Yvette Nolan

Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) (1961) is a Canadian playwright, director, actor, and educator based out of Saskatchewan, Canada.

She was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

She has contributed significantly to the creation and performance of Indigenous theatre in Canada.

Nolan was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to an Algonquin mother and an Irish immigrant father.

Nolan was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba and attended the University of Manitoba where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

Nolan's commitment to Indigenous and feminist live art is attributed to the first time she saw a Native character on stage during Royal Winnipeg Ballet's adaptation of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe.

Nolan launched her career as a playwright at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1990 where her play Blade premiered.

It was later remounted at both the Best of the Fringe (1990) and Women in View Festival (1992).

She has worked at various theatre companies throughout Canada including Agassiz Theatre, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse, Native Earth Performing Arts.

As a director, Nolan has contributed significantly to the development of Aboriginal theatre.

She has directed plays by George Ryga (The Ecstasy of Rita Joe), Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble (The Only Good Indian) and Marie Clements (Tombs of the Vanishing Indian and The Unnatural and Accidental Women), Kenneth T. Williams (Café Daughter and In Care), Melanie J. Murray (A Very Polite Genocide).

Nolan has been a writer-in-residence at several institutions including Brandon University (1996).

During this term as writer-in-residence, Nolan wrote Annie Mae's Movement.

From 1998 until 2001, Nolan was also president of the Playwright's Union of Canada (now called the Playwrights Guild of Canada).

She was artistic director of Native Earth from 2003 to 2010.

She was president of Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, and has served on the boards of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and the Saskatchewan Association of Theatre Professionals.

She was also playwright-in-residence at the National Arts Centre and resident at Mount Royal College in 2009.

In 2010 and 2011 Nolan was hosted in New Zealand to a Māori theatre festival called the Matariki Development Festival where she contributed as a playwright, director and dramaturg.

In 2011 she began a nine-month term as writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Library and playwright-in-residence at the University of Regina.

Nolan’s other accolades include winning the Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding original script for The Unplugging in 2013 and the Dora Mavor Moore award for Shanawdithit in 2020.

From 2016-2022 she was the Company Dramaturge at Sum Theatre in Saskatoon.

Performing Indigeneity: with Ric Knowles, Playwrights Canada Press, 2016 Beyond The Pale: Refractions: Solo with Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Playwrights Canada Press

Medicine Shows: Indigenous Performance Culture, Playwrights Canada Press, 2016

Nolan is an Artistic Associate at Signal Theatre and co-director with Michael Greyeyes of a dance opera (Bearing) at the 2017 Luminato Festival.

She also directed (Nôhkom) with Signal Theatre.

In 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership to the CATR / ACRT.

In 2021 she taught at the Canadian College of the Performing Arts in Victoria, B.C.

She is currently completing her ongoing work about the role of Boards of Directors in arts organisations as she works towards completing her Masters of Public Policy at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.

In 2022 she was the Interim Co-Artistic Director along with Skye Brandon at Shakespeare On The Saskatchewan.

She is a Senior Fellow at Massey College in Toronto.

Her play The Unplugging received two productions in 2023: the Belfry in Victoria and the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa.

Her work with Donna-Michelle St. Bernard continued with The First Stone at Buddies in Bad Times in 2022 and at Great Canadian Theatre Company in 2023.

Nolan directed Frances Koncan's Women Of The Fur Trade at the Stratford Festival in 2023.

She received the Gascon Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Theatre School in 2021.

She was the Writer-in-Residence at McGill University in 2018.