Revivals of Canadian Plays

[Anton Wagner]

Bill Lane contacted me recently regarding information about professional
revivals of Canadian plays for a panel in Pisa about the canon and its strange
incongruity with the working theatre. I wasn't able to be of much help and
could only offer the very preliminary listing of mostly non-professional
productions that follows. CANDRAMA subscribers are invited to add professional
and non-professional productions they have directed or are aware of. Thanks to
Moira Day for providing three production listings.


March 1974:  Richard Plant directs Merrill Denison’s Marsh Hay at Hart House
Theatre, University of Toronto.

January 1979:  The Fort Erie Gilbert and Sullivan Repertory Company produces
William Henry Fuller’s H.M.S. Parliament in an eight-man diner theatre version.

August 14-October 3, 1980: Christopher Newton directs John Bruce Cowan’s Canuck
at the Court House Theatre, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake. See Gina
Mallet, “Shaw Festival Exhumes an Old Canadian Dog,” Toronto Star, August 15,
1980, B7.

April 13-16, 1983: Moira Day directs and adapts William Henry Fuller’s H.M.S.
Parliament in the West Hall, University College, University of Toronto. Full
production with cast of 22 and piano. Sponsored by the Graduate Centre for the
Study of Drama. See Moira Day, “Moira Day Talks About Staging W.H. Fuller’s
H.M.S. Parliament,” Theatre History in Canada 6:1 (Spring 1985).

March 14-29, 1987: Heinar Pillar directs Herman Voaden’s Murder Pattern at the
George Brown College  Theatre. See Sherrill Grace, “Herman Voaden's Murder
Pattern: 1936 and 1987,” Canadian Drama 13:1 (1987).

January 19-20, 1988:  Herbert Whittaker directs Herman Voaden’s Wilderness and
Fragment at the Arts & Letters Club in Toronto.

February 28, 1990:  Second George Brown revival of Murder Pattern, directed by
Heinar Pillar, at the Arts  and Letters Club and York University's Burton
Auditorium.

October 1-6, 1991:  Pamela MacKay directs the University of Toronto Graduate
Centre for Study of Drama revival of Herman Voaden’s Rocks at the Glen Morris
Studio.

December 2-12, 1992:  Brian Quirt directs the Equity Showcase Theatre revival of
Herman Voaden’s Murder Pattern. See
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/in_the_beginning.htm and Mira
Friedlander, "Voaden's land-rooted play perfect fit for dramaturge," Toronto
Star, December 3, 1992. G12.
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/voadens_landrooted_play.htm

July 23, 1996:	Denis Johnston directs the staged reading of Herman Voaden’s
Murder Pattern at the Shaw Festival's Royal George Theatre, sponsored by Bell
Canada. See
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/murder_pattern_shaw.htm

January 26-27, 1997:  CBC Radio broadcasts the Shaw Festival staged reading of
Murder Pattern on the CBC AM Radio Sunday Showcase and FM Stereo Monday Night
Playhouse, sponsored by Bell Canada.

November 18-22, 1997: David Owen directs the Abbedam Theatre production of
Herman Voaden’s Hill-Land at the University of Alberta.
See http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/david_owen_hillland.htm

January 20-24, 1998: Christine Lacey directs the University of Western Ontario
production of Herman Voaden’s Murder Pattern.
See http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/a_canadian_cultural.htm

June 1998: Trish Armstrong, a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher with the
Danny Grossman Dance Company, receives a $15,000 grant from the Canada Council
to adapt and stage Herman Voaden's 1930 five-movement dance scenario Symphony
as a millennium project entitled Symphony 2000.

June 1, 2000:	Pamela MacKay directs the A.Y. Jackson High School production of
Herman Voaden’s Rocks. See
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/pamela_mackay_rocks.htm

November 27-28, 2003: Moira Day directs Gwen Pharis Ringwood’s The Rainmaker in
the University of Saskatchewan, Department of Drama, North Studio, John
Mitchell Building, in Saskatoon. Full production with a cast of 15.

April 20-22, 2004:  Anna Jewitt and Vikki Murphy direct the University of
Manchester production of Herman Voaden’s Hill-Land.

October 14, 2008: John Lazarus directs a staged reading of Herman Voaden’s
Murder Pattern in the Vogt Studio, Queen’s University.

November 27th-28th, 2008: Moira Day directs Herman Voaden’s Murder Pattern in
the North Studio, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.