Gascon-Thomas Award 1999

Michel Tremblay and Christopher Newton:
1999 Gascon-Thomas award winners

Montreal, October 21st, 1999 – The National Theatre School proudly announces that Christopher Newton, the Shaw Festival’s Artistic Director, and playwright Michel Tremblay are this year’s winners of the Gascon-Thomas Award; Canada’s only bi-cultural theatre prize. The awards will be presented during a special ceremony on Friday, October 29th in the Monument-National’s Ludger-Duvernay Theatre.

The Gascon-Thomas award recognizes exceptional achievement in theatre. Each year, two artists are singled out who have not only helped to shape the world of theatre but served as role models to NTS students as well. The award was created in 1990 by the NTS’s Board of Governors in memory of two of the School’s founders, Jean Gascon and Powys Thomas. One anglophone and one francophone are chosen to receive the prize each year. The award is strictly honorary. Past winners include: Herbert Whittaker (1990), Martha Henry (1992), Diana Leblanc (1996), R.H.Thomson (1997) and John Murrell (1998).

Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay has been a dominant figure in the Quebec cultural scene since the late 1960’s. Although primarily recognized as a playwright, Tremblay has written books, musicals, screenplays and poems. Tremblay’s skill as a playwright was first recognized in 1964 when he won first prize in a Radio-Canada young authors competition. Acclaim from the public and the theatre community was soon to follow.

One of Tremblay’s most famous works Les Belles-Soeurs was created in 1968 and was an instant success. It continues to be one of his most popular plays and is frequently re-mounted in theatres across the country. Tremblay’s reputation as a skilled and audacious playwright extends beyond Canada’s borders. His works have been mounted in Germany, Finland, Romania, Japan and Brazil.

Christopher Newton

Christopher Newton has spent the last twenty years as Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival, helping to create vital and hugely popular theatre. He has directed many of the Shaw Festival’s major works including Cavalcade, Caesar and Cleopatra, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara, Pygmalion and Lady Windermere’s Farm. While fulfilling the Festival’s mandate of presenting plays written during Bernard Shaw’s lifetime, Newton has chosen to present lesser known playwrights along with well-known playwrights including Shaw, Wilde and Coward.

Newton’s goal has been to provide theatre that not only stimulates the actors but the audience as well. To this end, he has focused on the Acting Ensemble which he says, "lies at the heart of the Festival because it is the relationship between actor and audience that determines the success of a production." The ensemble, says Newton, allows actors to develop a high level of trust and skill, enabling them to explore the texts in greater depth. Recently, The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre singled Newton out for "assembling and nurturing one of the premiere acting ensembles in North America."

In 1985, Newton created The Academy as a forum for an exchange of skills among the Shaw Festival Acting Ensemble. As well as giving specialized workshops to company members, the Academy also sponsors Shaw Seminars, Lunchtime Conversations and outreach programmes for the public. Developing an audience’s appreciation and curiosity allows the dynamism of theatre to truly shine. Says Newton, "theatre is meant to excite, it’s to reveal, it’s to trigger other thoughts, it’s to connect this past world with today." Christopher Newton was also very active in establishing the International Repertory Theatre Conference. An annual event, which creates a forum for the five largest repertory theatre companies in the English-speaking world.