Leslie Arden is a Canadian musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

 and librettist. She has been described as "arguably Canada's most talented Musical Theatre writer". She is best known for her work The House of Martin Guerre

The House of Martin Guerre

The House of Martin Guerre is a musical written by Leslie Arden and Anna Theresa Cascio . It is inspired by the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre. It was first produced by Theatre Plus under the direction of Duncan McIntosh in Toronto at the Jane Mallett Theatre. It won the 1994 Dora...

(co-book by Anna Theresa Cascio) produced by Theatre Plus (1993), the Goodman Theatre

Goodman Theatre

The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...

 (1996) in Chicago and the Canadian Stage Company (1997). Her latest musical The Boys are Coming Home

The Boys Are Coming Home

The Boys Are Coming Home was the second new musical to emerge from AMTP at Northwestern University. Written in 2005 and based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, this musical is set in the year 1945, when American servicemen returned home from World War II...

was part of the American Music Theatre Project

American Music Theatre Project

The American Music Theatre Project was introduced in May 2005 by Northwestern University’s School of Communication, in collaboration with the School of Music, Kellogg School of Management, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School...

 at North Western University and was showcased by the National Alliance of Musical Theatre in New York City. The Toronto Star

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

 has commented that her work is “beautifully crafted” and USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 states she is a “major talent”. She also wrote the Chalmers Award

Chalmers Award

Chalmers Award may refer to:* An early version of the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award, presented from 1911 to 1914,* a Canadian series of arts awards funded by the Chalmers family of arts patrons, including the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, the Jean A. Chalmers National...

-winning The Happy Prince. Her mother, Cleone Duncan, was a theatre actress who performed many years in the Canadian musical hit Anne of Green Gables - The Musical

Anne of Green Gables - The Musical

Anne Of Green Gables - The Musical is a musical based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The book is by Don Harron, the music is by Norman Campbell and the lyrics by Don Harron, Norman Campbell, Elaine Campbell and Mavor Moore...

.

Education

Early in her career she took classes with Lehman Engel

Lehman Engel

Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...

 in Toronto. In 1990, she was chosen along with 12 other participants to study with legendary musical theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...

 at Oxford University. The sessions were organized by theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh

Cameron Mackintosh

Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...

.

Currently

She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Children’s Trio, a company dedicated to theatre for young audiences. She is currently playwright-in-residence at the renowned Stratford Festival of Canada

Stratford Festival of Canada

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is an internationally recognized annual celebration of theatre running from April to November in the Canadian city of Stratford, Ontario...

 and is working on a new musical for Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. She is also working on a new musical about Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1722, after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By 1722, Defoe had become a recognised novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719...

.

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Her other works include:

Harvest Moon Rising (book by Peggy Sample)

The Prince and the Pauper (with Joey Miller)

A Meeting of Minds: Leslie Arden and Friends

The Last Resort (book by Norm Foster

Norm Foster (playwright)

Norm Foster is a Canadian playwright, considered to be Canada's most produced playwright. Foster discovered his talents as a playwright in Fredericton, New Brunswick, while he was working as host of a popular morning radio show. He accompanied a friend to an audition, and landed his first acting...

)

The Greatest Gift

Rumplestiltskin

The Princess and the Handmaiden