George Elroy Boyd (June 30, 1952 – July 7, 2020) was a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and a former co-host of the CBC ''Morning News''. He was the first black national news anchor in Canada, working as an original anchor of the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

Newsworld CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...

, which launched in 1989.

Biography

One of a family of nine, of seventh-generation Empire Loyalist stock, Boyd was born and raised in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He has written for the stage,

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

and

motion pictures A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. In 1988, with his debut play, ''Shine Boy'', Boyd became the first indigenous African-Nova Scotian to have a play professionally produced at Neptune Theatre, Nova Scotia's premier main stage. Since then, his plays were shown in Lahore, Pakistan, Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal and New York, USA, among other locales. A recipient of numerous awards from his native Nova Scotia, in 2000, his play ''Consecrated Ground'' was nominated for a

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for drama. ''Wade in the Water'', produced by the

Black Theatre Workshop Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company based in Montreal and is one of the oldest Black English-speaking professional theatre companies in the Canada. It was established by Clarence Bayne and Arthur Goddard, who previously al ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

in 2004, and

Centaur Theatre The Centaur Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Montreal, Quebec. It was co-founded in 1969 by Maurice Podbrey along with The Centaur Foundation for the Performing Arts. It currently has Eda Holmes as the Artistic and Executive Director, ...

in 2005, garnered Boyd a nomination for the Montreal English Critics Circle Award (MECCA). More recently his play ''Gideon's Blues'' was adapted into an hour-long TV drama called ''

The Gospel According to the Blues ''The Gospel According to the Blues'' is a Canadian television drama film, directed by Thom Fitzgerald and released in 2010."Halifax filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald examines urban decay in VisionTV drama". Canadian Press, May 10, 2010. Adapted from Ge ...

'', directed by

Thom Fitzgerald Thomas "Thom" Fitzgerald (born July 8, 1968) is an American-Canadian film and theatre director, screenwriter, playwright and producer. Life Fitzgerald was born and raised in New Rochelle, New York. His parents divorced when he was five years ol ...

for Emotion Pictures. Boyd resided in Montreal. His 2009 play, ''Le Code Noir'', about the life of 18th-century composer

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799), was a French Creole (people), Creole virtuoso violinist and composer, who was conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Saint-Georges was born in the ...

, was produced by Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal, at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts. One of Boyd's last works was tentatively entitled ''The Days Of Douglass'', and regarded the final days in the life of

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

. Boyd died July 7, 2020 in Montreal, Quebec.

Bibliography

*''Two by George! Consecrated Ground and Gideon's Blues'' (1996) *''Consecrated Ground'' (1999) *''Gideon's Blues'' (2004) *''Wade in the Water'' (2005)

References

1952 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Black Nova Scotians Black Canadian writers Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Canadian television news anchors Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia 20th-century Canadian journalists 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers {{Canada-playwright-stub