 robert lepage,  (born december 12, 1957) is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director, one of canada's most honoured theatre artists. == life and career == lepage was raised in quebec city. at age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair loss over his whole body. between 1975 and 1978, he studied theatre at quebec city's conservatoire d'art dramatique. he subsequently participated in workshops at alain knapp's theatre school in paris, france. after coming back to quebec city, he wrote, directed and played in a few independent productions and joined thÃ©Ã¢tre repÃ¨re in 1980. with that company, he created circulations (1984), which was presented across canada and won an award as best canadian production during la quinzaine internationale de thÃ©Ã¢tre de quÃ©bec. the following year, he created the dragons' trilogy and immediately received international recognition. vinci (1986), polygraphe (1987â1990) and tectonic plates (1988â1990) followed and were also toured around the world. he was the artistic director of the national arts centre's thÃ©Ã¢tre franÃ§ais in ottawa from 1989 to 1993, and continued to stage plays. his productions of needles and opium, coriolanus, macbeth, the tempest and a midsummer night's dream were all created in that period. in 1994, lepage founded ex machina, a multidisciplinary production company, for which he is artistic director. lepage and ex machina have toured numerous productions internationally to critical and popular acclaim, most notably the seven streams of the river ota (1994) and elsinore (1995). lepage was invited in 1994 to direct august strindberg's a dream play at royal dramatic theatre in stockholm, sweden. it premiered in the fall of 1994 and guest played in the spring of 1995 in glasgow scotland. geometry of miracles (1998) and the far side of the moon (, 2000), a solo show in which he juxtaposed the cold war competition of the americans and the soviets in the space race with the story of two quÃ©bÃ©cois brothersâone straight, one gayâand their competitive relationship after their mother's death. it went to win numerous awards, including four trophies at le gala des masques, a time out award and the prestigious evening standard award. the far side of the moon was adapted by lepageâwho plays both b
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