Colleen Murphy

Colleen Murphy

Colleen Murphy was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec but grew up in a small town north of Lake Superior. She studied acting at Ryerson University and at the Strasberg Institute in New York.

Her radio drama Fire Engine Red won third prize in the CBC Literary Competition in 1985, and that same year she was invited to join the Playwrights Unit at Tarragon Theatre under the direction of the late Urjo Kareda. In 1987 Tarragon produced her first play All Other Destinations Are Cancelled, directed by Martha Henry. Murphy subsequently left theatre to concentrate on her baby son and to pursue film, but remained part of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit until 1989.

In 1990, her radio drama Pumpkin Eaters won second prize in the CBC Literary Competition, and that year her screenplay Termini Station was nominated for a Genie for Best Original Screenplay.

Murphy directed her first short film Putty Worm which premiered at the 1993 Int'l Toronto Film Festival. Inspired by a trip she made to Auschwitz, the violence in the film outraged many viewers. As a 1994 director resident at the Canadian Film Centre, she completed her second short The Feeler which played at film festivals around the world, won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Performance (Randy Hughson) at the 1996 Yorkton Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie for Best Short Film in 1996. In 1994 she also co-directed a workshop production of her second play Down in Adoration Falling at Theatre Passe Muraille.

In 1995 she directed her first feature film, Shoemaker, for The Feature Film Project. It played in film festivals from Shanghai to New Mexico to India. The film premiered at the 1996 Toronto Int'l Film Festival, where it won the Audience Prize. It shared the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 1997 Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, and it was nominated for three Genie Awards in 1998.

In 1996 Richard Rose, the Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre, invited Murphy to become one of three Playwrights-in-Residence (along with Jason Sherman and David Young). In 1998 Richard directed her third play, Beating Heart Cadaver. The play was nominated for both a Chalmers Award and a 1999 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama. It was published by Playwrights Canada Press.

In 1999 Murphy shot her second feature Desire, a co-production with her company Subjective Eye (Toronto), Buffalo Gal Pictures (Winnipeg), and Bioskop Film (The Tin Drum) in Munich. Although Murphy felt that the film needed a longer editing process, a version premiered at the 2000 Toronto Int'l Film Festival and was the opening film at the 2000 Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg in Germany. In 2002, Desire was nominated for two Genie Awards — Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor. Her short film War Holes premiered at the 2001 Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg in Germany, the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester, U.K, Festival Tres Courts in France, and at the 2002 Festival des Films Monde in Montreal.

In 2002 her fourth play The Piper was produced by Necessary Angel Theatre and also directed by Richard Rose. It was published in 2003 by Playwrights Canada Press.

Following The Piper, Murphy left the theatre for two years. In that time she produced her fourth short film Girl with Dog, which premiered at the 2006 Festival des Films Monde in Montreal and had its European premiere at Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. In January 2007 it was exhibited at Int'l Film Festival Rotterdam and also at FIPA - Int'l Festival of Audiovisual Programs in Biarritz, France.

Murphy began writing a libretto for Edmonton-born composer Aaron Gervais entitled The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. A short scene from the opera was performed in March 2006 as part of Tapestry New Opera Works acclaimed series Opera to Go. Gervais and Murphy will finish the five-act opera by 2009/10.

She returned to the theatre with a new play The December Man (L'homme de décembre) which won the 2006 Enbridge playRites Award. The play premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects at the Enbridge playrites Festival of New Canadian Plays in February 2007 under the direction of Bob White. It was nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play and won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for English Language Drama.

Murphy has been accepted into the McDowell Colony, and she has attended the Banff playrites Colony several times. She has worked as a story editor and she has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, Telefilm Canada and Astral's Harold Greenburg Fund. Murphy has served on many juries for theatre (The Carol Bolt Award, and the Alberta Writers Guild and the Toronto Arts Council) and film (The Canadian Film Centre, the Genie Awards, Telefilm Canada).

In 2007/06, Murphy was the first Playwright in Residence at the University of Regina. She was the Playwright Facilitator at Sage Hill Writing Experience in 2006 and 2007 and will return to Sage Hill again in 2008. Currently, Murphy is Playwright in Residence at Tapestry New Opera Works in Toronto. She is also President of the Board of Playwrights Canada Press, and an Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Canadian New Music Projects. She is a member of the Writer's Guild of Canada, the Writers Union of Canada, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Playwrights' Workshop Montreal, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.