A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s writing program, Martin Bellemare was awarded the 2009 Gratien Gélinas Prize for Le Chant de Georges Boivin. La Liberté was presented at La Rubrique (Jonquière) in 2013 and in Montreal in 2015, and was scheduled to be staged in Ottawa in 2020. Maître Karim la perdrix (2018 Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone, awarded by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques) will premiere at the Théâtre des Capucins in Luxembourg in 2021. Moule Robert (CNL Scholarship, shortlisted for the 2017 Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone and the 2018 Michel Tremblay Prize) was produced simultaneously at La Rubrique and at the POCHE/ GVE in Geneva, then at the Théâtre de Belleville in Paris. Martin is a four-time recipient of the Aide à la création grant from the Centre national du Théâtre/ARTCENA in Paris, and two of his plays are included in the repertoire of the Comédie-Française. Two of his plays for young audiences, Un château sur le dosand Des pieds et des mains, which was first produced at the NAC, have toured in Canada and internationally. In 2019, Extraordinaire et mystérieux and Charlie et le djingpouite were produced, and Cœur minéral (Governor General’s Literary Awards, Winner 2020) premiered at the Francophonies in Limoges. 

Jack Paterson (he, him) is a Vancouver launched translator, devisor, director, dramaturg and creative producer whose practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. His work ranges from contemporary devised creation, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-lingual projects to new works & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. He is a recipient of The Ray Michal Body of Work Award, The Cole Foundation Award for Emerging Translators, and The John Moffat & Larry Lillo West Coast artist Award. His translations include The Ballade of Georges Boivin by Martin Bellemare, The Naughty Children’s Bedtime Stories by Etienne Lepage, Kiwi by Daniel Danis, and Horses from Horses from Heaven Fall in a Reign of Ash by Naghmeh Samini (Iran).

www.JackPatersonTheatre.com

ohanna Nutter (she, euro-settler, multidisciplinary artist) developed her passion for translation through acting: being one of few bilingual theatre artists, she played leading roles at Centaur and La Licorne. Johanna is known for her solo play my pregnant brother/mon frère est enceinte, which she translated during a residency in Tadoussac, accompanied by Linda Gaboriau. The show toured across Canada and Quebec in both languages, and to the UK and Belgium. Subsequently, she translated the works of Annick Lefebvre (Barbed Wire), Guillaume Corbeil (You’ll Go Looking for Her), and Florence Longpré & Nicolas Michon’s ballet-theatre hybrid CHLORINE, which she also produced and directed at Centaur, with her company creature/creature.

www.creature/creature.org

Lauren has performed with beloved theatres across Canada and Europe, receiving a Dora Award, the Jessica Fraser Award and the Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award. New play workshops include Canadian Stage, AfriCanadian Playwright’s Festival, Nightwood, Theatre Passe Muraille, fu-GEN, Bouche Theatre, Crow’s, The Grand etc. She trained at University of Toronto, Soulpepper and with Mark Rylance, the SITI Company, Yael Farber, Graham McLaren.

Her company Bound to Create has partnered with Obsidian, Tapestry, Native Earth, Talking Stick, Theatre Northwest, RMTC, Canadian Stage and has received several Dora nominations and awards. Upcoming: She Carries Me Again.

Vancouver-born, London-based, mixed Caucasian/ Japanese/ Chinese woman who acts, writes, directs for theatre and film. Graduated with Distinction from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s MA Acting for Screen. Recipient of the London Library’s Emerging Writers Award 2019 and in 2020, New Earth Theatre’s BESEA Professional Writers Programme.

Paul David Power has spent the past 25 years working as a writer, playwright, actor and director.  His formal training includes holding a BA in English with a concentration in theatre and a BAA in Journalism.Paul’s work includes roles in over 30 stage plays across the country as well as directing and producing. His leadership positions include President of the Liffey Players Drama Society in Calgary AB for three years,  Artistic Director for Hubcity Theatre in Moncton NB for five years and Artistic Associate for the Shakespeare by the Sea Festival in St. John’s NL for three years.  Paul is also an award winning playwright with five produced works to his credit including the award winning Roomies, Last Chance, The View From Down Here, In Your Eyes and his current award winning and critically acclaimed touring production, Crippled. Paul is currently the Artistic Director of his own NL based company – Power Productions – a professional theatre company dedicated to the development of works and artists with a focus on the disabled Deaf and MAD Arts domain.  www.power productionsnl.com

Deneh’Cho Thompson, Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan is an actor, director, and educator of mixed Indigenous decent. His research interests include Indigenous pedagogies for theatre training, Indigenous dramaturgies, and destabilizing the mainstream theatre forms.

Rick Dobran is an actor and writer living in Vancouver, BC. Rick is very excited to be able to contribute to this creative effort.

Michael is the Artistic Director of November Theatre, whose notable productions include The Black Rider (National Tour) and Hard Core Logo: Live (PuSh Festival). Michael has directed and acted with companies across North America including La Mama (NY), Globe Theatre (Regina), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ex Machina (Quebec), Tarragon (Toronto), Arts Club Theatre (Vancouver), Catalyst Theatre (Edmonton) and Belfry Theatre (Victoria) to name a few. www.novembertheatre.com

Karen Hines’ (she, her) multi-prize-winning plays offer keen musings on modern life, combining such disparate elements as magical realism, pink-brand feminism and environmental disarray. Her solo performances and ‘little’ films featuring her darkly comic character ‘Pochsy’ have traveled the globe. Hines has collaborated as a director and dramaturg with many fellow artists, and her productions, plays and performances have seen venues like One Yellow Rabbit, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre), Astor Place Off-Broadway, Tarragon, Videofag, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, NAC. For Festival du Jamais Lu 2022, Hines’ ‘Tous les petits animaux que j’ai dévouré’ was translated and staged (Mishka Lavigne; Lisa L’Heureux) and Hines’ real estate horror Crawlspace continues to micro-theatres across Canada in French and English. Crawlspace is being adapted as screenplay, and is now a CBC podcast (PlayMe; Radio One). Upcoming, Pochsy IV premieres January 2023.

Mishka Lavigne (she, her) is a playwright and literary translator based in Ottawa/Gatineau. Her plays have been produced, read and developed in Canada, Switzerland, France, Germany and the United States. Her plays Havre and Copeau were awarded the Governor General’s Literary Prize for Drama (French). Her recent play Copeaux, a movement-based poetic creation piece with director É Perron premiered in Ottawa in March 2020. She is currently working on her new play Shorelines and her first opera libretto with composer Tim Brady. Mishka is a National New Play Network (USA) alumni playwright as well as a member of the PGC and CEAD.

Miriam Cusson (she, her) is a director, actor, author, creator and dramaturg. Her work explores the poetry of violence and cruelty in contemporary society while questioning the foundations of our community. Her approach embraces the collisions between vulnerability and strength, between creation and destruction, and seeks to provoke a reflection on expectations, conventions and preconceived notions. She has often been called a rebel. It suits her perfectly. Miriam is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s JOHN HIRSCH Award, the Greater Sudbury Mayor’s Award for the Arts and Laurentian University’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Miriam has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Theatre Department since August 2021.

Artistic Director of the Théâtre français de Toronto since 2021, Karine Ricard (she, her) is an actor, director, director and author. Recently she directed her first feature film Les Liaisons dangereuses : correspondances inédites. At TfT she performed in Molière’s Le Misanthrope, Marivaux’s La seconde surprise de l’amour and in English in The Numbers Games. Her play Les sept péchés capitaux was presented at the Des Feuilles Vives festival in Ottawa. She is currently directing Yassama et la calebasse aux cauris at the WEE Festival in Toronto.

Bianca Richard (she, her) is an actor and puppeteer who also writes for theatre and film. Originally from New Brunswick, she received her bachelor’s degree in drama from the Université de Moncton in 2013. Since then, she has navigated between acting on television (À la Valdrague, Newbies), theatrical creation (Radi, Les limites du bruit possible, ‘T”, Pépins) and producing short films (Out of tune, Al-Ghoula à la plage). Since 2019, she been developing the play Parler Mal in collaboration with Gabriel Robichaud. She is also the new co-host of the national youth TV series ONIVA! (Radio-Canada).