Marshall Button

1958-

Marshall Button (actor, comedian, playwright, and artistic director) was born in 1958 in Dalhousie, New Brunswick. Button graduated from Dalhousie Regional High School in 1976. Shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama at Bishops University, he created the character of Lucien. Conceived as a two-minute monologue in February 1984 to celebrate New Brunswick’s bicentennial, the first full show of Lucien (the character and show share the same name) premiered at St. Thomas University in March 1986. Button has appeared on national radio and television, where he has been on Sounds Like Canada, Sunday Morning, Morningside, Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Sportsnet.  The Lucien series was on its fourth installment, Helter Smelter in 2008. In addition to authoring the Lucien series, Button is author and director of Dieppe-Dieppe, a bilingual musical that commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Dieppe raid and toured France in 2004. He was formerly artistic director of the Capitol Theatre (1996-2001); the artistic director of the Upper Canada Playhouse (Morrisburg, ON, 1987-1996); founder and artistic director of the Comedy Asylum (Fredericton, 1981-1986); founder of Moncton’s Hub Cap Comedy Festival; director of the annual New Brunswick Revue; and founder of the Capitol School of Performing Arts.  In 2008, St. Thomas University awarded Button an honorary degree. Six months later he was invested into the Order of New Brunswick. Currently he is artist-in-residence at the Théâtre Capitol Theatre in Moncton.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Dalhousie, Moncton

Archival Material

• Comedy Asylum Records
  ⌄
  Location

  Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

  Retrieval Number

  MC2619

  Date Range of Material

  1980s

  Extent

  1.6 m of textual records

  Scope and Content Note

  Records of a small comedy troop, including the donor, Marshall Button, Jill Watson etc. Fonds includes administrative files, scripts, photographs, press clippings, and scrapbooks.