Lise Vaillancourt

Playwright, novelist, and woman of theatre Lise Vaillancourt was born in Montreal in 1954. She was co-director of the Théâtre Expérimental des femmes in Montreal from 1982 to 1987 and participated in the founding of Espace Go. She held the position of artistic director at the Théâtre de la Ville in Longueuil from 1991 to 1996. The author of some ten plays, she made a name for herself with Marie-Antoine, opus 1 (1984), Billy Strauss (1990) and a short novel, Journal d’une obsédée (1989), all published by les Herbes rouges. In 1996, Lise Vaillancourt published her second novel, L’Été des eiders (Leméac), for which she was named a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. Her plays for children, La Balade de Fannie et Carcassonne (1994), Le Petit Dragon (1996) and Lili (2000) went on major tours in France, Switzerland, the United States and Western Canada. Note that La Balade de Fannie et Carcassonne and Le Petit Dragon were also finalists for the Governor General’s Award in 2000. Her play L’Affaire Dumouchon was performed at La Licorne in spring 2001, under the direction of Martin Faucher. She recently completed Les Exilés de la lumière, grand divertissement métaphysique, which will be published by Lansman in March 2003. Lise Vaillancourt is currently president of the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD).