Documentary film

My Gang of Sterns

Two years ago I was told about two ancestors involved in the founding of Israel—one a right-wing terrorist, the other an idealistic left-wing kibbutz-builder.  Fascinated by the mysterious stories told by different relatives, I set off for Israel and Brazil to discover the strange truth about my family.

My Gang of Sterns is a creative non-fiction film that blends history, detective story and humorous travelogue to explore my conflicted sense of identity as a Canadian diaspora Jew.  A quest across time and space, the film blends investigation and imagining and is by turns surprising, intimate, comic, provocative and poignant.

See images from the film here.

The List
My translation of Jennifer Tremblay’s hit play The List, published by Playwrights Canada Press is a finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Award in Translation. The play made its UK debut in August at the Edinburgh Festival, and was produced earlier this year in New York City and in Vancouver, to rave reviews. Productions are slated for Edmonton and Calgary in 2012/2013.

“Shelley Tepperman’s English translation of The List (La Liste) is exceptional. If there was anything lost in translation it was undetectable in this compelling reading of a script that is structured like poetry yet realized with complete and heartbreaking humanity.  – Chicago Stage Review

Tideline
My new translation of Wajdi Mouawad’s Tideline (based on the much shorter, revised script ) was also recently published by Playwrights Canada Press.

In the works

Signes de Vie/Vital Signs

An intimate look at Quebec’s Signing Deaf communities through four young Deaf adults involved in arts, competitive swimming, politics and graphic design.

Lost & Found

A portrait of a tiny East Texas community trying to change the world one child at a time.