LES BELLES-SOEURS

Playwright of Les Belles-Soeurs.

Michel Tremblay has been a dominant figure of Canadian theatre since the late 1960s.

At the age of 26, his play Les Belles-Soeurs was first produced in 1968 at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montréal. It was immediately acclaimed by critics and public alike, legendarily offering joual, the popular spoken language of Québec that is spurned by conventional society, on a professional stage. It has since been performed in many countries, and translated into 25 languages including Yiddish and Mòoré (spoken in Burkina Faso). "Reinvented" as a musical by René Richard Cyr and Daniel Bélanger in 2010, this seminal work continues to enchant audiences everywhere it plays.

Michel Tremblay is far from a one-hit wonder. Among his 40 plays, the best-known in English also include Albertine in Five Times, Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, Bonjour, là, bonjour, Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra, Hosanna (performed in Stratford in 2011), and his autobiographical For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again (1998), a touching and endearing tribute from a son to his mother, performed in Stratford in 2010. 

His work also includes three musical comedies, 21 novels, one collection of tales, four collections of short stories and seven film scripts. He has translated into French more than 40 plays by Aristophanes, Paul Zindel, Tennessee Williams, Dario Fo, Chekhov, Gogol, Edward Albee and Terrence McNally. 

Now 80 years old, Michel Tremblay has not yet written his last word. His 40th play, Coronavarius, written in the midst of the pandemic and broadcast as a radio play on Ici Première in December 2020, is now available as a podcast.

Immediately after that followed Cher Tchekhov (theatrical adaptation of the novel Le coeur en bandoulière). It was performed at the National Arts Centre, where a tribute was paid to the author for his entire career achievements.

During his career, Michel has received more than 85 prizes, citations and honours, including the title of "the most beloved author of Montréalers", the Grand Prix de la Francophonie, awarded by the Académie française in 2018, as well as the Prince Pierre de Monaco Literary Prize and the Prix Gilles-Corbeil for his contribution to the arts in 2017. A nine-time Chalmers Award-winner, he was also awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 1999 and was granted the Herbert Whittaker Award for his contribution to Canadian theatre in 2021.

2023: Translator of Les Belles-Soeurs. Educated at Princeton's Ridley College, the University of Oxford, the University of Toronto and the University of New York, Bill Glassco co-founded the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and was its Artistic Director from 1971 to 1982. He was also Artistic Director of CentreStage (1985 to 1988) and co-Artistic Director of Canadian Stage (1988 to 1990). He founded the Montreal Young Company in 1999 and taught at the National Theatre School. At the Stratford Shakespeare Festival he directed Kennedy's Children (1975) and The Merchant of Venice (1976); his translations of Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, Bonjour, là, Bonjour, Les Belles-Soeurs and Hosanna have been produced here. Mr. Glassco is known for introducing the English-speaking world to the plays of Quebec playwrights Michel Tremblay (with co-translator John Van Burek) and Michel Marc Bouchard. Mr. Glassco was an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Dora Mavor Moore Silver Ticket Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre.

(she/her) Langham Directors' Workshop, 2016

2023: Director of Les Belles-Soeurs and Artistic Associate, Planning, and Director of the Langham Directors' Workshop for the Stratford Festival. Fifth season. Stratford: Director: Little Women, I Am William. Assistant director: John Gabriel Borkman, Richard III (2020). Elsewhere: Director: Between a Wok and a Hotpot (Cahoots); The Great Leap (Cleveland Playhouse); Kim's Convenience (TIP); Planet Munsch (George Brown); Pal Joey, The Gamblers, Amadeus (Talk Is Free); The Promised Land (Soulpepper); The Omnibus Bill (Counterpoint Players); Theory, Girls Like That (Tarragon); The Private Life Cabaret (Theatre ARTaud); The Last Wife (Belfry, GCTC); Rococo (Shaw); Bremen Rock City (Song Trolley Productions); Cowboy Mouth, Trout Stanley (Heart In Hand); Yellow Face (Hart House); Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (DeusXM). Training: B.A.H. Directing, Drama Centre London. Et cetera: Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon (2016-2018); Co-Founder of Directors Lab North. Love and gratitude to my dearest friends and family, especially Mike, Lola, the kitties and Frida.

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2023: Set designer of Les Belles-Soeurs. Tenth season. Stratford: Set design of 1939, costume design of The Breathing Hole, and set and costume design of Comedy of Errors and The Aeneid. Elsewhere: Joanna is an award-winning set and costume designer, having designed over 100 productions, nearly half of which have been world premières. She's designed at The Shaw Festival, Mirvish, Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Canadian Opera Company, NAC, Arts Club, Citadel Theatre, RMTC, The Grand, Factory, TPM, Buddies, Obsidian, fu-Gen, Cahoots, Theatre Centre, Young People's Theatre, Tarragon, Nightwood, and many others. Awards: Dora Award, Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design and Pauline McGibbon Award. Online:joannayudesign.com. Et cetera: Joanna is a board member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

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2023: Costume designer of King Lear and Les Belles-Soeurs. Seventh season. Stratford: Hamlet, All's Well That Ends Well; I Am William (co-designer); HMS Pinafore (associate costume designer). Off-Broadway: Costume designer: A Four-Letter Word (Classic Stage Company). Designer: Richard III, King Lear, Macbeth (New York Classical Theatre); Orpheus (Next Wave Festival). Off-Off-Broadway: Costume designer: Displaced Wedding (New Worlds Theatre). Selected Regional: Costume designer: The Three Musketeers (RMTC); New (RMTC, Canadian Stage); Jukebox Hero (Mirvish); Measure for Measure (Canadian Stage); Theory (Tarragon); The Nether, Between Riverside & Crazy (Coal Mine); The New Canadian Curling Club (Blyth Festival); Amadeus, The Gamblers (Talk is Free); The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Kimberly Akimbo (SouthernRep). Designer: Could I Have This Dance? (Rebecca Cohn Auditorium); Pleasureville (The Guild). Film/TV: Save Me, For the Record (CBC Gem); NOLA; The Red Thunder (short); Good Sister (short). Online: michellebohndesign.com.

2023: Supervising fight director for the 2023 season. 12th season. Stratford: Supervising Fight Director 2022, Associate: 2013-2020 seasons, Assistant: 2004, 2009 seasons. Elsewhere: Fight director - Bengal Tiger... (Crow's Theatre); Black Drum (Soulpepper); Peter and the Starcatcher, Sweet Charity, Cyrano (Shaw); Don Giovanni, War and Peace (COC). Film/TV Stunts (selected): The Boys (four seasons), See, FUBAR, Jack Reacher, What We Do In The Shadows, The Lost Symbol, Hardy Boys, The Man from Toronto, It Chapter Two, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Schitt's Creek, Murdoch Mysteries, Ginny & Georgia, Jupiter's Legacy, Supergirl, Impulse, I Was Lorena Bobbitt, Save Me, Frankie Drake, Titans, Umbrella Academy, The Expanse, Designated Survivor, Suicide Squad, Dark Matter, Killjoys, 12 Monkeys, Bitten, The Strain, Pompeii, Orphan Black, Total Recall. Training: Supreme Fight Master Elite Level 3. BFA, Ryerson University. Awards: SAG nomination, Best Stunt Ensemble, 2021, 2023 Paddy Crean. Online: @GeoffScovell.

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2023: Movement director of Les Belles-Soeurs. Third season. Stratford: Movement director, Little Women; Choreographer, I Am William. Alyssa Martin is a choreographer, director and performance-maker. She creates absurdist dance theatre from the lovingly mischievous centre of her heart. She's had the pleasure of creating and contributing to work at The National Ballet of Canada, Toronto Dance Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canadian Stage, Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and Toronto Metropolitan University among other arts organizations. She most often creates new work with her company, Rock Bottom Movement; the creative home she founded in 2012 alongside friends. Her work has earned multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the Canadian Stage Award for Direction, Jack McAllister and Bulmash-Siegel Awards. Training: BFA Hons in Dance, Toronto Metropolitan University. Online: www.rockbottommovement.com, @itsalyssamartin, @rockbottommovement

2023: Script consultant for Les Belles-Soeurs. Stratford debut. Lydie Dubuisson is a playwright, director, curator and dramaturg from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She graduated with distinctions from Concordia University's Theatre Program. Her work examines intersectionality, dystopian reality, collective memory and multilingual creative processes. Dubuisson wrote Quiet/Silence, Sanctuary/Sanctuaire and she co-wrote Blackout: The Concordia Computer Riots which was published by Playwrights Canada Press. She is currently writing a new play. She directed Afrodisiaque (Collectif Potomitan); Ringtone (Imago Theatre); Sharing Our Stories, Telling Our Lives (Teesri Duniya Theatre) and Afrodrag: Past, Present & Future (Centre PHI). Lydie Dubuisson is the artistic associate at Black Theatre Workshop since 2020 and a curator with the Arrival Legacy Project.

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2023: Assistant director of Les Belles-Soeurs. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Director of DWYT's The Sages of Chelm; Willy in SuperDogs, Assistant SM of Prayer for the French Republic, Apprentice SM of Children of God, Indecent and Mythic (Segal Centre); Steven Truscott in Innocence Lost (NAC/Centaur Theatre); Claudio/Elbow in Measure for Measure, Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Repercussion Theatre); Pipkin in The Halloween Tree (Geordie Productions); Playwright/Composer of Memento Mori, One Day, A Curious Life and the Montreal Fringe hits Captain Aurora I & II. Past President of the Montreal English Theatre Awards, Past Vice-President of the Quebec Drama Federation. Training: Playwriting and Directing (University of Toronto), Acting (John Abbott College), Musical Theatre (Shakespeare School, Stratford Festival).

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2023: Assistant lighting designer of Rent, Much Ado About Nothing and Les Belles-Soeurs. Second season. Stratford: Assistant lighting designer of Chicago, Hamlet, The Miser. Elsewhere: Lighting Design: London Road (MacEwan University); La Boheme, Is He Dead?, Almost Maine, The Underpants, Stupid F***ing Bird, Threads: Impact (University of Wisconsin - Madison); The Drawer Boy (Port Stanley Festival Theatre); Three Sisters (University of Windsor). Associate Lighting Designer: The Rhubarb Festival (Buddies in Bad Times). Assistant Lighting Designer: White Girls In Moccasins (Buddies in Bad Times); Tea (University of Wisconsin - Madison); Old Wives Tale (Port Stanley Festival Theatre). Training: MFA - Theatre and Drama - Lighting Design (University of Wisconsin - Madison); BAH: Drama and Communication Media and Film (University of Windsor).

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2023: Associate sound designer of Richard II and assistant sound designer of Rent, King Lear, Frankenstein Revived and Les Belles-Soeurs. Stratford debut. Stratford: DWP 2022 (sound designer); Chicago, Hamlet and Death and the King's Horseman (assistant sound designer). Elsewhere: Associate sound designer for Orphée+ (Edmonton Opera); sound designer for John Ware Reimagined (Blyth Festival); composer for video projects Alone Together, Four, What Happened To Lee (Human Body Expression); composer, musician for A Midsummer Night's Dream (Stratford Pirate Transmission); orchestra for Singin' In The Rain, Piaf/Dietrich, Ain't Too Proud, (Mirvish); percussionist with TorQ Percussion Quartet and Ladom Ensemble. Recording:  Debut album Guess I'm A People Too (2019) available on all platforms. Et cetera: Thinking of you this season, Peter.

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2023: Assistant fight director. Stratford debut. Christina graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada as an actor and has been so happy to find themself doing lots of different creative work, including fight directing and stunts!  Big thanks to Geoff and the team for this wonderful learning opportunity.

2023: Assistant stage manager of Rent and Les Belles-Soeurs. Second season. Stratford: Assistant stage manager for Chicago and Hamlet. Elsewhere: Tiffany has been an assistant stage manager with the Canadian Opera Company for 20 seasons working on shows such as Aida, Turandot, Elektra, Götterdämmerung, Louis Riel, Falstaff, Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Rigoletto, La Clemenza di Tito, Die Fledermaus, L'Amour de Loin, A Florentine Tragedy, Gianna Schicchi, Death in Venice, Iphigénie en Tauride and more. Tiffany has also been a stage manager with Opera Hamilton for Barber of Seville and The Pearl Fishers. Tiffany worked with The National Ballet of Canada in past seasons on such shows as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Swan Lake and Innovation. Tiffany's favourite job is being a mom to 3 beautiful girls, Kennedy, McKinley and Reagan.

2023: Assistant stage manager of Much Ado About Nothing and Les Belles-Soeurs.  31st season. Stratford: Production Stage Manager six seasons. Selected productions include Every Little Nookie, Bonjour, là, Bonjour, Private Lives, The Front Page, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Palmer Park, The Trojan Women, Henry IV Part 1, Wingfield's Inferno, Cymbeline, No Exit, The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, Tempest-Tost, Richard III, Wingfield Unbound, The Boy Friend, Tartuffe, HMS Pinafore, The Gondoliers, The Physicists, The Alchemist, The Matchmaker, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Three Sisters, An Ideal Husband, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Waiting for Godot, Sweet Bird of Youth, Romeo and Juliet, King John, Bacchae, The Merchant of Venice, Uncle Vanya. Elsewhere: Grand Theatre, Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Young People's Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, Tarragon Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse and Mirvish.

(she/her)

2023: Assistant stage manager of Rent and Les Belles-Soeurs. Fourth season. Stratford: Apprentice stage manager of Chicago, The Miser, Three Tall Women; Festival Theatre Production Assistant. Elsewhere: Stage manager - Bluebeard's Castle (Against the Grain Theatre); rochdale (SummerWorks). Assistant stage manager - The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre); The Tender Land (University of Toronto Opera). Apprentice stage manager - Homes: A Refugee Story, Home for the Holidays (Grand Theatre); Angel (Opera Atelier); Cinderella: The Panto (Capitol Theatre); August: Osage County (Soulpepper). Rehearsal assistant - Don Giovanni, The Resurrection (Opera Atelier). Apprentice production manager - Twelfth Night (a Company of Fools). Training: York University, SM Arts. Et cetera: Caitlin would like to thank her family, friends, and mentors for all of their support.

2023: Production stage manager of the Festival Theatre. Ninth season. Stratford: Assistant stage manager of Chicago, The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, Romeo and Juliet, A Chorus Line, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Sound of Music, Crazy for You and Fiddler on the Roof. Elsewhere: Stage manager of Tell Tale Harbour, Anne of Green Gables - The Musical (Charlottetown Festival); The Hockey Sweater (Segal Centre/NAC); The Candidate (Citadel Theatre); Hamlet (Perchance Theatre); Into the Woods (Opera on the Avalon); Glenn, Farther West, Great Expectations, Dirt, Long Day's Journey Into Night, High Life (Soulpepper); The Mill, parts 1 to 4 (Theatrefront); Peter and the Starcatcher, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Western Canada Theatre); It's a Wonderful Life, The Rocky Horror Show (Theatre New Brunswick); Shakespeare in Love, Happy Days (Neptune Theatre); Generous (Tarragon Theatre).

2023: Production stage manager of the Festival Theatre. Eighth season. Stratford: Most recently, Guys and Dolls (2017), As You Like It (2016), Twelfth Night (2011). Elsewhere:& Juliet (Toronto); Come From Away (Winnipeg and Toronto); Kinky Boots (Toronto); The Heart of Robin Hood (Winnipeg and Toronto); Les Misérables (Toronto and Melbourne); The Wizard of Oz (Toronto); War Horse (Toronto). Many theatres across Canada. US tours of Chicago, The King and I.

(he/him)

2023: Festival Theatre production assistant. Stratford debut. Elsewhere:Elf: The Musical (The Grand Theatre); King Henry Five (Driftwood Theatre); RUR: A Torrent of Light (Tapestry Opera); Art in Transit: Luminato on the Go! (Luminato Festival Toronto), Grounds for Goodness (Jumblies Theatre); Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Up the Humber River (Theatre Direct and Animacy Theatre Collective); Life Assignment (Theatre Nidāna). Et cetera: Special thanks to Ana and Manuel Bustamante for their endless love and support!