Herman Arthur Voaden, FRSA (19 January 1903 – 27 June 1991) was a Canadian

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 ...

.Herman Voaden
at The Literary Encyclopedia.

Early life

Born in London, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree in 1926 from

Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...

. He also studied at the University of Chicago and at Yale University. His father, Dr. Arthur Voaden, pioneered vocational teaching in Ontario. His mother, Luisa Bale Voaden, was also a teacher. Voaden studied modern drama at

, 1920–1923, and wrote his 1926 Queen’s M.A. thesis on

Eugene O’Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

Political activity

A member of the

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...

, he ran for the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

in the western Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 elections, 1949 elections, 1953 elections, and a 1954 by-election. He lost each time.

Associations

Voaden was a member of Toronto's Arts and Letters Club, the Dominion Drama Festival, and a founding member and first president of the Canadian Arts Council (which became the

Canadian Conference of the Arts The Canadian Conference of the Arts (the CCA) was an Ottawa-based, not-for-profit, member-driven organization that represented the interests of over 400,000 artists, cultural workers and supporters from all disciplines of the nation's arts, culture ...

in 1958). As president of the CAC, he was one of several Canadian representatives to the first UNESCO conference, held in Paris in 1946.

Honours

In 1974, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, "in recognition of his contribution to the performing arts as a playwright, producer and teacher, and his services in fostering support for all the arts and crafts". He was made a Fellow in the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

in 1970. Following his death,

created the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition to honour new works by emerging playwrights."Workshops focus on two winning plays". ''

Kingston Whig-Standard ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' is a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is published five days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday. It publishes a mix of community, national and international news and is currently owned by Postmedia. It has ...

'', August 16, 1997.

Works

*The White Kingdom – 1928 *Northern Storm – 1929 *Northern Song – 1930 *Western Wolf – 1930 *Fragment – 1931 *Wilderness – 1931 *Earth Song – 1932 *Rocks – 1932 *Hill-Land – 1934 *Murder Pattern – 1936 *Ascend As the Sun – 1942 *Libretto for the opera, The Prodigal Son (music by Frederick Jacobi) – debuted 1945

References

External links

Herman Arthur Voaden archives
at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Voaden, Herman 1903 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Writers from London, Ontario Members of the Order of Canada Queen's University at Kingston alumni Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidates for the Canadian House of Commons