translated (French into English):
Fiel (Venom)
NADINE DESROCHERS, TRANSLATOR
Nadine’s translations include four plays by Sarah Berthiaume, two of which, The Flood Thereafter (also, Talisman Theatre, 2010) and Yukonstyle (published by Playwrights Canada Press, 2014 and produced by Talisman Theatre in 2016) were part of the 2013-2014 season of Canadian Stage. She has also translated two plays by Marilyn Perreault, Rock, Paper, Jackknife… (Talisman Theatre, 2009 and Playwrights Canada Press, 2010) and Bus Stops (Théâtre I.N.K. at Centaur Theatre, 2016) and created supertitles for a third, Fiel (Venom). Her other translations credits include Billy (The Days of Howling) by Fabien Cloutier (Talisman Theatre, 2014; A Play, A Pie and a Pint, Traverse Theatre/Òran Mór, Scotland) and L’effet Médée (The Medea Effect; hotINK festival, New York, and Talisman Theatre, 2012), by Suzie Bastien, which won the 2013 META prize for Best New Translation.
MARILYN PERREAULT, PLAYWRIGHT
Marilyn Perreault is an actor, writer, and director, as well as the co-artistic director of Théâtre I.N.K. and Théâtre Aux Écuries. She has directed Fiel, Jusqu’au sang ou presque, Lignedebus, and La beauté du monde. Her works include Fiel, Lignedebus (Bus Stops), Britannicus Now (Louise-LaHaye award winner produced by le Théâtre du Double signe and performed 76 times as well as published by Lansman Éditeur), Roche, papier, couteau… (published in French by Lansman Éditeur and in English as Rock, Paper, Jackknife… by Playwrights’ Canada Press and produced by Talisman Theatre), Les Apatrides (published by Dramaturges Éditeur), Nobridgetown, and Entre A et C il y a B. She has also written dialogue for the Théâtre de la Dame de cœur. Les Apatrides, presented during the FTA in 2005, received the Masque Révélation de l’année. Bus Stops has had 62 performances, in French at Théâtre Aux Écuries and at the Frontenac and Ahuntsic Maisons de la culture, and in English at the Centaur Theatre and the NDG Maison de la culture. It was also nominated for the META Best Production award.
Play to be translated (English into Tagalog):
A Taste of Empire
CARMELA SISON, TRANSLATOR
Carmela is a Filipino-Canadian artist based in Vancouver. She graduated from the University of Alberta’s esteemed BFA Acting program in 2010 and has since worked with various companies in Western Canada. Select theatre credits include Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Arts Club Theatre), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice (Bard on the Beach), A Christmas Carol (Western Canada Theatre), Dead Metaphor (Firehall Arts Centre), Sultans of the Street (Carousel Theatre), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (The Belfry Theatre), Consent, Are We There Yet?, Paper Song, Under Cover, The Bully Project (Concrete Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Calgary), Cowboy vs. Samurai (Chromatic Theatre). Her 15 minute play, Lolo’s Soup, was workshopped as part of The Sprouts Festival by Concrete Theatre in Edmonton, AB in 2012.
In 2016, Carmela was the Associate Artist at The Firehall Arts Centre where she served as artist liaison, community outreach development coordinator, and audience outreach coordinator. From 2017-2018, she was a co-producer of The Virago Play series (now Killjoy Theatre), which develops new plays by female identified or non-binary playwrights. In 2018, she took on the position of Interim Venue Coordinator for Boca del Lupo and is currently the Front of House Coordinator and Social Media Manager.
JOVANNI SY, PLAYWRIGHT
Jovanni is an actor, playwright, and director. From 2012 to 2019, he was the Artistic Director of Gateway Theatre. At Gateway, Jovanni directed productions of Harvest by Ken Cameron, Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, Valley Song by Athol Fugard, and Yoga Play by Dipika Guha. He acted in the world premiere of Lauren Yee’s King of the Yees. And Jovanni also wrote Nine Dragons (Winner of a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding New Play).
Prior to Gateway, Jovanni was the Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre Projects. In 2010, his one-man play, A Taste of Empire, was nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding New Play. A Taste of Empire was subsequently remounted by Boca del Lupo Theatre in Vancouver in 2014 and 2015. Later, with the assistance of the Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac (2016), Derek Chan translated A Taste of Empire into Cantonese. Rice and Beans Theatre produced 食盡天下 and it was nominated for a 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award.
Jovanni’s directing credits include Sarena Parmar’s The Orchard (After Chekhov) for Arts Club Theatre; God of Carnage, Antigone, and Blackbird (Theatre du Pif in Hong Kong); and Clifford Cardinal’s award-winning play Stitch for Native Earth Performance Arts.
La Résidence de traduction Glassco à Tadoussac est rendue possible grâce à notre partenariat avec le Programme de Conversations Interculturelles de la Fondation Cole, au dévouement de la productrice de la résidence Briony Glassco, ainsi qu'aux donations à la mémoire du grand artiste théâtral canadien, Bill Glassco. Nous sommes également reconnaissants envers le Conseil des arts du Canada, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec et le Conseil des arts de Montréal pour leur soutien continu.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
