• Share this:

Meet the author of the heartbreaking Lady Sunrise—Marjorie Chan!

Describe yourself in one sentence.
An opera singer once told me my memoir should be called I Laugh in E Flat Major: The Marjorie Chan Story.

What’s something unique about you or something you like to do?
I don’t do anything particularly unique but I have weirdly specific pockets of knowledge and then other huge gaps in popular culture. For example, I know a lot about various mammals and their behaviours, and yet missed a whole series of Spider-Man films. I know lots about hockey but I never watched The Sopranos.

What does your happy place look like?
I am enjoying my backyard right now.

What are some of your favourite plays?
Mother Tongue by Betty Quan, I Call Myself Princess by Jani Lauzon, Never The Last by Christine Quintana, The Sheep and the Whale by Ahmed Ghazali (translated by Bobby Theodore), Tideline by Wajdi Mouawad (translated by Shelley Tepperman), carried away on the crest of a wave by David Yee.

What are you reading these days?
I alternate fiction and non-fiction!
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
On Account of Darkness: Shining Light on Race and Sport by Ian Kennedy

Learn more about Marjorie Chan:
Marjorie Chan was born in Toronto to Hong Kong immigrants who arrived in the late ’60s. As a theatre and opera artist, she works variously as a writer, director, and dramaturge, as well as in the intersection of these forms and roles. Her work has been seen and performed in the United States, Scotland, Hong Kong, Russia, and across Canada. Her full-length works as a playwright include the plays The Madness of the Square, a nanking winter, Tails From the City, as well as libretti for the operas Sanctuary Song, The Lesson of Da Ji, M’dea Undone, and, most recently, The Monkiest King. Some of the companies Marjorie has directed for include Gateway Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille, Obsidian Theatre, and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). Marjorie has been nominated for nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards and won four. She has also received the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Theatre, the My Entertainment World Award for Best New Work, a Harold Award, as well as the George Luscombe Mentorship Award. Other notable nominations include the John Hirsch Director’s Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for her playwriting debut, China Doll, and the Canadian Citizen Award for her work with Crossing Gibraltar, Cahoots Theatre’s program for newcomers. She is also Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.