John Murrell, O.C., A.O.E.
Librettist
John Murrell is one of the most frequently produced of all Canadian playwrights, as well as a highly respected arts advocate, mentor, and consultant. His plays have been translated into 15 languages and performed in more than 30 countries. He has worked as playwright-in-residence at both Theatre Calgary and Alberta Theatre Projects, as associate director of the Stratford Festival, as head of the Banff Playwrights Colony (1986-1989), as head of the Theatre Section of the Canada Council (1988-1992), as artistic director/executive producer of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre (1999-2005), and since 2005 has held the position of executive artistic director of Performing Arts at The Banff Centre.
Murrell’s work for the stage includes Waiting For The Parade, Memoir, Farther West, Democracy, and The Faraway Nearby. Both Farther West and the The Faraway Nearby were honoured with Chalmers Best Canadian Play Awards, and Democracy received the Canadian Authors Association’s and the Writers Guild of Alberta’s Best Play Awards in 1992. Murrell’s play Death in New Orleans, was premiered by Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit Theatre at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre during the 1998 International Festival of the Arts, and won a Fringe First Award for Outstanding New Writing.
In summer 2004, Murrell was the first Canadian playwright to be included in the seasons of both The Shaw Festival (Waiting For The Parade) and The Stratford Festival (a new translation of Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice). As a translator, he has created acclaimed and frequently revived versions of some of the works of Chekhov, Ibsen, Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and several plays by celebrated Quebec playwright Carole Fréchette.
In 2002, Murrell received the Canada Council’s Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, and was presented with the Alberta Order of Excellence, in 2003 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2005 he received an inaugural Lieutenant Governor of Alberta's Arts Award, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from The University of Calgary. Most recently, he has been recognized as one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture magazine.
In February of 2003, Murrell’s first collaboration with composer John Estacio, the original opera Filumena was co-produced by The Banff Centre and Calgary Opera and had its world premiere in Calgary to sold-out houses. It garnered four Betty Mitchell Awards, including Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Musical Production. Filumena was re-mounted in August 2003 as part of the Banff Summer Arts Festival, and was produced by The Banff Centre in April 2005 as the centrepiece of the Alberta Scene festival at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The Edmonton Opera production in November 2005 was filmed for CBC-TV’s Opening Night series, and has twice been nationally telecast. Frobisher marks the second collaboration between Murrell and Estacio, and they’ve also been commissioned to create their third operatic work for the Vancouver Opera in 2010.
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