Marie Clements facts for kids

Marie Clements (born January 10, 1962) is a talented Canadian artist. She is Métis, which means she has both Indigenous and European ancestors. Marie is known for telling stories in many ways, like writing plays, directing films, and producing shows. She has started her own companies, including Working Pajama Lab Entertainment, to bring her creative ideas to life. Marie lives on Galiano Island in British Columbia.

Early Life and Dreams

Marie Clements was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. When she was young, she loved to learn many things like dance, singing, and playing piano. But her big dream was to become a foreign correspondent, someone who reports news from other countries. To follow this dream, she studied journalism at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta.

Marie's Career in Storytelling

In the 1980s, Marie Clements worked as a news reporter for the radio. She still shares her stories on CBC radio sometimes. She also helped write for the TV show Da Vinci's Inquest. This show sometimes explored themes similar to her play The Unnatural and Accidental Women, which tells stories about Indigenous women in a part of Vancouver.

Marie has been a special writer at many famous places, like the National Theatre School of Canada and the National Arts Centre. This means they invited her to work on her plays there. She has also been a writer-in-residence at universities like Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia. This allowed her to share her knowledge with students.

In 2010, Marie started Working Pajama Lab. This company focuses on creating stories for films, TV, digital media, and live shows. She also founded Red Diva Project in the same year. This project helped create the closing performance for the Aboriginal Pavilion at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Marie's plays often explore important topics like fairness and understanding. She combines traditional Indigenous storytelling and rituals with Western theatre styles. She uses her plays to "explore important issues of women, aboriginals, and the realities of the urban core in innovative, highly theatrical stagings."

Her first play, Age of Iron (1993), was written while she was traveling in the Canadian north. She says the cold weather and her desire to connect Greek myths with Indigenous ideas inspired her to write it.

Marie's plays often tell stories from different points of view, especially those not often heard in history books. For example, Burning Vision and The Unnatural and Accidental Women look at parts of Canadian history that are sometimes overlooked.

Marie Clements is a very important Canadian playwright. Her work has won many awards and has been translated into different languages. Many articles have been written about her plays. In 2024, she received the Matt Cohen Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada for all her amazing work.

Awards and Recognitions

Marie Clements has received many awards for her creative work:

• 2004: Canada - Japan Literary Award for Burning Vision
• 2004: Nominated for the George Ryga Literary Award for Burning Vision
• 2004: Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for Burning Vision
• 2002: Nominated for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for her great contributions to Canadian Theatre
• 2001: Nominated for the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Play for Burning Vision
• 1998: Jessie Richardson Theatre Award – The P.T.C. Award for Outstanding Original Play In Development for The Unnatural and Accidental Women
• 1998: Finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Competition for Now look what you made me do
• 1997: Shortlisted in the Praxis Screenwriting Competition for Now look what you made me do
• 1996: Fellowship Award from the Minneapolis Playwright's Center for Now look what you made me do
• 1994: Nominated for the Jessie Richardson Awards – Sydney Risk Award for Age of Iron
• 1993: Nominated for the Jessie Richardson Awards – Outstanding Original Play for Age of Iron

Marie's Works

Marie Clements has created many different types of stories:

Plays She Wrote

• Age of Iron (1993)
• Now Look What You Made Me Do (1997)
• The Girl Who Swam Forever (1997)
• The Unnatural and Accidental Women (2000)
• Burning Vision (2002)
• Copper Thunderbird (2007)
• The Edward Curtis Project : A Modern Picture Story(2010)
• Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (2012)
• Iron Peggy(2020)

Films She Worked On

• Da Vinci's Inquest (2002), she acted as Melanie Frum
• Unnatural & Accidental (2006), she wrote the screenplay and acted as Native Bartender
• Making History: Louis Riel and the North-West Rebellion of 1885
• The Road Forward (2017), she was the writer and director
• Red Snow (2019)
• Bones of Crows (2022)
• Lay Down Your Heart (2022)

Radio Shows

• Vancouver Rose - ongoing CBC Radio Commentary (since 2002)
• The Meter is Running - Sounds Like Canada, CBC Radio (2003)
• Women in Fish Series - A four-part documentary, CBC Outfront (2005)
• hours of water- radio drama - CBC Radio Drama (2005)
• Tombs of the Vanishing Indian (in development)

Multi-media Projects

• Urban Tattoo (1999)
• The Women in Fish Interactive Installation
• Hours of Water (2004)
• The Red Diva Project (2008)
• The Edward Curtis Project (2013)
• Missing (2017)