Media Release

For immediate release
January 24, 2006

Teacher and dramaturge Maureen LaBonté appointed head of the Banff playRites Colony

Canadian dramaturge, teacher, and translator Maureen LaBonté has been appointed program head of the Banff playRites Colony at The Banff Centre, one of the foremost playwrights’ development centres in North America. When she began working with the Colony in 2002, LaBonté was a translator with the France/Banff Translation Exchange Program, and the following year became program dramaturge, providing senior dramaturgical supervision for all playwrights and dramaturges. In her new role as program head, LaBonté will assume an integral role in the artistic planning and operations of the Colony, while continuing to provide her dramaturgical expertise during the program each spring.

 “My co-director Bob White and I cannot imagine a more appropriate or committed program head for the Colony than Maureen LaBonté,” says John Murrell, co-director of the Colony and executive artistic director of Performing Arts at The Banff Centre. “She is greatly esteemed and trusted by playwrights and play development centres across the country. Maureen will bring integrity and insight to the continued artistic growth of the Colony and will ensure the sensitivity and clarity which the Colony is pledged to provide to playwrights, in our consistently positive and flexible creative environment.”

Literary manager at The Shaw Festival from 2002 to 2004, LaBonté worked at the National Theatre School of Canada (NTSC) between 1993 and 2001, where she developed and ran a pilot directing program, and co-ordinated the NTSC's playwriting program and playwrights' residency from 1997 to 2001.

The Banff playRites Colony has a 25-year history as one of the pre-eminent playwright development centres in the English-speaking world. The Colony has a strong national mandate and reputation, and an active working relationship with producing companies and other dramaturgical centres across the country. Banff’s unique physical setting facilitates highly focused creative time with the most experienced play development talents in Canada, and fosters productive dialogue among writers who are at different stages in their projects and in their careers.

The Banff playRites Colony is presented through an alliance of The Banff Centre, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Alberta Theatre Projects (through the generous support of Ann J. Brown), and is assisted by La Maison Antoine Vitez in France.