A Glimpse into New Translation: Seeker

A Glimpse into New Translation: Seeker

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

About our Partners

About Ruby Slippers Theatre

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

Support the Project

Glimpse into Translation Indiegogo Campaign

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.

Special

Thank You

Pan Canadian New Translation Workshop: Andy’s Gone

Pan Canadian New Translation Workshop: Andy’s Gone

Andy’s Gone

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).

Translation Workshop: I’m Not Here

Translation Workshop: I’m Not Here

Eflyer I'm Not HereBoucheWHAKED! 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?