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Tomson Highway, CM (born 6 December 1951)〔(Tomson Highway ) at The Canadian Encyclopedia.〕 is a Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award.〔 Highway has also published a novel, ''Kiss of the Fur Queen'' (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway’s death of AIDS.〔 He also has the distinction of being the librettist of the first Cree language opera, ''The Journey or Pimooteewin''. ==Biography== Tomson Highway was born north of Brochet, Manitoba in 1951〔 to Pelagie Highway, a bead-worker and quilt-maker, and Joe Highway, a caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer. Cree is his first language. He is related to actor/playwight Billy Merasty. From age six to fifteen, he attended Guy Hill Indian Residential School. He obtained his B.A. in Honours Music in 1975 and his B.A. in English in 1976, both from the University of Western Ontario.〔 While working on his degree, he met playwright James Reaney.〔 For seven years, Highway worked as a social worker on reserves across Ontario and Canada. Subsequently, he turned the knowledge and experience gained by working in these places into novels and plays that have won him widespread recognition across Canada and around the world.〔(www.tomsonhighway.com — official web-site )〕 In 1986, he published the multiple-award winning play ''The Rez Sisters''. ''The Rez Sisters'' became a hit across Canada and went on to the Edinburgh International Festival in 1988. In 1989, he published ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', which received the distinction of the being the first Canadian play to receive a full production at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre. Both of these plays focus on the native community on a fictional reserve of Wasychigan Hill on Manitoulin Island. ''The Rez Sisters'' depicts seven women of the community planning a trip to the "BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD" in Toronto and features a male trickster, called Nanabush; while ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'' depicts the men's interest in hockey and features a female trickster. ''Rose'', written in 2000, is the third play in the heptalogy, featuring characters from both of the previous plays. He was artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto from 1986 to 1992, as well as De-ba-jeh-mu-jig theatre group in Wikwemikong. Frustrated with difficulties presented by play production, Highway turned his focus to a novel called ''Kiss of the Fur Queen''. The novel presents an uncompromising portrait of the sexual abuse of Native children in residential schools and its traumatic consequences. Like his plays, ''Kiss of the Fur Queen'' won a number of awards and spent several weeks on top of Canadian bestseller lists.〔 After a hiatus from playwriting, Highway wrote ''Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout'' in 2005. Set in 1910, the play revolves around the visit of the "Big Kahoona of Canada" (then Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier) to the Thompson River Valley. In 2010, Highway re-published ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'' in Cree. Highway stated that "the Cree versions () are actually the original versions. As it turns out, the original ones that came out 20 years ago were the translation." His most recent work, ''The (Post) Mistress'', premiered as a cabaret titled ''Kisageetin'' in 2009〔("Composer hopes cabaret will keep audience laughing" ). ''Northern Life'', July 31, 2009.〕 before being developed into a full musical, which has since been staged across Canada in both English and French versions.〔("A one-of-a-kind musical" ). ''Sudbury Star'', October 25, 2012.〕 A soundtrack album for the play was released in 2014,〔("CBC Aboriginal's top 10 indigenous music picks for 2014" ). CBC News, December 31, 2014.〕 and garnered a Juno Award nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2015.〔("Tanya Tagaq, Leela Gilday nominated for 2015 Juno Awards" ). CBC North, January 27, 2015.〕 He currently divides his time between residences in Noelville, Ontario〔 and in France with Raymond Lalonde, his partner of 29 years.〔("In conversation with Tomson Highway" ). ''Maclean's'', September 30, 2013.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tomson Highway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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