Marjorie Chan

Teaching: Writing from the Physical

Marjorie is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Toronto, working as playwright, librettist, dramaturge and director. Her works for the stage have been performed in the United States, Scotland, Hong Kong, Russia and across Canada. Her full-length works as a playwright include the plays The Madness of the Square, a nanking winter, Tails From the City, as well as the libretti for the operas, Sanctuary Song, The Lesson of Da Ji, and most recently M’dea Undone. Marjorie is the recipient of four Dora Awards (3 for writing, 1 for performance), the K.M. Hunter Artist’s Award in Theatre, the Entertainment World Award for Best New Work, as well as a Harold Award for her contribution to the Toronto theatre community.

Notable nominations include the Governor General’s Literary Award for her playwriting debut, China Doll and the Canadian Citizen Award for her work with Crossing Gibraltar – Cahoots Theatre’s program for newcomers and other marginalized communities. She has been artist-in-residence with Factory Theatre, Banff Playwrights’ Colony, Tapestry Opera, Cahoots Theatre, Theatre Centre (with 6th Man Collective), Theatre Direct Canada, SUNY (Geneseo, New York) and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). Current projects include The Monkiest King (Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus) with composer Alice Ping-Yee Ho, and The Year of the Cello (Factory Theatre) with composer Njo Kong Kie. When not writing, Marjorie is the Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre since 2013, where her focus has been on mentorship, artist incubation and development, community arts access as well as advocacy for a broadening inclusivity in theatre for artists and audiences alike. To that end, Cahoots recently launched the DATT, the Deaf Artists & Theatres Toolkit. www.cahoots.ca/DATT.