ANA was a world premiere and co-production with Montreal based Imago Theatre.

Creative Team

• Writer: ["Clare Duffy (Scotland)", "Clare Duffy (Scotland)"]
  

  Clare wrote and directed ‘Money…the game show’ for the Arches andTraverse Theatre  in March 2011, as a winner of the Platform 18 Arches Award. She co-founded Unlimited Theatre in 1997 and continues to write and create new work as a core artist, working nationally and internationally across different media. She is currently commissioned by Magnetic North, Edinburgh, to write Some Other Stars about a man with ‘locked-in syndrome’. Clare’s first full-length play, Crossings was produced and published in 2005 by Sgript Cymru. It won a Pearson award and a residency at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She has also written drama for Radio Four and is in the final year of her doctorate research at Glasgow University.

• Writer: ["Pierre Yves Lemieux (Québec)", "Pierre Yves Lemieux (Québec)"]
  

  A literature and theatre graduate, Pierre Yves Lemieux has been a member of Theatre de l’Opsis since its inception in 1984. Adept at both comedy and drama, and both experimental and popular theatre, Pierre Yves has always refused to be pigeon-holed into any particular genre. Many wonderful adaptations and re-writes are attributed to him including Oreste’s La Sirene et Le Harpoon, Tchekhov’s Comedie Russe and Monsieur Smytchkov, as well as Tristan et Yseult, A Propos de Romeo et Juliette, Les Trois Mousequetaires and Scaramouche. Among other notable projects is a play about the life and work of British scientist Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882).

• Artistic Director: ["Muriel Romanes (Scotland)", "Muriel Romanes (Scotland)"]
  

  Muriel has over thirty years of experience in theatre both as an actor and director. She was Associate Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and is one of the co-founders of Stellar Quines theatre company, where she has been Artistic Director since 1996. Her many directorial credits include The Clearing by Helen Edmondson, The Reel of The Hanged Man by Jeanne-Mance Delisle, Sweet Fanny Adams in Eden by Judith Adams, the critically acclaimed The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson and the world premier of Three Thousand Troubled Threads by Chiew Siah Tei.
  In February 2007 Muriel co-directed The Unconquered by Torben Betts, which was presented in Scotland and New York. She then went on to direct Judith Adam’s theatrical adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Girls of Slender Means which played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009. Muriel won the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland Best Director award for Stellar Quines’ next production Age of Arousal by Canadian playwright Linda Griffiths, which was a co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

• Artistic Director: ["Clare Schapiro (Québec)", "Clare Schapiro (Québec)"]
  

  Clare has been involved in the creation of theatre for most of her life. During the past thirty years, she has worked as an artistic director, producer, teacher, radio host and actor. She has continually evolved as an artist, founding and directing two very distinct, groundbreaking Montreal based theatre companies: Créations Etc., founded in 1978, a unique performing arts company for young people; and, co-founded with Marianne Ackerman, the culturally relevant Theatre 1774 (now called Infinitheatre), which addressed Montreal’s linguistic identity. Clare has been Imago Théâtre’s Artistic and General Director since January 2000, producing and developing original Canadian plays, mentoring the work of emerging directors and actors, and orchestrating various community outreach projects. She is an active member of the professional theatre community and is a consultant on several committees.

• Director : ["Serge Denoncourt (Québec)", "Serge Denoncourt (Québec)"]
  

  Serge Denoncourt is known as a true man of the theatre with more than eighty productions to his credit. Co-founder of Montreal’s Théâtre de l’Opsis in 1984, he has explored the great classics and the modern repertoire with equal interest. He breathed new life into the Théâtre du Trident in Quebec City as the company’s Artistic Director from 1994 to 1997. Steeped in theatre tradition and known for the visual beauty of his shows, which are typically marked by heightened imagery, vivid use of colour and a deep examination of subtext, Serge also stages operas and delves into the world of variety shows. Among his latest creations are the Serbian Roma show GRUBB, CRISS ANGEL’s Believe for the Cirque du Soleil, Beau Dommage’s musical Le Blues de la Métropole, Michel Tremblay’s Thérèse et Pierrette à l’Ecole des Saints-Anges and Fragments de Mensonges Inutiles, and Le Projet Andromaque at l’Espace GO.

• Costume Designer : ["Megan Baker (Scotland)", "Megan Baker (Scotland)"]
  

  Megan is the Programme Director for the internationally acclaimed Performance Costume degree courses at Edinburgh College of Art, now part of Edinburgh University, which she has led for 13 years.

  Her costume design include Village on the Roof  (Kickabout Films), A Midsummer Nights Dream  (Brunton Theatre), The Invisible Man (Vaudeville Theatre, West End), The Curse of the Werewolf, Dog Eat Dog, Rent Money, Funny Black Women on the Edge, Gulp Fiction, Do yer eat with yer fingers, Angie Le Mar, Black to Basics, Goin’ Local (Theatre Royal Stratford East, London) The Waterfall, (Riverside Studios), Ten Commandments  (Place Theatre), The Challenge (Shaw Theatre) The Duchess of Malfi (Point Blank Theatre Company)

  Megan has also supervised the costumes for over 50 productions including the West End, Theatre Royal Stratford East and London’s Globe Theatre working with Mike Leigh and Mark Rylance amongst others.

• Set Designer : ["Louise Campeau (Québec)", "Louise Campeau (Québec)"]

  Louise is a widely recognised set designer and graduate of the National Theatre School (Canada) who has designed more than 50 productions with 14 theatre companies. She has collaborated with numerous theatre directors and as a devoted colleague of Serge Denoncourt, she has designed sets for the majority of his productions, including Les Feluettes, for which she won the Masque prize for Best Set Design. She was awarded the Siminovitch prize that same year for the quality of her work.

• Video Design : ["Gabriel Coutu-Dumont/Geodezik ", "Gabriel Coutu-Dumont/Geodezik "]
  

  Gabriel Coutu Dumont is a multidisciplinary artist creating projects both under his own name and as co-founder of the collectives RACAM, nAnalog and Silent Partners. A trained photographer, Gabriel produces multimedia installations, photography, drawing and graphic arts projects while traveling between Montreal, New York, Mexico, China and Europe. In recent years he has focused on video creation, live performance, and video scenography for sound-art events. Gabriel’s recent work has included video design for two operas and a busy schedule of live shows on the international electronic music scene across various genres, as well as ongoing photography projects. Since 2007, Gabriel has used photography as an object, as raw material for an installative approach. Current photographic projects include Sketches of Synchronicity and S’enfarger dans les Fleurs du Tapis.

• Lighting Designer: ["Martin Labrecque (Québec)", "Martin Labrecque (Québec)"]
  

  Martin Labrecque is, beyond a doubt, one of the most gifted and acclaimed lighting designers of his generation. Innovative and flexible, he works in theatre, circus, dance and film with equal ease, grace and boundless enthusiasm. Winner of four Masques Awards, Martin Labrecque boasts nearly a hundred lighting designs to his name. Since he launched his career in 1994, he has been a dependable collaborator with some of Québec’s most distinguished directors: Alexis Martin, Claude Poissant, Martine Beaulne, René Richard Cyr, Michel Monty, Luce Pelletier and Carl Béchard and he has designed nearly thirty productions for Serge Denoncourt. His most stunning lighting designs to date are those for the Cirque du Soleil’s Québec 2008 for Québec City’s 400th anniversary, The Cirque Éloize, and Pierre Lapointe’s daring Mutantès.

• Sound Designer/Composer : ["Philip Pinsky", "Philip Pinsky"]
  

  As Associate Artist at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Philip Pinsky has worked as composer and sound designer for many of their productions including Wondrous Flitting, Educating Agnes, Age of Arousal, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Romeo and Juliet, Everyone, Peter Pan and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Other theatre work includes Humanimalia (Janis Claxton Dance), Spring Awakening (Traverse Theatre and Grid Iron ), Decky Does A Bronco 2010 (Grid Iron and Traverse Theatre), Huxley’s Lab (Grid Iron andLung Ha’s) and Equus (Dundee Rep).

  Philip’s TV credits include Art & Soul, Ninewells, Harley Street, Seaside Rescue, What Not To Wear(BBC). He has also worked on education projects for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and NTS Learn  (You Tell Us What Was We Tell You What Is). He won the Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland 2005 for best use of music in theatre and a Sony Music Award for Extraneous Noises Off(BBC Radio 3).

  Previously Philip was founder member of electro-acoustic group Finitribe, releasing five albums and performing over a period of fifteen years.

Cast

• ["Catherine Bégin (Québec)"]
  

  Winning first prize in tragedy, first prize in classical drama, and second prize in modern theatre, Catherine Bégin was 20 years old when she graduated from the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique in Montreal in 1959. She immediately began her professional career working in theatre and television and she has not stopped since.

  She was a sought-after actress during the golden age of televised dramas in Québec, appearing regularly in many series over 35 years. These days, she performs on stages large and small in Montreal and also works in television, film and radio. She has acted in many plays directed by Serge Denoncourt, including (Oncle) Vania; Teatr (Théâtre de l’Opsis); and Le Pays Dans La Gorge (Théâtre Populaire du Québec).

  Bégin won the Prix Victor-Morin for theatre in 1999. She was nominated for best female actress in a supporting role for L’homme en lambeaux at the 2001 Les Masques, winning the award in 2005 forJouliks and receiving the nomination again in 2007 for Au retour des oies blanches.

  She has served on the board of the Union des Artistes, with the theatre commission for the Canada Council of the Arts and for Arts et la Ville. She is also a former president of the Conseil québécois du Théâtre as well as the Académie québécoise du Théâtre.

• ["Selina Boyack (Scotland)"]
  

  Selina Boyack trained at the Royal Scottish Academy and graduated winning the Gold Medal. She has work extensively with new writing, collaborating with Suspect Culture on 8000 Metres (Tramway, Glasgow), A Different Language (Trieste/Glasgow) and The Escapologist (Tramway, Glasgow) and with Anthony Neilson onStitching (The Bush Theatre, London/Traverse, Edinburgh) and The Menu (National Theatre).

  Selina has worked with Stewart Laing on An Argument About Sex (Tramway, Glasgow) and at Oran Mor Theatre on Gods Are Fallen, All Safety Gone and Stage Fright. Other theatre work includesAmanda, Private Lives (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Mabel Chiltern and An Ideal Husband (Theatre Clwyd), Hermione, The Winters Tale, Helena and A Midsummer Nights Dream (Royal Lyceum),Actress and Habitats (Tron Theatre). She has also worked with The Arches Theatre Company, Glasgow playing Clair in The City, Emma in Betrayal, Patricia in The Last Yankee, Colette in Four Dogs and A Bone and Jill in The Big Funk.

  Selina’s film work includes Alice Todd in Sweeney Todd (John Schlesinger) and Shirley in The Debt Collector (Anthony Neilson). She was Nominated Best Actress for Stitching by the TMA and The Stage Awards and also by Scottish Theatre Critics Awards for her appearances in The Last Yankeeand 8000 Metres.

• ["Lisa Gardner (Scotland)"]
  

  Lisa was trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and was graduated in 2004. During her training, Lisa has won numerous awards, including the Duncan Macrae Memorial Award, the Citizens Theatre Society Award and the Arnold Fleming Scholarship, to name a few. After a successful audition, on the day of her graduation, her first job was the lead role in the BBC’s popular supernatural series,Sea of Souls. Since then, she has performed in theatre, radio and television.

  Her theatrical credits include: Company Policy, Targets, Velvet Love and Drawing Bored, all with A Play, a Pie & a Pint, Hoors (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh & tour of the UK), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (tour of the UK), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello (Bard in the Botanics, Glasgow), Tales From Hollywood (Perth Theatre), Pre-Paradise Sorry Now and The Serpents Egg. She also starred in Merlin the Magnificent (Dundee Rep),Babes in the Wood, Beauty and the Beast and Pinocchio,/em>, all at the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy. Lisa also featured in Light Without Shadow, an art installation with the Henry the Sixth’s Wives. She has appeared in several radio dramas for BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4 and two series of comedy sketch show Sabotage, with Demus Productions. Earlier this year, Lisa left the Scottish television series, River City, after having played the character Jo Rossi, for three years.

• ["Alain Goulem (Québec)"]
  

  Alain Goulem has many years of stage and film work to his credit.  Some of the theatres Alain has performed at include The Stratford Festival of Canada, Centaur Theatre (Montreal), The Citadel (Edmonton), and Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg).  Alain has directed for the stage at Geordie Theatre, Theatre Lac Brome, Hudson Village Theatre and Imago Theatre, where he helmed the world premiere of Colleen Wagner’s Down From Heaven. Film and TV credits include regular roles on 18 to Life (CBC), The Tournament (CBC), Le Négociateur (TVA) and Sauve Qui Peut (TVA) as well as featured roles inSnake Eyes, and the upcoming feature films Eddie and Kin.

• ["Dominique Leduc (Québec)"]
  

  Dominique Leduc is an actress and a cofounder of Momentum theatre. Her work within the company has led her to write and direct several shows, including Game, 7 Façons d’Apprêter un Cadavre, and most recently, L’ardent Désir des Fleurs de Cacao. As an actress, she has appeared on many stages, such as le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (Kean; Le Misanthrope; Tristan et Yseult), Espace GO (Toutefemme; Top Girls; Désordre public), La Licorne (Août; Un Repas à la Campagne; Doldrum Bay) and Théâtre Denise-Pelletier (Les Justes; Les Fridolinades; Les Trois Mousquetaires; and Bousille et Les Justes, for which she received a Les Masques nomination.) With Momentum, Leduc recently acted in Buffet Chinois and Mycologie, the newest creation of Stéphane Crête. During the 2010-2011 season, she toured Quebec with the playPiaf, performing the eponymous lead role.

  On television, she has acted in numerous soap operas and series, including Providence, Yamaska, Les Hauts et les Bas de Sophie Paquin, Temps Dur, Ces enfants d’ailleurs and Cauchemar d’Amour, which earned her a Gemini Award nomination. Leduc plays the role of Esther in the popular children’s TV series KABOUM. She has also appeared in several films, such as Alexis Durand-Brault’s feature film Ma Fille, Mon Ange and Love-moi, the major work of filmmaker Marcel Simard.

• ["Magalie Lépine-Blondeau (Québec)"]
  

  Since her graduation from the National Theatre School in 2005, Magalie has had no shortage of projects. In theatre, she performed in Molière’sL’Amour Médecin (2005), followed by Don Juan, directed by Lorraine Pintal at Théâtre de Nouveau Monde. She continued to explore this repertoire at Théâtre Denise-Pelletier in Fourberies de Scapin (Daniel Paquette, 2007). She performed in Théâtre de l’Opsis’ production ofComment J’ai Appris à Conduire (2007-08), reprising her role for the play’s Quebec tour in 2009. Her work with Théâtre de l’Opsis continued the following year with Il Campiello, directed by Serge Denoncourt.On television, Magalie hosted the popular kids program R-Force on VrakTV from 2006 to 2007, for which she was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2008.  She starred in the show Fan Club on the same channel, which was a hit amongst young viewers, earning nominations at the 2009 Gemini Awards and the 2010 Artis Gala. She currently acts in several television series, such as C. A.; Les Etoiles Filantes; Providence; and 19-2.

  In film, she has worked with Xavier Dolan in Les Amours Imaginaires and Laurence Anyways. She has also appeared in the feature films Ma Tante Aline and Le Secret de Ma Mère.

• ["Frances Thorburn (Scotland)"]
  

  Frances Thorburn was trained at the RSAMD. Her recent theatrical credits include Marilyn and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, for the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, The Cherry Orchard (Dundee Rep), The Wolves in the Walls (National Theatre of Scotland / Improbable Theatre), Antony and Cleopatra and In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe),Fiddler on the Roof (Sheffield Crucible / Savoy West End), “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore” (Theatre Babel). Recent appearances on radio and television include: Taggart (STV), Candy Floss Kisses, McLevy/, The Smell of Growth, The Falls and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (BBC Radio). Frances is also a songwriter and has just released her own album, called The Needle Is The Haystack.

Downloads

• ANA Study Guide (5.5mb PDF / English)