Bruce Barton
By many indications, playwriting in the Canadian Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) has never been more accomplished, diverse, and energetic. At the same time, however, many dramatists in this region experience a distinct and, for some, defining sense of isolation and disconnection from the rest of the country, particularly in terms of production opportunities beyond the East Coast. Aware of the limitations of local production, however enthusiastic the support of regional theatre companies and groups, a significant number of Maritimes playwrights lament the absence of vehicles—such as publication with national distribution—that may lead to increased profile for Maritimes drama within this country and internationally. At this juncture, it is particularly intriguing to consider the precedent of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia. A boisterous offspring of the Nova Scotia Writers Federation, the Co-op took upon itself the challenge to foster, promote, distribute, and generally champion Nova Scotian and, ultimately, Atlantic Canadian (including Newfoundland) drama for two decades following its inception in 1976. A fundamental difference between the dominant (although not exclusive) philosophy of Co-op members and their contemporary counterparts, however, is in the definition of the concept of ‘community.' For, unlike the distinctly national and international interests regularly expressed in the current context, the Co-op placed a significant (although, again, not exclusive) emphasis on the establishment of a local community of theatre artists and, even more fundamental, of local theatre audiences. The contrast, while neither simple nor absolute, provides a productive point of entry into the complex reality of contemporary Maritimes dramatic practice.
Plusieurs signes nous montrent que l'écriture théâtrale des provinces maritimes canadiennes (Nouvelle Ecosse, Nouveau Brunswick et l'Ile du Prince Edouard), n'a jamais été aussi accomplie, variée et vivante. Mais, en meme temps, beaucoup d'auteurs dramatiques de cette région se sentent separés, sinon isolés, du reste du pays concernant la production de leurs pièces audelà de la côte est. Conscients des restrictions d'une production limitée aux provinces maritimes, malgré l'aide enthousiaste des compagnies et des groupes régionnaux théâtraux, plusieurs auteurs dramatiques se lamentent du manque de publicité et de l'absence de diffusion nationale qui pourrait faire reconnaître leurs pièces dramatiques à l'échelle nationale et internationale. À ce moment, cela nous intrigue de penser au précédent de la "Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia." Progéniture tapageuse de la "Nova Scotia Writers Federation," la Coopérative a pris en charge le défi d'encourager, de promouvoir et de distribuer les pièces de Nouvelle Ecosse, aussi bien que celles de l'est du Canada (y compris Terre Neuve), pendant les vingt années qui suivirent sa conception en 1976. Mais il y a entre les membres de la Coopérative et ses contemporains une distinction philosophique dans la définition du concept ‘communauté' qui va à l'encontre du terme dans les intérêts nationaux et internationaux. La Coopérative a donc insisté sur l'importance de la collectivité, de la localité de la communauté artistique, et encore plus, sur son public potentiel. Le contraste, ni simple ni absolu, permet un point d'insertion dans l'exercice compliqué du théâtre maritime canadien d'aujourd'hui.
On May 4, 1999, Nova Scotia's Eastern Front Theatre invited its friends and the media to celebrate with it the opening of its new home: the Alderney Landing Theatre. Located on the Dartmouth waterfront, the new building was presented as the harbinger of new times and new opportunities. And while the specific reference was to the economically challenged municipality, equally significant was the impression of the new facility as indicative of the robust health of theatrical production in Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and, indeed, throughout the Maritimes (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia). For the next week, the Alderney was host to the On the Waterfront and the Kids on the Waterfront Festivals, featuring over a dozen productions from throughout the Maritimes, as well as Ontario, Alberta, and the Yukon. Audiences were strong, reviews were appreciative, and the event marked the fulfillment of a 10 year dream for Eastern Front Artistic Director Mary Vingoe, who—along with her former Mulgrave Road Theatre Co-op colleague, Gay Hauser, and playwright Wendy Lill (who also happens to be the Dartmouth NDP Member of Parliament)—has laboured since the early 90s to establish a permanent residence for her theatre company and for Dartmouth (Vingoe 2).
A special event during the On the Waterfront Festival was entitled New Words on the Waterfront. A project of the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), the program featured a selection of short readings from six new Maritimes plays, all of which were produced in the region during the 1999/2000 season.1 Perhaps the most conspicuous characteristic of the event was the diversity of the material presented. From the witty, light-hearted comedy of Geoff McBride's Smarter Monkeys—which presents the first meeting of the prehistoric "Committee of Civilization"—through the deeply disturbing account of self-deprivation in Wanda Graham's The Anchoress Brangena— which depicts a medieval anchoress's physical and spiritual trials—the works spoke of the range and sophistication of contemporary playwriting in the Maritimes. As one of the six playwrights who read, I realized the degree to which the stories being told—if not, in most cases, the storytellers—were unfamiliar to me, focused on predicaments and historical situations located well beyond the shared experiences of Maritimes writers.
It is not the intention of this article to argue that this lack of common preoccupations and shared themes and issues is a negative aspect of current playwriting in this region, or, for that matter, that it is without precedent. Indeed, the diversity displayed, in many ways, is evidence of a maturity of curiosity, and of an openness to alternative subject matters and theatrical styles. Further, it is also a sign of the breadth of influence on Maritimes writers. More to the point of this article, however, it is also consistent with an increasing desire on the part of writers in the region to create plays and productions that ‘travel,' that communicate beyond the immediate borders of the communities from which they emerge, and which will appeal to audiences throughout the country, and internationally. In this, many contemporary Maritimes writers demonstrate a subtle but significant shift in motivation from that displayed by much of an earlier generation of more regionally-oriented playwrights. A central investment in local communities—and thus local productions and audiences —is increasingly negotiated within a desire for national and international exposure and recognition.
Historically reliant upon traditional, resource-based industries and tourism for economic sustainability, the Maritime provinces represent a region in which the future is always deeply rooted in historical practices and perspectives. The desire to move beyond historical limitations on prosperity without the sacrifice of regional insularity is, in many ways, the operative paradox of Canadian Maritimes culture. Thus the perception that true ‘success' lies beyond regional boundaries is one that is both actively resisted and deeply ingrained. Intriguingly, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the federal government initiative created in 1988 to support business activity in the full Atlantic region (which includes Newfoundland) in the sectors of Entrepreneurship, Tourism, and Trade, has promoted heightened degrees of "diversification" and engagement with national and international economies as a means to achieve both autonomy and prosperity:
[...] the principal employment of a large number of communities in this region has relied traditionally on one sector, be it fishery, forestry or mineral, and those areas have been vulnerable [...]. Accordingly, trade may be the most significant factor in the improvement of our economy, and Atlantic Canada must be ready to respond to the challenges of a quickly changing global economy, characterized by reduced barriers of international trade, aggressive marketing, and a highly skilled workforce. (ACOA Annual Report 10)
Yet, as Ian McKay and Scott Milsom have noted (in a reference to the Maritimes that is wholly appropriate for all of Atlantic Canada), the region's relationship with the rest of North America is traditionally experienced as somewhat less ‘dynamic' and interactive:
An economy that has been depressed as long as that of the Maritimes leads to a certain cynicism and even despair[...]. While outmigration relieves the pressure for change, it also subtly devalues those who stay behind, people who may be told, by inference, that they are losers in the race of life (and who may feel themselves to be so). (McKay & Milsom 310)
Of course, the situation is more complex than either of these quotations can capture (and more so than the scope of this article can detail). That similar complexity—if not contradiction—is reflected in the priorities of Maritimes playwrights should, therefore, not come as a surprise. A useful parallel may be found in the original works, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, of the Mulgrave Road Co-op Theatre of Guysborough, Nova Scotia (now the Mulgrave Road Theatre). Ric Knowles, in his insightful chronicles of the activities of the Co-op and its members, has identified the tension between focusing on local community and moving beyond its confines that both complicated and energized that organization's operation. In a discussion of Mary Vingoe's Holy Ghosters, 1776 (originally produced by Mulgrave Road in 1983, subsequently revised and produced in 1986 by Mount Allison University's Windsor Theatre), Knowles suggests that it is
Mary Vingoe's achievement in Holy Ghosters to have forged a nonlinear, associative structure and an ensemble style of playing that involve the audience as participants in the struggles of a community of characters with whom they share a landscape across the gap of time. In the poem quoted as epigraph to [Knowles'] essay ["September 2," from High Marsh Road] Douglas Lochhead points to the solace that ‘a sense of history' provides. It is that solace that Mary Vingoe rediscovers, recreates, and replays in Holy Ghosters. (Knowles, "A Sense" 27)
So far, so good. Yet, as Knowles would later report, the Co-op was soon challenged by "the problems raised by sheer success," when its popularity led to the discussion of producing "work from outside the region, or outside Canada, and of relaxing their mandate to do only new work" (Knowles, "Mulgrave Road" 333). Ultimately, however, Knowles suggests that the Co-op's dilemma was also its source of social and artistic integrity:
Its return to first principles, as articulated in September 1984, is a recognition that its national success is a product of its strong roots in its own culture. At its best, the Co-op finds universal truths in regional metaphors, and the finely observed detail with which it reflects its home community has a resonance that reaches at once deeply within, and far beyond, Guysborough County and the Maritimes (Knowles, "Mulgrave Road" 335).
The delicate balance which Knowles describes in relation to Mulgrave Road informs contemporary theatre and dramatic practice in all three Maritimes provinces, albeit to varying degrees.
To be sure, the On the Waterfront Festival was one of a season full of Maritimes success stories in 1999. On Prince Edward Island, appreciative theatregoers were able to select from amongst a variety of new plays from both established writers and those seeing their work staged for the first time, as familiar Island authors such as Nils Ling (The Truth About Daughters) and David Weale (The Greenmount Boy) were joined by new playwrights such as Melissa Mullen (Rough Waters), Jonathan Stewart (Nothing Like the Sun), and the Players Collective (Players). In New Brunswick, Charlie Rhindress (The Maritime Way of Life), Norm Foster (The Foursome), and Jenny Munday (The Last Tasmanian) all presented new works to enthusiastic audiences. And in Nova Scotia, in January (14–24), George Boyd's treatment of the Africville resettlements, Consecrated Ground, was staged, also by Eastern Front Theatre, and played to enthusiastic audiences. In March (18–April 11), Lance Woolaver's poignant depiction of the life of Maud Lewis, World Without Shadows, had a popular run on the main stage of the Neptune Theatre in Halifax. Significantly, as with the above noted works of Weale, Mullen, Rhindress, and Munday, both Nova Scotian works focus on local histories (although their treatments could hardly be more different). But both Boyd and Woolaver, like many of their Maritimes peers, are eager to tell their stories beyond the region for which they have immediate significance (Boyd; Woolaver). And, perhaps surprisingly, both playwrights are convinced that it is publication, not another regional production, that will allow their plays to, in Boyd's terms, "get legs."
However, as a recent study by this author discovered, it is an understatement to say that there is little publishing of dramatic texts by Maritimes-based presses (the situation is only slightly more encouraging in Newfoundland). Modest by national standards in terms of the number of titles produced, as well as in sales, publishers in the Maritimes survive by defining relatively clear, circumscribed, and frequently non-fiction niche markets. None of the local presses which have, in the past, published a small number of dramatic texts—Goose Lane in Fredericton, Ragweed in Charlottetown, Nimbus in Halifax, and UCCB Press in Cape Breton—currently feature drama as a regular aspect of its offerings. Not surprisingly, the deciding factor for Maritimes publishers considering dramatic texts is the necessity of breaking even, and the hope of turning a profit, on all publishing ventures. Unfamiliarity with a small, specialized, and highly competitive national market for dramatic texts effectively discourages exploration of regional possibilities. Even those writers who have been fortunate enough to secure a regional publisher, however, encounter significant obstacles in terms of marketing and distribution.2 It is perhaps understandable, therefore, that Nova Scotia's most successful playwrights, whether resident, such as Wendy Lill and Brydon MacDonald, or ‘expatriate,' such as Daniel MacIvor, are published by central Canadian or western-based publishers such as Playwrights Canada Press in Toronto (MacIvor) and Talonbooks in Vancouver (Lill, MacDonald).
"Plays are born here," Boyd asserts, "And they die here" (Boyd). In fact, both Consecrated Ground and World Without Shadows have been recently published, both by StageHands Press in La Have, NS. Both texts were produced in quality editions. And both texts have failed to acquire national distribution. The result, for both playwrights, has been an increasing sense of frustration and a growing conviction that they will be forced to relocate to Toronto—or, at least, secure a central or western Canadian publisher—in order to achieve national recognition.
Conversely, writers who began in the Maritimes region and subsequently relocated to Ontario put far less emphasis on publication as a vehicle for production opportunities throughout the rest of Canada. Playwrights such as Ken Garnhum, Paul Ledoux, and Don Hannah—all of whom have been published in Toronto—are confident that ‘word-of-mouth' is far more significant than publication (Garnhum, Ledoux, Hannah). In Garnhum's words, "Canada is still the very small vast country it has always been; people hear things— because they listen." Yet each of these authors also cites as significant among the reasons for his relocation to the centre of the country the same limiting factors noted by Boyd, Woolaver, and many other Maritimes playwrights: a lack of production opportunities, restricted audiences, and a sense of isolation from the national theatre scene. It is not surprising, therefore, that Maritimes-based writers, as well as their Newfoundland counterparts, should look to publication with national distribution as one means of bridging the distance between the East Coast and central Canada.
Ironically, this preoccupation with publishing as a means to secure production beyond the Maritime region in some ways closely resembles the motivation which, over twenty years earlier, led to the creation of a landmark organization of Nova Scotian playwrights: the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia. Emerging in 1976 out of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS), the Co-op was the brainchild of a small group of playwrights who were convinced that the support needs of dramatists were sufficiently distinct to justify a separate organization. Originally proposed by playwrights Christopher Heide, Andrew Wetmore, and John Culjak, the Co-op was conceived as a means by which the profile—and proliferation—of Nova Scotia playwriting could be increased, primarily through an in-house publication process. The important difference, however, is one of intended readership. The target audience of Co-op publications was specifically regional, including amateur and university theatres. Publication was seen as a direct vehicle to production, but this was a conspicuously local initiative, in an effort to make Nova Scotian and, later, Atlantic audiences and theatres familiar with, and excited about, homegrown drama (Culjak 1).
The other primary audience for Co-op publications was to be funding agencies. Co-op members were frustrated by a perceived tendency on the part of the Canada Council—and, in a ‘copy-cat' fashion, on the part of Provincial funding organizations—to support only those productions mounted by the larger, regional theatres. Thus, the Co-op's activities indirectly involved legitimizing alternative, amateur, and university productions as valid beneficiaries of financial support and recognition (Heide, Interview). In this, the Co-op would occasionally find itself at odds with the emerging Guild of Canadian Playwrights, and it would contest standardized national definitions of "professional" status (WFNS News, May 1977: 5). But for many within the Co-op, these concerns were secondary to the mandate of presenting Nova Scotian drama as a valid and accessible option for local production.
The initial reaction of the WFNS to the Co-op's request for "distinct status" was cautious, to say the least. In a response to "The Dramatists Co-ops' [sic] Brief," presented to the Executive Committee of the WFNS by proposed Co-op Coordinator, John Culjak, WFNS Executive Director Geri Gaskin offered the organization's conditional support in language that is unnervingly similar to that applied by federal politicians within a much more familiar struggle over 'separation':
The democratic part is terrific. But the separate part just won't work. The playwrights' group either is or is not part of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS). Why should the other writers— the poets, the short storyists, the novelists, etc.—contribute the group funds of all Nova Scotia writers [...] to assist fellow writers whose stated concern is to be separate from the community of writers? Although playwrights happen to be writers who write plays instead of some other form of writing, still—are they not WRITERS?[...] Are they merely anxiously awaiting "independence" from obviously onerous and un-natural allies, associated with in the beginning stages of the playwrights' organization only because they are willing to offer financial support? Are they in fact, taking advantage of other writers in the province, with no concern for the group as a whole—all writers, all discriminated against in some ways, all with special needs? (Gaskin)
The issues at stake were, of course, partly financial, as is made clear in the above passage. Equally clear, however, is the tension between the investment of the Writers' Federation in a sense of solidarity and community among all Nova Scotia writers, and the perception on the part of the proponents of a Dramatists Co-op of the distinct support needs, and criteria for success, of playwrights. As Chris Heide has pointed out, the central practical measure of achievement for all other writers in the Federation was publication. Not surprisingly, therefore, it was felt by many of the playwrights in the Federation that its organization and administration directly reflected this priority, to the relative disregard for the fundamental concern of dramatists: to be produced (Heide, Interview). Ironically, as noted, one of the primary benefits anticipated by those proposing the Co-op was, in fact, the ability to establish an independent publishing service. Publication was, however, understood as a necessary first step towards the ultimate goal: the heightened accessibility to, and familiarity with, Nova Scotian playwriting on the part of local professional and amateur theatre companies, universities, and schools. Andrew Wetmore emphasized this perspective in the original letter of information and invitation sent out to playwriting members of the Writers' Federation: "Our first goal is to let people know that local plays exist, and are available for production. To do that we will publish a catalogue of Nova Scotian plays, which will be sent to all theatre groups in the region, and to ‘selected targets' further afield" (Fowkes).
The original texts produced by the Co-op most clearly illustrate this perception of the scripts as vehicles to production. Conceived and prepared, with tell-tale simplicity, out of folded 8.5" X 14" photocopies that were stapled in the middle, the earliest scripts are more concerned with set layouts, accessible categorization of genre, and number of characters, than with issues of copyright and duplication. Subsequent scripts took on a standardized 8.5" X 11" format, stapled between cardboard covers, with simple but effective graphics and titles. Included in all but the earliest publications, a full statement relating to copyright and professional and amateur production rights accompanied a description of the Co-op's other services.3 But at no point did the publications exhibit aspirations to be more than attractive, well-organized, informative, and legible production scripts. These were clearly products intended for the hands of theatre administrators, directors, actors, and other writers.
Indeed, the ability to publish scripts figured well down on the list of objectives outlined in the original brief to the Writers' Federation, and was preceded by a range of other services that reflect the conception of a play text as a collaborative and dynamic ‘project,' fully realized only in performance. Among the other objectives listed in the ambitious original brief are the following:
Also well down on the original list of objectives—though looming large for the Executive of the Writers' Federation—was the Co-op's desire to become financially self-sufficient. To this end the founding members applied for funding to the Nova Scotia government through the Writers' Federation, which, in July of 1977, was awarded the sum of $2,900.00 for the subsidization of the Co-op. Assessed on evidence of both its activity and its impact, the Co-op received ongoing funding at this modest level, receiving $3,550.00 in 1980, $4,500.00 in 1982, and plateauing at $5,000.00 in 1983—a level which would remain constant for several years thereafter. The Co-op's budget was occasionally bolstered by special project funding from the Canada Council, from events-partnering with the CBC, and from publishing sponsorship from the Imperial Oil company. A review of the annual finances throughout the late 70s and early 80s reveals a wide range of activities and services organized and facilitated by a largely volunteer, and clearly committed, core membership on a shoe-string budget.4
And, indeed, while not all of the objectives identified in the original brief were realized, many proved extremely successful. The New Play Development Workshop program brought numerous new texts to staged reading "productions" (Dramatists' Co-op minutes, 23 February 1984: 1); additional workshops, such as those offered with the CBC in the development of radio dramas, were conducted at various locations throughout the province (4 July 1985: 2); Playwrights' Roundtables proved a fertile forum for discussion and interaction between writers from within the region and beyond (5 Sept. 1984: 1); and playwright exchanges, involving the reciprocal provision of space, dramaturgical input, and actors to playwrights from Nova Scotia and other Atlantic provinces, effectively broadened regional networks of support and opportunity (15 Nov. 1978: 4). And as early as 1977 John Culjak established the Seaweed Theatre company, with the specific mandate of staging Co-op productions (21 Oct. 1977: 1). As Ed McKenna has noted, Seaweed Theatre proved to be one of the strongest alternative theatre companies of that period, shifting its base of operations to Dartmouth in 1979, where it continued to produce new works. Losing both its performance space and adequate funding, the company closed its doors in 1983, but not before providing valuable opportunities to a corps of developing local writers (McKenna 49).
Nova Scotian writers also benefited from the advocacy role that the Co-op assumed in relation to cultural development and administration in the province. In 1983 the Co-op surveyed professional and amateur theatre companies throughout the country to gauge the level of opportunity and encouragement playwrights in other provinces enjoyed in relation to such companies. Questions related to new play development workshops, writer-in-residence programs, new work commissions, and new play productions armed the Coop with material for its brief to the provincial Cultural Policy Review conference in March of that year. The document, "Spring Awakening: Nova Scotian Playwrights Bloom in Our Theatres," was drafted by Brian Seaman with the help of, amongst others, Ric Knowles, then of Mount Allison University, and presented on behalf of the Co-op. The brief identified its main theme as, quite simply, "Hope," and proceeded to propose writer-in-residence programs, targeted provincial funding, and the commitment to produce local playwrights on the part of the province's theatre companies (Seaman 4). Such provincial advocacy, combined with the Co-op's ongoing representation of Nova Scotian writers to, successively, the Playwrights' Co-op of Canada, the Guild of Canadian Playwrights, and the Playwrights Union of Canada5, clearly illustrate the distinctly political nature of the Nova Scotian organization.
Indeed, the political activism of the Co-op extended beyond issues of advocacy. The minutes of the February, 1984 meeting include a resolution "that the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia issue a public statement opposing American intervention in Nicaragua and call on the Canadian government to also publicly condemn American intervention" (23 February 1984: no page number). Subsequent statements from the Co-op to the Canadian government would also include a call for the end of the escalation of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia at the height of the Cold War (McSwain, 3 July). Such messages from the Co-op further identify its social and political profile, and contribute to the impression of the organization as a community of motivation and action.
It would be naïve, however, to suggest that the Co-op was at all times a smoothly run, cohesive unit. As with all modestly budgeted arts organizations facilitated almost exclusively by volunteers, the Co-op's executive underwent many changes, with regular negotiation of roles and responsibilities. Chris Heide is identified in Co-op materials, throughout the years of its operation, as Chairperson (21 Oct. 1977: 2), Development Co-ordinator (Heide, Report), Administrative Delegate (23 Sept. 1977: 2), Member-at-Large (8 August 1984), Acting Secretary (23 Sept. 1977: 3), and Visiting Bookkeeper (23 February 1984: no page number). In one particularly indicative reference, a 1978 Co-op document is signed-off by Denis Salter, in his role as "Very Interim Chairperson" (WFNS News, May 1978: 2). Minutes from early meetings also indicate that not all the original members of the organization were comfortable with the proposed ‘inclusiveness' that would involve schools and universities, along with professional and amateur theatre companies, in the marketing of members' works (21 Oct. 1977: 1). Conversely, almost a decade later, in a 1986 Canadian Theatre Review article, Co-op member Cindy Cowan supported the organization's bid for an Atlantic Playwrights' Colony by challenging her fellow Co-op members to "abandon their naïve hopes for a mainstage production at the regionals and develop new, imaginative theatrical forms for their scripts that will be of interest to the small theatres" (Cowan 121-122). Cowan continued, "In applying for funds for an Atlantic Playwrights' Colony, the Dramatists' Co-op indicated its attempt to escape its belief in the regionals' supremacy and to establish a new, mutually supportive link with the region's alternative companies."
Not surprisingly, such related issues of identity, constituency, and motivation were regularly complicated by ongoing challenges in funding. In the face of a 1984 proposal from the Provincial Government that the Co-op consider returning completely into the fold of the Writers' Federation or, conversely, be absorbed by the Nova Scotia Drama League (McSwain, 15 March), its members were forced through an ultimately reconstituting process of review and reaffirmation.6 But the triumph of renewed funding the following year must be understood within the relationship between the organization's increasingly ambitious mandate and its extremely modest provincial support.
Ironically, it is this ongoing contrast between the Co-op's ambitions and its resources that most clearly reflects its primary attribute. For, despite challenges in funding and in achieving consensus on programming priorities, the Co-op's focus on the local dissemination of local playwriting in the pursuit of local productions seems to have remained remarkably consistent. The benefits, immediate and potential, of productions in the rest of Canada and beyond were hardly lost upon Co-op members, many of whom had had their works performed at major centres across the country.7 But in name, organization, and activity, the Co-op remained a body preoccupied with the concept of community: community as market—for local plays and productions—and community as product, as in a community of theatre artists, and as in theatre artists as part of a larger, local community.
Particularly significant for this study is the fact that this focus on community was apparently not intended to limit the appropriate subject matter of the plays fostered and distributed by the Co-op. In the introduction to Maritime Lines: An Anthology of Contemporary Plays (which, published by Nimbus in 1988, remains the only anthology of Canadian Maritime playwriting to have been compiled), editor Chris Heide clearly excludes this type of influence from the Co-op's priorities:
Authors in the Maritimes have licence [sic] to select from a range of subject matters as broad as is available anywhere; they believe they are free to write about whatever they choose. Reading the many plays submitted for this anthology, I was proud to witness Maritime playwrights accepting that challenge—they advanced plays dealing with topics from apples to zucchinis, with philosophies from anarchy to Zionism. I was also proud to find Maritimers writing good, gripping, entertaining plays about the Bluenose, about the Acadian heritage. (Heide, Lines 1)
Thus, the contemporary plays referenced at the beginning of this article as showcased at the 1999 New Words on the Waterfront in fact continue a tradition of diversity in subject matter well established in the region. What was to be lost upon the Co-op's demise, however, was its role as ‘focal point'—as a site in which the collaboration of a diverse community of writers, working within a larger, regional community for the linked purposes of publication and production, resulted in a shared point of access to and for local theatre organizations. As Heide notes in the same introduction, "Ever since that early undertaking, the co-op has emerged as the best doorway to Maritime plays" (2).
The beginning of the 1990s brought the gradual, yet ultimately complete, end of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia. Many of the services it facilitated have been taken up by other organizations. Most notably, PARC manages a central play registry and a modest play library, and oversees a variety of programs. These include Home Delivery (ongoing, long-distance dramaturgical facilitation), a variety of public reading opportunities for new plays and plays-in- progress (such as New Words on the Waterfront, Playwrights Cabarets, and Scriptease), Playwright Exchanges (within the Atlantic region and across Canada), the Guidelines for Atlantic Playwrights publication (a detailed resource book on practical and professional aspects of life as a playwright in Atlantic Canada), and, most significantly, the Moveable Feast (a week long Playwrights' Colony, with writer representation from all four Atlantic provinces and the services of professional dramaturgs and actors). The Moveable Feast, inspired by the Atlantic Playwrights Colony which the Co-op fought so long and hard to realize,8 temporarily generates the sense of community amongst a group of writers from diverse regions and backgrounds that the Co-op, at its most successful, provided in an ongoing fashion for Nova Scotia playwrights. But PARC's mandate is regional,9 and there exists no organization within Nova Scotia that replicates even its temporary opportunities for the recognition and/or establishment of a cultural community for dramatists.
In terms of accessible, low-budget production opportunities, the Atlantic Fringe Festival (held annually in Halifax in early September) seems to have assumed a primary role. In 1991, one year after a failed proposal from the Co-op to establish a Fringe Festival in Nova Scotia, Co-op member Ken Pinto coordinated a separate, successful bid, and there occurred an indistinct yet definitive transition in focus, energies, and initiative (Pinto). The Co-op's last One-Act Play contest was held in the same year, and the organization's various activities were discontinued.
Both PARC and the Fringe Festival are conspicuous contributors to regional theatre production. Two of the plays workshopped in each of the last four Moveable Feasts moved on to Atlantic productions the following year (Munday). And Ken Pinto points out that over one half of the new theatre companies in the Atlantic region during the last 10 years began with an Atlantic Fringe Festival production (Pinto). What this does not address, however, is that, beyond the conspicuous thematic diversity of contemporary Maritime playwriting—for which there is clear precedent—playwrights like George Boyd, Lance Woolaver, and Brydon MacDonald also speak of the pressing need to see their works produced beyond Nova Scotia, and beyond the Maritimes, defining ‘success' in terms of national and international recognition (Barton 4-8).
Conversely, Heide, as a founding member of the Dramatists Co-op and current Artistic Director of the Chester Playhouse in Nova Scotia, remains committed to his initial emphasis on the development and fostering of local community through dramatic expression. Heide is the Associate Director of the Mermaid Theatre School program, where he is in charge of youth theatre. As well, he is a regular participant in the WFNS Writers-in-the-Schools program. In all his work, Heide remains deeply invested in the study of community in general, and, specifically, the community in which he lives. In addition to his fellow writers, he considers the local teachers and the social workers to be his colleagues in a common campaign to improve the quality of life in the community they share (Heide, Interview). In all these activities Heide demonstrates a clear continuity of focus—one which stands as a direct expression of the inspiration behind the creation and maintenance of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia.
As a playwright in Nova Scotia, I find myself faced with a challenging yet indistinct set of issues emerging out of the initial study of, on the one hand, the current situation of dramatic writing in this province, and, on the other, the historical precedent provided by the trials and triumphs of the Dramatists' Coop. Complex questions relating to definitions of ‘success' and ‘community' are central to the Nova Scotian writer's sense of identity, focus, and potential, as they are for his Maritimes counterparts. Attempts to navigate this complexity will, no doubt, continue to influence the nature, as well as the marketing and production, of Maritimes drama. One of the few certainties in the equation, however, is that as we define the future of playwriting in this region, it is at considerable risk that we forget or ignore our history.
NOTES
Research for this article was greatly assisted by the staff at the Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections section, which hold the majority of all existing records and playtexts of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia.
1. Plays and playwrights included: Roswell, by Bruce Barton; The Anchoress
Brangena, by Wanda Graham; Apple Tree Road, by Daniel Lillford; The Ecstasy
of the Bedridden Riding Hood, by Bryden MacDonald; Smarter Monkeys, by
Geoff McBride; The Poor Farm, by Lance Woolaver.
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2. For a more thorough consideration of Maritimes publication of dramatic texts,
see Barton 4-8.
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3. The largest collection of existing scripts is available for examination in the
Special Collections section of the Dalhousie University (Killam) Library,
Halifax, NS.
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4. Yearly letters of funding application and Co-op Annual Budgets for this period
are maintained in the University Archives section of the Killam Library.
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5. The relationship between the Dramatists' Co-op and the evolving national playwriting
organizations is addressed repeatedly throughout the Co-op's records,
and was a topic of discussion at many of its regular meetings. As early as 1977,
Chris Heide and John Culjak prepared a "Brief (on Membership) to the Guild of
Canadian Playwrights," which was adopted at the October 21 Co-op meeting,
outlining the Co-op's concerns and expectations. For details, see the meeting
minutes of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia, 21 Oct. 1977: 3.
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6. The Co-op's response to this challenge was to establish an executive board and
to seek clarity, through the creation of a "grant application supplement," in the
following areas: 1) identity of membership; 2) security of funding; 3) maintenance
of existing priorities; and 4) independence of action. See the meeting
minutes of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia, 8 August 1984: 1-2.
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7. A case in point: Chris Heide remained an active member of the Co-op and a
regular ‘liaison' between its members and the theatrical world in Ontario during
his tenure as Playwright-in-Residence at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre in 1977.
See Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia News, "Document #5: Letter from Chris
Heide to W.F.N.S. Office."
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8. For a detailed argument and proposed start-up budget for this project on the part
of the Co-op, see Paul MacLeod.
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9. Detailed information on all of PARC's activities and programs can be acquired
by reference to its website: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/parcoffice/.
Further inquiries can be addressed to PARC's Executive Director, Jenny Munday, at 1-877-845-1341 or via email at parcoffice@ns.sympatico.ca.
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Works Cited
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—. ACOA's Five-Year Report to Parliament 1993 – 1998. Cat. No. C89-4/48-1998. Moncton, N.B.: The Agency, 1998.
Barton, Bruce. "Too Distant Voices: The Publishing of Dramatic Texts in the Maritimes." Canadian Theatre Review 98 (Summer 1999): 4-8.
Boyd, George. Telephone interview. 30 Nov. 1998.
Culjak, John, et al. "The Dramatists Co-ops' [sic] brief to be submitted to the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia." Project proposal. 25 May 1976.
Cowan, Cindy. "Towards an Atlantic Playwrights' Colony." Canadian Theatre Review 49 (Winter 1986): 120-22.
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—. Meeting minutes. 21 Oct. 1977.
—. Meeting minutes. 15 Nov. 1978.
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—. Meeting minutes. 5 Sept. 1984.
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Garnhum, Ken. "CTR article: response." E-mail to the author. 20 Nov. 1998. Gaskin, Geri. Response to "The Dramatists Co-ops' [sic] Brief." Letter to John Culjak. 5 July 1976.
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Heide, Christopher. "Report of the Development Co-ordinator, Dramatists' Co-op Meeting." 30 Sept. 1980.
—. Telephone interview. 20 May 1999.
—. "Introduction." Maritime Lines: An Anthology of Contemporary Plays. Halifax: Nimbus, 1988.
Knowles, Richard Paul. "‘A Sense of History Here': Mary Vingoe's Holy Ghosters, 1776." The Red Jeep, and other landscapes: A collection in honor of Douglas Lochhead. Ed Peter Thomas. Sackville, NB: Goose Lane, 1987. 20-27.
—. "Mulgrave Road: A Co-op Theatre and its County." Toward a New Maritimes. Ed. Ian McKay and Scott Milsom. Charlottetown: Ragweed, 1992. 329-335.
Ledoux, Paul. "Re: CTR." E-mail to the author. 17 Nov. 1998.
MacLeod, Paul. "Toward an Atlantic Playwrights' Colony." 4 July 1985.
McKay, Ian, and Scott Milsom. "Introduction: Regionalism and Resistance." Toward a New Maritimes. Ed. Ian McKay and Scott Milsom. Charlottetown: Ragweed, 1992. 309-310.
McKenna, Ed. "The Halifax Problem: Inside and Out." Canadian Theatre Review. 48 (Fall 1986): 43-54.
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—. Public form letter. 15 March 1984.
Munday, Jenny. Telephone interview. 29 January 2001.
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Vingoe, Mary. Welcome Message. On the Waterfront Theatre Festival Program. 1999.
Woolaver, Lance. Telephone interview. 27 Nov. 1998.
Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. "Document #5: Letter from Chris Heide to W.F.N.S. Office." Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia News 2.2 (February, 1977).
—. "Guild of Canadian Playwrights' Planned." Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia News 2.5 (May, 1977): 5.
—. "Dramatists' Co-op at Work." Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia News 3.6 (June, 1978): 20-21.