Suzanne Lebeau has been drawn to the theatre since 1966. At first, she was headed for a career as an actress: from 1966 to 1973, she played Molière, Ionesco, and Stoppard as she continued her training with Jacques Crête and Gilles Maheu in Montreal, then with Étienne Decroux in Paris. She also spent a year training in Poland, dividing her time between the Pantomime Theatre and the Puppet Theatre in Wroclaw.

After founding Le Carrousel with Gervais Gaudreault in 1975, Suzanne Lebeau gradually gave up acting to devote herself exclusively to writing. Today, she has more than twenty original plays, three adaptations, and several translations to her credit, is internationally recognized as a leader in playwriting for young audiences, and is among the most-performed Quebec playwrights in the world. Most of her works have been published and translated, some into several languages. Une lune entre deux maisons (1979), the first Canadian play written specifically for young children (three to five years of age), has been translated into five languages; Salvador (1994), presented at the New Victory Theatre on Broadway, has been translated four times; and L’Ogrelet, produced in French, English, Italian, and Spanish by Le Carrousel, has also been translated into German, Maya, Portuguese, and Russian. In 2003–04, L’Ogrelet was published in Argentina, France, and Mexico.

The importance of Suzanne Lebeau’s body of work and her exceptional contribution to the rise of the genre of theatre for young audiences, both in Canada and abroad, has earned her many prizes and awards: the Chalmers Children’s Play Award (Les Petits Pouvoirs/Little Victories, 1986); Prix Francophonie Jeunesse (Salvador, 1995); the Masque award for original text (L’Ogrelet, 2000); Prix littéraire de la citoyenneté de Maine et Loire (Salvador, 2002); and nominations for the Governor General’s Award for four of her plays. 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. This recognition has gained her invitations all over the world.

Since 1993, Suzanne Lebeau has made regular trips to La Chartreuse, Centre National des Écritures du Spectacle, in France, to give workshops and lectures and to participate in playwright residencies. In 1997 and 1998, the Musée des civilisations in Quebec City asked her to act as an artistic consultant for the exhibition Grandir and to write texts for the exhibition De quel droit?, produced for the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. In 1999, she went to Corsica for a residency at Théâtre Alibi, where she wrote a play with a group of children; the following year, as a recipient of the Canada/Mexico Scholarship, she did a two-month residency in Mexico, leading workshops with both writers and children. In 2000, she also participated in the first Biennale of Ibero-American Playwrights in Mexico City. In recent years, ASSITEJ USA, the Chambre belge des théâtres pour l’enfance et la jeunesse, the Mexican festivals Telón Abierto and Titérias, and the Spanish festival Teatralia have invited her to take part in similar activities.

All these activities do not keep Suzanne Lebeau from writing. She has just finished a new play on child soldiers, Le bruit des os qui craquent, which will soon be premièred by Le Carrousel. Finally, she has been teaching writing for young audiences at the National Theatre School of Canada for thirteen years and acts as a consultant to young writers from Quebec and abroad, thus helping new writers for young audiences to emerge.

	Prix littéraire de la citoyenneté from the Département de Maine et Loire, France (2002) for Salvador
	Knight of the Order of the Pleiades from the Assemblée internationale des parlementaires de langue française (1998)
	Masque award for original text from the Académie québécoise du Théâtre (2000) for L'Ogrelet
	Prix Francophonie Jeunesse (1994) (Radio France Internationale/Francophonies Théâtrales pour la Jeunesse) for Salvador
	Theatre grand prize, Journal de Montréal (1991) for Conte du jour et de la nuit
	Chalmers Children's Play Award (1985) for Les Petits Pouvoirs/ Little Victories

SUZANNE LEBEAU: LAS HUELLAS DE LA ESPERANZA
	Suzanne Lebeau: La huellas de la esperanza, 2007 Published by Ensayo ASSITEJ España.
ITINÉRAIRE D'AUTEUR - SUZANNE LEBEAU
	Itinéraire d'auteur - Suzanne Lebeau, 2002 Published by La Chartreuse, Centre National des Écritures du Spectacle, with the collaboration of Lanctôt éditeur.
PLAYS PUBLISHED
IN SPANISH
WITH REVISTA TRAMOYA (MEXICO)
	Petit Pierre * 2007
	Cuentos de niños reales (Contes d'enfants réels)* 2004
WITH BAJO LA LUNA / NORTE+SUR (ARGENTINA)
	El Ogrito (L'Ogrelet)* 2004
WITH EL MILAGRO EDICIONES (MEXICO)
	El Ogrito (L'Ogrelet)* 2003 including Salvador*
WITH ANONIMO DRAMA EDICIONES (MEXICO)
	El Ogrito (L'Ogrelet)* 2002 Paso de Gato, Revista Mexicana de Teatro No.3.
IN PERSIAN
	Salvador* 2004 Translated into English, Spanish, Italian, and Persian.
IN FRENCH
WITH LANCTÔT ÉDITEUR, COLLECTION THÉÂTRE
	Petit Pierre* 2002 Translated into Spanish.
	L'Ogrelet* 1997 Translated into English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Maya, and Russian.
	Contes à rebours 1997 Produced by Productions Ipso Facto.
WITH THÉÂTRALES, COLLECTION JEUNESSE (FRANCE)
	Théâtre en court 2 (Frontière nord) 2007
	25 petites pièces d'auteurs (Le Grillon) 2007
	Souliers de sable * 2007
	Petit Pierre * 2006
	Une lune entre deux maisons* 2006 Translated into English, Spanish, Flemish, Portuguese, and Catalan.
	L'Ogrelet* 2003 Translated into English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Maya, and Russian.
	Salvador* 2002 Translated into English, Italian, Spanish, and Persian.
WITH ALBIANA (CORSICA)
	C'era una volta a notte 2006 Written during a writing residence at Théâtre Alibi (Oletta).
WITH LA CHARTREUSE, CENTRE NATIONAL DES ÉCRITURES DU SPECTACLE (FRANCE)
	Salvador* 1994 Translated into English, Italian, Spanish, and Persian.
WITH VLB ÉDITEUR, COLLECTION THÉÂTRE
	Salvador* 1996 Translated into English, Italian, Spanish, and Persian.
	Contes d'enfants réels* 1995 Translated into English and Spanish.
WITH LEMÉAC
	Souliers de sable * 2006
	Conte du jour et de la nuit* 1991 Translated into English and Portuguese.
	Comment vivre avec les hommes quand on est un géant* 1990 Translated into English.
	Ti-Jean voudrait bien s'marier, mais...* 1985
	La Marelle* 1984 Translated into English.
	Les Petits Pouvoirs* 1983 Translated into English and Creole.
WITH QUÉBEC /AMÉRIQUE, COLLECTION JEUNES PUBLICS
	La couleur chante un pays 1981 Produced by Théâtre de l'Avant-Pays.
	Une lune entre deux maisons* 1980 Translated into English, Spanish, Flemish, Portuguese, and Catalan.
TRANSLATIONS / ADAPTATIONS
Choix multiple 2003 Translation of Opción Múltiple by Luis Mario Moncada Gil presented in a public reading by CEAD, in co-production with the Festival de théâtre des Amériques and the Centro Cultural Helénico de México, 5 June 2003. Les Noces barbares 1995 Adapted for the theatre from the novel of the same title by Yann Queffelec, Premièred by Théâtre Blanc. La Révolte** 1991 Translation and adaptation, in collaboration with Manuel Aranguiz, of the play by José Oregón Morales, El Motin. Gil* 1987 Adapted for the theatre from the novel by Howard Buten Quand j'avais cinq ans, je m'ai tué, 1986. Translation into English.
* Play premièred by Le Carrousel. ** Play produced as a public reading by Le Carrousel.
These plays are available at Maison Théâtre and in Quebec bookstores. They are also distributed in Europe at La Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon and at the Quebec bookstore in Paris: please contact Le Carrousel to find out where and how to obtain them. All works by Suzanne Lebeau are available at Le Carrousel or at: Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CeAD).

Photos and illustrations:
Manon André, Patrick Bergé, Véro Boncompagni, Caroline Bourbonnais, Bernard Brault, Nathalie Caron, Maxime Côté, Marc Cramer, Jacques Driol, Yves Dubé, Stéphane Dumais, Marc Dussault, François-Xavier Gaudreault, Jean-François Hamon, Kiko, Josée Lambert, Laurence Leblanc, Suzanne Ostein, Bernard Préfontaine, Olivier Prialnic, Isabelle Rancier, Monic Richard, Daniel Robillard, André P. Therrien, Julien Tremblay.

This site was designed in 1996 by Orénoque interactif
and has been updated since 2003 by Le Carrousel.

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E-mail : theatre@lecarrousel.net - Telephone: 514 529-6309