Geraldine Anthony

[Anton Wagner]

I was grateful for the notice from Patrick O'Neill, Ed Mullaly and Moira Day
informing us of Geraldine Anthony's passing and her funeral in New York today.
I met Geraldine in 1975-76 when I was the dramaturge at the Playwrights Co-op
in Toronto and Geraldine was looking for a publisher for her Stage Voices:
Twelve Canadian Playwrights Talk About Their Lives and Work. I thought this
was an important study that gave voice to major Canadian playwrights and the
craft of writing in Canada, often at difficult periods. The competitive
interest by the Playwrights Co-op in the manuscript helped push Doubleday to
publish the book in Canada and the U.S. in 1978. I always looked forward to
seeing Geraldine at the annual conferences of the Association for Canadian
Theatre History. She was elected to the Association Executive from 1980 to
1988, serving as Secretary in 1982-83 and President from 1985 to 1988.

Geraldine had a genuine respect for the pioneers of Canadian playwriting and
laboured to win respect for them with articles such as "The Forgotten Man:
John Coulter, Dean of Canadian Playwrights," Canadian Drama, 1975
and "Canadian Drama: A Major Literary Form," Canadian Library Journal, 1975.
She also wrote about new theatre companies, such as "Pier One: Dream Deferred"
and "Neptune's New Messiah?" in the 1975 Canadian Theatre Review. Somehow she
convinced Twayne Publishers in Boston to bring out her studies, John Coulter
and Gwen Pharis Ringwood, in 1976 and 1981. (I know of only one other Twayne
title, Timothy Findlay, since then).

Geraldine had a wonderful sense of humour that undercut all stereotypical
misconceptions of nuns. Sometimes she was condescended to, such as when
Robertson Davies began his chapter in Stage Voices with: "Dear Sister
Geraldine: Here is the chapter you asked for. I am writing it in the form of a
personal letter to you, because I have always had a weakness for nuns, and do
my best to oblige them when I can..." After her retirement, Geraldine wrote
biographies of nuns who had been major figures in her own order, the Sisters
of Charity.

Geraldine wrote extensively about Gwen Pharis Ringwood, one of ACTH's honorary
members. Just before Ringwood died of cancer in 1984, she telephoned Gwen to
tell her she was much loved by many members of the Association. Gwen's
response, "I didn't know that," has stuck in my mind and I remember Geraldine
with both fondness and sadness today. Anton Wagner.