Marie-Claude Verdier made her first foray into writing for the stage as a teenager. Her short story, Paradise.com was included 1999’s Les nouveaux Zurbains série III (Théâtre le Clou). The work was published in the collection Les Zurbains (Dramaturges éditeurs) and in Jamais de la Vie (Éditions du Passage). She continued her studies at the École supérieure de théâtre, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in Criticism and Playwriting, followed by a Master’s in Dramaturgy from the University of Glasgow. In the fall of 2013, her first play, Je n’y suis plus, was produced at the National Arts Centre’s French Theatre, as part of the biannual festival Zones Théâtrales. The English translation by Alexis Diamond won the 2013 Playwrights’ Workshop Cole Foundation Translation award. The play was produced in London (UK), Montreal and at the Summer Works Festival in Toronto. In 2015, Marie-Claude returned to Les Zurbains after 18 years with her short play Le laboratoire, presented throughout Quebec. Her second play, Nous autres antipodes was nominated for the Gratien-Gélinas award for young playwrights. She was commissioned by the Montpellier companyAdesso e Sempre to create an in-situ and interactive audio adaptation of Antigone for teenage audiences. Andy’s Gone has toured France for 4 years and over a hundred performances. Marie-Claude was recently playwright in residence at Mariemont (Belgium) for the CED and at Le Rideau Theater in Brussels to work on her new sci-fi play, Cosmos. She is currently making a radio adaptation of Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s Ève Future. She was in residence at the National Archives (BAnQ) to research material for her new play, Apparitions, a gothic retelling of Montreal’s history. Marie-Claude is also a dramaturg and has worked with several leading directors including Christian Lapointe (Sauvageau Sauvageau and Constituons!), Benoît Vermeulen (Bilan at TNM) and Marc Beaupré (L’Iliade). Marie-Claude has also been involved with many prestigious Canadian theatrical institutions. Upon returning from her M.phil in Glasgow, she was hired by the National Arts Centre as coordinator for the youth section under thedirectorship of Denis Marleau and Wajdi Mouawad. She later moved to Montreal to become head of CEAD’s documentation centre. She now works at the National Theatre School of Canada’s library.”  www.agencerbl.com/en/talents/marie-claude-verdier/

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).(Université de Montréal). Alexis has translated two of Marie-Claude’s other plays, Je n’y suis plus (I’m Not Here) and Andy’s Gone.  www.compositetheatre.com