Colleen Murphy (born 1954 in

Rouyn-Noranda Rouyn-Noranda ( 2021 population 42,313) is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada. The city of Rouyn-Noranda is a coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census d ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

screenwriter, film director and playwright. She is best known for works including her plays ''The December Man'', which won the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2007 Governor General's Awards, and ''Beating Heart Cadaver'', which was a shortlisted nominee for the same award at the 1999 Governor General's Awards, and the film '' Termini Station'', for which she garnered a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for sc ...

nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 11th Genie Awards."Playwright Colleen Murphy Is Writer-in-Residence"

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

, October 5, 2011.

Life and career

Murphy was a student at the

Canadian Film Centre The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1988. Originally launched as film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for pr ...

in the 1990s, and has also directed numerous films, both

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s and

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s. Her first feature film as a director, ''

Shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as ''cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen a ...

'', received two prizes from the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, and garnered two acting nominations at the

18th Genie Awards The 18th Genie Awards were held on 14 December 1997, to honour the best Canadian films of 1997. Nominees and winners The Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the b ...

. Her second feature film, ''

Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like " wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of aff ...

'', also garnered two acting nominations at the

22nd Genie Awards The 22nd Genie Awards were held in 2002 to honour films released in 2001. The ceremony was hosted by Brian Linehan. In advance of the Genie Award ceremony on February 7, all of the Best Picture nominees were screened at the Bloor Cinema in the we ...

. She has served as playwright in residence at a variety of institutions, including the Factory Theatre in

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; the Citadel Theatre in

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Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

; the

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world pr ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and the

. She was named playwright in residence at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Ruth ...

's theatre department in June 2014.

Personal life

Murphy was born in

, and raised in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Prov ...

. She was married to filmmaker

Allan King Allan Winton King, (February 6, 1930 – June 15, 2009), was a Canadian film director. Life Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the Great Depression, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School, in Kitsilano."Canadian documentary maker Allan King dies at 79"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.c ...

, June 15, 2009.

Works

Films

*'' Termini Station'' (1989) *''Putty Worm'' (1993) *''The Feeler'' (1995) *''

'' (1996) *''

'' (2000) *''War Holes'' (2002) *''Girl with Dog'' (2005) *''Out in the Cold'' (2008)

Plays

*''Fire Engine Red'' (1985) *''All Other Destinations Are Cancelled'' (1987) *''Pumpkin Eaters'' (1990) *''Down in Adoration Falling'' (1994) *''Beating Heart Cadaver'' (1998) *''The Piper'' (2002) *''The December Man'' (2007) *''The Goodnight Bird'' (2011) *'' Pig Girl'' (2012) *''Armstrong's War'' (2013) *''The Breathing Hole'' (2017), Commissioned by

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Colleen 1954 births Governor General's Award-winning dramatists Canadian women dramatists and playwrights Canadian women film directors Canadian radio writers Women radio writers Canadian screenwriters People from Rouyn-Noranda Writers from Quebec Writers from Ontario Canadian women screenwriters Living people Canadian Film Centre alumni 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Anglophone Quebec people