First Run at a List of Women in Canadian Theatre

[david ferry and appledore]

Louise,

Thank you for reaching out with this request..it is one of the great things about this CanDrama list..the knowledge and generosity in sharing it brings about.

I have a crazy idea--let's create an electronic paper version of one of those quilts that get made to celebrate wonderful things in a community's life. Where everyone adds a patch. Perhaps, with Louise's permission, we can all open up the attached document and add detail and other names with their details and keep passing it around until we have a fully blossoming throw to keep us all warm. 

I remember the fantastic women that were really the backbone of the community theatre world that was my start in Newfoundland--Alice Matheson who was a fine (and deaf) director; Florence Paterson..a superb actor who went on to national acclaim; Betty Ferry the first director to direct stage plays live on TV in the 50's in St. John's; Lynne Lunde , first administrator and co-founder with Chris Brookes of The Mummers Troupe; Ronda Payne feminist theatre administrator and artist; Sylvia Wigh teacher and children's theatre director; Donna Butt, co-founder of Rising Tide Theatre--- I can only imagine the huge number you all can collectively list of equally not so well known (and famous)  woman teachers, directors, actors , designers stage managers, techs and administrators that form the real golden thread that stitches together the patches of the Canadian theatre quilt. 

This can be a living document that gets passed on..it will turn up at conferences where someone can add new names, it can can passed on to students and colleagues..lest we forget.

respectively,

daf

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Louise . Forsyth 
  To: CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA 
  Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 6:28 PM
  Subject: First Run at a List of Women in Canadian Theatre


  Dear colleagues,

   

  I am awestruck at the response I have received to my query regarding women in anglophone Canadian theatre. Thank you so much for your generosity and interest.

   

  I am also awestruck by the number of wonderful artists which we have mentioned in just a couple of days. What a rich theatrical and cultural heritage this represents! - many regions, many areas of creative activity, many historical periods. Drama and theatre would simply not be what it is in Canada and would not hold such exciting promise for the future without all of these women.

   

  I have made a first synthesis of this list. It remains in no particular order. When you sent details about the careers and work of these wonderful women, I have plagiarised blatantly to retain the information. If this is not an area of interest for you, please just delete. But if anything on or about the list clicks for you, I would be delighted to receive comments and further suggestions.

   

  Obviously, it will not be possible for me to make entries in this dictionary Des femmes for more than a few (5-10) of these theatre artists. However, it will certainly be possible to provide at least an overview of the vital role they have played and continue to play. I plan particularly to highlight the rich diversity and creativity of women's work in theatre. This derives from aboriginal peoples, regional diversities, the rich variety of cultural traditions, and the boldness with which innovation and experimentation have been carried out, often pioneering in fields of interculturalism and intermediality. I believe that this is something Europeans and francophones around the world will find particularly interesting.

   

  Thank you ever so much again for your powerful responses. I loved hearing from you.

   

  Louise
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