Lorena Gale

Lorena Gale (May 9, 1958 – June 21, 2009)^[1] was a Canadian actress, playwright and theatre director. She was active onstage and in films and television since the 1980s. She also authored two award-winning plays, Angélique and Je me souviens.

Lorena Gale
Gale at Gatecon, July 30, 2005
Born	(1958-05-09)May 9, 1958 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	June 21, 2009(2009-06-21) (aged 51) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Other names	Lorena Gayle Lorineda Gayle
Occupation(s)	Actress, playwright, theatre director
Years active	1981–2009
Spouse	John Cooper (1988–2009; her death)

Life and career

Gale was born in Montreal, Quebec.^[2] She studied at Concordia University and the National Theatre School and completed a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in 2005.^[2]

Her performances on stage for Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun and Joseph A. Walker's River Niger won her the Montreal Gazette Theatre Critics Award for Outstanding Performance in 1981.^[2]

In 1985 she became the artistic director of Montréal's Black Theatre Workshop.^[3] She then studied playwriting at the Playwrights' Workshop Montréal.^[2]

After moving to Vancouver in 1988, Lorena won a 1991 Jessie Richardson Award for best supporting actress as Normal Jean in The Colored Museum (1990) .^[2]

Her play, Angélique, the story of executed slave Marie-Joseph Angelique, was the winner of the 1995 duMaurier National Playwriting Competition in Canada.^[4][2] Her writing explores the nature of being black and mixed race and belonging in Canada.^[5] In 2000, she produced her play Je me souviens, a monologue about her experiences growing up in Montreal, at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver, BC.^[6] The play was published by Talonbooks in 2001.^[7]

She appeared in such movies as The Hotel New Hampshire, Another Cinderella Story, Ernest Goes to School, Fantastic Four, Traitor, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Mermaid Chair, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. She has guest starred on programs such as The X-Files, Stargate SG-1, Smallville and Kingdom Hospital. Until August 2005, she starred as Priestess Elosha on the SciFi Channel television program Battlestar Galactica.

Gale also lent her voice to several animated works such as RoboCop: Alpha Commando, The Bitsy Bears, Camp Candy, The Adventures of Corduroy and Hurricanes.

Gale's final film role was as a librarian in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, which was dedicated to her.

Death

Gale died following a battle with throat cancer on June 21, 2009, at age 51.^[2]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Visiting Hours	Nurse 1
1984	The Hotel New Hampshire	Dark Inge
1987	Wild Thing	Scooter
1989	Cousins	Cosmetic Demonstrator
1989	The Fly II	Woman
1992	Farther West
1994	Ernest Goes to School	History Teacher
1996	Maternal Instincts	Anita
1997	Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan	Cheryl Drew	TV movie
1998	American Dragons	Captain Talman
2000	Snow Day	Radio Mother
2000	Holiday Heart	Mrs. Owens	TV movie
2000	Screwed	Angry Momma
2001	Freddy Got Fingered	Psychiatrist / Social Worker
2002	Halloween: Resurrection	Nurse Wells
2003	Agent Cody Banks	Waitress
2003	Battlestar Galactica	Elosha	Miniseries
2004–2005, 2008	Battlestar Galactica	Elosha	TV series
2004	The Butterfly Effect	Mrs. Boswell
2004	The Perfect Score	Proctor
2004	The Chronicles of Riddick	Defense Minister
2005	Bob the Butler	Dr. Wilma
2005	Fantastic Four	Old Lady With Car #1
2005	The Exorcism of Emily Rose	Jury Foreman
2005	Neverwas	Judy
2006	Slither	Janene
2006	The Mermaid Chair	Hepzibah	TV movie
2006	The Foursome	Marjorie
2006	Supernatural	Landlady
2007	Love Notes	Aveva Marley
2007	Things We Lost in the Fire	N.A. Meeting Person
2008	Another Cinderella Story	Helga
2008	The X-Files: I Want to Believe	On Screen Doctor
2008	Traitor	Dierdre Horn
2008	The Day the Earth Stood Still	Scientist #2
2009	Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins	Librarian	TV movie, posthumous release

References

1. "Lorena Gale (1958-2009)". Caprica-City.de. 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
2. Hustak, Alan (24 January 2010). "Lorena Gale". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation of Canada. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
3. Bayne, Clarence (2001). "Le Black Theatre Workshop de Montréal: un nouveau bilan". L'Annuaire théâtral: Revue québécoise d'études théâtrales. 29: 141–155 – via Erudit.
4. Gale, Lorena (1995). "Writing "Angelique" (Includes excerpt)". Canadian Theatre Review. 83: 20–23. doi:10.3138/ctr.83.005. ProQuest 211995628.
5. Clarke, George Elliott (2009). "Strategies for Legitimizing Difference. Mixed-Race Resistance in the Works of Andrea Thompson and Lorena Gale, Two African-Canadian Writers". Canada: Images of a post/national society. New York: P.I.E.—Peter Lang. pp. 263–264. ISBN 978-90-5201-485-2.
6. BC, Popgun Media-- Vancouver. "Our History". Firehall Arts Centre. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
7. "Je me souviens » Books » Talonbooks". talonbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.

External links

• Podcast conversation with Lorena Gale on Sci-Fi Talk (about 24 minutes in length; Gale talked about her recent roles)
• Lorena Gale, Angélique (1999) (from the Way Back Machine, June 30, 2007)
• Lorena Gale at IMDb
• Lorena Gale at TV Guide
• Lorena Gale article at Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia