Colm Feore and Suzanne Lebeau to receive 2013 Gascon-Thomas Award

MONTREAL, Oct. 22, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) is proud to announce that this year's Gascon-Thomas Award will be distinguished upon stage, film and television actor, and NTS alumnus, Colm Feore (Acting, 1980), and dramaturge Suzanne Lebeau, recognized internationally as a leader in theatre for young audiences. The two will address the student body, offering anecdotes and practical advice, and will receive their awards in the Monument-National's Ludger-Duvernay Theatre at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, November 1, 2013.

COLM FEORE
A 1980 graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada's Acting program, Colm Feore built a distinguished Canadian stage career, performing in over 40 productions during 17 seasons with the prestigious Stratford Festival. He has played Macbeth in Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano de Bergerac; other roles include Coriolanus, Fagin, Hamlet, Romeo, Richard III, Iago, Petruchio and Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady). In 2005 he received the St. Clair Bayfield Award for his role of Cassius opposite Denzel Washington's Brutus in the Broadway revival of Julius Caesar.

Colm Feore's film credits include Clint Eastwood's Changeling, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, one of the highest-grossing Canadian films of all time, for which he was nominated for a Genie Award, The Perfect Son (Genie nomination), Chicago, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Red Violin (Jutra Award), Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (Genie nomination), and The Trotsky. For television, Colm Feore was Henry Taylor in the series 24 and Pierre-Elliott Trudeau in Trudeau (for which he won the 2002 Monte Carlo Television Festival Award for Best Actor and the 2002 Gemini Award for Best Actor in a Mini Series). More recently, the versatile Canadian actor played Cardenale Giuliano della Rovere in the Emmy-winning The Borgias. He will next be seen in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and The Amazing Spider-Man Two.

Colm Feore is the 2007 recipient of the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction at the Banff World Television Festival. He was an inductee for 2013 into the Playback TV and Film Hall of Fame.

SUZANNE LEBEAU
Suzanne Lebeau founded Le Carrousel with Gervais Gaudreault in 1975. Today, this playwright, who taught writing for young audiences in the French section of the NTS for 13 years, has 27 original plays, three adaptations, and a number of translations to her credit and is internationally recognized as a leader in playwriting for young audiences. She is among the most-performed Quebec playwrights in the world, with more than 140 productions of her works on all continents. Her plays have been published in many countries and translated into 20 languages; Une lune entre deux maisons, the first Canadian play written specifically for young children, L'Ogrelet, and Le bruit des os qui craquent, have been translated, respectively, into six, eleven, and seven languages.

Suzanne Lebeau's exceptional contribution to the flourishing of theatre for young audiences has earned her numerous awards and distinctions, including the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama in 2009. In 1998, the Assemblée internationale des parlementaires de langue française made her a Knight of the Order of the Pleiades for her body of work, and in 2010 the Government of Quebec awarded her the Prix Athanase-David, the most prestigious lifetime achievement recognition for Quebec authors. An experienced pedagogue, she acts as a consultant for young authors in Canada and other countries, contributing to the emergence of new written works.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE SCHOOL OF CANADA
The NTS is unique: it offers high-level training programs in all aspects of the theatre arts, in both French and English. Many of its 2,000 graduates are among the country's most active and versatile artists and designers. The NTS would like to thank the ministries and arts councils of the different provinces across Canada that contribute to the financing of the NTS, including the Department of Canadian Heritage.

SOURCE: Ecole nationale de théâtre du Canada

For further information:

Press relations:
Stéphanie Brody
National Theatre School of Canada
514-842-7954 ext 165, [e-mail]