Yvette Nolan

Yvette Nolan (1961-) is a First Nations Canadian playwright, director, dramaturg, actor, and educator, who has contributed substantively to Indigenous Theatre in Canada. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to an Algonquin mother and an Irish immigrant father and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Nolan began as a playwright at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1990 where her play Blade premiered. In 1996, she held a writer-in-residence position at Brandon University and wrote Annie Mae’s Movement. The following year, Nolan graduated with a BA from the University of Manitoba. “I knew that telling stories on the stage was powerful, transformative, empowering, but I was in my mid-twenties before I ever saw a play written by an Indigenous writer, performed by Indigenous actors... And then my alma mater – the Manitoba Theatre Centre – brought the Native Earth production of The Rez Sisters to town. And that changed everything.”