Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for radical adaptations of classical texts that bring neglected female characters centre stage. Her additional text for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Stratford Festival gives a voice to silenced Hero at the climax of the play. Queen Goneril, which premiered at Soulpepper Theatre in rep with King Lear, centres Lear’s stifled daughters as they contend for power in a world that insists they remain powerless. Erin’s illuminating and hilarious adaptation of Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival) won the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Playwriting. And her harrowing tragedy about sexual violence, If We Were Birds, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. You can read more about past and upcoming projects on her website, www.erinshields.ca.