Don't strive to be number one. Strive to be unique.”
-Marc Doré
Jeremy Peter Allen - Robert Lepage
Jeremy Peter Allen is a Quebec-based director and screenwriter whose works include Manners of Dying, his acclaimed first dramatic feature, starring Roy Dupuis and adapted from a short story by Yann Martel. Jeremy has also directed such short dramatic films as Requiem contre un plafond, based on the work of Tonino Benacquista, and L'est, which was shown in over 20 countries. He directed the television series Chabotte et fille which premiered on Télé-Québec in the fall of 2009. In 2003, Jeremy was first assistant director on La face cachée de la lune, Robert Lepage's screen adaptation of his play.
Robert Lepage
2009 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Theatre)
Director, playwright, actor and filmmaker
One of Canada's best known artists, Robert Lepage has earned an international reputation for his dazzling work as a director, playwright, actor and filmmaker. From one-man shows to epic collective creations to classics of the repertoire, Mr. Lepage's original, highly visual style integrates new technologies, multiple languages, and different art forms to reinvest performance with a sense of ritual, magic and wonder.
Robert Lepage was born in 1957 in Quebec City and trained at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec. In 1984 he created Circulations, which toured nationally and won the Best Canadian Play award at the Quinzaine internationale de théâtre de Québec. He has written over a dozen plays, including The Dragons' Trilogy, Tectonic Plates, The Seven Streams of the River Ota, The Far Side of the Moon, The Andersen Project, and The Blue Dragon (which is currently touring, in English and French versions). In 1992 Mr. Lepage became the first North American to direct a Shakespeare play (A Midsummer Night's Dream) at London's Royal National Theatre. He directed rock singer Peter Gabriel's 1993 Secret World Tour, and designed and directed KÀ (2004), a permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. Also in 1992 he turned his hand to opera, staging Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung at the Canadian Opera Company. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2008, directing Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, and will return in 2010 to direct Wagner's Ring cycle.
Mr. Lepage began directing films in 1994 with The Confessional, followed among others by The Polygraph, Nô, Possible Worlds, and The Far Side of the Moon. To mark Quebec City's 400th anniversary in 2008, Robert Lepage and his production company, Ex Machina, created The Image Mill, a gigantic outdoor architectural projection celebrating four centuries in the life of the provincial capital. Robert Lepage is an Officer of the Order of Canada (1994), a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France (2002), and an Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec (1999). Other awards and honours include Europe Theatre Prize (2007); Prix Denise-Pelletier (2003); Gascon-Thomas Award (2003); Canada's Walk of Fame (2001); and the National Arts Centre Award (Governor General's Performing Arts Award, 1994).