David Young (Canadian playwright)
Encyclopedia
David Samuel D'Arcy Young (born 17 July 1946 Oakville, Ontario
) is a Canadian
playwright
, novelist, and screenwriter
.
Born in Oakville
, Ontario
, Young studied at the University of Western Ontario
. He is the author of seven plays, two novels and several screenplays and teleplays.
Two of his plays, Inexpressible Island and Glenn, have been nominated for multiple Canadian drama awards. The play, Fire, received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards as well as the Chalmers/Toronto Drama Bench Award.
Young is a founding director of the Writers' Trust of Canada
, and a trustee of the Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry
.
Oakville, Ontario
Oakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...
) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, novelist, and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
.
Born in Oakville
Oakville, Ontario
Oakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Young studied at the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
. He is the author of seven plays, two novels and several screenplays and teleplays.
Two of his plays, Inexpressible Island and Glenn, have been nominated for multiple Canadian drama awards. The play, Fire, received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards as well as the Chalmers/Toronto Drama Bench Award.
Young is a founding director of the Writers' Trust of Canada
Writers' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
, and a trustee of the Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry
Griffin Poetry Prize
The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. The awards go to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language....
.
Plays
- Love Is Strange (1985), a theatrical study of the life and times of Robert Kieling, the star-struck farmer from SaskatchewanSaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
who has spent his adult life in mental institutions because he believes he and singer Anne MurrayAnne MurrayMorna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
are in love. - Fire (1986), a political musicalMusical theatreMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
inspired by cousins Jimmy SwaggartJimmy SwaggartJimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...
and Jerry Lee LewisJerry Lee LewisJerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, co-written with Paul Ledoux. The play received four Dora Mavor Moore Awards as well as the Chalmers/Toronto Drama Bench Award. - Glenn (1992), a theatrical portrait of pianist Glenn GouldGlenn GouldGlenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
. - Inexpressible Island (1997), a play about six men marooned in an ice cave in Antarctica.
- An Enemy of the People (2001), an adaptation of Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's play. - Clout (2001), a comedy about men, sex and power.
- No Great Mischief (2004), an adaptation of the award-winning Alistair MacLeodAlistair MacLeodAlistair MacLeod, OC is a noted Canadian author and retired professor of English at the University of Windsor.- Academic career :...
novel.
Teleplays
- Fraggle RockFraggle RockFraggle Rock is a children's live action puppet television program series created by Jim Henson. The central characters were a set of "Muppet" creatures called Fraggles. The show ran from January 10, 1983, to March 30, 1987, on CBC Television in Canada, ITV in the UK, HBO in the United States,...
(co-written with Dennis LeeDennis Lee (author)Dennis Beynon Lee, OC, MA is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and critic born in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer, well known for his book of children's rhymes, Alligator Pie.-Life:...
and bpNicholBpNicholBarrie Phillip Nichol , who often went by his lower-case initials and last name, with no spaces , was a Canadian poet. He became widely known for his concrete poetry while living there in the 1960s...
)