CAROLE FRÉCHETTE
(Canada)
Carole Fréchette was born in Montreal in 1949. She graduated as an actress from École nationale du Canada and was thereafter employed at Théâtre des Cuisines, both as an actress as well as playwright, up until the early eighties. However, since 1993 she has focused only on writing. Her most prominent plays include: LES QUATRE MORTS DE MARIE (Governor General of Canada Prize, 1995; Chalmers Prize, 1998), BABY BLUES, LA PEAU D’ELISA, LE COLLIER D’HELENEL, MORCEAUX CHOISIS and VIOLETTE SUR LA TERRE.
In addition, Carole Fréchette has written two teenage novels: CARMEN EN FUGUE MINUERE and DO POUR.
Her plays have been translated into several languages as they have been staged, among other places, in Belgium, France, Germany, Lebanon, Luxemburg, Mexico, Romania, Switzerland and Syria, as well as at several theatres in her home country.
In 2002 she received The Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize, which is the most outstanding distinction within the Canadian world of theatre. The following quotation from the event speaks for itself: “Her plays negotiate that delicate balance of the known and unknown, the forever accessible and the forever exotic, which is the property of all great art. In an especially fresh and startling way she uses the mysteries of theatre to explore the mysteries of our daily lives. Her works combine an almost archaic lyricism with contemporary subject matter.”
