Guests: Award-winning international film and stage actress, Arsinee Khanjian and esteemed playwright, director, and stage actor, Hrant Alianak.
In this episode, our guests share their journeys as diasporan Armenians from Lebanon and Sudan, respectively, to reflect on how their distinct upbringings shape their Armenian storytelling. They discuss how diaspora challenges traditional notions of Armenianness, the role of accents as markers of otherness, and their shared history navigating Canada’s film and theatre scenes as young performance artists from the 1970s onward.
Biographies:
Hrant Alianak (Writer/Director/Actor/Producer) made his debut as a writer in 1972 at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto with his play TANTRUMS. He is best known for his plays LUCKY STRIKE, THE BLUES and THE WALLS OF AFRICA which was nominated for 8 Dora Awards and received 3, including Best Production. Alianak started producing in 1992 and formed his company ALIANAK THEATRE PRODUCTIONS. Amongst the plays he has produced and directed, were several Armenian themed plays including A CROOKED MAN and BEAST ON THE MOON, starring Arsinee Khanjian. He has also completed two feature films, A TRIP TO THE ISLAND and BURNING, BURNING, both of which he wrote, directed and co-produced.
Arsinee Khanjian was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents in Beirut, and has lived in Canada since 1975. Khanjian grew up speaking Armenian at home, Arabic and French in school. Her family moved to Montreal when she was seventeen, where she studied theatre at the Conservatoire Lasalle, earned her B.A. in Spanish and French from Concordia University, then subsequently graduated with a Masters in Political Science from University of Toronto. She has starred in numerous Canadian and European films (including The Lark Farm by the Taviani brothers and Ararat by Atom Egoyan), performed on stage and has directed her own work in Berlin. In 2006 she was awarded the »Genie Award« for best actress Ararat and the Gemini Award previously for her role in the CBC production of More Tears in 1999.
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