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, May 30th 2021
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 and conversation with the playwright
In Association with The Canadian Play Thing, PHT Creative Hub Co-operative & Zee Zee Theatre
A SEX ED GUIDE FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
By Olivier Sylvestre | Translated by Bobby Theodore Translated from GUIDE D’ÉDUCATION SEXUELLE POUR LE NOUVEAU MILLÉNAIRE (Quebec, Canada)
“…daring, frank, raw, funny and touching…a subject rarely seen on stage: the discovery of sexuality, with all the clumsiness, questions and desires” – La Presse
“Without disillusionment or cynicism, the play takes a loving look at the young adult experience, with all its torments, hopes and fears.”– Le Devoir
August 1999. The end of the world is near, and so is the end of high school. The shadow of the Y2K looms over the desires of Oli and Sophie. Also, no one taught them why or how to make love. And then Ben appears, this magnetic being superbly entered into adulthood. Identities are changing, boundries are explored, and the mission “to do the deed” before the new millennium takes out everything in its path.
Featuring Makram Ayache, Scott Button & Julie Leung | Playwright & Translator Q&A moderated by Dave Deveau
This translation and workshop is made possible by grants from Canada Council for the Arts. This project is produced with the co-operation of the UBCP/ACTRA.
GUIDE D’ÉDUCATION SEXUELLE POUR LE NOUVEAU MILLÉNAIRE, Theatre Denise-Pelletier (2020).
Meet our Playwright & Translator
About the playwright
Olivier Sylvestre
Olivier Sylvestre (he, him, his) is most noted for his first play La beauté du monde, which won the Prix Gratien-Gélinas and was a shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama (2015) and Noms fictifs which was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General’s Award for French-language fiction (2018).
Sylvestre holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology, and a diploma in playwriting from the National Theatre School of Canada. His monologue Le désert premiered in January 2018 at Théâtre Prospero in a production by Le Dôme – creations théâtrales, a company Sylvestre co-leads. His play La loi de la gravité, (Éditions Passages(s)), has won numerous awards in Europe and was translated into English by Bobby Theodore and German by Sonja Finck (Gatineau) and performed at the Theaterfestival Primeur in Saarbrücken (2016).
About the translator
Bobby Theodore
Bobby Theodore (he/ him) is a screenwriter, playwright, dramaturg, and translator. Bobby has worked on several TV series, including Murdoch Mysteries, Flashpoint, and Knuckleheads (an adaptation of the iconic Québecois cartoon, Têtes à claques). After graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting section in 1998, he was a Governor General Award finalist in 2000 for his translation of 15 Seconds by François Archambault. Since then, Bobby has gone on to translate over 25 plays from French to English. For the stage, he co-created 300 Tapes (with Ame Henderson), which premiered at the Theatre Centre in Toronto and at Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP) in Calgary. His most recent projects include a translation of The Cicadas by François Archambault, and a transadaptation of Public Enemy by Olivier Choinière (to be published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2022).
Meet the workshop team
Makram Ayache (HE, HIM, HIS)
Makram Ayache is a Lebanese Canadian playwright, director, actor, and theatre producer who splits his time between Edmonton and Toronto. His work explores meaningful representation of Queer Arab experiences. At it’s core, his art is an attempt at bridging complex political realities with the intimate lived experiences of the people involved. www.makramayache.com
SCOTT BUTTON (HE, HIM, HIS)
Scott is a Jessie-nominated actor and writer residing on unceded Coast Salish territory. Look out for his upcoming queer-historical-fiction podcast NIGHT PASSING, presented by the Arts Club Theatre Company. www.scottbutton.ca
JULIE LEUNG (SHE, HER, HERS)
Julie is an actor and theatre artist from the Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver) and is currently residing in the Kulin Nations of the Boon Wurrung First Peoples (Melbourne). She has worked for numerous companies across Canada including Belfry Theatre, Arts Club Theatre, Western Canada Theatre, Green Thumb Theatre and Caravan Farm Theatre. Julie is a graduate of Studio 58.
Guest Dramaturg: DAVE DEVEAU (HE/HIM)
Dave Deveau is an award-winning writer and performer whose plays and operas have been performed across Canada and in Europe. Plays for Zee Zee include: My Funny Valentine, Nelly Boy, Tiny Replicas, Lowest Common Denominator, Dead People’s Things, Elbow Room Cafe: The Musical and Holiday at the Elbow Room Café. He has also worked with Green Thumb Theatre, Theatre la Seizieme, Theatre Direct, Tapestry New Opera Works, Buddies in Bad Times, Roseneath Theatre, the PuSh Festival and the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. His drag alter-ego Peach Cobblah can be seen hosting politics-forward drag events across the Lower Mainland. He is a graduate of York University and UBC’s MFA Playwriting program.
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 ZEE ZEE Theatre
Zee Zee Theatre believes in individual stories that provoke and inspire us, and that foster common understanding and empathy across our diverse human experiences. Zee Zee is devoted to telling diverse stories and amplifying the voices of those on the margins with a focus on LGBTQ2SI+ communities. Zee Zee explores intimate moments through which the infinite complexity of human character can be revealed. www.zeezeetheatre.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
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
Special
Thank You
Land Acknowledgement
Bouche’s activities take place on and are launched from the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish People: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. We recognize and honour the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation commission and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous sovereignty on this unceded territory.
*A territorial or land acknowledgement is an act of reconciliation that involves making a statement recognizing the traditional territory of the Indigenous people who called the land home before the arrival of settlers, and in many cases still do call it home. For more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada click here.
THE DESERT By Olivier Sylvestre | Translated by Leanna Brodie
Olivier Sylvestre (Montreal), Leanna Brodie, Brian Postilian & Jack Paterson (Vancouver)
A winter night. A man speaks to you, from the other side of the bed. He speaks of a dream he has every night. He speaks to you from the pit in his stomach, the void that fills him. He tells you why he cannot stay. Why he will leave, soon, maybe, tomorrow. Playwright Olivier Sylvestre leads takes the audience into the depths of night. In a free form of musical performance, theatre and spoken word, he invites the audience into an intimate and dizzying dive in the heart of a toxic relationship where you becomes the illusory remedy for a wrong impossible to name.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT Olivier Sylvestre
Olivier Sylvestre is a Montreal based playwright and author most noted for La beauté du monde, which won the Prix Gratien-Gélinas and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama (2015) and his short story collection Noms fictifs, which was a shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for French-language fiction (2018).
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Leanna Brodie
Leanna Brodie is an actor, playwright, and translator whose passions include lifting up the stories and voices of women, and championing a new generation of French-Canadian playwrights by transmitting their extraordinary theatrical visions into the English language. Her original plays The Vic, For Home and Country, The Book of Esther, and Schoolhouse (Talon Books) have been performed across Canada. Her translations include Christian Bégin’s After Me and Why Are You Crying?; Louise Bombardier’s My Mother Dog; Annie Brocoli’s Stardust; Rébecca Déraspe’s You Are Happy, I Am William, and Gametes; Amélie Dumoulin’s Violette; Sébastien Harrisson’s From Alaska and Two-Part Inventions; Catherine Léger’s Opium_37 and I Lost My Husband!; David Paquet’s Wildfire and The Shoe; Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms; Philippe Soldevila’s Tales of the Moon; Larry Tremblay’s Panda Panda; and multiple plays by Hélène Ducharme of Théâtre Motus, whose acclaimed, Dora Award-winning Baobab continues to tour China and the Americas after more than 600 performances.
