Thursday March 29, 2018
7PM
PWM studio, 7250 Clark Street, Suite 103, Montreal, QC H2R 2Y3
(De Castelnau station)
This is a FREE event. Donations are welcome at the door.
Website: www.playwrights.ca
KIWI
Written by Daniel Danis
Translated from French into English by Jack Paterson
Translation dramaturgy by Maureen Labonté
Recipient of The Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators Award
Kiwi is 12 years old. Abandoned on the city streets she meets a gang of homeless youth. She’ll do anything to keep this new family – she’ll change her name, forget her past and be loyal. As the authorities clear out the streets. With her friend Lychee, she learns how to survive: to run, to fly and to dream of a better life. (Recipient of PRIX LOUISE-LAHAYE, 2008)
The Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators Award
The Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators was set up to help identify and mentor the next generation of translators. The translation of new work for the stage is an important part of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal’s programming. To share our expertise with emerging translators we have partnered with the Cole Foundation. The successful candidate receives a prize of $1000, dramaturgical support on a new translation by renowned translator and dramaturg Maureen Labonté, and a translation workshop with professional actors.
Gallery
About the playwright
Daniel Danis
Daniel Danis (he, him, his) is a Canadian playwright. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama, receiving the award at the 1993 Governor General’s Awards for Celle-là, at the 2002 Governor General’s Awards for Le Langue-à-Langue des chiens de roche and at the 2007 Governor General’s Awards for Le chant du Dire-Dire. His other plays include Cendres de cailloux, Les nuages de terre, Le pont de pierres et la peau d’images, Terre océane, Mille anonymes, Sous un ciel de chamaille, Kiwi and Bled. Although born in Ontario, he grew up primarily in Quebec. He studied theatre at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique in Quebec City.
About the Mentor and Dramaturg
Maureen Labonte
Maureen Labonte (she, her, hers) is a dramaturge, translator and teacher. She has coordinated a number of play development programmes in theatres and play development centres across the country including at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in Montreal, the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and Playwrights Workshop Montreal. She was Literary Manager in charge of play development at The Shaw Festival for three seasons. In recent years, she has worked as guest dramaturge at the Playwrights Theatre Centre’s Winter Retreat in Vancouver and at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s Spring Festival held in Saskatoon. In October 2015, she was guest dramaturge at Pat the Dog’s play development conference: Creating Theatre in Northern Ontario. Maureen Labonté has translated more than thirty-five Quebec plays into English. Her translation of And Slowly Beauty by Quebec City director and playwright, Michel Nadeau, published by Talonbooks (Vancouver), was shortlisted for the 2014 Governor General’s Award in Translation. Her adaptation of Olivier Kemeid’s The Aeneid was part of the Stratford Festival’s 2016/17 season.
About the translator
Jack Paterson
Launching from Vancouver, Jack is an award-winning divisor, director, dramaturge, translator, actor and creative producer whose work and practice have taken him across North America, the UK and around the world. Productions have ranged from contemporary devising, cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary projects to main stage and classical theatre in contemporary form.
He is the founder of Vancouver’s award-winning Mad Duck Theatre Collective for whom he adapted and directed Julius Caesar, Vancouver’s first female Prospero in The Tempest and the Vancouver premieres of Titus Andronicus and Shakespeare’s R&J. In 2012 he founded, BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective dedicated to shared practiced exchange between francophone and anglophone Canadian practitioners. He is the co-founder of Global Hive Labs, a network of international artists and organizations working in shared practice.
Shows under his direction have garnered over twenty-five Jessie award nominations with many wins. He is a recipient of “The Ray Michal Award”, “The Cole Foundation Award for Emerging Translators” and “The John Moffat & Larry Lillo Award for Outstanding West Coast Artist”.
Jack trained at Circle in Square (NYC, USA), GITIS The University of Performing Arts (Moscow, RU), The Indonesian Institute of the Performing Arts (Denpasar, IND) and received his MFA in Theatre Direction from the renowned East 15 Acting School (London, UK).