Marie Brassard is a Canadian actress, [1] theatrical writer and director. She is known for her work with playwright and actor Robert Lepage [2] and later for her own French and English theatrical pieces, which have been presented in many countries in the Americas, Europe and in Australia.
Marie Brassard performed and co-created with Robert Lepage between the years 1985 and 2000 in theatre (The Dragons' Trilogy, [3] Polygraph, [4] The Seven Streams of the River Ota, The Shakespeare Trilogy: Coriolanus, The Tempest and Macbeth), Geometry of Miracles, and in films ( Polygraph, NÔ ). [5] In 2001, she created her first solo play, Jimmy, within the framework of the Festival TransAmériques (although it appears it must have first been presented at Montreal's Edgy Women festival a couple of months prior). [6]
The success of the play led Brassard to found her own production company, Infrarouge, and to begin to work solo. Since then, in collaboration with guest artists from different disciplines and origins, she has created surreal theatre with innovative video, light and sound installations, including The Darkness (2003), Peepshow (2005), The Glass Eye (2007), The Invisible (2008), Me Talking to Myself in the Future (2010), The Fury of my Thoughts (Nelly Arcan), Trieste (2013), Peepshow (version 2016), La vie utile (Évelyne de la Chenelière), Introduction to Violence (2019), Eclipse (2020) and Violence (2021).
Brassard's plays have been performed in numerous countries in the Americas, Australia and Europe, among other places at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, The Studio at the Sydney Opera in Australia, the Barbican Centre in London UK, the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Sophiensaele in Berlin, the Halle G im Museums Quartier and Brut im Künstlerhaus in Vienna, the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, The Malthouse, Merlyn Theatre in Melbourne and the Teatro Espanol in Madrid.
In 2013, she created a collage of texts by Nelly Arcan and staged the piece, titled in French La Fureur de ce que je pense (The Fury of my Thoughts) at Espace Go in Montreal. The piece was later reprised at the FTA in Montreal and Carrefour in Quebec City and performed on tour in Madrid, Limoges and Amsterdam. In 2017, in company of her team, she staged the piece in its Japanese version. Created and originally performed in Tokyo, the play then toured through Japan in Kyoto, Hiroshima, Toyohashi et Kitakyushu.
Later in her career, Brassard began working as a dance dramaturge and director. She created two dance pieces in collaboration with dancer choreographer Sarah Williams: Moving in this World (2014), developed in residency in Potsdam, was presented in Montreal, Potsdam and in Madrid, and States of Transe (2013). Brassard also choreographed several short pieces in collaboration with a number of choreographers. In different contexts, she worked with Dana Gingras, Anne Thériault, Annik Hamel, Jane Mappin, Anne Plamondon and Karine Denault. She danced in two Isabelle Van Grimde pieces (Perspectives Montreal and The Bodies in Question).
Brassard has appeared in a number of films, including those by Robert Lepage, Michael Winterbottom, Guy Maddin, Ryan McKenna, Denis Côté, Sophie Deraspe, Matthew Rankin and Stéphane Lafleur. [7]
In 2016, she was awarded L'Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Robert Lepage is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.
Paul Georges Buissonneau, was a leading francophone theatre director in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Nô is a 1998 Canadian film by director Robert Lepage. It was based on one segment in Lepage's play Seven Streams of the River Ota.
Tamara Rojo CBE is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. She became the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in late 2022.
Nelly Arcan was a Canadian novelist. Arcan was born Isabelle Fortier at Lac-Mégantic in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
The Prix Denise-Pelletier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in the performing arts. It is awarded to a creator, performer, stage-craftsman or person who has made a noteworthy contribution in the fields of song, music, classical singing, theatre and dance. It is named in honour of Denise Pelletier.
Rachel Rosenthal was a French-born interdisciplinary and performance artist, teacher, actress, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles.
Anne-Marie Cadieux is a Canadian actress, film director and screenwriter. She has won a Jutra Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Streetheart and in 2008 was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her role in You (Toi).
The Edgy Women Festival was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Presented by Studio 303, a dance and interdisciplinary-arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Edgy Women focuses on feminist perspectives with workshops and forums, performance events, and socializing. Studio 303's artistic and general manager Miriam Ginestier programmed Edgy Women from 1995 to 2014.
Carole Fréchette is a Canadian playwright. She won the Siminovitch Prize in 2002. To date she has written more than a dozen plays including The Four Lives of Marie, The Seven Days of Simon Labrosse, Helen's Necklace, John and Beatrice, The Little Room at the Top of the Stairs, and most recently: Thinking of Yu.
Suzanne Aubry is a Canadian novelist, screenwriter and playwright from Montreal.
Marie-Hélène Falcon is a former artistic director for theatre and dance in Quebec.
Marquise Lepage, is a Canadian (Québécoise) producer, screenwriter, and film and television director. She is best known for her 1987 feature Marie in the City , for which she received a nomination for Best Director at the 9th Genie Awards in 1988. She was also a nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993 for Your Country, My Country . She was hired by the National Film Board (NFB) as a filmmaker in 1991. One of her first major projects for the NFB was The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché, a documentary about female cinema pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché.
Nawell Madani is a Belgian humorist of Algerian descent, presenter and producer. She became famous in 2012 because of the Jamel Comedy Club.
Nathalie Claude is a self-described "actress, director, dancer, choreographer, writer, and a sometimes MC, Drag King, clown, artistic coach and musician" from Montreal. She works in French and in English and sometimes creates bilingual performances.
Nelly is a 2016 Canadian biographical-drama film directed by Anne Émond and starring Mylène Mackay as Nelly Arcan, an award-winning Canadian author and former sex worker who committed suicide in 2009. The film is based on some of Arcan's own writings, including her book Putain.
Rita Lafontaine was a Canadian theatre, film, and television actor. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. She has been described as the muse of playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard. Her career spanned over fifty years and left an "indelible mark on Québec theatre, film and television". She is a four-time recipient of the Gémeaux Award; three times for Best Lead Actress and once for Best Supporting Actress. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2011.
Geneviève Rioux is a Québécoise television host and actor in theatre, television and film.
Frédérique Collin is a Canadian actress, screenwriter and film director. She is most noted for her performance in Marie in the City , for which she received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actress at the 9th Genie Awards.
Sonia Del Rio was a Spanish classical dancer. She was the daughter of Émile Boisvenu and Thérèse Jacques.
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