Theatre

1988:

Entered a play called Snakeprints in the Quebec Drama Federation annual festival. Directed by Gazette film critic Bruce Bailey, starring Marianne Maltby, Gaetan Dumont, Andreas Apergis. Snakeprints won Best New Play prize and was later presented in Toronto.

Theatre 1774

In 1988, Ackerman teamed up with Clare Schapiro, dynamic founder of Creations Etc., to launch THEATRE 1774. Coming from quite different backgrounds, they shared a belief that the pulse of Quebec culture was to be found where the two founding cultures overlapped. The company mandate was to involve French and English- speaking artists in the production of plays which would address a contemporary Quebec audience. Seems obvious now, but in 1989, anglo and francophone artists working together was a novel – even radical – idea.

From the beginning, THEATRE 1774 was caught up in controversy, including overt hostility from sovereigntist critics who resented seeing collaboration between the two solitudes, to suspicion from others who suspected the mandate implied a federalist plot. Nothing could have been further from the truth! THEATRE 1774 was simply expressing a reality – which as it turns out, had something of a history. L’Affaire Tartuffe, a bilingual play about British garrison officers staging Molière in Montreal, circa 1774 – in French – an historical fact! The bilingual play was a critical and popular success. It toured to Toronto and Sherbrooke, and in 1997, was produced in Kingston Ontario by The People`s Theatre and Les Treteaux de Kingston, directed by Craig Walker.

Theatre 1774 Productions

·      Echo, based on Anne Diamond’s book A Nun’s Diary, directed by Robert Lepage, 1989-90

·      L’Affaire Tartuffe, or the Garrison Officers Rehearse Molière (M Ackerman) directed by Fernand Rainville 1991; a second version directed by Guy Sprung, 1992.

·      Measure for Measure, adapted by M Ackerman, directed by Suzanne Lantagne. 1991

·      Woman by a Window, by M Ackerman, directed by Paula de Vasconcelos 1992

·      Miss Julie, adapted by M Ackerman, directed by Jean-Frederic Messier, 1993

·      Sliding in All Directions, by M Ackerman, Judith Thompson, Norbert Rubesat, John Mighton, directed by Guy Sprung. Winner of the Les Masques Best Anglophone Production award for 1994.

·      Celeste, written and directed by M Ackerman, 1995

·      Blue Valentine, written and directed by M Ackerman, 1996. Nominated as Best Anglophone Production and Best New Play, Les Masques, 1997.

Outside THEATRE 1774, Ackerman also co-wrote Alanienouidet with Robert Lepage, which played at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and the Carrefour Festival in Quebec City.1992. By 1997, THEATRE 1774 was a well-established part of the Montreal theatre scene with regular grants from three levels of government, a loyal audience, private support base, and no deficit. Clare Schapiro had moved on to pursue other interests in 1993. She has subsequently returned to theatre, and is artistic director of Imago Theatre.

THEATRE 1774 had provided Ackerman with an excellent environment in which to develop new work, as well as opportunities to work with some of the finest theatre talents in Quebec. However, it was an absorbing responsibility. Although the company was poised to grow, she was eager to return to the writer`s life. In January of 1997, she resigned as artistic director.

After considerable discussion, THEATRE 1774’s board of directors offered the company to Toronto director Guy Sprung, who had directed two plays for 1774, and had recently settled in Montreal. Board members agreed that Sprung had made a significant contribution, that he was likely to make good use of the resources amassed by Schapiro and Ackerman during their years of hard work.

Sprung took over in the summer of 1997, with a new board of directors. As expected, he rewrote the mandate into more conventional terms, and changed the company name to Infinitheatre.

Today, the new company’s curiously a-historical website speaks triumphantly of ‘renaissance’ beginning in 1997. There is no mention of either Schapiro or Ackerman on the company’s website, although Infini- dates itself from 1988. Virgin birth? Or a black hole? Metaphorical explanations abound … A sorry lack of grace, to be sure.

After THEATRE 1774

Gordon McCall directed M Ackerman’s next play, Venus of Dublin on the Centaur Theatre`s 1999-2000 season. Published by Signature Editions, Venus of Dublin has also been translated into French, and given a staged reading at Shakespeare’s Bookshop in Avignon, France.