1959: Greystone Theatre presents world premiere of W.O. Mitchell play
1959 was the University of
Saskatchewan’s Golden Jubilee Year.
Greystone Theatre’s contribution to the celebrations was a presentation
the world premiere production of W.O. Mitchell’s “Royalty is Royalty.” Mitchell, originally from Saskatchewan, had
published Who Has Seen the Wind
just over a decade earlier, and was particularly well known for his CBC radio
series “Jake and the Kid.” But this was
his first stage play. A mythical royal
visit to the town of Crocus, Saskatchewan was the subject of the play which was
billed as “a true folk-comedy on life in a prairie village.” The original idea and a few characters were
based on “Jake and the Kid”, but this script was advertised as “more than
eighty per cent new and original in both writing and theme.”
The Department of Drama saw
this project as part of an initiative it had been trying to launch for the last
few years – to produce annually a new Canadian play “with the author in
attendance at all rehearsals and performances ... for the purpose of re-writing
his play as he sees it and hears it on our stage.” As Department Head Emrys Jones
explained, “Canadian playwrights lack a most important
advantage enjoyed by professional writers elsewhere – that of writing in an
active theatre, actually hearing their lines and seeing their actions while
they are being performed by living actors in an actual stage setting. In the commercial theatre writers are
required to attend rehearsals in order to readjust their plays in this way from
day to day. Without this chance they
must work in a kind of vacuum, which often defeats them.”
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“Royalty is Royalty” was to be
presented professionally in London, England the following fall after it was
“re-written and perfected” following its University of Saskatchewan production.
| Related Collections |  |
Department of Drama fonds, RG 2036
| Images | |
1959a: “Royalty is Royalty” program cover. Department of Drama fonds, RG 2036, file C51.
1959b: Scene from the production. Department of Drama fonds, RG 2036, file C51; Western Producer photo.
1959c: First page from the director’s copy of the script. Department of Drama fonds, RG 2036, accession 1988-008.
| Sources | |
Department of Drama fonds, RG 2036, file C41.
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