Marie Beath Badian

Bio

Marie Beath is best known for her play Prairie Nurse, which was commissioned and premiered at the Blyth Festival Theatre in Blyth, Ontario in 2013. Since then it has been produced across the country to sold-out audiences and enthusiastic acclaim. It is published by Scirocco Drama. In 2018 it was adapted into a four-part audio play for the CBC Podcast PlayME.

Her play Common Part I and II, set in the common room of an urban youth crisis centre, was long-listed in the top 30 for The 2019 Brentwood Prize for Playwriting – the U.K’s biggest national competition for playwriting.

Her other plays include The Making of St. Jerome [Next Stage Theatre Festival, nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards], Mind Over Matter [part of AutoShow, Convergence Theatre], and Novena [UnoFestival Victoria, Toronto Fringe Festival]. In addition to a CBC Radio Drama adaptation of Novena, she has also written for CBC Radio’s Outfront.

She was the 2008-2009 Playwright-in-Residence at fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company, the 2011-20012 Playwright-in-Residence with Project Humanity and the 2017-2018 Creator-in-Residence for the Blyth Festival. Marie Beath was a member of the 2010 HotHouse Playwright Unit at Cahoots Theatre Company,  2013 Tarragon Playwright Unit, the 2016 Natural Resources Unit at Factory Theatre and the 2019 Banff Playwrights Lab.

Her directing and dramaturgy credits include Reverend Jonah [Blyth Festival – nominated for 2008 Governor General’s Award], Kensington [CrossCurrents], and Future Folk [Sulong Collective/Theatre Passe Muraille]. Marie Beath spent two seasons as Director of the Blyth Festival Young Company, two seasons as Co-Director of Youth Programs at Nightwood Theatre and two season as Associate Artistic Director/Associate Artist at Theatre Direct Canada. She spent five seasons as the Program Director for the Play Creation Unit at Carlos Bulosan Theatre.  She taught Theatre For Young Audiences and New Play Development at the Humber College School of Performing Arts.

Performance credits include The Age of Arousal [Factory Theatre], The Monster Under the Bed [Young People’s Theatre], Schoolhouse [The Blyth Festival], Conservatives in Love [Next Stage Festival, Toronto and New Stages Theatre, Peterborough], I Met a Bully on the Hill and Andrew’s Tree [Theatre Direct Canada].

Marie Beath has worked with a several Outreach and Education Programs including Cahoots Theatre Projects/Crossing Gibraltar, Children’s Peace Theatre, The Paprika Festival, Theatre Revolve, Theatre Passe Muraille, Roseneath Theatre and Young People’s Theatre.

She is the founder and Artistic Director of SMOOTHIELAND Performance Projects – a new TYA company specializing in Custom-blended Episodic Youth Theatre.

Marie Beath is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.