L'INSTITUT CANADlEN D'ART VOCAL

About Lorraine Pintal

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Actor, director, author, TV producer and radio host, Lorraine Pintal has been artistic and general director of Montreal's Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) since 1992.

 

A 1973 graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal, she began her career as an actress on Montreal's professional stages, founding the theater company La Rallonge with classmates. She worked there for 15 years as co-artistic director, actress and stage director.

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In the spring of 1992, Lorraine Pintal was appointed Artistic and General Director of the TNM. The first woman to lead this noble institution, an inspired creator of great versatility, she took on the mission of renewing the institution's brand image, as well as restoring its financial health. A gifted businesswoman who knew how to mobilize different resources to achieve her goals, and who knew her audience well, she succeeded in turning around the administrative and financial balance sheet of this flagship institution of Montreal culture, in addition to securing the financial resources needed for its renovation in 1996.

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Today, she is recognized as one of Quebec's leading stage directors. She has directed nearly one hundred and fifty plays, including Madame Louis 14, Claude Gauvreau's Les oranges sont vertes, Réjean Ducharme's L'Hiver de force in co-production with the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, Molière's Don Juan in co-production with the Stratford Festival, and The Burial at Thebes after Sophocles' Antigone at the Abbey Theater in Dublin. She has also worked in opera, staging Büchner's celebrated Wozzeck under the musical direction of Yanick Nézet-Séguin. Since taking the helm at the TNM, she has exported Quebec talent to many parts of the world, including France, Ireland and Italy.

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In addition to her extensive career as a stage director, Lorraine Pintal has also directed and coordinated several television series. For three years, she hosted the radio program Vous m'en lirez tant, on Radio Canada's Première Chaîne.

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Lorraine Pintal spares no time or energy in carrying out numerous projects. Her community involvement includes acting as spokesperson for the "Les femmeuses" project, which helps women and children who are victims of domestic violence, and initiating theater projects with the Institut en santé mentale de Montréal's patient partners, Les Impatients and Théâtre Aphasique. She has served on several boards, including the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal for five years.

 

She is a member of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec and a Compagne des arts et des lettres du Québec. In 2019, she received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (Artistic Achievement - Theatre) and was named Chevalière de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres de la République française.