The play’s the thing for Winnipeg playwright speaking at BU

Carolyn Gray has made a writing life for herself in Manitoba. It has not been an easy journey, she says, but she has persevered.

On Tuesday, March 28 she will present a public talk at Brandon University (BU) that reveals how she has made it as a writer and playwright in this province.  The talk will be held in Room 206 of Clark Hall from noon to 12:30 pm. Gray will take questions at the end of her talk. The event is free and open to all.          

The talk is part of the ongoing Creative Writing Literary Exchange speaker series in the Department of English, Drama, & Creative Writing at BU.

Gray has written for the stage over the past several decades and been produced professionally by Theatre Projects Manitoba, zone41 theatre, the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival, and many independent theatre companies.

She was a founding member of the Adhere and Deny Object Puppet Theatre that produced innovative puppet theatre for many years in Winnipeg. 

Her theatre work has taken her on tour across Manitoba, to other parts of the country, and overseas to England. She was a longtime collaborator with British playwright and actor Alan Williams, who exported the experimental methods of the acclaimed Hull Truck Theatre to Canada.

Gray’s life in theatre has spawned a rich trove of stories and experiences for her to share with local writers of all levels and at every stage in their development. It gives her great joy, she says, to reflect on her rewarding life in the writing trenches and to possibly inspire other writers to make their breakthrough.

She was the recipient of the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer in Manitoba in 2008 and the Manitoba Day Award in 2007 for The Elmwood Visitation (Scirocco), a play that explores Winnipeg’s history in the 1920s as a renowned centre for psychic research. The Manitoba Day Award, for research excellence with a Manitoba focus, is presented yearly by the Association for Manitoba Archives.

Gray is the author of Dean Gunnarson: The Making of an Escape Artist (Great Plains). It was a book project that satisfied her personal interest in mystery and magic.

Currently, Gray is the editor of the literary journal Prairie Fire out of Winnipeg. She teaches creative writing sessionally at BU and also finds time to write for true crime television.

This event in the Literary Exchange speaker series is supported by the Rowe Fund and the Department of English, Drama, & Creative Writing at Brandon University.

For more information, contact Dale Lakevold at Lakevold@BrandonU.ca or 204-727-7413.

Contact