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Shirley Barrie

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Shirley Barrie
BornShirley Grace Barrie
(1945-09-30)September 30, 1945
Tillsonburg, Ontario
DiedApril 15, 2018(2018-04-15) (aged 72)
Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto
Website
www.shirleybarrie.ca

Shirley Barrie (1945-2018) was a Canadian writer. She was the co-founder of the Wakefield Tricycle Company and Tricycle Theatre. Her plays include Straight Stitching, Carrying the Calf, and Tripping Through Time.

Early life and education

Barrie was born on September 30 in 1945 in Tillsonburg, Ontario.[1][2] She was a member of the University Alumnae Dramatic Club at the University of Toronto.[3] Barrie attended Western University in London, Ontario and Carleton University in Ottawa.[1] While at Carleton, Barrie co-founded a college theatre group called Sock 'n' Buskin with Ken Chubb, who she would later marry.[4]

Career

In 1972, Barrie co-founded the Wakefield Tricycle Company in London, England with husband Ken Chubb.[2][4] They named the company in reference to medieval mystery plays and a pub in King's Cross. In 1980, the two set up the Tricycle Theatre, dropping Wakefield from the name, at Kilburn High Road.[5][6] Until 1984, Barrie was an associate director of Tricycle Theatre.[7]

After returning to Toronto, Barrie and Lib Spry founded Straight Stitching Productions in 1989.[2] Straight Stitching Productions produced Barrie's play Straight Stitching, about immigrant women working in the garment industry. The show featured songs by Arlene Mantle.[8] Straight Stitching went on to become a runner-up for the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award.[9] Straight Stitching Productions later produced Carrying the Calf, a play for children addressing violence against women from the perspective of young women attending a self-defense class.[2] Barrie was inspired to write the play after reading a Globe and Mail article that claimed that, "81% of Canadian female university students admit to having experienced psychological, sexual or physical abuse on a date".[10] Carrying the Calf won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding play for young audiences in 1992.[11]

Working with the Workman Theatre Project, a theatre company that integrates people with mental illness, Barrie created the play Tripping Through Time in 1993. In the show, audiences are immersed in a mental asylum and given diagnoses at random. The play dramatizes experiences at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre from 1850 to the present.[12]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Work Result Ref.
1990 Floyd S. Chalmers Award n/a Straight Stitching Nominated [9]
1992 Dora Mavor Moore Awards Outstanding play for young audiences (small theatre) Carrying the Calf Won [11]
2015 NOW Magazine’s People's Choice Awards Best Toronto Playwright n/a Nominated [7]
2015 Tom Hendry Awards PGC Lifetime Award n/a Won [13]

Works

Plays:

  • The Adventures of Super Granny and the Kid[2]
  • Beautiful Lady, Tell Me...
  • Brigid Bonfast: Space Scientist
  • Choices
  • The Girl in the Flower Basket
  • In the Midst of Death
  • Topsy Turvy[2]
  • Straight Stitching[9]
  • Shusha And The Story Snatcher[14]
  • Riders Of The Sea[14]
  • Jack Sheppard's Back[14]
  • Carrying the Calf[15][10]
  • What if...?[2]
  • Two Tonic[16]
  • The Pear is Ripe[17]
  • Revelation[18]
  • Reflections
  • Riders of the Sea
  • Sonjo & the Thundergod
  • Hansel and Gretel[2]
  • Beautiful Lady, Tell Me...[2]
  • Tripping Through Time[12]
  • Measure Of The World[19]
  • Queen Marie[20]
  • I Am Marguerite[21]
  • Marguerite de Roberval

As editor:

  • Prepare to Embark: Six Theatrical Voyages for Young Adults[22]

Personal life

Barrie was married to Ken Chubb. The two returned from London to live in Canada in 1985.[23] They had three children: Alexis, Robin, and Yiwen. Barrie died at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto on April 15, 2018.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "SHIRLEY BARRIE Obituary (2018)". Legacy.com. 2018-04-21. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nothof, Anne (2019-01-31). "Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia - Barrie, Shirley". www.canadiantheatre.com. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  3. ^ Ahsan, Sadaf (2019-08-01). "How the women of Toronto's Alumnae Theatre Company have upheld their century-old purpose in the face of constant change". National Post. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  4. ^ a b Conlogue, Ray (1980-02-23). "Tricycle troupe cuts some ice with hot jazz". The Globe and Mail.
  5. ^ Billington, Michael (2018-09-03). "Over Kiln: the Tricycle theatre doesn't need a new name; Indhu Rubasingham has overseen a rebrand for the north London theatre but her exciting programme doesn't suggest a radical break from its rich history. So why the new moniker?". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Dex, Robert (2018-04-17). "Calls for newly named Kiln Theatre to revert back to Tricycle". London Evening Standard.
  7. ^ a b Thomas, Ren (2018-04-18). "Portrait of a playwright: Shirley Barrie". Ren Thomas. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  8. ^ "Memories of Arlene Mantle". Our Times. Vol. 33, no. 1. Toronto: Our Times Publishing Inc. 2014. p. 7.
  9. ^ a b c "Fans keep vigil at Sammy Davis' home". Toronto Star. 1990-05-13. p. C3.
  10. ^ a b McClelland, Joanna (1995). "If we are women". Canadian Theatre Review (83): 77–80.
  11. ^ a b "Dora Mavor Moore winners". Toronto Star. 1992-06-28. p. D4.
  12. ^ a b Kirsty, Johnson (2008). "Performing an Asylum: Tripping Through Time and La Pazzia". Theatre Topics. 18 (1): 55–67. doi:10.1353/tt.0.0002. S2CID 159476930.
  13. ^ "Lifetime Award Past Recipients". Playwrights Guild of Canada. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  14. ^ a b c "Calling all book fiends". Toronto Star. 1990-09-29. p. M5.
  15. ^ "Review: Wanna play? Three plays for high school". Canadian Theatre Review (85): 77–80. 1995.
  16. ^ Wagner, Vit (1998-12-03). "A plague of success". Toronto Star.
  17. ^ Kaplan, Jon (2001-11-08). "Pear Lacks Juice". NOW Magazine. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  18. ^ "Fringe Festival Reviews". NOW Magazine. 2002-07-11. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  19. ^ "Updating Julie". NOW Magazine. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  20. ^ "Queen Marie". NOW Magazine. 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  21. ^ "I Am Marguerite". NOW Magazine. 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  22. ^ Zaidman, Harriet (2004). "Review: Prepare to Embark: Six Theatrical Voyages for Young Adults". Canadian Review of Materials. 11 (3).
  23. ^ "Biography". Shirley Barrie. 2007-12-09. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
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