Melissa Paulson

I’m a performance artist, educator, and creator from Montréal. I went to theatre school at John Abbott College and hold a B.Ed from McGill University. I left Québec for New York City and took a writing class at the PIT. This was the start to the development of my one-woman show For the Love of Pie. The piece was nominated for Best Solo Fringe show at the Montreal Fringe and then Chicago where it was selected by Timeout Chicago as one of the 5 best bets of the Chicago Fringe 2016.

In the last fifteen years, I’ve collaborated with artists to craft performances/programs that challenge societal norms and amplify women’s voices. I’ve advocated and promoted leadership programs for teenage girls in NYC schools through the organization WET Productions and developed a monologue writing workshop for The Picton ROC Youth Centre.

I’m also the daughter of a French Québecoise. The nationalistic pride exuding from my mother has always been captivating. As a native French Québecoise living in a predominantly anglophone Ontario for the past 10 years, I yearn to be back in this idyllic version of Québec. However, I’ve begun reflecting on my beliefs, my identity and the hypocrisy surrounding Québec’s overarching nationalism. 

Lately, I’ve felt a pull to explore these questions and to re-shape my connection to theatre. 

Areas of research include Québec folklore, its cultural/religious and sociolinguistic history (with respect to immigration and the evolution of Québec women), new media narrative, and performance theory.