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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

  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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