Article

Guy Beaulne

Published Online December 4, 2007

Last Edited October 17, 2014

Guy Beaulne, director (b at Ottawa 23 Dec 1921; d at Montreal 1 Oct 2001). His father, Léonard, was director of an Ottawa theatre company, Le Groupe Beaulne, as well as director of arts at the University of Ottawa.

Beaulne, Guy

Guy Beaulne, director (b at Ottawa 23 Dec 1921; d at Montreal 1 Oct 2001). His father, Léonard, was director of an Ottawa theatre company, Le Groupe Beaulne, as well as director of arts at the University of Ottawa. After graduating as a teacher with degrees in arts, pedagogy and philosophy from University of Ottawa in 1943, Beaulne became the director of La Corporation des Diseurs in an Ottawa centre called Le Caveau (1944-48), collaborating with the Canadian Repertory Theatre, Radio CKCH-Hull and the journal Le Droit. At the same time he taught dramatics and elocution at the University of Ottawa.

Having received a grant, Beaulne went to Paris, where he studied phonetics at the Sorbonne and acting at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique under Denis d'Inès (1948-50). During that time, he kept working as a correspondent for Radio-Canada. On his return he acted for several Montréal troupes, such as La Jeune Scène of Marcel DUBÉ. He took on the role of director for the Festival national d'art dramatique and acted as a regional and national judge for this festival from 1951 to 1971.

Beaulne worked as a radio drama producer for Radio-Canada until 1956, and in TV until 1963. He founded the Association canadienne du Théâtre d'amateurs (ACTA) in 1958 and served as its director until 1963. He then joined the Québec Ministry of Cultural Affairs, where he was executive director of artistic education until 1970, first director of the Grand Théâtre de Québec until 1976, and member of the Délégation générale du Québec in Paris until 1979. From 1981 to 1987 he was director of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal.

He is credited with the creation of the radio program "La Famille Plouffe," written by Roger LEMELIN, and the TV program of the same name with Jean-Paul Fugère. In the area of experimental drama, he worked on the radio programNouveautés dramatiques as well as the English-language TV program Shoestring Theatre. He became a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1972, and received the Order of Canada in 1975 and the Order of Québec in 1993. He is the father of stage director Martine Beaulne.