A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IS A DIFFERENT VISION OF LIFE
A glimpse into new translation
Join us online for our English language new translation development workshop series.
Discover the leading new works of francophone Canadian theatre, meet the playwrights and their translators, and play a part in the new translation process.
FREE EVENT
DATE
Sunday, Jan. 30th 2022
TIME
PT (Vancouver): 4PM MT (Calgary): 5PM ET (Montreal): 7PM AT (Halifax): 8PM
RUNNING TIME
2 hrs including Intermission and conversation with the playwright
HOW TO ATTEND
FREE event. No registration required. Capacity 100.
Latecomers welcome – audience does not appear on screen.
In Association with The Canadian Play Thing, PHT Creative Hub Co-operative & United Players of Vancouver
THE HARDINGS
By Alexia Bürger | Translated by Alexis Diamond Translated from LES HARDINGS (Quebec, Canada)
Featuring Rick Dobran, Paul David Power, & Anthony Santiago
“…an enormously powerful and touching piece… an important theatrical experience…”– Mazrou
A Quebecois railway worker, an American insurance salesman and a New Zealander researcher have the same name: Thomas Harding. On the surface, they have nothing in common. Until one night, a train derails blowing up a city. The invisible tracks that connect these three existences begin to reveal themselves. Inspired by the documentary material, Alexia Boerger questions conformism and the individuals’ responsibility when tragedy strikes.
Les Hardings premieredCentre du Théâtre d’hui(2018). It received the Prix auteur(e) dramatique du CTD’A and was selected by Jury of Grand Prix du livre de Montréal 2019.
This translation and workshop is made possible by grants from The Canada Council for the Arts. This project is produced with the co-operation of the UBCP/ACTRA.
LES HARDINGS Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, 2018
Meet our Playwright & Translator
About the playwright
ALEXIA BÜRGER
ALEXIA BÜRGER (elle) is a Montreal actor, playwright and director. A long-time accomplice of Olivier Choinière, Alexia co directed Chante avec moi (Espace Libre / Festival TransAmériques / Centre National des Arts / Le Trident) and Polyglotte (Théâtre Aux Écuries / Festival TransAmériques). She co-created Alfred (Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui) with Emmanuel Schwartz. She co created the theatrical ambulatory Je ne m’appartiens plus (Espace Go) with Sophie Cadieux. She has worked on numerous installations combining fictitious and documentary material, visual art and sound research, such as Pensées courantes (Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui lobby over the 2016/2017 season). In 2017, she directed Les barbelés in France (Théâtre La Colline) which was revived in Quebec (Théâtre de Quat’Sous). In 2018, Alexia and collaborator Fanny Britt, won the Jean-Louis Roux Creative Fellowship of the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde for writing Lysis.
About the translator
Alexis Diamond
Alexis Diamond (she, her) is a Montreal-based playwright, opera librettist, translator and theatre curator. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for audiences of all ages have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. She also collaborates with several international artists on performance-installations involving text, movement and sound. In 2019, Alexis Diamond served as co-artistic director of the Jamais Lu festival, where she also presented a bilingual play, Faux-amis, with co-author Hubert Lemire, with support from the CALQ. In 2018, Alexis joined a multiyear project led by professor Erin Hurley (McGill University) on the history of Quebec’s English-language theatre.
Meet the workshop team
RICK DOBRAN (HE, HIM, HIS)
Rick Dobran is an actor and writer living in Vancouver, BC. Rick is very excited to be able to contribute to this creative effort even through the pandemic.
PAUL DAVID POWER (HE, HIM, HIS)
Paul David Power has spent 25 years working as a writer, playwright, actor and director. His leadership positions include President of the Liffey Players Drama Society (Calgary), Artistic Director for Hubcity Theatre (Moncton) and Artistic Associate for the Shakespeare by the Sea Festival (St. John’s). Paul is an award winning playwright with Roomies, Last Chance, The View From Down Here, In Your Eyes and his current critically acclaimed touring production, Crippled. Paul is currently the Artistic Director of Power Productions (NL) – a professional theatre company dedicated to the development of works and artists with a focus on the disabled Deaf and MAD Arts domain. www.powerproductionsnl.com
ANTHONY SANTIAGO (HE, HIM, HIS)
Anthony’s selected theatre credits include: Best of Enemies (Pacific Theatre), Coriolanus (Bard on the Beach), Company (Raincity Theatre), Sweat (The Arts Club/The Citadel Theatre), Dear Elizabeth (Wunderdog Theatre) Superior Donuts (Ensemble Theatre Company), True West (Sonderhouse Productions). Special love and thanks to his family, friends, Nya-Manet, James and AKC.
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: HANNAH SIDEN (SHE, HER, HERS)
Hannah is a writer, director, producer and actor currently based in Vancouver, BC. She holds a BA in International Development Studies from McGill University, an MA in Acting from East 15 Acting School and a postgraduate filmmaking diploma from the London Film Academy. Hannah wrote and directed the short film Breathing Easy featuring Agnes Tong and Anita Wittenberg. She directed, produced and edited a music video for singer-songwriter David Beckingham in collaboration with Ballet BC, Plastic Wings. www.hannahsiden.com
Creative Producer: Jack Paterson (He, Him, his)
Jack is an award winning theatre maker whose work and practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. Work has ranged from devising creation, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-ligual projects to new works & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. www.jackpatersontheatre.com
The Canadian Play Thing is a playwright-centred virtual theatre that shares live readings of new and under-produced Canadian plays online. The goal is to support and celebrate the work of playwrights, and to connect our theatre family across the country. Artists and audiences around the world are welcome. www.plaything.ca
About The PHT Creative Hub Co-operative
The PHT Creative Hub Co-operative has transformed how we collaborate and share performing arts with our communities. Co-op artist members from across performance disciplines fill our spaces, work on their own creative projects, and share their skills and expertise with each other. The PHT Creative Hub Co-operative
About United Players
The uniqueness of United Players has been this diverse blend of artists of all ages, experiences and from all walks of life. The result is an exciting, energetic, creative, and fulfilling environment in which dreams can be realized, careers advanced, achievements accomplished, and magic created.
Francophone Canadian Theatre Resources
About Centre des auteurs dramatique
An association of authors serving authors, CEAD is a centre for the support, promotion and dissemination of French-language dramaturgy here. It occupies a unique place both in terms of the number of authors it brings together and the objectives of quality and innovation it pursues. www.cead.qc.ca
About Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal
Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal is a new creation development centre. PWM gives artists the opportunity to create and experiment, dream and take risks, fail and try again. Our dynamic collaborative process draws on our team’s unique expertise and is tailored to the artist’s individual needs. At PWM, playwrights, dramaturgs, translators, directors, performance artists, and theatre companies across the country find a creative accomplice willing to invest deeply in the development of meaningful work. www.playwrights.ca
About Théâtre la Seizième
Founded in 1974, Théâtre la Seizième is the main French language, professional theatre company in British Columbia. Since its creation, la Seizième contributes to the richness and diversity of the performing arts through its activities in new play development, production, presentation, and touring in French. Through powerful experiences that reflect the very best of francophone performing arts, from here and elsewhere, our company aims to inspire, enrich, and bring together diverse audiences. www.seizieme.ca
A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IS A DIFFERENT VISION OF LIFE
A glimpse into new translation
Join us online for our English language new translation development workshop series.
Discover the leading new works of francophone Canadian theatre, meet the playwrights and their translators, and play a part in the new translation process.
FREE EVENT
DATE
Sunday, December 6, 2020
TIME
PT (Vancouver): 12PM MT (Calgary): 1PM CT (Regina): 2PM ET (Montreal): 3PM AT (Halifax): 4PM GMT/ WET (London UK): 20:00 hrs CET (Berlin EU): 21:00 hrs
RUNNING TIME
2 hrs including Intermission
In Association with Ruby Slippers Theatre & The Canadian Play Thing
Seeker
By Marie-Claude Verdier Translated by Alexis Diamond
Translated from Seeker (Quebec, Canada)
Lomond is a Seeker. He reads, sees and feels the memories of others for the police. This time, though, it’s different. He’s on a top-secret mission for the Space Force…and his ex. Niamh has just returned from Mars with “the Wizard”, an object containing enigmatic memories she can’t access. To read the Wizard’s cache of memories, Lomond must exchange “a memory for a memory.” He throws himself headfirst into the task…and into the unknown.
A new work by an award winning new playwright, Seeker was first presented at la 10e édition du festival de lectures publiques Dramaturgies en Dialogue.
Featuring Lauren Brotman, Stefanie Buxton, Ming Hudson and Anthony Santiago
This translation and workshop were made possible by grants from Canada Council for the Arts. Artists appear courtesy of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the Dance Opera Theatre Agreement. This project is produced with the co-operation of the UBCP/ACTRA.
Meet our Playwright & Translator
About the playwright
Marie-Claude Verdier
(Elle)
Marie-Claude Verdier’s Award winning play Je n’y suis plus, was produced with the NAC Théâtre français NAC (2013).Her play Nous autres antipodes was nominated for the Prix Gratien-Gélinas and Andy gone, a loose adaptation of Antigone, commisioned and produced by the French company Acessor E sempre, was presented in Avignon, and has toured for the last four years and over 100 performances. www.agencerbl.com/en/talents/marie-claude-verdier/
About the translator
Alexis Diamond
(She, Her, Hers)
Alexis is an anglophone theatre artist, opera and musical librettist, translator and theatre curator working on both sides of Montréal’s linguistic divide. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. Alexis Diamond served as co-artistic director of the famed Festival Jamais Lu. Alexis has translated two of Marie-Claude’s other plays, Je n’y suis plus (I’m Not Here) and Andys gone. www.compositetheatre.com
Meet the workshop team
Lauren Brotman (She, Her, Hers) *
Lauren is an award-winning actor, creator, and artist educator, her work taking her across Canada and Europe. Her company, Bound to Create (B2C), explores the beauty of dark and light, having partnered with Obsidian, Tapestry, Native Earth and Theatre Northwest, recently expanding to create work for stage, tv and film. www.boundtocreate.com
Stefanie Buxton (She, Her, Hers) *
Stefanie lives and works in Montréal. She is a graduate of Concordia University and her acting work has spanned over twenty years in theatre, film, television and voice. Selected theatre credits include: Marion Bridge by Daniel MacIvor; On This Day by Alexandria Haber; Province by Mathieu Gosselin; Angel`s Share by Alexis Diamond; The Madonna Painter by Michel Marc Bouchard. Stefanie is also a writer, director and Cégep professor.
Ming Hudson (She, Her, Hers) *
Ming is a performer, director, deviser, facilitator, and teacher who specializes in physical theatre and the creation of new work as a collective ensemble. She has worked with The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Replacement, Atomic Vaudeville, The Firehall, and Boca del Lupo, and is currently a faculty member at CCPA.
Anthony Santiago (He, Him, His) *
Anthony is a Jessie Award winning Vancouver based actor who has appeared in numerous productions across Western Canada, including Company (Raincity Theate), Best of Enemies (Pacific Theatre) and Sweat (Arts Club/Citadel Theatre).
Guest Dramaturg: Diane Brown (She, Her, Hers)
Diane is a multi award-winning director, actor, and Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre (RST). In 2017, she received the prestigious Bra D’Or Award from Playwrights Guild of Canada and was a 2018 Nominee for the Women of Distinction Awards, in recognition of her years of empowering the voices of diverse female-identifying artists. She and RST earned the reputation as Vancouver’s finest producers of crucial Quebec works in English, translations commissioned by RST. Diane has a BFA from SFU and an MFA in Directing from UBC.
Creative Producer: Jack Paterson (He, Him, his) *
Jack is an award winning theatre maker whose work and practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. Work has ranged from devising creation, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-ligual projects to new works & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. www.jackpatersontheatre.com
Ruby Slippers Theatre imagines a world where diversity is celebrated through a deeper understanding of each other. www.rubyslippers.ca
About The Canadian Play Thing
The Canadian Play Thing is a playwright-centred virtual theatre that shares live readings of new and under-produced Canadian plays online. The goal is to support and celebrate the work of playwrights, and to connect our theatre family across the country. Artists and audiences around the world are welcome. www.plaything.ca
Francophone Canadian Theatre Resources
About Centre des auteurs dramatique
An association of authors serving authors, CEAD is a centre for the support, promotion and dissemination of French-language dramaturgy here. It occupies a unique place both in terms of the number of authors it brings together and the objectives of quality and innovation it pursues. www.cead.qc.ca
About Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal
Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal is a new creation development centre. PWM gives artists the opportunity to create and experiment, dream and take risks, fail and try again. Our dynamic collaborative process draws on our team’s unique expertise and is tailored to the artist’s individual needs. At PWM, playwrights, dramaturgs, translators, directors, performance artists, and theatre companies across the country find a creative accomplice willing to invest deeply in the development of meaningful work. www.playwrights.ca
All funds from this project and campaign go to employing theatre artists in a time of need
Bouche’s “A Glimpse into New Translation” workshop series will continue until all funds are exhausted. Our ambition is to engage and employ as many theatre artists as possible over the current pandemic. Our Campaign help raise critical funds for to keep theatre artists employed and engaged in the creative process under the current circumstances.
Sponsor a playwright, a translator or actor through the process. All donations over $10 will be recognized on our webpage.
MIDNIGHT
(Translated from MINUIT)
By Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon
Translated by Alexis Diamond
With Presence Theatre (London UK)
Special thanks to: Layla Jalaei, Kevin McMonagle, Anthony Ofoegbu, Susan Raasay, Sakuntala Ramanee, Ami Sayers, Zara Tomkinson, Adam Tyler, Hemi Yeroham.
In an act of resistance against a despotic government that hunts down seniors and sucks their memories dry, the irrepressible Midnight keeps her mother in hiding, to protect her and her daughter and their secret world. They swap knowing smiles and lost words while braving a lack of food and light, driven mad with love, anger, fear. This homage to a fading civilization stirs up snow and subversion, ancestral culture and instinct: craved, warped, misused, a past re-animated and electrified, just like new.
This translation was commissioned by Talisman Theatre, artistic director Lyne Paquette. Translation dramaturgy was provided by Linda Gaboriau. Dramaturgical support for the translation was provided by Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM), artistic and executive director Emma Tibaldo.
Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon (Playwright)
A year after graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada’s francophone playwriting program, Marie Hélène Larose Truchon won the Le théâtre pour les jeunes publics et la relève playwriting award for her play Reviens!, and received special mentions at the Prix Gratien-Gélinas for Minuit (2013) and Un biseau m’attend (2015). The latter two plays were given staged readings (in 2014 and 2015 respectively) at the Centre de auteurs dramatique’s Dramaturgies en dialogue festival in Montreal. A coproduction of Minuit by the Théâtre Double Signe and the Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke was presented in Sherbrooke (2017) and Montreal (2018). Marie Hélène teaches playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada French language program and is working on several writing projects for all-ages audiences. Her play Crème-Glacée was produced by Théâtre La Seizième (Vancouver, Canada)
Alexis Diamond (Translator)
Alexis is an anglophone theatre artist, opera and musical librettist, translator and theatre curator working on both sides of Montréal’s linguistic divide. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. She also collaborates internationally with artists on performance-installations involving text, movement and sound. In 2018, Alexis began a multiyear collaboration with professor Erin Hurley (McGill University) and Emma Tibaldo (Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal) researching the history of English-language theatre in Québec. In May 2019, Alexis Diamond served as co-artistic director of the famed Festival Jamais Lu, where she presented the mostly French-language Faux-amis with co-author Hubert Lemire, supported by CALQ. Her theatre translations are also in wide circulation: upcoming tours include The Problem with Pink by Érika Tremblay-Roy, published by Lansman (Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke), and Pascal Brullemans’ The Nonexistant (DynamO Théâtre). Three translations were presented in the 2018-19 season (for Geordie Productions 2Play-Tour, Talisman Theatre and Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke). Her translation of Pascal Brullemans’ plays for young audiences, Amaryllis and Little Witch, was just published by Playwrights Canada Press. Currently the Quebec Caucus representative for the Playwrights Guild of Canada, she is co-founder of Composite Theatre Co. and a long-standing member of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing (Concordia University) and an M.A. in English Studies (Université de Montréal).
By Marie-Claude Verdier | Translated by Alexis Diamond
Pan Canadian Remote Remote New Translation Workshop 2020
Supported by
ANDY’S GONE
By Marie-Claude Verdier | Translated by Alexis Diamond Translated from ANDY’S GONE (Quebec, Canada)
With Alexis Diamond (Montreal), Jenna Thorne (London, UK), Sabrina Vellani and Jack Paterson (Vancouver)
In a modern reimagining, a young teen follows the footsteps of Antigone the Rebel defying a contemporary Creon. The City is in a state of emergency and Alison believes there is something else going on… Andy’s Gone was produced by Acessor E sempre (France) and presented in Avignon.
This workshop is made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
Andy’s Gone | Compagnie Adesso e sempre in coproduction with Sortie Ouest domaine départemental d’art et de culture de Bayssan. Photo: Marc Ginot
About the playwright
Marie-Claude Verdier
Marie-Claude Verdier (She, her, hers) was a dramaturge at CEAD from 2010 to 2013. Her first play, Je n’y suis plus, was produced with le Théâtre Français du Centre National des Arts in 2013. Her play Nous autres antipodes was nominated for the Prix Gratien-Gélinas. Andy’s Gone, a loose adaptation of Antigone for teens, was produced by the French Acessor E sempre and presented in Avignon.
About the translator
Alexis Diamond
Alexis Diamond (She, her, hers) is a Montreal-based theatre artist and translator. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for all ages have been presented across Canada and internationally. The 2018-19 season has seen the premiere of the family-oriented piece for orchestra and narrator Making Light, penned with Abigail Richardson (Calgary Philharmonic), and two other translations, for Talisman Theatre and Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke. With composer Stephanie Moore, Alexis is currently creating Zoom-Boum-Boum, an electroacoustic piece for very young audiences (Jeunesses Musicales Canada).
BoucheWHAKED! Theatre Collective
In association with PTC, Ruby Slippers Theatre and Upintheair Theatre
MAY 22, 2:30 PM West Coast English Language Premiere I’M NOT HERE
By Marie-Claude Verdier | Translated by Alexis Diamond | Directed by Heidi Taylor
Featuring Melissa Oei*
In a torrent of words, a young woman describes her unraveling daily existence, slipping inevitably towards the brutal unknown. Between her boss’s cupcake schedule and the distractions of her life as an urban singleton, she breaks down: a total implosion. Nothing’s ever over because nothing ever starts.
“This play of Marie-Claude Verdier’s…in fact her first attempt on the dramatic writing scene and it is excellent.” – Anne Michaud, Bernier et Cie, Radio-Canada Première Ottawa
Winner of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Cole Foundation Translation Competition
The Cultch | The Founders’ Lounge | 1895 Venables Street
PAY WHAT YOU CAN AT THE DOOR
Marie-Claude Verdier, Playwright
Marie-Claude Verdier took her first steps in playwriting as a teenager when her tale Paradise.com was selected by Théâtre le Clou for Les nouveaux Zurbains série III in 1999. The text was published in the collection The Zurbains with Dramaturges éditeurs and in Jamais de la Vie by Éditions du Passage. She continued her career by studying at the École Supérieure de Théâtre de L’UQAM in criticism and dramaturgy and she did a master’s degree on the dramaturgy of the museums at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In the fall of 2013, her first play Je n’y suis plus was presented at the french Theatre of the NAC and at Zones Théâtrales . This production received two Prix Rideau Awards.
Alexis Diamond, Translator
Alexis Diamond is a Montreal-based playwright, opera librettist, musical lyricist and translator. Recently, Alexis won a Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, Quebec, and an Individual Artist residency at the international Saari Residence, Finland. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for audiences of all ages have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in the U.K. She is currently working on Strange Land, a historical epic set in Montreal in 1942, and two musicals. She is co-founder of Composite Theatre Co., a long-standing member of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and an active member of Montreal’s Espace Freestanding Room.
Heidi Taylor, Dramaturge & Director
Heidi Taylor’s passion for theatre was ignited when she played a robot in a grade six play. Since then, she has moved from acting to dramaturgy as her primary creative activity. Her background in performance creation with cross-disciplinary company Proximity Arts sparked her beginner-mind approach to dramaturgy. She applies principles learned from early mentors DD Kugler and One Yellow Rabbit, and relies on her hands-on experiences with Public Dreams and Leaky Heaven Circus to maintain a sense of passionate liveness in the work. She is interested in the “how” of theatre – how do we create collaborative relationships and processes that inspire artists to make necessary work with transformative power?
BoucheWHAKED! Theatre Collective