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Robert Lepage Biography

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Mini Bio:	<P>Internationally-renowned playwright/actor/director born in Quebec City, <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Quebec">Quebec</A> , December 12, 1957.</P> <P>He was raised in a bilingual household (he had two older adopted siblings who were anglophone). He studied at the <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Conservatoire%20d%27art%20dramatique%20de%20Qu%E9bec">Conservatoire d'art dramatique de QuÃ©bec</A> before joining the <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Th%E9%E2tre%20Rep%E8re">ThÃ©Ã¢tre RepÃ¨re</A> and soon becoming its lead actor and then director. His first work for the company, <I>Circulations</I> (1984) toured nation-wide.</P> <P>His productions from the start were marked by his bilingualism, his explorations into multimedia, his homosexuality, and an ongoing study of the act of creation itself. His works, like<I> Vinci</I> (which examined Leonardo), <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Aiguilles%20et%20Opium">Aiguilles et Opium</A> (which dealt with Cocteau and Miles Davis), and his breakthrough success, <I>La Trilogie des Dragons</I> (a vast epic in English, French and Chinese which toured this country and Europe), showed a hearty imagination, a love of image and a fearlessness for new technology; sometimes the state of theatre itself was called into question.</P> <P>As his reputation grew so did his canvas and the works he took on. He presented a series of productions of <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Shakespeare">Shakespeare</A> throughout Europe, Japan and in the <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Festival%20de%20Th%E9%E2tre%20des%20Am%E9riques">Festival de ThÃ©Ã¢tre des AmÃ©riques</A> which had critics arguing among themselves but which transfixed audiences and made Lepage a giant of the international stage.</P> <P>In 1996, <I>The Seven Branches of the River Ota</I> won the award for best Quebec production at the <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Soir%E9e%20des%20Masques">SoirÃ©e des Masques</A> . It played at several subsequent festivals. In 1997 he created, and began an international tour of his contemplation of the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, <I>The Geometry of Miracles/La GÃ©omÃ©trie des miracles</I>. In 1998, he created a 3D version of <I>La TempÃªte/The Tempest</I> and began work on <I>Zulu Time</I> which opened to mixed reviews in Geneva, but, subsequently, positive ones in Paris.</P> <P>He is a recipient of a <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Governor%20General%27s%20Award">Governor General's Award</A> and is now directing movies. (In 1999, he began filming <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=John%20Mighton">John Mighton</A> 's <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Possible%20Worlds">Possible Worlds</A> featuring <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Tom%20McCamus">Tom McCamus</A> , <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Gabriel%20Gascon">Gabriel Gascon</A> and <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Rick%20Miller">Rick Miller</A> .)</P> <P>His company, Ex Machina, has renovated a fire station in Quebec City as a multidisciplinary arts centre that does research into theatre, opera, puppetry, dance and music.</P> <P>He has said of the extended, free-wheeling process he uses to create his works, "I don't even know what I'm writing until the audience tells me." During a discussion session at London's National Theatre (January, 1997), when asked what he thought theatre was, he answered, " I always come back to the same old notion that it's a gathering, a meeting point. A gathering in the sense that a group of artists get together to tell a story, and also the collective audience. The audience in a theatre room is very different from the audience to a film, because they actually change everything on the stage by their energy. You can't do that to a TV screen."</P> <P>M. Lepage's career has not been free of controversy. In 2001, it was revealed that he had cancelled a rare press conference, in which he was to discuss his participation in the <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Festival%20de%20Th%E9%E2tre%20des%20Am%E9riques">Festival de ThÃ©Ã¢tre des AmÃ©riques</A> , because three critics on his blacklist (notably <A href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Robert%20L%E9vesque">Robert LÃ©vesque</A> ) were planning to attend.</P> <P>In November of 2001, he received the London Evening Standard Award for his production of <I>La Face cachÃ©e de la lune.</I></P> <P>(Additional information provided by Christopher Hoile)</P> <P>Sources: "Robert Lepage est primÃ© Ã Londres" by Ã‰ve Dumas, <I>Le Devoir</I>, Montreal (Canada), November 28, 2001.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>
Resume:	here is where you can put a list of Filmography or Discography for example. <P>Robert Lepage's "Possible Worlds" received<BR>six Genie nominations from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television  <IMG src="/cka/modules/htmlarea/images/em.icon.bigsmile.png" align=absMiddle border=0></P> <P>Robert collaborates extensively with pop icon Peter Gabriel: <A href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=14296">http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=14296</A></P> <P><A href="http://www.donshewey.com/theater_reviews/zulu_time.html">http://www.donshewey.com/theater_reviews/zulu_time.html</A></P> <P> </P>

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