Playwright of The Breathing Hole. 

Colleen Murphy is a playwright, filmmaker and librettist, born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and raised in Northern Ontario.

Her play Pig Girl won the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama as well as the 2014 Carol Bolt Award. The December Man/L'homme de décembre won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, the CAA/Carol Bolt Award and the Enbridge Playwrights Award. Other plays include I Hope My Heart Burns First, Armstrong's War, The Goodnight Bird, Beating Heart Cadaver (nominated for a 1999 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama), The Piper, Down in Adoration Falling  and All Other Destinations are Cancelled. Twice she won awards in the CBC Literary Competition for Fire-Engine Red and Pumpkin Eaters.

Libretti include Oksana G., composed by Aaron Gervais for Tapestry Opera, and My Mouth On Your Heart, composed by August Murphy-King for Toy Piano Composers and Bicycle Opera. Her distinct, award-winning films have played in festivals around the world. They include Girl with Dog, Shoemaker and The Feeler.

In 2010 and 2011, Colleen was the Canadian Playwright-in-Residence at Finborough Theatre in London, U.K. She has been Playwright-in-Residence at Necessary Angel Theatre and Factory Theatre in Toronto, as well Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Regina in 2006/7, the Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University in 2010, Writer-in-Residence at the University of Guelph in 2011 and the Edna Staebler Laurier Writer-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2014. Recently, she completed three years as the Lee Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Alberta.

Colleen was married to the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Allan King until his death in 2009. She has one son, August, and she currently resides in Toronto. Her hobbies are reading, walking her dog, reading, walking her dog, reading, watching films, reading and walking her dog.

Upcoming: Première of The Society For The Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius, Rumble Theatre, November 2017. Productions of The Goodnight Bird, Armstrong's War  and The December Man/L'homme de décembre are scheduled for Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

The Stratford Festival is grateful for the support of the artists of Qaggiavuut and Executive Director Ellen Hamilton for their support in the development of this production.

Qaggiavuut is a non-profit society dedicated to strengthening the Nunavut performing arts, with a focus on Inuit. This year we begin an international fundraising campaign to build a Nunavut Performing Arts Centre - Nunavut is the only territory/province in Canada without one. We know that a space for the Nunavut performing arts is vitally important so that Nunavut, Canada and the world can hear the Inuit point of view in our culture, when Inuit artists strengthen traditional practice and create new work.

The partnership between Qaggiavuut and Stratford has been an exciting and challenging part of our drive to include Inuit in Canadian theatre. It began when director Reneltta Arluk reached out to us to hold a reading of The Breathing Hole with Inuit actors in Iqaluit, but immediately initiated an intense discussion about cultural authenticity and who can and how to create drama from the Inuit perspective, in a post-colonial Canada. It was months of critique and two revisions by playwright Colleen Murphy based on feedback and cultural knowledge from Inuit actors Miali Buscemi, Vincent Karetak, Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, Annabella Piugattuk and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory; but what it asserts is a genuine concern for authenticity and indigenous cultural truth.

During the process, we coined a new term - Inuit Cultural Dramaturge - and Qaggiavuut looks forward to a productive and collaborative relationship between Canada's southern and northern theatre communities in the years to come. We urge all who wish to hear the voices of Inuit artists to help us build a Nunavut Performing Arts Centre and shout out "Qaggiavuut! Come into the large iglu that we have built together!"

2017: Movement director of Treasure Island and The Breathing Hole and professional development program movement coach. Third season. Stratford: Movement director of Breath of Kings; Elsewhere: Movement direction for Lord Sword (Inter Arts Matrix), The Lark, The Trojan Women (Lost & Found Theatre). Puppetry direction for Western (Next Stage), King Lear (Cosmic Fishing Theatre). Actor: War Horse (National Theatre of Great Britain/Mirvish), Blue Bird (Blue Bird Theatre Collective), The Importance of Being Earnest (Guild Festival Theatre), Body 13 (MT Space), Frankenstein's Ghosts (Inter Arts Matrix), Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol, Pearl Gidley, Radio Leacock, Twelfth Night (Lost & Found Theatre), Our Country's Good, Our Town, Marat/Sade (University of Waterloo). Teaching: Movement for the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre, Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, Long Reach Opera Workshop, University of Waterloo. Training: MA, Movement, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; BA, Acting, University of Waterloo.