User:Banafsheh Hassani/sandbox

Elsa Bolam, theatre director and educator, was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England on October 6th, 1935.

Background
Elsa Bolam attended Dame Allan’s Girls’ School and later received an Honors degree in English Literature from Leeds University. During her time in this university, she directed a student production, Goldini, which was also presented at the Venice Biennale. She has a Diploma in Education from Kings College, University of Durham and a Master of Arts degree in Drama from Syracuse University, New York. Though a Fulbright Scholarship, she spent three years as a Graduate Assistant in Syracuse University.

Bolam returned to England and and spent two seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company: first as Assistant Stage Manager, and later as Assistant Director at the Aldwych Theatre in London. From 1963 to 1964, she was a trainee director at the Theatre Royal, York, on the Regional Theatre Young Director’s Scheme. During the sixties she directed over twenty productions at theatres all over England and then became a BBC Television 'plays' producer.

Bolam emigrated to Canada in 1968 and helped her husband, Maurice Podbrey, to found Montreal's Centaur Theatre in 1969. Over Canada, she has directed over 80 productions mainly in regional theatres including Theatre Calgary, Regina’s Globe Theatre, Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay, Sudbury Theatre Centre, Theatre Plus in Toronto, and in Montreal the Saidye Bronfman, Segal Centre, as well as the Centaur. She has directed and taught in Concordia University Theatre Department (Sir George Williams), McGill English Department, and the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS). From 1975 to 1980 she was also the head of the English Technical Section in NTS. She has also directed productions for Kawartha Summer Theatre, Huron Country Playhouse, Theatre Lac Brome and the Village Theatre in Hudson.

Works
In 1980, Bolam founded Geordie Productions, a non-profit proffesional theatre company. This company is primarily devoted to touring plays in local elementary and high schools, and also oocasionally producing small-cast shows for adults. While the company is strongly rooted in Montreal, it gradually expanded over the years and served isolated English speaking and aboriginal communities across the province of Québec, including the far North. The companies toured across eatern Canada and the United States. In 2000 Geordie Productions created a now hugely successful annual family subscription series in Montreal. When Bolam left the company in 2006, it served an annual audience of 83,000.

From 2011 to 2015, she was Project Manager for the English Language Arts Network, working on the ACCORD and Arts Alive! Programs, both of which were concerned with communities across Quebec.

Awards
1989. Blue Ribbon Award from the American Film and Video Association in New York City for "Vicky", a short film for the National Film Board of Canada.

2002. Avon Canada's Women of Inspiration Award for Arts and Culture.

2003. Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal.

2004-05 Montreal English Critics’ Circle Award for career distinction.

2010. Membership of the Order of Canada.

The Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Award for Service to the Community.

Life Membership of the Quebec Drama Federation,

Life Membership of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

2012. Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University.

2013. Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

2014. Montreal English Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement.