Judith Thompson has received honorary doctorates from Thorneloe University and, in November 2016, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
21 Facts About Judith Thompson
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Judith Thompson is the sister of William Forde Thompson, a professor of psychology who composed music for a number of Judith's radio and stage plays, and the granddaughter of former Australian prime minister Frank Forde.
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Judith Thompson was raised in Middletown, Connecticut and then Kingston, Ontario.
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Judith Thompson studied drama at Queen's and then acting at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.
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Judith Thompson worked as an actor for a while, but then concentrated on playwrighting.
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Judith Thompson's first play is a graphic, harrowing glimpse at life on the edge, at individuals battered by poverty, ignorance and hopelessness.
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Judith Thompson's second play, White Biting Dog, was an expressionistic and poetic black comedy about an eccentric and wildly self-destructive family.
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In 1991, Judith Thompson adapted and directed Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler for the Shaw Festival.
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Judith Thompson's adaptation was performed at the Mainline Theatre in Montreal in February 2008.
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Judith Thompson first wrote Perfect Pie as a short monologue for television in 1993, but in 2000 expanded the story into full-length play about two teenaged girls whose lives diverge dramatically after a violent incident.
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Judith Thompson wrote and performed her play Watching Glory Die in 2014, premiering at The Cultch in Vancouver, and then produced at the Berkley Street Theatre later that year.
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In 2007 Judith Thompson created the play Body and Soul with 14 women between the ages of 45 and 80, about women and aging, using the performers own words and experiences.
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The success of this verbatim play inspired Judith Thompson to create a play with 9 performers with Down Syndrome for the Fringe Festival of 2012, called Rare.
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Judith Thompson then went on to produce a play in partnership with Spinal Injury Ontario, with 9 artists who use wheelchairs.
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Judith Thompson is currently a Professor of theatre studies at the University of Guelph, in the School of English and Theatre Studies.
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Judith Thompson is married to Dr Gregor Campbell, who teaches English at the University of Guelph.
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Judith Thompson won the Governor General's Award for Drama in 1984 for her play White Biting Dog, and in 1989 for a collection of her plays, The Other Side of the Dark.
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Judith Thompson has won a Toronto Arts Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award.
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Judith Thompson is the recipient of several Floyd S Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, including one in 1987 for I Am Yours, and in 1991 for Lion in the Streets.
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Judith Thompson has received several Dora Mavor Moore Awards from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.
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Judith Thompson was awarded an honorary doctorate in sacred letters by Thorneloe University and another from Queen's University.