Lorraine Pintal
2019 Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award (Stages (formerly Theatre))
In a career spanning over 45 years in theatre, television, radio and film, Lorraine Pintal has distinguished herself as an exceptional actress, director, cultural animator and arts advocate. She has directed more than 150 stage productions, produced several TV series, hosted a literary radio show, and served on the boards of numerous arts organizations. As artistic director and general manager of Montréal’s Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) since 1992, she has revitalized the organization and created a diverse program ranging from classic to contemporary plays (Molière, Sophocles, Chekhov, Brecht, Botho Strauss) and new works by Quebec writers (Michel Marc Bouchard, Evelyne de la Chenelière, Réjean Ducharme, Carole Fréchette, Claude Gauvreau, Michel Tremblay) that have gone on to tour Canada and the world.
Ms. Pintal was born in Plessisville, Quebec, in 1951, and trained at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique du Québec à Montréal. She launched her acting career in 1972, and co-directed the La Rallonge theatre collective from 1975 to 1991. Appointed to the TNM in 1992, she strengthened the organization’s administrative and financial capacities, diversified its programming, and oversaw a major renovation project. She is now working to have the theatre recognized as a national institution.
All her talents came into play in her one-woman stage show
Madame Louis 14 (1988, remounted in 2011), which she wrote, directed and performed. Presented on tour in Canada and France, it won best Québécois production at the Quinzaine internationale du théâtre in 1990.
Ms. Pintal produced several television series, including Radio-Canada’s “Montréal, PQ.” She also appeared in “La pépinière,” “Onzième spéciale,” “Blanche,” “Juliette Pomerleau” and “Deux frères,” and in the feature films
Nelligan and
Congorama. For three years she hosted the literary talk show “Vous m’en lirez tant” on Radio-Canada’s Première Chaîne.
Lorraine Pintal is a Member of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the National Order of Quebec, and a Companion of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec. She was a finalist for the 2007 Women of Distinction Award, and has received the Gascon–Thomas Award (National Theatre School), several Masques from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre, and two Prix Gémeaux.