Traverse Literary Manager In Award Win
The Literary
Manager of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Katherine Mendelsohn was presented with the medal by the French
Ambassador, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne in recognition for
her work with Francophone writers at the Traverse Theatre and for other UK
theatres.
Past recipients of the award have included Tim Burton, Marion Cotillard, Rudolf
Nureyev, Philip Glass, Declan Donnellan and Kylie Minogue. Katherine will be
the only member of a Scottish organisation to receive the award this year,
which is issued by the French government to up to 200 recipients
internationally.
Katherine is
Literary Manager and head of the literary department at the Traverse Theatre in
Edinburgh,
where she has been working for over ten years. In 2000, Katherine launched the
Traverse Theatre’s international translation commissioning scheme for
contemporary plays, Playwrights in
Partnership, linking leading foreign-language playwrights with their
British counterparts to produce international contemporary plays onstage in the
UK.
In 1957 the
French Ministry of Culture established the Order to honour and recognise
significant contributions to the arts, literature and the propagation of these
fields. The role of the Order has been enhanced by the Minister of Culture,
André Malraux, in the government of President Charles de Gaulle. The Order has
three levels, Chevalier, Officier and Commandeur.
