Yvette Nolan

Yvette Nolan is a Canadian playwright, actor, director, and educator. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, she then moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba. She attended the University of Manitoba, before launching her career as a playwright. In 1990, her play Blade premiered at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and was later restaged at the Best in Fringe (1990) and Women in View Festival (1992). In 1995, Nolan won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising New Writer and she has subsequently worked with various theatre companies throughout Canada.

Nolan is a prominent voice in contemporary Indigenous theatre, directing plays by playwrights such as George Ryga, Marie Clements, and Kenneth T. Williams, as well as writing and producing her own plays. From 1998 until 2001, she was president of the Playwright's Union of Canada (now known as the Playwrights Guild of Canada). She then became artistic director of Native Earth, Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company, from 2003 to 2010. Nolan has also been the writer-in-residence at several prominent institutions, including Brandon University, National Arts Centre, and Mount Royal College. In 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership to the Canadian Association of Theatre Research.