Stéphanie Bénéteau
Stéphanie Bénéteau studied theatre, literature and education before discovering her true vocation as a professional storyteller, a career she has been pursuing full time since 1995. She has performed in English and in French, for children and for adults, in venues all over Québec, Canada, and Europe. She toured Ontario as part of the Canadian Children’s Book Week in 2002. She has received many grants from the Canada Council, the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and the Montreal arts council to create and tour her shows. Her show of erotic stories from the Arabian Nights was chosen to tour the Montreal Maisons de la Culture as part of the Conseil des arts en tournée , a prestigious prize which gives artists of all disciplines the opportunity to tour their work on Montreal stages. She won the Ours d’or, the audience award for the Contes du mardi in Gatineau for Coquettes et Coquines, a show of erotic stories from around the world. She received a grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec to create her show Tristan and Iseult, which she continues to tour in Québec and Europe. She is presently at work on her next show, Perseus, for which she received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and which she will be premiering in March. Her storytelling CD Dreaming Tall: Stories for Growing Girls won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award in the States. She has participated in every major festival in Québec and Ontario and is working more and more in Europe, where opportunities to perform abound. She is also on the roster of the Culture in Schools program, an arts program funded by the Québec government which sends professional artists into schools to perform for and meet with the students. She has lectured at Concordia and McGill Universities, given and training sessions in many professional conferences and mentored several young storytellers through the Regroupement du Conte au Québec, the provincial storytelling association.
Stéphanie tells in a lyrical, feminine voice touched with humour. She brings ancient stories from the oral tradition back to life, with the goal of making them relevant to the twenty first century.