Franco Catanzariti is a Canadian playwright,[1] whose play Sahel was staged by the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario and published by Prise de parole in 2003.[2] It was a shortlisted finalist for the Trillium Book Award[3] and the Governor General's Award for French-language drama,[4] and won the Prix Christine-Dumitriu-Van-Saanen from the Salon du livre de Toronto,[5] in 2004.
The play was inspired by a trip to Ghana which Catanzariti undertook in the 1970s, during which he spent time among the nomadic Wodaabe people,[1] and depicted a mother and daughter struggling to survive after being abandoned in the desert.[2] The play's set design and construction was complex, consisting mainly of sand but requiring the ability to pull objects into "vortexes" of sand and out of view.[2]
At the time of the play's production, Catanzariti was living in Ailsa Craig, Ontario.[6] As of 2017, he was listed as a director of the Burundi Education Fund, a charitable organization based in London, Ontario.[7]