New Translation Commission – Arts Across Canada
New Translation Canada | Nouvelle Traduction Canada
NEW TRANSLATION COMMISSION
Granite
By Mishka Lavigne
Translator (to English): David Gagnon Walker
Granite is the first play of Mishka Lavigne’s new “Boreal Gothic Triptych”. Reaching out across the country, the triptych explores the tension and anguish between the supernatural, nature, and human structures. From a rickety old house where a multigenerational line of women lives, a father and daughter at a lakeside fire tower, to a botanist in a northern research station – the fires burn, the past haunts, and the early winter darkness threatens to bury it all under the snow.
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT
Mishka Lavigne
Mishka Lavigne (she / her) is a playwright, screenwriter, and literary translator. Her plays have been developed and performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, Haiti, and Mexico. Her play Havre, created at La Troupe du Jour (Saskatoon) received the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2019. Copeaux, produced by Théâtre de Dehors (Ottawa) was awarded the same prize in 2021, as well as the Prix Jacques-Poirier. Murs, initially produced as a podcast by Transistor Médias, Créations In Vivo and the Théâtre Populaire d’Acadie, received rave reviews in France and will be produced for the stage in 2023.
Mishka also writes in English. Her play Albumen, produced by TACTICS in 2019 (Ottawa), received the QWF Playwriting Prize and her play Shorelines was staged (TACTICS) in 2023.
MEET THE TRANSLATOR
David Gagnon Walker
David is an award-winning writer, performer, and translator. He is a graduate of the playwrittng program at NTS and holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. With composer/ video designer Tori Morrison, he produces interactive theatre projects as Strange Victory Performance. David’s translation of Gabrielle Chapdelaine’s La retraite premiered with Montréal’s Imago Theatre, Other translations include Copeaux and Murs by two-time Governor
General’s Award winner Mishka Lavigne, and French surtitles for Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet (Québec City, Le Diamant 2022). www.davidgagnonwalker.com
ABOUT NTC
“Our production would not have been possible without the passion and dedication of the New Translation Canada team in partnering playwrights and translators, commissioning the new translations, and developing the texts to make to them rehearsal ready.” – Karine Ricard, Théâtre français de Toronto
Every three years, four or five Canadian playwrights in both official languages (French & English) are nominated for the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s top theatre award. Each of these playwrights represents a leading voice in Canadian playwriting as nominated by their peers.
This independent project was born from a discovery that the works of the playwrights nominated for the 2020 Siminovitch Prize and their contributions to Canadian culture were not available in both official languages. We imagine a truly national theatre community where the works of anglophone and francophone artists are available and promoted to audiences in both official languages.
ABOUT CREATIVE TRANSLATION
Professionally as “Creative Translation.”, Translation in theatre, rather than a word-for-word substitution, the source text is a point of reference to create an equally compelling work in the new language.
With many choices beyond words, the creative translator draws on a wide knowledge of the performing arts and a deep understanding of the target culture. In addition to new rhythms, poetic structures, and metaphors, it’s not uncommon for new scenes, scenarios, and text to be created. It is a uniquely collaborative art; one where the collaborators are the cultures and languages of the original and target population as embodied by the artists involved.
Our Creative Translation team is gathered from leading theatre makers in both official languages from across the nation.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Co-founders & Creative Producers: Johanna Nutter & Jack Paterson | Co-founder: Yolanda Ferrato
Land Acknowledgment
Activities related to this project take place on the traditional unceded territories of several First Nations and Indigenous groups in the territory now known as Canada. These include: the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, British Columbia), Kanien’kehá:ka Nation (Montreal, Quebec), Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), Tsuut’ina Nation, Nakoda Island First Nations and Métis Nation (Region 3) (Treaty 7 Territory, Calgary, Alberta), Anishinaabe-Algonquin Nation (Ottawa, Ontario) and Mi’kmaq Nation (Nova Scotia). We recognize and honour the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation commission and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous sovereignty on this unceded territory.
For more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada click here. www.nctr.ca
We gratefully ackowledge the support of:
