Marie Clements facts for kids

Marie Clements was born on January 10, 1962. She is a talented Canadian artist who is Métis. She writes plays, acts, directs movies, produces, and writes screenplays. Marie Clements helped start Urban Ink Productions. Now, she is a co-artistic director at Red Diva Projects. She also leads her own film company, Working Pajama Lab Entertainment. Marie Clements lives on Galiano Island in British Columbia. She has created stories for many different types of media. These include plays for the theatre, live performances, movies, digital projects, radio shows, and television.

Early Life and Education

Marie Clements was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. When she was young, she learned dance, public speaking, singing, and piano. She also studied music. However, her dream was to become a foreign correspondent, which is a reporter who covers news from other countries. She went on to study journalism at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta.

Marie Clements' Career

In the 1980s, Marie Clements worked as a news reporter for radio. She still contributes to CBC radio as a freelance writer. She also worked on the writing team for the TV show Da Vinci's Inquest. This show had a storyline similar to her play The Unnatural and Accidental Women. This play is about the murders of several Indigenous women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside area.

Marie Clements has been a special writer at many places. These include the National Theatre School of Canada and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has also been a writer-in-residence at Canadian universities. These include Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. This means she spent time at these places, sharing her knowledge and working on her projects.

A special issue of the journal Theatre Research in Canada was dedicated to Marie Clements. This showed how important her work is to Canadian theatre.

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

Themes in Her Work

Marie Clements' plays often explore important topics. These include racism, sexism, and violence. Her play The Unnatural and Accidental Women looks at these themes. Her style of theatre mixes Aboriginal storytelling and traditions with Western theatre styles. As a writer and director, she explores "important issues of women, aboriginals, and the realities of the urban core." She does this in new and exciting ways on stage.

While traveling in northern Canada, Marie Clements wrote her first play, Age of Iron (1993). She said she was inspired to write it because of the "sheer cold boredom." She also wanted to understand how Greek mythology and Native ideas were connected.

Her plays often "reframe...authorized Western histories." This means she tells stories that challenge common historical views. She wants audiences to learn about other histories. She also wants them to think critically about how history is written. Her plays Burning Vision and The Unnatural and Accidental Women deal with parts of Canadian history that are often ignored. They bring up important ideas about remembering history in different ways.

Marie Clements is a very important Canadian playwright. She has been nominated for many awards. Her works have been translated into different languages. Many scholarly articles have also been written about her plays.

In 2024, she received the Matt Cohen Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada. This award recognized all of her amazing work.

Awards and Recognition

Marie Clements has received many awards and nominations for her work:

• 2004: Won the 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 contribution to Canadian Theatre.
• 2001: Nominated for the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Play for Burning Vision.
• 1998: Won the 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: Received a Fellowship Award from the Minneapolis Playwright's Center for Now look what you made me do.
• 1994: Nominated for Jessie Richardson Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Creation for ... Dreams.
• 1994: Nominated for Jessie Richardson Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance for ... Dreams.
• 1994: Nominated for Jessie Richardson Awards (Sydney Risk Award) for Age of Iron.
• 1993: Nominated for Jessie Richardson Awards for Outstanding Original Play for Age of Iron.

Writings and Appearances

Marie Clements has created many works across different media.

Plays She Has Written

• 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 and TV Shows

• Da Vinci's Inquest (2002), where she acted as Melanie Frum.
• Unnatural & Accidental (2006), she wrote the screenplay and acted as the 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 Works

• Vancouver Rose - an ongoing CBC Radio Commentary (started 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 as of 2023)

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)